There's a meter bolted to the side of nearly every house you quote, and it writes down what that home draws from the grid, interval by interval, all day. Somewhere in that record is money: grid operators pay for load that can step back when the system runs tight, and a home with a battery or a smart thermostat is exactly that. The catch, in PJM's territory — the grid region running from the mid-Atlantic into the Midwest — has been a tariff rule: a company signing homeowners up had to hand PJM the meter data, and the complaint FERC just decided put the problem plainly — that data “is not meaningfully available to third-party” providers, while providers affiliated with the utilities that own the meters get it from their own infrastructure.
So the homeowner's meter measured the thing. The homeowner's utility held the measurement. And the independent companies that wanted to pay the homeowner for it stood outside a locked door, tariff in hand. On July 29, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission finished reading that arrangement and held that “this lack of access to interval meter data renders section 8.3 unjust and unreasonable.”
What FERC blessed instead is statistical sampling — the same approach California's, New York's and the Midwest's grid operators already allow, and one PJM itself uses elsewhere at a defined standard: ninety percent confidence that the estimated load reduction lands within ten percent of the true one. The Commission granted the complaint in part, ordered a paper hearing on the replacement rule, and put PJM on a forty-five-day clock for its first brief. That's not a program a homeowner can enroll in this morning. It is the wall coming down on the reason there wasn't one.
From the order: statistical sampling “is a valid method to approximate load reductions when interval meter data is not reasonably available.” The paper hearing will decide the shape of the replacement — including whether sampling gets a megawatt cap and whether eligibility narrows to certain device types. One commissioner dissented.
Here's what I'd do with this if I sold solar and storage anywhere in PJM's footprint: stop treating the battery conversation as backup-power-only. For years the honest answer to “can this thing earn money when the grid's stressed” was in theory, but the rules lock you out — and honest installers said so. The lock is what changed. A federal regulator has now said, in writing, that the barrier was not just inconvenient but unlawful, and the argument underway is about how wide the door opens — caps, device requirements, settlement details — not whether it opens.
The homeowner you quote this fall doesn't need the docket number. They need one sentence nobody else on their doorstep is carrying: the meter on your house already measures something the market pays for, and the rule that kept you from being paid for it just fell. Say it with the caveats attached — nothing changes on this month's bill — and you're the installer who told them before it was a program, not after.
Kept honest. This order changes no tariff yet: the complaint was granted in part, the replacement rate is deferred to a paper hearing, and the outcome could include megawatt caps on sampled capacity or eligibility limited to devices with two-way switch communication. One commissioner dissented, warning against bypassing state decision-makers with sampling-based measurement. The 4.9 GW is the complainants' disputed estimate. This is PJM territory only — homeowners elsewhere are under different rules, some already friendlier. And the position that installers should fold this into storage conversations now, caveats attached, is mine; the order itself promises nobody a dollar.
Source, primary: Order Granting Complaint in Part and Establishing Paper Hearing Procedures, Voltus, Inc. and Mission:data v. PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., Docket No. EL26-4-000, 196 FERC ¶ 61,074, issued July 29, 2026 — the full order document downloaded from FERC's eLibrary this morning, August 15, 2026, and read in its entirety. Every quoted phrase — “unjust and unreasonable,” the “not meaningfully available” complaint language, the statistical-sampling finding, the 90%/±10% Manual 19 standard, the 45-day and 30-day briefing schedule, the 4.9 GW complainants' contention and PJM's dispute of it, and the dissent — is verbatim from that document. Coverage (Canary Media, August 13) nominated the topic; no fact above rests on it.
The smart meter on your house records what your home draws from the grid, interval by interval, all day. Last month a federal regulator ruled that the arrangement keeping you from being paid for what's in that record was — their words — "unjust and unreasonable." Here's the machinery, because it's been invisible to homeowners the whole time. Grid operators pay for flexibility. A home that can ease off when the system runs tight — a battery discharging at the right hour, a thermostat shifting a few degrees — is worth real money to the grid. Independent companies exist to sign homes up, bundle them, and split the payment with the homeowner. But in PJM's territory — the grid region covering the mid-Atlantic into the Midwest — the tariff required those companies to hand over interval meter data. Data the utilities' own meters record. Data the complaint said is "not meaningfully available" to independent providers — while providers owned by the utilities get it from their own infrastructure. No data, no payment. The meter measured the thing; the measurement sat behind a locked door. On July 29, FERC finished with that: the lack of access "renders section 8.3 unjust and unreasonable." Struck. What FERC endorsed instead is statistical sampling — the approach California's and New York's grid operators already allow. What happens now: a paper hearing on the replacement rule. PJM's first brief is due within 45 days of the order; replies a month later. Open questions include whether sampled capacity gets a cap and which devices qualify. So — honestly — nothing changes on anyone's bill this month, and this is not yet a program you can enroll in. But if you're weighing a battery or a smart thermostat anywhere in this region, understand what just happened: the reason you couldn't be paid for your home's flexibility was a rule, the rule has been ruled unlawful, and the argument underway is about how wide the door opens — not whether it opens. Your meter already measures something the market pays for. The rule that kept you from being paid for it just fell. Ask whoever quotes your system what that means for the math. If they don't know about the docket, we do.
Use the MRP Personal Design System (Signature). Create a 1080x1350 animated piece titled "Unjust and Unreasonable." Bone field (#F4F1EC), Ink type (#141414), Coral Deep (#D9401F) for the kicker, small-caps labels, hairline rules and the footer; Coral Bright (#FF6A4D) spent EXACTLY TWICE — once on the quoted ruling phrase when it lands in beat 3, and once on the final line of the end card. Cormorant for the ruling quote and the end card; Manrope Light for the interval readings, labels, captions and footer; Italiana for the SignatureMark. Tall, airy, left-aligned. Max 3 type moves. The piece is A RECORD NOBODY COULD TOUCH: a meter's interval log assembling line by line, the sentence that locked it away, and the two words that broke the lock. No meters drawn as objects, no lightning bolts, no house icons, no charts with axes, no photography. Typography and hairline rules only. Sequence (52 seconds): 1. (0-6s) Kicker top-left, letter-spaced uppercase Manrope in Coral Deep, types on: "FERC · EL26-4 · VOLTUS & MISSION:DATA v. PJM · ISSUED JULY 29". Beneath it one Manrope Light Ink line fades in: "the meter, the money, and the rule between them." Hold on near-empty Bone. 2. (6-17s) Small-caps Coral Deep label: "WHAT THE METER WRITES DOWN". Beneath it a left-aligned log of six Manrope Light interval lines assembles one by one, unhurried — timestamps with kilowatt figures, the texture of a real record. Caption below in Manrope Light Ink: "your home's load, interval by interval, all day." Hold a beat. 3. (17-29s) The log dims to warm grey but stays. A Coral Deep hairline rule draws beneath it. Under the rule, one Manrope Light Ink line arrives: "the companies that would pay you for this couldn't get it. no data, no payment." Beat. Then beneath, large Cormorant, quoted, arriving at reading speed and warming to Coral Bright as it completes (moment 1 of 2): "“unjust and unreasonable.”" Small Manrope Light caption: "the federal energy regulator, july 29, on that rule." Hold two seconds. 4. (29-40s) Everything above fades; the rule stays. Two Cormorant Ink lines set themselves with a breath between: "the rule is struck." / "what replaces it is being argued now, on a clock." Smaller Manrope Light line beneath: "grid operator's first brief: due within forty-five days of the order." LONG HOLD, at least three seconds, part of it unvoiced. 5. (40-52s) Clear. End card in Cormorant, three lines at reading speed, third warming to Coral Bright (moment 2 of 2): "The meter already measures it." / "The rule said no one could pay you." / "That rule just fell." Footer in Manrope Light Ink: "FERC · DOCKET EL26-4-000 · 196 FERC ¶ 61,074 · ISSUED JUL 29, 2026 · PJM INITIAL BRIEF DUE IN 45 DAYS · PAPER HEARING". SignatureMark bottom-left: Italiana "Meschelle Peterson" + code63labs. Motion language: fades, type at reading speed, a log that assembles line by line (the record IS the argument), one hairline rule, one long held beat on the struck-rule pair. No bounce, no scale-pop, no wipes, no icons. Restraint is the aesthetic.
FIRST SOURCE · one verified original-source finding, composed for one reader · this edition: residential solar — for the installer whose customers own a meter that measures something the market pays for