New England’s electricity users have been warned: Reliability of the electrical system faces problems related to regional obstructionism.
In an annual outlook, ISO New England (ISO-NE) cited a recent study showing, “If overall fuel security is not addressed, the region will face a setback to both future power system reliability and state efforts to transition to clean energy economy-wide, as well as increased energy costs.”
New pipelines would address fuel security most efficiently. But New Englanders seem not to want them.
Last month, Gordon Welie, president and chief executive officer of ISO-NE, told the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that gas now accounts for nearly half the energy used to generate power in the system his organization manages.
In cold snaps, like New England’s chiller of December and January, gas-price surges force a switch to temporarily cheaper but less-efficient coal and oil-fired generation.
The study he and Board Chair Philip Shapiro reported in the annual outlook examined 23 scenarios that assumed no new gas-supply infrastructure.
“Energy shortfalls due to inadequate fuel would occur with almost every fuel-mix scenario in winter 2024-25, requiring frequent use of emergency actions to protect the grid,” Welie told senators.
But local opposition to pipelines keeps gas otherwise available from the nearby Appalachian basin from reaching New England in needed amounts.
Responding to opposition last June, for example, Enbridge suspended the expansion of its system in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Other projects proposed for northeastern US states are delayed.
Welie told the Senate committee his region needs to invest in renewable energy and associated transmission equipment, fuel infrastructure with long-term contracts, or further reductions in demand for wholesale electricity and natural gas.
“The alternative is negative impacts on system reliability, chronic price spikes during cold weather, higher emissions when it’s more economic to burn oil than natural gas, and the possibility of further interventions by ISO-NE in the wholesale electricity market to try to delay critical resources from retiring,” he said.
(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted Feb. 23, 2018; author’s e-mail: [email protected])