In a media presentation on ISO New England’s Regional Electricity Outlook for 2020, released March 6, President and CEO Gordon van Welie, noted that some 95% of resources currently proposed for the region are grid-scale wind, solar, and battery projects.
Gordon van Welie
“While natural gas is currently the predominant fuel for our region, the path towards a clean energy future is evident,” he said.
The trend would be a continuation of the recent past, which in 2019 also saw lower-emitting resources produce 99.5% of New England’s electricity, with only 0.5% coming from coal and oil plants – admittedly thanks at least in part to a mild winter and a mild summer that year, moderating natural gas prices, the presentation noted.
To further the trend to new resources the system operator has been developing market enhancements, known as EnergySecurity Improvements (ESI), to go into effect in 2024. ESI introduces strong market-based compensation for new energy and reserve services, Mr. Welie continued: regardless of fuel-type or technology, such a market is designed to reward the lowest-cost resources that can firm-up their energy sources and deliver electricity reliably when unforeseen grid operating challenges arise. For example, a solar facility with battery storage has the same opportunity to provide reliability services as a natural gas plant with a contract for liquefied natural gas, or an offshore wind farm that operates at a high capacity factor during winter. All may participate and be paid under the ESI design.
He noted that many of the projects are still “some years away.”
ISO New England plans to file the first component of these changes, a trio of new energy market reserve services, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in April.
Utility Dive also reported February 7 that ISO New England's 14th annual Forward Capacity Market (FCM) auction the previous Monday closed at US$2/kW-month, representing the lowest price in the program's history and an almost 50% drop compared with the $3.80/kW-month in last year’s auction.
The auction resulted in commitments for 33,956 MW of electrical capacity to be available in 2023-2024. A total of 42,219 MW, including 516 new resources totaling 7,314 MW, qualified to participate in the FCM.