New England’s Independent Systems Operator (ISO-NE) has released the results of a study that assessed the region’s potential to harness renewable energy. Completed at the request of all six New England state governors, the study was conducted to help policymakers better plan for scaling renewables and updating the electricity transmission infrastructure.
The study looked at forty potential energy-mix scenarios for the future. Some key findings:
- Getting renewables from generation to consumer is going to be an issue. All scenarios would require new transmission investment to move energy from renewable resources to major load centers.
- With the addition of renewable resources that have low or no fuel costs, the annual wholesale electricity price is anticipated to be lower.
- The connection of more renewable energy to the grid, coupled with the retirement of older fossil-fueled generators, will result in lower emission levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide.
New England has already tried to get a hold on the transmission issue. The area has already invested some $4 billion in transmission since 2002, and has another $5 billion worth of transmission projects in the pipeline.
Interestingly enough, the study focuses mostly on scaling and importing wind power and does not highlight residential or commercial solar energy as having a serious impact in any of the scenarios. Why is this so? Even though incentives for installing residential solar exist in some New England states, it’s becoming increasingly clear that in order to build utility-scale renewable energy generation in the Northeast, it’s best to harness the power of prevailing offshore winds.
We’ll take another look at this study in future posts, as it has some interesting insights into the impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the New England grid, as well as how big a role demand-response will play future energy mixes. Stay tuned!
