THE OPERATOR of New England’s power grid reported on Tuesday that it secured enough electricity to meet the region’s needs three years from now at the lowest price in 14 years.
ISO New England said its auction secured 33,956 megawatts of generating capacity at a clearing price of $2 per kilowatt hour, which was nearly half the $3.80 cost in 2019, which itself was well below prices from previous years.
The so-called capacity auction is designed to make sure enough power plants are open in 2023-2024 to cover the region’s electricity needs. In addition to the capacity payments, generators also earn money when they sell electricity to the grid; those prices are set at a separate, daily energy auction. The cost of both auctions are eventually passed along to ratepayers.
ISO New England said its capacity auction for the period from June 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024, secured 28,978 megawatts of generation, 3,919 megawatts of demand resources (customers that can be shut down when power is in short supply), and 1,059 megawatts from outside the region.
According to an ISO filing submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, will continue to receive payments to remain available if needed in 2023-2024. Merrimack Station, one of the last coal plants remaining in New England, has been the target of protesters who have blocked trains delivering fuel to the facility.
The ISO filing said the auction yielded 600 megawatts of new resources, including 317 megawatts of renewables. Vineyard Wind, which is facing regulatory delays in its bid to build a wind farm off the coast of Nantucket, secured capacity payments in 2023-2024.
“Consumers in New England are getting a reliable electric system at a historically low price,” said Robert Ethier, vice president for system planning at ISO New England. “In addition to low prices, this auction continued New England on its path toward a clean energy grid of the future, with hundreds of megawatts of new solar, wind, and energy efficiency resources clearing to provide this capacity service to the region.”
