While paper mills close and Cabletron spins off its remnants out of state, power plants from the Seacoast to Whitefield enjoy the perks of a poorly understood, $100-million subsidy program just for energy producers. It has a bureaucratic name: the forward capacity market. ...An unidentified 600-megawatt, gas-fired power plant project somewhere in Rockingham County is blocked behind half a dozen North Country renewable energy projects in the ISO-New England regulatory queue. The waiting list policy is first-come, first-served. A plant like that would typically pay its host community $4 million or more in property taxes, with few smokestack emissions. But those wind- and wood-fired projects at the front of the line are all in limbo. The Public Service power lines in the region are too small. Most of the players can't even bid into the upcoming ISO auction, because yet-to-be-built plants have to ante millions of dollars as a sort of performance bond. And the ISO doesn't make forward capacity payments for transmission line upgrades.

The Planning and Zoning Commission of Watertown wants to establish a baseline when it comes to wind turbines so it doesn't have to deal with applications on a case-by-case basis. The amendment would restrict wind turbines to one per lot, cap the noise from the generator at 55 decibels and not allow them in front yards. The turbines would also only be allowed in certain residential zones.

New England's electricity rates, among the highest in the nation, will continue to depend almost entirely on the price of natural gas over the next two decades -- no matter what policies state leaders adopt for conserving energy and approving new kinds of power plants, according to a study being released today. The report, by Independent System Operator New England, which runs the six-state power grid and the region's $10 billion wholesale power market, offers no hope rates will drop significantly unless the price of natural gas plummets. That's an outcome few energy investors are banking on. Since 2000, as New England has grown more dependent on cleaner-burning natural-gas power plants, average homeowners' electric bills in Massachusetts have roughly doubled, along with an equivalent jump in the prices for wholesale natural gas. The ISO's "scenario analysis" examines 52 approaches to meeting demand for electricity through 2025, but takes no position on which are best. They include launching massive conservation efforts, building nuclear generators at existing nuclear plants, and making a huge regional push into cleaner-burning coal plants. Regardless of which scenario is pursued, 90 percent of the time in 2020-2025 the price of gas would determine the price of electricity, the report says.

Central Maine Power and Maine Public Service have asked the ISO New England to review the feasibility of a transmission line that would link northern Maine with the regional grid and create a path for wind power to flow to load centers in southern New England. Tim Brown, MPS director of corporate planning and regulatory affairs, said Thursday that the line, expected to be in excess of 100 miles, would allow transmission of more than 500 MW of wind power, most of it still in planning. While the idea of connecting northern Maine to the regional grid has been discussed for years, it has taken on a new significance given the difficulty utilities and merchant generators have encountered when they've attempted to build plants in the high-demand southern New England states. In addition to growing demand, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have renewable portfolio standards, which create pressure for more large scale wind. But no major projects have been built in southern New England. In northern Maine, about 42 MW of wind is operating and an additional 500 MW has been proposed. If the line is not built, Brown said wind electricity in northern Maine could be routed into Canada then into southern New England. That, however, would require major upgrades to grid interface between MPS and New Brunswick Power. Brown said the utilities expect the ISO impact study to be completed by the end of 2007.

BRIDGEPORT - Planned developments around the city, such as the $1.2 billion redesign of the Steel Point peninsula, may include new energy efficient technologies. During a meeting Monday in City Hall Annex, officials - including Mayor John M. Fabrizi and state Sen. Bill Finch, D-Bridgeport - heard about energy efficient and environmentally friendly options and resources from several sources. Rina Bakalar, Bridgeport's director of central grants, said the city is planning to pursue the use of "green" technology.

Legislators in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic passed a number of bills applying to the electric power industry, with several states committing to emissions reductions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other states making broad organizational changes to their regulatory processes.

NEW HAVEN - Wind turbines may be headed to the Elm City, with possible locations ranging from the summits of East Rock and West Rock to Long Wharf and Lighthouse Point. The idea is just starting to get off the ground, but the first turbines could be built by fall 2008, according to Emily Byrne, a policy analyst for Mayor John DeStefano Jr.

The city is starting small, with a proposal to install four or five different kinds of wind turbines to see which work best. They will be placed in one of three locations currently under consideration, all near water. If the Board of Aldermen supports the idea, the wind turbines would be fully funded by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (to which all of the state's electricity ratepayers contribute through their utility bills).

A portion of the wind energy generated from newly installed wind turbines located in PEI was wheeled through PEI and New Brunswick and sold to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) via the international interconnection node in Keswick, N.B. The renewable energy certificates (RECs) that were generated from this transmission were sold separately to independent buyers located in the NEPOOL.

"We're never going to vote for programs like this unless we know what the economic impact is," First Selectman Jim Lash told the program's advocates Wednesday during the Board of Selectmen's monthly meeting at Town Hall.

New England Energy Alliance Survey Finds Consumer Concern about Future Electricity Supplies, Desire to Choose Electricity Supplier and Support for Addressing Global Warming

Yet, despite the operation of New Jersey’s small wind project since January, there is uncertainty about whether wind farms, particularly gigantic turbines positioned off the region’s coastline, will be embraced here. On Long Island, a 40-turbine project being considered off the South Shore is facing stiff resistance from opponents who argue that the turbines will damage pristine ocean views, fail to deliver cost-effective electricity and create environmental problems. In New Jersey, powerful local politicians have lined up behind wind power, where up to 80 turbines — rising 380 feet or more above the water along the South Jersey coastline — have been proposed to take advantage of the near-constant breezes.

New England will need to add power plants capable of generating 4,300 megawatts, and $3.4 billion of additional transmission investment, by 2015 to avoid blackouts, the region’s grid operator says. The area will need 170 megawatts of new power before the summer of 2009 to assure adequate supplies, according to ISO New England Inc., the power grid and wholesale market operator that serves the region’s 14 million people........ If a 1,000 megawatt coal or nuclear power plant had been installed in 2005, buyers in the wholesale market would have saved $600 million in power costs, the report said.

Saying New England holds tremendous opportunity for wind energy development, Connecticut-based Noble Environmental Power today announced that it is teaming up with Vermont-based Vermont Environmental Research Associates (VERA) to explore potential windpark locations throughout the region.

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Connecticut Light and Power Co. this week issued a request for proposals to purchase additional power for its customers for parts of 2007 through 2009. CL&P, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities (NU.N: Quote, Profile, Research), of Berlin, Connecticut, said in a release it expected to pre-qualify the bidders by Oct. 16, with bids due Oct. 30. State utility regulators want to announce the new rates for 2007 on Dec. 1. As required by state law, winning suppliers must deliver 7.5 percent of their supply from renewable sources, such as solar, wind or biomass in 2007.

Politicians aren’t just shooting the breeze about harnessing offshore winds to generate electricity. A recent report by the city’s Clean Energy Task Force discussed the possibility of a wind farm, or several windmills that could provide an alternative source of power, Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr. said. At the same time, House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, at a recent “Energize Connecticut” public forum he helped organize in Ansonia, said wind and solar power, fuel cells and other renewable resources must increasingly play a part in meeting the state’s energy needs.

Under the agreement, ISO New England will project regional power needs three years in advance and hold annual auctions to buy power resources, including new and existing power plants. Incentives would encourage private operators to respond to power system emergencies, and operators that don't make extra capacity available would face penalties.

After years of warning that New England's electric grid was on the brink of having to impose Third World-style rolling blackouts, top power officials now cautiously predict the region may have enough power for the near future. Since February, thanks to recent policy changes, proposals for 21 new power plants that could deliver enough electricity for about 3 million homes have come before regional power grid administrators. Those include a $1.5 billion NRG Energy Inc. plan for multiple new generators in Connecticut and a single generator that would burn methane gas from a dump in Westminster, near Fitchburg. The Holyoke -based organization that runs the six-state power grid and wholesale markets, Independent System Operator New England, plans to discuss the projects in a two-day Boston conference starting today .

STERLING -- More than six months of testing have convinced Exeter Energy to take the next step in its plan to put electricity-producing windmills in Sterling. Ken Wycherley, chief executive officer of Exeter Energy, said the company will erect a tower 160 feet high this week to measure wind speeds and directions on land it is leasing from the town in the industrial park.

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York, New Jersey and five other Northeast states set a goal of cutting power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent over 10 years to help curb global warming.