Teams of men and women watch hawkishly over power supplies and power demand 24 hours a day, year-round. But the infrastructure that keeps the juice flowing - throughout New England and onto the Cape - faces serious challenges, from both inside and outside the system. "The same 14 million people are using more electricity every year," Gordon van Welie, president and chief executive officer for ISO, said during a recent interview in a conference room above the busy control room.

In a shiny building tucked just off Interstate 91 - 138 miles northwest of the Cape Cod Canal - is the brain that keeps the lights on.

Inside, handlers of New England's electric grid monitor the system from a 4,000-square-foot master control room.

This is the cerebral center of Independent System Operator New England, or ISO, the manager of the region's grid and electricity market.

Suspended on the far wall of the room, a swimming pool-sized screen displays electrical connections from Maine to Connecticut in a rough geographic arrangement.

Teams of men and women watch hawkishly over power supplies and power demand 24 hours a day, year-round.

But the infrastructure that keeps the juice flowing - throughout New England and onto the Cape - faces serious challenges, from both inside and outside the system.

"The same 14 million people are using more electricity every year," Gordon van Welie, president and chief executive officer for ISO, said during a recent interview in a conference room above the busy control room.

Below, one of dozens of ancillary screens indicated the amount of electricity delivered from Maine to Connecticut - 16,000 megawatts shortly before noon on a recent Wednesday.

The system's maximum capacity is twice that figure but demand on the hottest days can threaten the ceiling. More than 500 megawatts of new supply are required each year to keep up, van Welie said.

Van Welie pointed out that ISO has a program in place that encourages commercial customers to go off-line at times of peak electricity demand.

The amount of these so-called demand-based resources has doubled to about 1,800 megawatts in the past year. An additional 1,188 megawatts was recently added and is expected to be available between 2010 and 2011.

While forecasts from ISO indicate electricity supplies for the region should meet demand this summer, critics say a lack of proper transmission infrastructure is costing ratepayers money.

Improvements to electricity lines - some under way and others that are in the works - are the responsibility of utilities such as NStar and National Grid, but ISO and the state's Department of Public Utilities must insure the system's overall reliability and efficiency.

Another possible solution to insure reliable electricity on the Cape includes an undersea transmission line to Provincetown from New Hampshire, van Welie said. Such an option is "futuristic" and unlikely in the short term, he said.

"If the transmission system were robust enough you wouldn't need the canal units."

The wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound or other energy sources in the area would also help reduce the need to keep the Mirant Canal Generating Plant in Sandwich in operation, van Welie said.

Outside pressure

The external pressures ISO confronts are coming from all directions. With electricity rates that top the averages of every state in the continental United States, Southeastern Massachusetts legislators and consumer advocates have raised a cacophony of protest over the costs.

ISO was intended to bolster competition among deregulated utilities when it was formed in 1997. But critics say promised savings have not materialized. In a report released earlier this year, the New England Energy Alliance and the Massachusetts Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance blamed the state of the region's transmission system for undercutting the hoped-for competition.

Federal legislation that seeks to force ISO to better manage the price of electricity was filed earlier this year.

And in a complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March, municipal light companies from Hingham, Hull, Mansfield, Middleboro and Taunton claimed that ISO overcharged them $24 million in 2006 and 2007.

The light companies contend the source of the extra costs is the unnecessary operation of the Mirant plant in Sandwich.

Mirant is kept in operation, despite being more expensive and polluting than other generators, to provide reliable electricity on the Cape. But the rest of the state's southeastern territory pays for it as well, John Tzimorangas, general manager for Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant, said.

ISO could put in place an alternative plan to meet federal reliability requirements instead of relying on the Sandwich plant on all but the hottest days, Tzimorangas said.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has signed on in support of the municipal light companies' complaint.

Coakley's office argued in a filing submitted April 28 that there are no deadlines for when improvements to the transmission system must be completed.

"It's just incredibly bad policy-making," state Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, said in an interview about the plant's continued operation.

Patrick - a supporter of Cape Wind's plan to build a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound - has long called for the closure of the Mirant plant.

An April 1 letter Patrick and about 20 other state lawmakers delivered to the state's Department of Public Utilities blamed ISO and NStar, the Cape's electricity utility, for the plant's continued operation and associated costs to utility customers.

"It is difficult for us to understand how the ratepayers of southeastern Massachusetts could be annually penalized $108 million for a transmission line restriction in a system that they do not own," Patrick wrote.

ISO answers critics

In an answer to the complaint, ISO argued that operation of the Mirant plant is necessary to ensure reliable electricity on the Cape. They also pointed to an agreement in which the light companies agreed to shoulder part of the cost.

And on the same day state legislators and municipal light companies held a press conference to announce their multi-pronged attack, the state's Department of Public Utilities announced the approval of NStar transmission upgrades in southeastern Massachusetts. Officials believe the upgrades will reduce the need to run the Mirant plant and improve reliability for the area.

But beyond questions of supply-capacity or whether the Mirant plant is necessary to ensure transmission reliability, ISO officials point to another part of the price equation - the skyrocketing cost of oil.

"We're in for a tough time when it comes to price," van Welie said, pinning the high rates on fuel choices, rather than transmission costs.

Because oil and natural gas make up the majority of the fuel mix for New England power generators, the cost of those fuels drives the price of electricity, he said.

"If we're going to choose natural gas, you better buckle your seat belts," van Welie said.

The cost of the electricity is roughly 55 percent of a typical electric bill on the Cape and Martha's Vineyard. Delivery charges account for the rest.

Until the cost of oil begins to drop again, the price of most of New England's electricity will continue to rise.

In the meantime, ISO is studying a series of long-term solutions to keep up with skyrocketing electricity demands and transmission constraints.

"This is probably one of the most challenging and exciting times we are going to face in the next 10 years," van Welie said.

New England's power grid

• 6.5 million customer meters (14 million people)
• 350 power generators8,000 miles of high voltage transmission lines
• 13 interconnections to neighboring systems (New York, New Brunswick and Quebec)31,000 to 32,000 megawatts of installed power generating capacity (One megawatt serves between 750 and 1,000 homes)
• 300 market participants
• 28,130 megawatt peak record Aug. 2, 2006 (peak winter demand 22,818 megawatts January 2004)

Source: ISO New England

 

 

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