State lawmakers seek ways to prevent outages
Connecticut lawmakers met for five hours Tuesday with energy experts to discuss what role the state can play in heading off the need for planned blackouts of New England’s electric grid during extended periods of extremely cold weather.
Members of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee acknowledged there are no quick and easy solutions to the problem. But state Sen. Norman Needleman, DEssex, said he is hopeful the discussions held during the virtual energy forum will be an important first step to developing both short- and long-term answers.
“I'm glad we organized this forum because I don't think any of us want to see a grid that is not reliable, especially at a time when people are vulnerable,” said Needleman, who is one of the chairmen of committee.
“This is something that is not acceptable in the United States of America. So having all of the experts in this (subject) area is a good thing as we go ahead and try to make policy.”
Participants in the forum included the head of ISONew England, the regional electric grid operator, as well as state officials and representatives of Connecticut’s two electric distribution utilities, the United Illuminating Co. and Eversource Energy.
Gordon Van Welie, president and chief executive officer of ISO-NE, said a warning issued by the grid operator in December that Connecticut and other states in the region be faced with planned blackouts under extreme circumstances is a function of the fact “that we do not have a robust energy supply chain,” to run New England’s power plants.
“We’re running way too close to the edge,” Van Welie said. “The question is, can we minimize the probability of (planned outages) occurring.”
One possible short-term solution, he said, is to require the expansion of the capability of power plants to run on liquid natural gas and oil, he said. But that would require an approval that federal energy regulators have previously rejected and a financial investment that would ultimately trickle down to consumers.
The majority of New England power plants run on natural gas that is delivered via pipelines on a just-intime basis.
“There are physical solutions out there, but they are difficult to implement and there needs to be a willingness to pay for them and site them,” Van Welie said. “The practical way to store energy today is to store fossil fuels.”
“Merchant generators are making decisions that can cause life and death,” Arconti said. “If this happens in the middle of winter, people could die.”
Dan Dolan, president of New England Power Generators Association, said power plant operators “take our obligation to deliver power extraordinarily seriously.” His trade group represents 90 percent of the power generating capacity in New England.