As previously discussed in this column, the New England electricity system operator, ISO-NE, encountered difficulties last winter in meeting electricity demand when natural gas supplies, the primary fuel source of electricity generation in the region, were constrained during high heating demand. After many months of wrangling, a plan – the Winter Reliability Program – was […]
Increasingly some leaders in the environmental community are extolling the benefits of nuclear power to address the challenge of reducing green house gases and the effects on climate change. Just last week at the WADE conference (World Alliance for Decentralized Energy), the head of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a national climate organization, […]
Fifteen years ago, PowerOptions launched the first competitive offerings for electricity and natural gas in the newly deregulated energy market in Massachusetts. Recently, we announced the award of our newest electricity program offering through 2019. This is our sixth open solicitation since we were founded and, as with each previous offering, it reflects the robustness […]
Customers and common sense won out last week in an important ruling by federal regulators on ensuring adequate electricity supply during cold snaps next winter. In July, we reported about ISO-NE’s solution to the winter operability challenge, which reduces the availability of natural gas as a result of increased demand for home heating. Specifically, the […]
The recent heat wave brought a fresh tide of glowing reviews for Demand Response, which pays consumers to curtail electricity use when demand on the grid is nearing its peak. But the positive press belies another still-untold story about demand response – one which raises critical questions policymakers ought to be addressing. On July 19, […]
This past winter, the New England region experienced significant price spikes in natural gas and, correspondingly, electricity, as a result of natural gas delivery constraints. The effect on consumers was minimal since most have locked in fixed price contracts for both commodities. There was, however, a significant threat to reliability on the electricity grid. As […]
