ISO New England’s Van Welie Testifies on Capitol Hill on Reliability

ISO New England CEO Gordon van Welie told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the growth of natural gas, now accounting for more than half of power generation on the ISO’s grid, has created a serious threat of reliability problems and unexpected price spikes, the Boston Globe reported. Van Welie said that during storms in January and February, “ISO operators had to cope with multiple instances where generators (both gas- and oil-fired) could not get fuel to run” their power plants because of supply disruptions due to heightened heating demand and a lack of adequate pipelines.

Van Welie was quoted as having testified: “As the region’s dependence on natural gas grows, it will become increasingly important to have a flexible gas supply system that can meet the demand for electricity 7 days per week, 24 hours a day.” To that end, he proposed adopting market mechanisms that give incentives to plant operators to keep more gas and oil on hand in case of need, instead of depending on availability in the spot market. Van Welie stated: “We believe the status quo is unsustainable. For power grid reliability to be maintained, we need to have adequate levels of fuel inventory within the region, either through storage or reliable transportation arrangements so that the electric sector is ready to respond whenever called on by the ISO.”

Boston (Mass.) Globe, Torrington (Conn.) Register Citizen, March 19.

Source: EEI daily energy News