President Trump Hobbles New England’s Electric Grid Plans

by Ed Burke and Kelly Burke, Dennis K. Burke Inc.

Executive orders have New England power planners scratching their heads and restructuring supply strategies

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that attempts to slow the growth in the country’s wind generation capacity. The order paused all leasing of federal waters for offshore wind and paused new or renewed approvals for onshore or offshore wind projects on federal land until the outcome of a “comprehensive assessment and review of federal wind leases and permitting practices.” The pause is subject to a review that will consider the “environmental impact of wind projects in land and water on wildlife, birds and marine mammals.” Although the order described the provisions as temporary, no end date is specified. 

Trump may not be able to stop projects that are already well into the permitting process or under construction, like Connecticut’s Revolution Wind project.

The executive orders left New England power planners scratching their heads and may even resurrect the possibility of expanding natural gas pipeline capacity into the region.

New Grid Modeling

ISO-NE is already reforming its process for making sure there is enough power on the grid. For years it has done that through a “forward capacity” market that uses a price-based auction to look three years ahead at what generation will be available.

The new format is called a “prompt and seasonal” market. It limits the guesswork by considering power generation when it is ready to go, not when it might be ready to go. The ISO can work a few months, instead of a few years, in advance.

That allows the ISO to adjust for seasonal needs such as air conditioning or heating. It also makes it easier to determine whether electric vehicles or heat pumps are coming into use more quickly or slowly than might have been expected three years out. That makes for a more precise calculation of how much power is needed.

Wind generates over 10 percent of the country’s electricity. More than 73,000 wind turbines generate a total of 153,000 megawatts, which is enough to power 46 million homes. The wind industry employs over 131,000 workers and invested over $10 billion in new projects in 2023.

In December, the six New England states sent a letter to ISO-NE, authorizing it to move ahead with a process to construct new transmission to connect Connecticut with Maine and provide a way to transmit on-shore wind.

This is a first-in-the-nation transmission regional procurement led by a group of states. Pursuing targeted investments that provide broad regional benefits, such as reliability and cost savings is something that will benefit consumers all across New England.

It is important to point out that while New England was adding gas-fired generating capacity – adding about 2,500 megawatts in the 2018-20 period alone – it was doing very little to expand gas pipeline capacity into and through the region. Currently there are five pipeline systems providing the vast majority of New England’s gas.

New England has been determined to shift toward a greener electric grid, but the reality remains that the region will need more energy, and the states would prefer that it is clean energy.

The Massachusetts Model

Massachusetts may provide an example of how to assess electricity capacity even with the unpredictability of the new administration. Last March, they created a first-in-the-nation Office of Energy Transformation with its own very broad mission.

The office started off with three focus areas within its high-level mandates. One is to decarbonize “peaker plants” which are used only in extreme circumstances to provide additional power, usually when it is very cold or very hot. Another focus is to no longer rely on the LNG facility in Everett, Massachusetts.

Late last year, the Bay State enacted groundbreaking legislation to facilitate moving toward more clean energy using strategies including siting reforms, streamlining permitting, and “grid-enhancing technologies.”

In March, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey outlined the state’s Energy Affordability Agenda to identify and advance actions to lower energy bills for Massachusetts residents by $220 million starting in April and save $5.8 billion over five years for electric and gas customers.

Following the Department of Public Utilities’ (DPU) recent action to lower gas bills by $95 million, the state will deliver $125 million in savings to residential customers in April through a $50 credit on their electricity bills. The administration is directing money back to customers from funds collected to support clean energy programs.

Additionally, the DPU is working to establish a first-in-the-nation moderate-income discount rate and expand tiered-income discount rates for lower income customers.

The Governor said that she will file an energy affordability and independence bill to explore new ways to make Massachusetts more affordable.

The Administration is reviewing every charge to determine if there are alternative ways to finance new electric grid infrastructure and reduce the impact on customer bills. They are also taking steps to end programs that have achieved their goals and remove the associated costs on ratepayer’s monthly electricity bills.

Ed and Kelly Burke are respectively Chairman of the Board and Senior Marketing Manager at fuel distributor Dennis K. Burke Inc. They can be reached at 617-884-7800 or ed.burke@burkeoil.com and kelly.burke@burkeoil.com.

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