ISO NEW ENGLAND ISO
States in New England have long been frustrated by what they describe as a mismatch between their own clean energy goals and the rules set by ISO New England, which oversees the six-state power grid with the primary goal of electric reliability. The outcome of how the grid operator navigates those viewpoints - and how quickly it does - could make or break whether New England remains a leader in weaning itself off fossil fuels and reducing emissions.
ISO NEW ENGLAND HOW TO
With no fossil fuel production and broad interest among the states in advancing clean energy, New England could be a case study on how to develop a multistate carbon-free power market, observers say.Īnd yet the Northeast is rife with competing interests - from progressive state leaders to power producers to grid planners charged with keeping the lights on - that are complicating the energy transition in an area reliant on natural gas. The concludes with final insights into the emerging roles of curtailment, energy storage, and demand response as integral parts of normal balancing performance.New England’s grid operator is considering an overhaul of regional power market rules that could determine whether Northeast states meet their clean energy goals, creating uncertainty in a region pivotal for reaching President Biden’s push for 100 percent clean electricity. In many of these scenarios, the system experiences heavy saturations of regulation reserves and their increase would enhance the response to residual imbalances. Indeed, the integration of significant amounts of VERs in relatively remote regions significantly increases the potential of congestion on several key interfaces.
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In these scenarios, the curtailment of semi-dispatchable resources also becomes an integral part of balancing performance in part to complement operating reserves and in part to mitigate the topological limitations of the system. Nevertheless, for scenarios with a significant presence of VERs, the system may require additional amounts of both upward and downward load following reserves and upward and downward ramping reserves to effectively maintain reliable operations. The study finds a minimal impact on current normal operating conditions in the ISO-NE system for scenarios with relatively low penetration of VERs.
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The project was conducted using the holistic assessment approach called the Electric Power Enterprise Control System (EPECS) simulator. This study was commissioned by the ISO New England stakeholders to investigate the effect of several scenarios of varying generation mix on normal operating reserves. This paper describes the methodology and the key findings of the 2017 ISO New England System Operational Analysis and Renewable Energy Integration Study (SOARES). VER forecasts are uncertain, and their profiles are intermittent thus requiring greater quantities of operating reserves. The introduction of variable energy resources (VERs) like solar and wind, however, necessitates fundamental changes in the power grid’s dynamic operation. The representation of nuclear, coal and oil generation facilities is set to dramatically fall, and natural gas, wind and solar facilities will come to fill their place.
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The bulk electric power system in New England is fundamentally changing.