New England’s Power Crisis Set To Return, Regulator Warns

New England’s power grid could be several cold snaps away from the start of an energy crisis that reappears whenever temperatures dip because of the state’s heavy reliance on natural gas generation, delayed/blocked expansion/upgrades to energy infrastructure, and lack of grid diversification.

Bloomberg spoke with Allison Clements, commissioner for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who warned New England (for our international readers, New England consists of six states in the US Northeast, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) faces another energy crisis this winter.

“We now have this every-winter crisis about what might happen in New England. 

“The need for a diversified supply mix and increasingly one that doesn’t rely on a global commodity as a fuel source is important,” Clements said in an interview Monday. 

Clements outlined precisely what we pointed out during last winter’s peak in a note titled “New England Is An Energy Crisis Waiting To Happen.” We said soaring NatGas prices in the region are due primarily to NatGas pipeline infrastructure having been delayed, blocked, or abandoned over the years.

She said that the region would need to increase stockpiles of NatGas and other fossil fuels ahead of this heating season to have adequate winter supplies. – READ MORE