Coal In New England Survives Thanks To Environmentalists Stance On NG Pipelines -- December 8, 2020

ISO-New England.

It looks like New England is burning coal to meet demand.

Renewables: all of 6% contribution.

Why coal stays online in New England. March 26, 2020. 

The largest remaining coal-fueled power plant in New England, New Hampshire’s 482-megawatt Merrimack Station, will remain in operation through at least May 2024.

Granite Shore Power, Merrimack’s owner, won ISO New England’s auction to provide supplementary power during periods of peak demand. The company will receive $676,000 per month from June 2023 through May 2024, a total of $8.1 million, in return for being prepared to generate power at any time the need arises.

Granite Shore’s 155 Mw Schiller Station power plant, with separate power generating units capable of burning biomass and coal or oil, failed to win a contract in ISO New England’s most recent capacity auction.

New England faces potential power shortfalls that would have been worse without Merrimack’s continued operation, because environmental groups have persuaded state governments and local federal legislators to prevent the expansion of natural gas pipelines and power plants in the region.

For instance, in 2016 Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, cancelled a proposed $3.3 billion Northeast Energy Direct pipeline to provide natural gas to utilities and power generators in three New England states, in the face of strong opposition from environmental groups, including ongoing regulatory battles and legal challenges. With some cities in the region announcing they would no longer allow new natural gas hookups, and Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and presidential aspirant Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) cosponsoring the Green New Deal, which would make it nearly impossible for natural gas power plants to operate, utility companies in the region were unwilling to commit to purchasing natural gas from the pipeline. Lacking committed customers for its natural gas, Kinder Morgan jettisoned its pipeline plans.

With no new coal or natural gas capacity, and with ever-increasing renewable power mandates, New England today has the highest electricity prices of any region in the “Lower 48” states, averaging 20.8 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh) in January 2020, compared with the national average of 13.4 cents per kwh.

Bitcoin mining, server farms, technology companies in general require large amounts of dependable electricity. It appears New England -- which includes Boston -- is purposely pricing themselves out of the 21st century.  

Electric power monthly -- EIA: link here. 

Commercial cost of electricity, kWH:

• New England: 16 cents (BOSTON) -- twice that of TEXAS
• Middle Atlantic: 13 cents (NEW YORK)
• East North Central: 11 cents
• West North Central: 10 cents (MINNEAPOLIS)
• South Atlantic: 9 cents
• East South Central: 11 cents
• West South Central: 8 cents (TEXAS)
• Mountain: 10 cents:
• Pacific, lower 48: 18 cents (LA, SAN FRANCISCO, SEATTLE) -- more than 2x TEXAS
• Pacific, HI/AK: 24 cents