ISO-New England -- Using Oil To Generate Electricity -- January 24, 2026

Locator: 49817ISONE. 
Locator: 49817INSANE.

Winter Storm Fern, 2026. 

Updates

Later, 6:47 p.m. ET: what a mess -- when it comes to "resource mix" -- how in the world do "they" manage this? This is what "all of the above" looks like:

Later, 4:00 p.m. ET: more of the same -- link here --

 

Later, 12:00 a.m.  ET: I think I saw this years ago; then lost interest. But curious how Vermont's tree huggers would handle the cold: yup! Oil! LOL.

Earlier Post 

ISO-NE: link here. 

$300 in the middle of the night. 10x what it would cost if they would have stuck with natural gas from Pennsylvania. 

All that natural gas in Pennsylvania and tree huggers in Vermont are using oil? Exactly what were they thinking?

No way to run a railroad, as they say.

Trump To Ring NYSE Bell -- ISO-NE Spikes -- Thursday -- December 12, 2024

Locator: 48385ISONE.

Not even president yet: 

• thanks Time magazine; says very nice things about Time magazine
• five people on state behind him: bookends --
• RFK, Jr, to his right, and Melania to his left
• Treasury secretary-designee behind Trump and got a shout-out from Trump
• Melania looks really, really comfortable, appropriately happy
• JD Vance next to Melania; to her left; Trump's daughter next to JD Vance
  
• Trump says nice things about ABC president who was in the audience
• in thirty seconds lists what President Biden has left him and the country
• off the cuff; extemporaneously, an impressive speaker
• mentions Macron / Notre Dame
• cutting taxes substantially; regulatory relief to those with $1-billion projects; 
• corporate tax cuts -- win-win for all
  
• to 15% if made in US
• otherwise, 21% if made outside of US, which is also a great tax rate; lower than current rate

ISO-NE: link here. Spiking to $500.

The cost of going green, link here:

New England ISO -- August 2, 2024

Locator: 48304ISONE.

I haven't taken a look at NE-ISO in a long, long time.

Yesterday, this headline:

The context:

Today:  wind/solar unhelpful.

ISO-NE: Level 1 Power Emergency -- June 18, 2024

Locator: 47835NE.

Unlike Texas, which has a demand problem, NE has a supply problem when it comes to residential (and probably, commercial) energy.

I followed "ISO-NewEngland" religiously for years and then quit out of boredom, once I understood "it."

Dan, apparently, kept in touch (with ISO-NewEnland). From twitter today: 

ISO-NY, ISO-NE -- Trending Toward $300 / MW; Spiked To Nearly $500 / MW -- June 13, 2022

Links pending.

ISO-NE, link here.

ISO-NY, link here:

Grid Warnings -- May 9, 2022

These warnings come even before we see any significant EV penetration. And all that malarkey about about cheaper electricity at night when folks charge their EVs is just that: malarkey. 

First of all, most folks, out of habit, will plug in their EVs as soon as they get home from work, just whe evening rates are spiking. Non-working spouses will plug their cars in during the day (there is a great Chevy Bolt television ad that shows exactly that).

Re-posting.

• electricity shortage warnings grow across US, WSJ. 
• all-renewable moment in California is a glimpse into the futuree, Bloomberg via Rigzone, May 8, 2022; note: this article seemed so "out of character" for Rigzone, but now I note that it's a Bloomberg article; other sources suggest the fallacy of Bloomberg's reporting; did Rigzone get snookered?
• this is the real story, from Reuters: California says it needs more power to keep the lights on; Governor Newsom says their will be brownouts / blackouts over the next two years. From the linked article:
  

California energy officials on Friday issued a sober forecast for the state's electrical grid, saying it lacks sufficient capacity to keep the lights on this summer and beyond if heatwaves, wildfires or other extreme events take their toll. 

The update from leaders from three state agencies and the office of Governor Gavin Newsom comes in response to a string of challenges with the ambitious transition away from fossil fuels, including rolling blackouts during a summer heat wave in 2020.

This is the "real" story regarding that Bloomberg / Rigzone article linked above:

ISO New England -- Maine -- Why Maine Has Failed To Meet Its Ambitious Wind Power Goals --April 14, 2022

Link here, from a reader, thank you.

• NE ISO: demand generally 12,000 to 16,000 MW
• note article:
• goal: 3,000 MW capacity
• actual: 1,000 MW capacity
• nameplate capacity: 1,000 MW
• actual: 250 MW
• 250 / 16,000 =  1.6%
• in line with projections and data provided by EIA
  
• largest wind farm in the state: Bingham Wind Farm
• 56 turbines
• 186 MWs: nameplate capacity
• actual: 46 MWs; about a MW per turbine

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On Their Way To State

Grapevine's Lady Mustangs Soccer Team on their way to Texas state semi-finals championship game Thursday.

Finals on Saturday,

High school booster club send-off:

ISO NE Was Trending Toward $1,000 / MWh Earlier This Morning -- March 29, 2022

Updates

Later, 7:27 p.m. CT: a reader explains how to read the graphics at ISO NE:

 It is tough keeping up with all these rapidly evolving events. 

If you click/tap on the top of that spike on the 5 Minute LMP graph, the precise number will show/display. 

Alternately, one can click/tap the 3 grey horizontal lines atop the graph (the default 'chart' icon is next to it), and one can scroll through all the exact pricings which are recorded in ~ 5/10 minute increments. 

From 5:05 to 5:20 AM this morning, spot wholesale prices were $896/Mwh. Simply insane. 

I checked neighboring PJM's site for comparative purposes, but they have changèd the format so as to be difficult to navigate. However, Real Time wholesale spot at 5:15 PM was $74 in PJM region while New England was over $250. 

[My hunch: this is where the wind turbine companies really make their money.] 

ISO NE: I posted the rush hour commute numbers earlier this morning.

But I missed this. 

Note that electricity costs spiked trending toward $1,000 / MWh:

Currently, ISO NE demand is a paltry 13,000 MW and electricity is still over $100 / MWh. 

Boston will get down to 26°F overnight.

And This Is When The Wind Turbine Consortiums Make Their Money -- March 29, 2022

Link here. 

Holy mackerel! I was wrong. In the twelve+ years that I have blogged I have always said that we will never see the price of electricity get into the ninth decile. Wow, was I wrong. Boston did it overnight. 

Look at the overall demand: not all that much.

Oil! 3%. 

Wind contribution is at the highest I've ever seen. Renewables at 12% -- very respectable -- and of that 12%, wind is accounting for 64%. I've never seen wind contribution that high. This is where wind is making its money. Wind is sold on a sliding scale and at this level, the margins are "to infinity and beyond." The other components, oil, natural gas, nuclear, I assume are pretty flat-lined at contractural prices.  A reader might know more about pricing.

Boston, MA: 20°F this morning. Link here.
Bangor, ME: 18°F

From Max Gagliardi:

Con Edison Will Roll Back Supply Charges -- New Yorkers Experience Sticker Shock -- March 27, 2022

One of my favorite recurring posts is "ISO NE." New York is not part of "NE" but it's close enough.

Now, today, a reader alerted me to this: mainstream media is finally taking note.

Google: coned February prices electricity, and then click on "NEWS":

August a/c in NYC? 

Reminder: FERC just approved three new natural gas pipelines, one of them for New York state.

ISO NE: By the way, speaking of ISO NE, today, when electricity prices should be approaching zero for New England with all its renewable energy, it's still a fairly pricey $60 / MWH. At 3:00 a.m, electricity in ISO NE was priced at a minus $50.28. Of course, that's when all the wind turbines are actually working, but the three Tesla owners are the only ones using electricity.

*************************
The Energy Transition Is Dead

Tracked here. 

*************************
Sunday Morning Breakfast

From Trader Joe's: Chocolate Brooklyn Babka.

Wiki entry here.

Houston entry here.

Photo and more reviews here. Exactly what I purchased this past week, along with organic naan crackers:

For the record, I won't be buying this babka any time soon. It's just too chocolaty. Is that possible?

On the other hand, the only "white" cracker I will ever buy again is Trader Joe's Organic Naan Crackers. Even better than oyster crackers.

Following ISO NE Is Absolutely Fascinating -- January 30, 2022

I find this absolutely fascinating.

Boston coming off a weekend winter storm.

Sunday, the airports are open.

It's dinner time in Boston and electricity demand is probably peaking for the day.

Demand and price (8th decile):

Note: the fuel mix, absolutely fascinating.

Fuel mix:

• coal, black arro: all indications -- ISO NE has run out of coal
• demand is peaking: 
• renewable energy, green arrow: just as demand is peaking, renewable energy is "falling"; wind is crapping out;
• ISO NE: is scrambling to find electricity
• hydro, red arrow: being tapped; very expensive, spot price
• natural gas, blue arrow: is rising
• nuclear, of course, is flat-lined at max available;
  
• but just when you need renewable energy most, it's falling (and failing)
  
• no risk of power outages from lack of electricity: additional hydro is still available; not sure if additional oil is available; or how much additional natural gas is available;
  

And Now We Wait For The Power Outages; A Bit Of Commentary Regarding ISO NE -- January 29, 2022

Later, 9:45 p.m. CT: telephone call from friend in Boston. The storm is over; it was hardly a storm. A dusting is about all there was for Boston.

Power outage risks, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 7:42 p.m. CT -- right up the eastern seaboard, New England:

Right now, Saturday afternoon, 5:52 p.m. ET:

• demand: 18,144 MW; moderately high; nowhere near a record
  
• oil is now contributing more than nuclear power, and is double what renewables are providing:
• it looks like the region has run out of coal, or the plants are down for other reasons, but not using their least expensive, option, coal;
• hydro only at 6%; very expensive option;
• this helps explain why Senator Elizabeth Warren keeps bringing up other issues to try to keep folks from seeing this -- but they will see it in their utility bills;
• this is a much bigger issue than college tuition debt;

Earlier today:

Additional commentary:

1.) The single remaining coal burner - Merrimack, capacity 415 megawatts - has intermittently shut down/operated at 108 Mw output over the past few weeks. Whether this 60-year-old plant has operational issues or is fuel constrained, I do not know.

2.) Interestingly, the Millstone 2 nuke plant (~1,000 Mw capacity) has been offline for a week due to a leaking pump.  Back online now. [That explains the earlier fuel mix graphic at this post.]

3.) That regular surge in hydro is undoubtedly coming from the Northfield Mountain project which is a pumped storage system. This plant can produce ~ 800/1,000 megawatts every 24 hours, BUT it was originally conceived when obtaining cheap, overnight electricity from the nearby Vermont Yankee nuke plant was available. As Vermont Yankee is now closed, the Northfield Mountain folks are compelled to buy market priced, overnight electricity. This explains why the heretofore cheap overnight electricity prices remain at nose bleed levels. (Supposedly, the net output - economically -  from Northfield is now less than the current electricity production which is fed in at the morning and evening 'rush hour' demand times.)

4.) Regarding the natural gas supply, the FSRU Exemplar is coming up to its fourth week of injecting natgas into the system via the Northeast Gateway Port just offshore Boston. Sourced from Trinidad. This is about the limits of its carrying LNG capacity (based upon the January, 2019 injection history) and I do not know if a replacement FSRU is scheduled to replace it. The company Excelerate owns/operates the Northeast Port and has about a dozen FSRUs worldwide. Replacing that FSRU appears to be absolutely  crucial to maintaining New England's already precarious power situation these next 5/6 weeks.

5.) The site marinetraffic.com is a real time, global trafficking site for worldwide shipping ... an incredible site for the maritime junkies amongst us. The size of the non stop armada of ships delivering expensive fuel oil to New England is simply breath taking. This directly leads to ...

6.) Setting aside all the eye glazing economic components of the ISO/Regular Folks' monthly electricity billings, that constant $160/$200 per Megawatt hour wholesale price we keep seeing will manifest in about 5 month's time in New Englanders' electric bills. 

For rough context, a mere 10 months ago - March, 2021 - the average wholesale electricity price was ~$16/Mwh. With pricing currently, consistently  at 10 times that level,  those poor folks will see absolutely crushing electricity pricing in a few month's time. AND they will still be fortunate IF they have not had blackouts. (See FSRU status for the supply of critically needed natgas).

With all this drama (I picture ISO head van Welie acting like the Lloyd Bridges character in the movie 'Airplane'), New England is facing 2 to 3 more winters - minimum -  of these conditions as lead times for any workable 'solutions'  take just that long. 

Compounding all this self-induced idiocy, there currently  exists NO viable, mid term pathway to alleviate this situation as the huge, power-sustaining LNG terminal at Everett is scheduled to be shut down in 2024.

Simply fascinating- albeit morbidly  so - to observe so many intelligent, concerned people hurtle headlong into a self destructing situation.

And, one more observation:

Brief mention of the availability of natgas and Boston's temperature ... 

When you noted the changing percentage/usage of the natgas component in New England's electricity generation, just Google 'Boston temperature' and you will find a 100% correlation between coldness and natgas availability for power burn. 

This is identical to South Australia's electricity prices and the contemporaneous  temperature and wind speed.