"New plants on way, power needs still unmet" - Granite Grok

“New plants on way, power needs still unmet”

EPA decides to be both Legislative and Executive Branch – outlaws coal generated electricityYep – the Obama picture is from the video clip where he announced that under his regime, electricity prices will necessarily soar.  Yep – I am not surprised at that headline in the UL yesterday (reformatted, emphasis mine):

New plants on way, power needs still unmet

Three new power plants — two in Connecticut and one in southeastern Massachusetts — will add more than 1,000 megawatts to the New England power grid by 2018, thanks largely to rising prices in the regional energy market, the operator of the New England power grid announced on Wednesday. But that still won’t be enough to address a predicted supply shortage in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to ISO-New England.

Heck, I would NOT be very surprised if, however, that “predicted supply shortage” (and unexpectedly, as Glen Reynolds writes all the time) spill up to NH.  Dave Soloman continues:

The grid operator needs to know well ahead of time how much power will be available from power plants in the six-state region, whatever the fuel source. So every year it holds what is called a forward capacity auction to see who is willing to commit to producing electricity three years down the road.  The results of last year’s auction, for delivery of power in 2017, set off alarms.

Several power plant owners announced plans to shut down major generators, like the 600-megawatt Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and the 1,500-megawatt Brayton Point coal-fired plant in southeastern Massachusetts.  The 2014 auction failed to generate enough commitments to cover the anticipated loss of 3,400 megawatts from plant retirements, or 10 percent of the region’s capacity, triggering an urgent call by ISO for new energy projects.

“For several years, the region’s capacity auctions all started — and concluded — with surplus capacity, resulting in relatively low prices,” wrote an ISO spokesperson in a statement on the recent auction results…Those higher prices will, of course, trickle down to ratepayers in the six states, to the tune of an additional $1 billion. While the capacity for 2017-18, auctioned off last year, cost about $3 billion, the price tag for the 2018-19 commitments is $4 billion.  “The higher auction clearing price reflects the cost to build new generation in the region,” said the ISO statement.

And when supply costs go up, and the demand is still present to outstrip it, prices will “necessarily soar”.  Vermont Yankee is offline forever and the coal fired Brayton Point station was shut down, in part, to the EPA regulations (e.g., Obama’s Cap N Trade regulatory regime – going against what Congress decided legislatively).  Now, it is one thing to have the auctions set up new power resources but this one little bit ought to have everyone concerned (especially if you like the accoutrements of modern living – and stable jobs):

The 34,695 megawatts committed in the auction include a new 725-megawatt dual fuel (natural gas and oil) power plant and two 45-megawatt units in Connecticut, and a new 190-megawatt power plant in southeastern Massachusetts, all of which still need to be permitted and built.  The scarcity of supply in the southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island areas forced the ISO to create pricing incentives for new generation. As a result, about 353 megawatts of new generation in the southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island area will receive payments 50-percent higher than the existing generators.

SURE the payments will be higher but those payments will not be there if the plants are.  I will say this – the Watermelon Environmentalists, NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) have yet to enter stage Left.  You can be sure that they will do everything they can to delay, stymie, obfuscate and stop these new resources.  They are bound and determined  to force our standard of living downward because of their religious beliefs – that GAIA (the Earth).

And they certainly prove they are “Progressive” in that they certainly fulfil one of the “Progressive tells”: YOU DON’T NEED THAT.

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