New England Electrical Grid

And because GridStatus is maybe the best website out there, it seems that ISONE is in record-setting mode. In the last few weeks we're setting and re-setting wind and solar records as new capacity comes online. I'm not sure where the new grid-scale solar is being built out, but note the BTM solar is mostly rooftop, while "Solar" is electricity going onto the grid elsewhere. Of course we now have two wind plants putting power on the grid so not surprising those records will grow.

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The thing that's crazy to me though is how much capacity other ISOs are producing in wind and solar. Yes, Texas and California are sunnier, and their total load is 2-4x what we do, but Texas wind production is greater than our entire spring-time load. 4 weeks ago ERCOT produced 28GW(!!) of wind power alone, more than we have ever produced (25GW all time high) and more than double what we do in moderate weather.

Anyways, build more generation and storage, crush the coastal NIMBYs, don't shut down any more nukes.
 
I have found that understanding the editorial choices of the Globe today can be helped by asking “What would John Henry gain or lose from this?”
 
RandomWalk said:
I have found that understanding the editorial choices of the Globe today can be helped by asking “What would John Henry gain or lose from this?”
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I guess I don't know all the facets of John Henry's wealth. What does he have to do with nuclear power?
 
ritchiew said:
I guess I don't know all the facets of John Henry's wealth. What does he have to do with nuclear power?
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It's not about a nuclear power stance or anything necessarily political/ideological. It's about creating new controversy around a stance the Governor took to try to stir up a very sleepy and non-competitive election season into a horse race narrative so Henry can drive clicks and sell newspapers. It's the same playbook as the Glob's endless trolling of the Mayoral race last year with wall-to-wall White Stadium and bike lane "controversies". It didn't really work then because those "controversies" had near-zero mindshare for voters, but they seem to have coalesced on a strategy of throwing out targeted NIMBY red meat to rustle up bunkered-in suburbanites for engagement. This article completely, totally fits the mold. I don't think any of Healey's GOP opponents have said anything one way or the other about nuclear (lots, though, against renewables)...so that's the only real missing ingredient from this being a cause the paper ends up grinding at habitually until November a la White Stadium last year. Maybe they're just trying to provoke a reaction from the candidates that way to test if the angle has any legs.

Frankly, the article is nearly worthless without examining the cost dimension of nuclear. Yeah, safety has come a long way with new reactor designs. Those new designs are also hilariously expensive to implement, and the whole of the Western world--not just the U.S.--has given up the ghost on cost control for building any new nuclear facilities within twelve football fields of budget or schedule. So it's all kind of moot until we reckon with the absolutely wretched current economic outlook for the nuclear industry and how off-kilter the subsidies currently are vs. the results. There was all of two short paragraphs in the article about anything related to cost, and it was nothing but boilerplate before pivoting right back to the safety scaremongering. You'd have a real thinkpiece if the reporter went in more depth there, because cost is going to be way more a real-world factor than "OMG! CHERNOBYL!" on whether this is a thing ultimately worth pursuing or opposing. But, no, just lazy NIMBY concern-trolling all around. It's a type of hackwork that's becoming a Glob trademark under Henry.
 
With all the energy that AI is sucking up, yer gonna have to build more base load. Not really surprising that Nuclear is getting interest compared to say building a new Gas plant.
 
Periodic reminder that we have a twice-yearly peaking grid with significant load increases both winter and summer. While still small (<1GW) the oil peaker plants are starting to come online to account for the AC requirements in this heat wave. This will be brief since it's cooling down overnight, but a signal that summer dirty energy is coming and isn't solved by the minimal new capacity or interconnects that have been built thus far. Much more base load is needed.

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Justbuildit said:
Periodic reminder that we have a twice-yearly peaking grid with significant load increases both winter and summer. While still small (<1GW) the oil peaker plants are starting to come online to account for the AC requirements in this heat wave. This will be brief since it's cooling down overnight, but a signal that summer dirty energy is coming and isn't solved by the minimal new capacity or interconnects that have been built thus far. Much more base load is needed.

View attachment 72726
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Looks like there's another proposal for more natural gas pipelines.

www.wbur.org

Energy company proposes big natural gas pipeline expansion in New England

The Canadian energy giant, Enbridge, is proposing a major pipeline expansion in New England.
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org

And here's the RFP:
 
I truly don't hate it. As much as a carbon-free grid is the ultimate goal, replacing oil-powered peaker output with gas is a win. The same way coal is now completely off the grid, it's clear that gas is the transitional fuel. This definitely means we need more batteries, offshore wind and interconnects, though. Nuclear would be ideal but financing challenges and lead time are still brutal.
 
Would building New England Clean Power Link help? It was one of the alternative proposals in the solicitation that yielded NECEC. I think it has all the required permits.
 
I imagine it would help under high load conditions, but these interconnects are typically bidirectional depending on grid supply/demand, so there can be oddball periods where we're sending power up to Canada on NECEC if their marginal need is greater. Ultimately we need new generation capacity in one form or another or we need to find ways to massively reduce use (ideally through efficiency vs degrowth). The Atlantic shelf has the potential to be the Saudi Arabia of wind, and there's almost no solar or battery storage on the ISONE grid. Pairing these to grow together can displace gas. We aren't going to have rolling brownouts, so if we do nothing then we'll continue to burn oil and/or pay much higher prices.
 
RandomWalk said:
Would building New England Clean Power Link help? It was one of the alternative proposals in the solicitation that yielded NECEC. I think it has all the required permits.
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This would be contingent on Quebec building out lots of additional supply (which is doable - there is more hydro that can be built out there, and they have lots of wind energy potential). In the past winter, despite NECEC coming online it wasn't a particularly reliable source of power for New England during periods of high demand, as Quebec had to meet its own growing electricity needs. We actually ended up frequently using the NECEC to export power to Canada as Quebec often came up short meeting their own power needs.
 
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