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There has been much talk this year among government and utility circles about the ability of New England’s power system to respond to a particularly harsh winter.
So much so that the CEO of a New England energy company has written a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to consider implementing a series of emergency actions aimed at ensuring the region has adequate natural gas and other energy sources if needed this winter.
In a letter dated Oct. 27, Eversource Energy CEO Joseph Nolan asked the Biden administration to “quickly respond to growing concerns about New England’s winter power reliability.”
Eversource and other utilities have increased spending on “large sources of clean energy, including offshore wind and hydropower that will reduce dependence on natural gas for electricity generation, but many of these projects will not bring power to the grid for several years,” Nolan wrote .
New England relies in part on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports during the winter months, he noted.
“Pipeline shipments are routinely supplemented by overseas LNG shipments delivered to the LNG import facility in Everett, Massachusetts, on foreign-flagged vessels. “However, due to the war in Ukraine, imported LNG is not available to the New England region in the quantities necessary to meet this winter’s needs without causing further stress on European markets and the US economy,” he wrote.
Nolan called on Biden to implement a series of measures to address the potential gas shortage. Among other things, he called for the suspension of the Jones Act, which mandates that goods moving between US ports be carried by US-flagged and manned ships. The suspension of the law would allow foreign-flagged vessels to transport LNG and other types of energy from one US port to another to ease the situation.
In September, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held a forum in Burlington, Vermont to focus on potential long-term solutions to New England’s winter energy problems, during which Commission Chairman Richard Glick opined that New England’s reliance on imported LNG is unsustainable.
After the forum, FERC Commissioner Alison Clements said, “We know that at the root of New England’s winter electric system reliability challenges is a significant dependence on natural gas in these extreme conditions, coupled with gas supply constraints during extreme winter weather conditions.
She continued, “Fixing or adding more natural gas supply capacity is one way to address these constraints. That’s only one way. The region can also diversify away from reliance on natural gas for electricity generation and can reduce demand for electricity and gas during these extreme weather conditions.
Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) President Amy Andrisak also wrote to Biden on Nov. 7, offering a response to Nolan’s letter.
“I encourage your administration to pursue a long-term solution that addresses the root cause of the region’s long-standing power reliability problems – the lack of adequate natural gas infrastructure – rather than focusing only on short-term, ’emergency’ solutions that were neither intended nor designed to address systemic issues like those present in New England,” Andrisak wrote.
“The experience of our member companies across the country shows that the growing penetration of renewables in the electricity sector requires a greater supply of natural gas to prevent the inherent intermittency of renewables,” she continued. “Unfortunately, there is insufficient infrastructure connecting New England to domestic natural gas supplies, and recent attempts to expand existing infrastructure at the request of local utilities and other energy users have been thwarted by misguided policies and vocal opponents of new infrastructure development.” New England is facing a dangerous winter season because of this stifling of new infrastructure development over the past decade.
Andriszak added that “the negative consequences of over-reliance on imported LNG can be avoided with additional natural gas pipeline infrastructure.” This solution is particularly compelling given the region’s proximity to the Marcellus shale production area, one of the world’s most prolific natural gas supply basins.
It remains to be seen whether New England will experience a particularly cold winter, but Andrisak cautioned that the region doesn’t need a long cold spell to face significant problems. “Just a few days of cold weather could wreak havoc on the region’s power grid, and cold weather can be expected in New England.”
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