ISO-NE Consumer Liaison Group meeting March 1

On March 1, the Consumer Liaison Group (CLG) associated with ISO-NE will hold its quarterly meeting near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Meetings are free and open to the public, and include a free lunch. (Rather a pleasant lunch, usually, not just some dry sandwiches.)   I am on the Coordinating Committee for the CLG.  

The topic for this meeting is "How Have the Region's Wholesale Markets Evolved Over Time? Why Should Consumers Care?"  In other words, this meeting addresses the heart of consumer concerns with the grid.  I encourage you to attend. You can also register for phone access, and the slides are usually posted.  

The graphic above is merely a screen shot, so the links don't work.  Here are the links that do work:

Most important: Register here (includes information for offsite access)

The hotel: Wentworth by the Sea 

Consumer Liaison Group webpage

Mary Louise "Weezie" Nuara email

The Government Chooses the Electricity Supplier: Disturbing Trends in Vermont and New Hampshire

In Hanover New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, individuals and businesses can choose their electricity supplier, due to deregulation.  Some of the choices include:
Liberty Utilities
Unitil
Eversource (formerly PSNH)
New Hampshire Electric Co-op

However, Hanover, New Hampshire, home of Dartmouth College, hopes to be a Green Power Community.  It intends to achieve this goal by encouraging people to buy Green Power instead of the "brown power" (their words) supplied by regular utilities.  Specifically, Hanover wants you to sign up for their chosen Green Power utility:ENH, the Hanover Green Power Challenge supplier. Hanover hopes that  residents will sign up this utility, right on the link on the Hanover Town website. On the website, under Green Power Challenge FAQs,  there are these words:

Beginning on Thursday, May 14th, to sign up for the Green Power Challenge, simply paste the following website address into your browser. ENH has designed a website specifically for the Hanover Challenge: 
http://www.hanovernh.org/Pages/HanoverNH_BComm/shc/greenpower.  You will be able to fill out your customer registration via the website and ENH will take care of the rest.  The sign-up period closes on May 28th.

Most of the FAQ page on the town website is a carefully crafted sales pitch for signing up for ENH, including how easy it is to sign up, how your electricity won't be disconnected and reconnected, and the favorable rates you can get for twenty months.

From the ENH point of view, I am sure it is wonderful to see the Town be so pro-active for them.  ENH apparently cut a deal with the town to offer good rates, if the town would promote their product.

I wonder what Liberty Utilities thinks of all this?

In Vermont

As we saw during the lawsuits about Vermont Yankee, Vermont is a states-rights kind of state. (When the federal judges ruled for Entergy, several people in state government were quoted as saying it was a sad day for state's rights.) In Vermont, some towns want more say on energy siting  but the state Public Service Board process rolls right over them. In other words, we do things at the state level, here in Vermont.  We are choosing electricity vendors at the state level, too, though not as explicitly as having a link on the state website.

Instead, we just passed a law that pretty much forces our local utilities into the waiting arms of one vendor: Hydro-Quebec.  On May 25, John Herrick of Vermont Digger wrote a thorough article on an energy bill that was passed during the waning days of the legislative session: Legislative Wrap: State Passes Ambitious Renewable Energy Goal. Instead of reviewing the whole article (REC controversy and all), I just want to quote a few sentences: This bill requires that 55 percent of a utility’s electricity come from renewables, including large-scale hydro power, by 2017. The target increases the ratio to 75 percent by 2032.

Because of our excellent relationship with Hydro Quebec, Vermont passed a law saying that "big hydro" was counted as renewable energy.  I actually think big hydro should be counted as renewable energy, but counting it as renewable is somewhat unusual.

To evaluate the 55% renewable goal (in two years!) I tried to determine out how much renewable energy Vermont is using right now.  Alas, it is surprisingly hard to figure this out. The Governor's electricity page claims data from 2011.  It shows Vermont as having over 50% of its electricity from renewables: 37% from large hydro, 8% from small hydro, and the rest of the 50%  from wood, wind and "other."

Actually, I think that about 40% of Vermont's current electricity comes from hydro power: 10% in-state, and over 30% from Hydro Quebec. Green Mountain Power (GMP) seems to agree with me. On their Fuel Mix page for 2015, GMP shows 34% large hydro, 8% small hydro (adding up to 42%),  and they also show 44% "system power."  This chart is described as "after REC sales," so maybe they are not counting  the approximately 2% from wind?  I think that is what is happening.

A Green Mountain Power projection for the future (on page 4 of their ISO-NE presentation in March 2015) is another data point.  In describing this chart, GMP says that if they sell RECs from "premium renewables,"  the remaining power will be counted as system power. "Premium renewables" probably includes wind and in-state small hydro,

Okay.  It is pretty darn confusing, but it is clear that Vermont does not have 55% renewable energy now, and may have a hard time moving up to that mark by 2017.

Or maybe Vermont won't have a hard time.  Vermont's ace-in-the-hole is that we consider Big Hydro to be renewable, and other states don't.  So we can sell all our instate-renewable energy as RECs, and count their in-state production as  merely "system power." Under the new law, Vermont is required to have "55% renewables." However, it can meet this goal by buying more out-of-state Big Hydro.  Vermont would probably buy more from Hydro Quebec, the only game in town with lots of extra hydro power to sell.

In other words, in my opinion, Vermont's "ambitious renewable energy program" is almost a web-page link to Hydro Quebec.

Is this okay?

I grew up in Chicago, under "Richard J. Daley, Mayor." Frankly, it's a little late in life for me to act shocked about favorable treatment for favored vendors.

And yet, I think our local governments are breaking some new ground  in this regard. Town governments with links to one utility vendor and FAQs about how easy it will be to sign up with that vendor?  Passing a state law that pretty much requires purchases from an electricity vendor in a neighboring country?

I'm not shocked.  I admire the ingenuity.

Soaring Prices in New England: An Update And Another Update

Electricity Prices Rises in New England, Updated

Golden coins

On Saturday, I posted Electricity Prices Soar in New England. And Soon In Vermont. In this post, I used two examples of recent rate hikes: National Grid in Massachusetts is raising rates by 37%, and Liberty Mutual in New Hampshire is raising rates by 50%.

Since then, New Hampshire Electric Coop announced a rate increase of 12%. Public Service of New Hampshire, which owns the Merrimack Station Coal Plant, expects only a slight rate increase. Another New Hampshire utility, Unitil, will soon file for a winter rate.  NHPR reports Electric Co-op Latest Utility To Announce Rate Increase.

Hah!  This just in! Unitil (New Hampshire utility) announced that the close-to-100% price rise on the grid (8.4 cents to 15.5 cents) will cost Unitil customers an extra $42 per month, starting in December. Unitil Electric Rates to Rise $42 per month.

Price Mealy-Mouthing in New England, Updated

Meanwhile, closer to home, Green Mountain Power and its sister utility, Vermont Gas Systems, explain that they are efficient and will therefore have stable prices. (This seems to imply that neighboring utilities are inefficient.) WCAX reports: GMP and Vermont Gas Keep Stable Prices. 

Both GMP and Vermont Gas are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Gaz Metro.

My own interpretation of the GMP statement about stable prices is quite simple: they aren't announcing the price rise just yet.  Gaz Metro companies don't always announce things promptly, as far as I can tell.

For example, the Vermont Gas pipeline expansion will cost $120 million dollars, which is $35 million more than regulators approved. Vermont Gas knew of the overrun in March, but did not notify regulators until July (meanwhile, Vermont Gas kept building the pipeline). Vermont Gas was fined $35,000 for this delay in notification.  Vermont Digger reports: Vermont Supreme Court Clears PSB to Reconsider Vermont Gas Pipeline.

A Well-Written Report from Conca at Forbes

Meanwhile, at Forbes, James Conca has an excellent post (including a link to my Saturday post): Closing Vermont Nuclear Bad Business for Everyone. He shows how closing Vermont Yankee is hurting our neighboring states.  It is a pleasure to read a good post about our area in the national media. I also urge you to read and join the lively comment stream on that post.

Consumer Liaison Group

I was just elected to the Coordinating Committee of the Consumer Liaison Group (CLG) of the grid operator, ISO-NE. I am one of two representatives from Vermont on the committee.  The group exchanges information with ISO about policies that affect consumers.  It also advises ISO.

I went to the CLG meeting September 24, but that is a subject for a whole different blog post. As you can imagine, however, the coming price rises were a major topic of discussion.

More updates soon.

Update again:  

Berkshire Eagle reports that National Grid price rise will cost homeowners up to $100 a month more on their bills and cost even more to businesses: National Grid Customers, Lawmakers Charged Up about Rate Increase.


Update: Some People Love Expensive Electricity An important post from Rod Adams: a review of the philosophy of people who celebrate the price rises because "the only way to guarantee that energy conservation measures are diligently pursued in this country is to make energy a very precious and expensive commodity. " (This quote was part of a comment on James Conca's article in Forbes.) Rod's post: Purposeful Price Pumping By Constraining Supply

Vernon New Hampshire?

A few days ago my friend Bob Hargraves wrote a letter suggesting that Vernon secede from Vermont and join New Hampshire. The letter was published in the Brattleboro reformer, and I quote it here:

Saturday May 29, 2010

Vernon could secede to N.H.

Editor of the Reformer:

The people of Vernon are being ostracized by misguided Vermonters who have turned public concern about global warming into an anti-Vermont Yankee theme. Vernon is home to many good people who work at Entergy’s nuclear power station there. The legislature’s current plan is to turn this power producing, tax revenue producing asset into a mothball in a ghost town.

New Hampshire’s Connecticut River waters border Vernon and lap at the edge of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. New Hampshire waters cool the plant. New Hampshire is not seeking to shutter its nuclear plants such as Seabrook.

Vermont Yankee could be in New Hampshire if Vernon seceded from Vermont and joined New Hampshire. The Vermont Legislature would have no say in the relicensing of the New Hampshire plant. Vermont Yankee could continue to provide tax revenues and jobs to Vernon residents for another twenty years. Citizens and businesses in both states would continue the economic benefits of low electric power costs, maintaining good jobs and industry on both sides of the Connecticut River. Vernon would be a vibrant community, not a ghost town.

Robert Hargraves

Hanover, N.H., May 26

You may remember Bob as the person who prepared the excellent Rotary Slide Show about Vermont Yankee, which I described in my post on Summing It Up. Here's a link directly to his presentation.

Vernon, Vermont

Let's acknowledge that VY is still in Vermont, and it just ended a refueling outage that included many upgrades. Various start-up issues (small new leak, problem in the switchyard) have the anti-Yankee folks viewing-with-alarm, and Arnie Gundersen explaining that these problems are typical of Yankee, and probably indicative of the End of the World as We Know It.

Arnie hasn't noticed a slightly bigger leak somewhat south of here, I guess.

Singing Millirems

In honor of the outage, here's a video from about three years ago. Fifty Ways to Save A Millirem. I particularly like the percussion. You don't see drums like that everywhere. Well, you can see drums like that everywhere under some circumstances. But you don't see them in most bands.

P.S. A quick thank you to Rod Adams for linking to my post in his post

Who Says Nukes Have No Sense of Humor Or Rhythm?

And yet another link! I was on the Rod's Atomic Show Podcast last night. Among other things, we spoke about public meetings held by the NRC in Vermont and Maryland. Very different audiences, to put it mildly.

What We Need to Do

My husband and I drove past the Anti-VY walkers yesterday morning. "Gee, there aren't many of them," he noted. So true.

To shut down Vermont Yankee, fifteen to twenty people are walking the whole way from Brattleboro to Montpelier, and others are joining them at various points. We only saw about a dozen people walking yesterday.

Let's assume, though, that there are twenty dedicated walkers. At the potluck Thursday night, I learned that half the walkers come from Massachusetts, a quarter from New Hampshire and a quarter from Vermont.

Do the math. That's five people from Vermont. This is how they plan to impress the Vermont legislature? They also claim to be carrying a petition with 1600 signatures. Again from the tri-state area, in the same proportions, no doubt. Probably 400 signatures from Vermont. Less than the number of people who work at Yankee.

In other words, a bunch of outsiders are planning to march into Vermont's capitol, roar around, and influence our elected representatives. It is difficult enough that Vermont is the only state that lets the legislature have a hand in nuclear licensing. But why are we letting people from Massachusetts vote about it by petitioning and demonstrating in our legislature?

Their numbers are small, and with a little effort, we can beat them.

They are going to be at the State House noon to four p.m. on Wednesday, January 13. We will be there too.

Either in person, or by email. Read the next post to find out how.