Obama got $900 Billion in Stimulus money to fix America's transportation network and electric power grid.
The money for this upgrade is probably just delayed by some minor red tape.
Or maybe it wasn't shovel ready when the money was being allocated.
Posted on 07/02/2014 4:36:24 AM PDT by thackney
New England states are united in proposing that a tariff be imposed on electricity rates throughout the region to fund more natural gas pipelines and increased transmission infrastructure — to reverse electricity costs that are among the highest in the nation.
The proposal is a necessary step because the region has limited gas pipeline capacity despite a demand that has grown from 6 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2013, energy experts said at a forum sponsored by The New England Council at St. Anselm's College in Manchester Monday.
At the same time, more and more coal-fired, oil and even nuclear power plants are retiring, which have acted as a more reasonably priced back up during cold New England days when natural gas supplies have been curtailed.
And many of these reasonably priced alternatives emit greenhouse gases and therefore come at an environmental cost, said experts, as New England states seek to reduce carbon emissions.
The end result is a "precarious" situation that has in the last four winters placed New England "on the brink of reliability," said Gordon van Welie, president and CEO of ISO-New England, which oversees the operation of New England's bulk electric power system.
For instance this past winter, electricity prices soared as gas pipelines were operating at capacity but demand was much higher. Van Welie said the wholesale energy market in New England for the months of December, 2013 and January and February, 2014, was about $5 billion — the same value of the entire 12 months of 2012.
It is a situation that energy experts for the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island called untenable — particularly economically.
"New England is losing out" on a natural gas "boom" that is going on elsewhere in the country, said Patrick Woodcock, the director of the Maine Governor's Energy Office.
"We've had companies looking at Maine, and when they sharpened their pencils and looked at the energy costs, they say, 'No thank you. We're going where there's lower energy costs,'" he said.
The six states, at the direction of their governors, have formed the New England Committee on Electricity to come up with solutions. On June 20, the committee proposed that a tariff be imposed to add natural gas pipelines and transmission lines with the goal of increasing power reliability throughout the region.
While they stress this is a preliminary proposal and states are working on a solution, the energy panelists said something has to give in New England.
"We would prefer the magic market-based solution," said Nicholas Ucci of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, "but that solution has not come forward."
Do you have an interactive grid map for New England?
I could not get the one you posted to work for my area.
“They should go out and Hug-A-Tree!”
Yes, as New England continues to alienate everyone except the Hard Left and is seeing businesses move away (taking what’s left of Conservative residents with them), they won’t be needing new sources of energy, because those who are left will live “off the grid” and burn Camel dung to heat their huts in the winter.
Obama got $900 Billion in Stimulus money to fix America's transportation network and electric power grid.
The money for this upgrade is probably just delayed by some minor red tape.
Or maybe it wasn't shovel ready when the money was being allocated.
Go diesel.
My 250 gallons I bought in 2007, still runs it fine. You just add a few additives within the first year.
It sounds like they are going to have to route the pipeline along the state highways right of way.
They will still have a hard time getting it passed doing that because it is that evil “fracking” gas that will raise CO2 levels.
It is too bad there is not a way so that these whiners could ONLY get their power from solar and windmills. That way when the wind is not blowing or when it is dark they could just turn their power off.
Get a multi-fuel conversion kit and keep several propane bottles around. Use natural gas first, then propane.
Thanks, good link. I have family who have been in the power business for years, so I have heard about the trends, the issues and the problems for a very long time. I have also been in places in the world where electricity cannot be taken for granted thanks to wars, incompetence, inadequate infrastructure etc. The people of this country are in for a rude awakening and they are going to live to regret having given so much power (no pun intended) to people who simply do not understand what is behind that morning ritual of warming up the breakfast sandwich.
I have been warning conservatives for YEARS to get out of Red England before it’s too late...I’m going back home in October, and I’m bringing food.
900 billion in stimulus spending could have built 100 new nuclear reactors if we would have used environmental lawyers for fill in the concrete footings.
I’m guessing you are in PJM.
http://www.pjm.com/markets-and-operations.aspx
The map is called “LPM contour map”
https://edata.pjm.com/eContour/#app=ecca&e929-selectedIndex=2
As of this post electricity is $70-$115 per megawatt in the entire PJM area. Look at the legend for LMP value color code.
On the legend click all the point types, then mouse over them for their LPM values. It looks like the PJM contour map automatically updates like the MISO map does.
The LMP prices are wholesale - not the price at the consumer’s meter. $100MW = $.10 KW. The coal plant I work at generates power for about $25 MW. The price to our consumers has more than doubled in the last 15 years - that increase is 95% contributable to state and federal government EPA and renewable energy mandates.
If so, has your plant considered adding torrified wood pellets their fuel mix.
Sorry, I meant Torrefied wood pellets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrefaction
There are large wood pellet plants that are being built in Maine and North Carolina just to ship to Europe. The idea is they will blend Torrefied wood pellets into the coal fired power plants to meet the carbon neutral requirement without having to spend millions of dollars rehabbing their plants.
That Torrification process:
“During the process, the biomass typically loses 20% of its mass (dry bone basis) and 10% of its heating value, with no appreciable change in volume. This energy (the volatiles) can be used as a heating fuel for the torrefaction process. After the biomass is torrefied it can be densified, usually into briquettes or pellets using conventional densification equipment, to increase its mass and energy density and to improve its hydrophobic properties. The final product may repel water and thus can be stored in moist air or rain without appreciable change in moisture content or heating value, unlike the original biomass from which it is made”
This is key when shipping in bulk across oceans. Also, for storage at the plant before it is burned. It is cheaper to ship and does not absorb moisture as easily. You end up with a pellet that is lighter put more BTU than a regular wood pellet.
I have a brilliant idea: Let’s shut down a few more coal fired generating plants!
Yep. They had a hand in killing Maine Yankee, Seebrook, etc.
But it goes waaaay back past the nuke plants and it’s STILL going on right now.
They killed the Passamaquoddy Tidal Project, the Pitston Oil Refinery Project, and they are right now as I type this, trying to kill the Down Eeast LNG facility...the list just goes on and on.
Nope, no remorse whatsoever for any of those commie EuroLibs up there. Let em live in caves and freeze to death. Maybe odongo can wave his magic wand and “heal them all”.
Meanwhile, in Texas, It’s Drill Baby Drill!!!
How will bringing in another 30 million illegals effect this situation?
For some reason, that jumping frog just won’t jump filled with lead shot.
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