Last fall, governors from five of the six New England states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — jointly released a pointed statement that said ISO-NE was frustrating regional and state-specific efforts to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions. It also called for reforms to the RTO’s market designs, transmission planning and governance.

An eight-page critique circulated by the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) soon thereafter detailed and expanded on the governors’ call for reformative action. The vision statement also referred to a series of online public technical conferences to convene, which would seek “presentations and proposals … and solicit comments and dialogue with all interested stakeholders.”

The first of those forums is Wednesday and will focus on wholesale market design. Two of the presentations from “interested stakeholders” are representatives from ISO-NE and NEPOOL, indicating a collaborative process from the start.

Interested Parties

NEPOOL Participants Committee Chair David Cavanaugh signaled an early interest in participating in the technical forums in December.

David Cavanaugh, NEPOOL | © RTO Insider

At a meeting of the ISO-NE Consumer Liaison Group, Cavanaugh said NEPOOL has worked with the RTO and NESCOE through the stakeholder process on the Future Grid Initiative, which includes a reliability study and potential pathways, the latter of which “looks to identify a framework that may facilitate the entry of state policy resources.” (See Consumer Panel Discusses ISO-NE’ Visions of the Future’.)

Cavanaugh, senior vice president of regulatory and market affairs at Energy New England, said New England has been struggling “with the tension of integrating state policy resources.”

“If 2021 was to have a success statement, it would be to find the appropriate pathways that balance investment, as well as state policy resources and achieving state goals, because you have to have a balance,” Cavanaugh said. “You still want to have the signals to draw merchant investment in the region because you need it, but you also need the ability to represent and respect state policy, so if ’21 could deliver anything, it’d be identifying a pathway that’s successful in achieving that goal.”

Flash forward, and Cavanaugh will be charged with educating the public on the NEPOOL stakeholder process and its sectors, in addition to a high-level overview of existing initiatives, discussion of the Future Grid Initiative and answering audience questions.

“Given NEPOOL’s critical role in the region as the FERC-approved stakeholder forum for consideration of any and all changes to the design and operation of New England’s wholesale electricity markets, it is important for NEPOOL to engage in discussions that may help to inform ongoing or future NEPOOL stakeholder processes,” Cavanaugh told RTO Insider.

Cavanaugh noted the Future Grid Initiative will “explore and evaluate potential market frameworks that could be pursued to help support New England’s clean energy transition.”

“These processes provide the forum for NEPOOL participants, state officials and representatives, and ISO-NE to find common understanding among a diverse set of interests on potential pathways forward, and to support the region’s efforts to find consensus, where possible,” Cavanaugh said. “I am hopeful that the states’ technical conferences will help to complement and further collaborative efforts around the NEPOOL stakeholder table.”

ISO-NE headquarters in Holyoke, Mass. | ISO-NE

Cavanaugh, a 35-year energy industry veteran who has also worked at ISO-NE, NRG Energy and Eversource Energy, said the technical forums “present an opportunity for regional stakeholders to better understand the individual and/or collective views of the New England states on the issues identified” by the governors and NESCOE.

For ISO-NE, Eric Johnson, the RTO’s director of external affairs, will provide an organizational overview, discuss resource adequacy and talk through the development and administration of competitive electricity markets.

In an email to RTO Insider, Janine Saunders, corporate communications manager for the RTO, said that building “a cleaner electricity system is an important step in confronting climate change and is a vision we share with our state leaders.”

“Collaboration with our New England stakeholders has already resulted in one of the cleanest, most efficient fleets of power generating resources in the U.S.,” Saunders added. “We look forward to continuing our work with the states and others to keep building on that solid foundation.”

State Thoughts

Katie Dykes, commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said one of the goals in launching the technical forums is to ensure that anyone who has an interest and wants information on “the future of our shared regional electric grid can access it and be part of the conversation.” Public forums bring “new people into the discussion,” she said.

Connecticut DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes | © RTO Insider

Dykes has not been shy about criticizing ISO-NE, especially on carbon pricing, but she recognizes that before any potential reforms, it is important to understand the perspectives of the RTO and NEPOOL and the shared history of the organizations.

“Institutions that have facilitated regional cooperation or operation of the grid and investment in the grid have evolved over time,” Dykes said. “It’s important for us to really start with that history and that understanding of how the grid, and the governance processes in organizations associated with it, have evolved to be able to set our intention of how we want our markets, transmission and the governance to be structured in the future.”

All parties involved “have a lot of work to do,” according to Dykes. The forums present an opportunity for states to provide primers on the laws, policies and perspectives that drive energy policy; modeling related to carbon-reduction goals; and mandates that are “at the forefront of why we feel that a real transformation of our electric supply in our grid is necessary.” It is also a chance to highlight a commitment to regional cooperation and “utilizing competitive markets to achieve the most affordable, clean electric supply that we can,” she said.

“I think it’s important for us to start off with an understanding of how our regional grid has evolved … in order to take the conversation further and look at how we can harness competitive markets and regional cooperation to achieve a transformation or rapid decarbonization of our electric grid,” Dykes said.

On Jan. 25, there will be another forum on the design of wholesale markets. Additional forums on transmission planning and governance reform of ISO-NE are slated for February. Following the forums, state representatives will report to their respective governors any findings and recommendations for action.