WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Offshore wind development, energy efficiency and engaging electricity users were the topics at ISO-NE’s Consumer Liaison Group meeting on Thursday. Here’s some highlights.

Accommodating Wind and Fishing in New Bedford

“Offshore wind is happening a lot faster than people thought it would,” observed Edward Anthes-Washburn, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority. Within the past month, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island selected a combined 1,400 MW of offshore wind contracts, New York is set to procure 800 MW later this year, and New Jersey set a target of 3,500 MW by 2030.

Massachusetts officials hope to develop supply chains for the nascent offshore wind industry in New Bedford because of “the existence of trained welders, mechanics, etc., since workforce training is a big expense in starting a new industry,” Anthes-Washburn said.

But the new ocean development must coexist with the Atlantic fishing industry that preceded it, Anthes-Washburn said. The port supports about 13,000 jobs and generates nearly $10 billion in economic activity each year.

“Since we are the No. 1 fishing port in the U.S., I look at [OSW development] through the lens of the commercial fishing industry because that is by far my No. 1 stakeholder,” he said. “We really want to make sure that as the offshore wind industry develops, it does so in a way that integrates with the commercial fishing industry. It’s really critical that we do that now, with the first project.” (See Competition, Cooperation and Costs the Talk at OSW Conference.)

Between the shipping transit lanes, the fishing grounds and the wind energy areas, “there is a lot going on on the continental shelf,” Anthes-Washburn said. “The sooner we can de-conflict a certain area and understand who’s going to be impacted by offshore wind, the faster we can start having a conversation with the commercial fishing industry, with the recreational boaters, with the commercial marine operators.”

Because of New Bedford’s outsized role in the fishing industry, the Port Authority’s Fisheries Advisory Committee on Offshore Wind represents about 30% of all U.S. commercial fishing, he said.

States are vying to get the early-entrant advantage in establishing supply chain centers for the industry.

Last week, the Department of Energy awarded a $18.5 million grant to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to lead a nationwide research and development consortium for the offshore wind industry.

Mike Jacobs from the Union of Concerned Scientists noted that ISO-NE “has a fuel security analysis circulating, and they’re basing their policies on the idea that there’s not an offshore wind industry coming along … so this [forum] is a helpful thing for educating ISO New England.” (See Report: Fuel Security Key Risk for New England Grid.)

However, Anne George, ISO-NE vice president for external affairs, said one scenario in the fuel security analysis assumed 2,000 MW of offshore wind. “We wanted to show the range so that we could have this conversation,” she said.

Emphasizing the Consumer

The CLG holds quarterly meetings around the region to provide a chance for residents, state officials and energy experts to learn more about the grid operator.

CLG Chair Rebecca Tepper, chief of the energy and telecommunications division in the Massachusetts attorney general’s office, emphasized the “consumer” in the name of the group. CLG Steering Committee member Bob Espindola echoed Tepper’s remarks.

“Our primary focus is to think about what you can do as an end user to impact your own electric and gas bills, and knowing what’s coming in the future, to be in a better position to do that,” said Espindola, energy systems program manager at Acushnet, the maker of Titleist golf balls.

Energy Efficiency’s Value

Sue Coakley, executive director of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, spoke of energy efficiency’s affordability, reliability and contribution to reducing carbon emissions. “Just in the last three years, the current portfolio of efficiency programs in Massachusetts is saving $4 billion for consumers,” she said. “That’s just a tremendous resource.”

Wendy O’Malley, manager of the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program at MassDevelopment, explained how her organization uses tax assessments to enable property owners to obtain low-cost, long-term financing for EE projects and more.

“End users have all these solutions, but if they don’t have a way to finance them, or buy a new technology, they’re really left with no solution,” O’Malley said.

PACE assessments are similar to those used to collect the cost of public infrastructure that benefit specific properties such as sidewalks or sewers. The program finances EE projects at up to 100% and for terms of 20 years or more. Property owners pay for the improvements as part of their property tax payments, and the local government remits the PACE portion to the lenders.

Digitizing the Electron

Andy Haun, microgrid chief technology officer at Schneider Electric, said the rapid increase in the digitization of electricity “is usually an IT solution, and it’s not really helping us directly.”

“What is helping us is we’re also digitizing the control of that electron, so the devices — the actual appliances that use the electricity, the appliances that produce the electricity — these are under very smart control systems, which by themselves and aggregated are able to then act on the energy equation,” Haun said.

“This Internet of Things-enabled data infrastructure is allowing new ways for us to do more effective use of our energy and, in particular, electrical energy,” he said, adding that decarbonizing the grid and decentralizing it “go hand in hand.”

New Trends

Brett Feldman, research analyst with Navigant Research, spoke about engaging customers through demand-side management.

The old way of obtaining customers was going door to door, but the “new way is to lasso the entire customer base and give them the chance to opt out of the savings opportunities rather than having to sign up people one by one,” Feldman said.

Another new trend is utility/vendor marketplaces, especially for millennials, who increasingly make their purchases online, he said.

Edward Woll Jr., a partner with Sullivan & Worcester, asked whether microgrids could help both shave the peak load for New England and be “cheaper than the power that you get from the grid.”

Haun responded that “in most all cases — except when someone put the microgrid in specifically for resilience needs — you’d be doing it because it’s going to save you cost from the tariff rate.”

“The distributed energy resources reduce costs because they’re being packaged, they’re being manufactured in locations that enable them to be very easily deployed,” Haun said. “These systems are going to put pressure on the cost of the energy against what you wouldn’t be buying from the grid, absolutely.”

— Michael Kuser