The head of Maine’s Public Utilities Commission called for better regional coordination and governance changes at ISO-NE during the Consumer Liaison Group’s meeting Thursday.

Phil Bartlett — who was giving the keynote address because it was Maine’s turn to host the quarterly meeting, which has turned virtual during the pandemic — emphasized that energy consumers “are going to be footing the bill” for many of the changes occurring in the region’s energy transition.

“We need to come together as a region to plan and effectively communicate what we’re trying to accomplish,” Bartlett said.

He also warned that New England needs to be thoughtful about its transmission planning, especially in light of the failure of the New England Clean Energy Connect, shot down by Maine voters in a decision that is still in court.

“That’s something we need to confront head on and think about how to tackle,” Bartlett said, warning that it would be hard to build any infrastructure if every new transmission line faces opposition from incumbents.

Bartlett also said he sees an impending clash between state energy contracts and the region’s markets.

“There’s a real risk that markets won’t be sustainable,” he said. “If states are putting so much under contract, the markets, which are designed to provide competitive pressures, are going to have a difficult time doing that. We need to have these honest discussions.”

And lastly, Bartlett reiterated calls for ISO-NE to improve its transparency and involve states more in its process.

“At this point, any sort of market reform or transmission planning is going to implicate state policies, and it’s important that states be at the table,” he said. “We also need to make sure that consumer costs are getting better attention and consideration as decisions are going to be made.”

Order 2222

A panel of speakers also discussed ISO-NE’s approach to complying with FERC Order 2222, which directed RTOs to facilitate distributed energy resource aggregations’ participation in their markets.

“Bundled together, we see them as something that could respond to price, to be the balancing resource, to change production or change load on the system in conditions of over- or under-generation,” said Henry Yoshimura, the RTO’s director of demand resource strategy.

The industry has been critical of the ISO-NE approach, saying that it leaves up many barriers for resources to successfully participate. (See ‘Beautiful Symphony’ or Bust on Order 2222, Advocates Say.)

“Our members have told us they don’t think ISO-NE’s proposal will allow them any more avenues than they already have,” Jeff Dennis, managing director of Advanced Energy Economy, told the CLG.

Ian Burnes, program manager at Efficiency Maine Trust, noted that a challenge with tapping into the benefits of demand resources is consumer awareness.

“Most consumers don’t care about their energy. They don’t care until the bills get high, or their hot water isn’t on, or their house gets cold, or their light bulb has burnt out,” he said. “So we have a real challenge of delivering on this great promise of aggregating loads to reduce the cost of decarbonizing our economy.”

“I look forward to working with everybody at ISO, in the markets and in New England to make sure we can get this right, but it’s going to take a real attention to detail and a real commitment to make it work so we can meet customers where they are,” Burnes said.

RTO Update

Anne George, ISO-NE’s vice president for external affairs and corporate communications, gave an update on what the grid operator has been working on.

She highlighted numerous studies and initiatives the RTO is undergoing to improve its forecasting and adjust to the energy transition. George also gave a summary of the messy process of completing February’s Forward Capacity Auction. And she ran through the events of January, which included near-record prices and increased emissions, because of cold weather and higher electricity demand.

“It was a pretty interesting January. But thankfully, some of the issues we saw take place didn’t result in any sort of emergency procedures,” George said.

Leadership Change

Rebecca Tepper is stepping down as chair of the CLG’s Coordinating Committee after seven years and 25 quarterly meetings.

She’s handing the duty over to Elizabeth Mahony, an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts.