NEPPA eNewsletter

NEPPA’s 2015 50th Anniversary Annual Conference was, by all accounts, a smashing success. Delegates and their guests arrived at the historic Mount Washington Resort on August 23 to misty mountains and immediately gathered at the opening reception to meet old friends and learn new faces. In addition, NEPPA introduced two new concepts at the conference: a mobile app and our new Ambassador program. The mobile app provided attendees with an on-the-spot reference to all aspects of the conference including the agenda, a list of attendees, event schedules, and a peek at plans for the 2016 Annual conference. Also introduced was a new Ambassador program whereby those who are new to the association or the conference were connected to some of our more established members. 

Following the reception, the delegation was treated to a barbecue dinner and the unveiling of the Outstanding Affiliate Member of the Year award, The Okonite Company!  The night was topped off by a champagne toast and fireworks display. 

Monday morning began with Calvin Ames, NEPPA President, leading the Pledge of Allegiance and introducing our keynote speaker, John Jimison of the Energy Future Coalition.  He was followed by Sue Kelly, President and CEO of American Public Power Association, who updated the group on current legislative issues and APPA’s plans for the immediate future. After lunch on the veranda, Susan Crawford, visiting professor of Harvard Law, and David Talbot of the Berkman Center spoke on the Monetizing of Fiber Optic Networks. All of the sessions were well attended and received high marks for content and relevance. (click here to see all presentations).

Monday afternoon, during the Annual Business Meeting and the Board of Directors Meeting, the lobby was open for various activities including chair massages, caricature drawings, and psychic readings; wagon rides were available outside for a jaunt around the property. Delegates and guests were also invited to participate in our annual Baseball Squares raffle that ultimately raised $1,000 for the Benevolent Fund.

Later that evening, the reception and formal banquet dinner that was held included awards to Commissioners and those that were recognized for outstanding service.  A surprise 50th Anniversary video was presented to the audience after the dinner concluded and will be available to view on the website very soon!  Delegates were then invited to continue enjoying the evening at Invoice Cloud’s hospitality suite located in the Cave, the Mount Washington Hotel's historic speakeasy!

Tuesday morning arrived and with it the Assistant Engineer of the hotel; he proceeded to lead a group of 30 of our delegates through the boiler room, outside steam facility and the location of the old coal delivery area. The tour wrapped up with a viewing of the original boilers that powered the lights when the building opened in 1902. After breakfast, the talents of Deborah Sliz were on display, when she presented a retrospective of the last 50 years in legislative issues that has affected NEPPA members. Mike Dirrane of Spectra Energy rounded out the speaking program with an update on natural gas pipeline developments in the northeast.

The afternoon was free and was followed immediately by a reception and Italian dinner in the original dining room of the hotel. Make-your-own-sundaes and an Elton John entertainer brought the conference to a close.  

Please see our other annual conference articles for more information and pictures!

Many thanks to our numerous sponsors that helped to make our event most memorable!

Each year, NEPPA is the beneficiary of financial and other contributions by its affiliates and friends through their sponsorship of the NEPPA Annual Conference. Their contributions are very important to this event, and NEPPA is grateful for their support. The 2015 sponsors were:

The Okonite Company Receives Affiliate Member of the Year Award

This award recognizes companies that are associate or corporate members of our association who provide exceptional levels of support or assistance to our organization and our members. 

The Commissioner Service Award is presented annually to Commissioners and Directors of public power utilities who have served their systems with distinction for at least 10 years. NEPPA recognized seven individuals for their outstanding service to their utilities with Commissioner Service Awards.

From Kennebunk Light & Power District – Craig H. MacDonald

From Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant – Walter Foskett

From Village of Swanton Electric Department – Eugene LaBombard

From Town of Wallingford – David A. Gessert

From Town of Wallingford – Richard A. Nunn (not in attendance)

NEPPA’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service to their public power systems and their communities. This year’s award winners were:

Fred Anderson, the former President/CEO of New Hampshire Electric Coop



Christopher Roy, the E&O Manager for Concord Municipal Light Plant



Duncan Hastings, General Manager of the Village of Johnson Water and Light Department



Sharon Staz, the recently retired General Manager of Kennebunk Light and Power District

 

NEPPA’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes utilities/companies who have provided outstanding service to their public power systems and their communities.

Person of the Year Award
Michael Horrigan, the recently retired General Manager of Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant (award accepted by Ken Goulart)

The person of the year award is given for sustained, outstanding service and contributions to NEPPA and to public power. 

The special recognition award is presented to an individual for sustained, outstanding service and contributions to NEPPA and to public power. This year we had six deserving members. Those winners were:

Mark Kelly, the 50th Anniversary Committee Chair



 Michael Cloutier, the Rodeo Committee Chair

Scott Edwards, the Mutual Aid Committee Chair



Dan Folding, the E&O Committee Chair

Michael Kirwood, the Legislative Committee Chair, and Steve Kaminski, the Power Supply/ISO Committee Chair

 

Sponsored by Convergent Energy + Power, Evluma, National Information Solutions Cooperative, Sagewell, Inc., and the Mount Washington Resort.

Total Pitch Count by each team – Brian Choquette, Hudson Light & Power Department

Total Strike Count by each team – Greg Phipps, Tangent & Energy Solutions (Greg donated the prize back to the Benevolent Fund.)

Total Ball Count by each team – Reg Beliveau, Jr, Village of Swanton Electric Department

Groundouts - total for each team – Roger Cotte

Flyouts - total for each team – Irv Silverman, MATRIX SME (Irv donated the prize back to the Benevolent Fund.)

Total generated for the Benevolent Fund was $1,000! Thank you to all our members!

In addition, Roger Cotte donated $100 to the Benevolent Fund at the conference for which we are very grateful! Thank you Roger!

50/50 Raffle Winner

Dana Blais, Templeton Municipal Light & Water Plant (Dana donated the money back to the Benevolent Fund.)

1st Place: Viggiano, Jolly, Danos (Savas & Patty)

2nd Place: Tzimorangas, Ragucci, Nicolas

3rd Place: Soden (Kevin & Amylia), Abbott, Warchol, Sullivan

Random Draw: Heanue, Foskett, Ryan, Freeman 

Closest to the Pin, Hole #5: Roger Freeman 

Closest to the Pin, Hole #14: Dan Folding

Closest to the Pin, Hole #16: Dan Chase

Long Drive, Men's: Peter Kumiega

Long Drive, Women's: Patty Danos

1st Place Putting Contest: John Tzimorangas

2nd Place Putting Contest: Jim Sullivan

3rd Place Putting Contest: Bucky Brennan

Hole in One: no winners!


Evaluation Winner

Jim Regan, Braintree Electric Light Department

I would personally like to thank all our sponsors, utility and affiliate members, presenters, guests and NEPPA staff for your attendance, participation and support at our recently concluded 50th Anniversary Annual Conference at the Mount Washington Resort, Bretton Woods New Hampshire.  Although biased, I believe it was a wonderful event with thought-provoking, exceptional speakers, numerous opportunities for networking and business development, and an outstanding social program at a venue second to none in New England. In addition, I congratulate again, all our award winners for your contributions to your utilities and our Association.

The success of this Conference and our Association is only through a cooperative synergy among our member utilities and corporate and affiliate members. Without this cooperative spirit, our Association would not be able to prosper in this ever-changing, dynamic industry and, frankly, provide some of the tools needed by our utility members to properly serve their public power communities.

One of the reoccurring themes of our Conference was the opportunity and need for continued volunteerism within our Association. Without support from utility and affiliate member staffs, our core mission to serve as the regional network for information sharing and collective action, offer training and educational programs for our members, advocate public policies and legislation that benefits our members’ interests, and provide publications and information resources to our members would not be possible.

Volunteerism is generally solicited through both committee participation and direct involvement in training program support. Through our Director of Training, Steve Socoby, we have solicited and have begun to receive training support for some of our advanced training programs.  Recently, The Okonite Company and the Irby Company have assisted with our Advanced Linemen and Advanced Metering Programs, respectively. We thank you for your stimulating presentations and interaction with our students and look forward to our continued training relationship. Many other opportunities to support our advanced programs are available. Feel free to contact Steve to discuss these opportunities in more depth.

Committee participation is a very important component of our mission. Current NEPPA Committees and their Chairs are as follows:

Annual Conference:            John Bilda

Audit:                                      Michael Kirkwood

E & O Conference:               Dan Folding

Lineperson’s Rodeo:          Michael Cloutier/Ken Stone

Customer Service:               Maureen Hanifan

Education & Training:         Hamid Jaffari

Regional Power Supply:    Steve Kaminski

Legislative:                           Michael Kirkwood

Membership/Marketing:     Calvin Ames

In addition and with Board approval, we will be soliciting chairs and members for new Committees/Task Forces including IT, Engineering and Awards.  

Please share these committee opportunities with your colleagues and if anyone is interested in joining one of our standing committees or our proposed new committees feel free to contact us and we will enthusiastically pass on your contact information to the Committee Chair.

Again, I thank all that attended and supported our Annual Conference and look forward to seeing you soon.

Best Regards,

Savas

Savas C. Danos

Interim Executive Director

This week I attended the 2015 Annual Conference of the Northeast Public Power Association (NEPPA).  NEPPA represents the interests of New England’s public power and rural electric cooperative utilities on legislative and regulatory issues, and also does training for its members.  Because this year marks NEPPA’s 50th Anniversary, NEPPA went the extra mile (literally and figuratively!), and held its meeting at the Mount Washington Resort, in the heart of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This historic hotel, completed in 1902, hosted the International Monetary Conference (known colloquially as the "Bretton Woods" conference) in 1944, which established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, set the $35-per-ounce gold standard, and designated the U.S. dollar as the backbone of international exchange. The conference room where the foundational documents were signed is called the "Gold Room"! (For a history of the hotel, go here.

NEPPA’s Interim Executive Director, Savas Danos, and his staff put together a great program. We heard an excellent keynote presentation by John Jimison of the Energy Future Coalition—he laid out very clearly the enormous transition our industry is embarking on, given the wave of new technologies and the mandate to decarbonize the electric generation fleet. He noted that overall demand for electricity will be flat, and could even decrease. But he thinks (like I do) that public power systems are ideally suited to be the "middlemen" for this transition, given that they have a longer term perspective than investor-owned utilities and are service rather than profit driven. We also heard presentations on municipal fiber installations in New England, new natural gas pipeline capacity coming into the region, and an excellent retrospective on the 50 years of the legislative issues NEPPA has faced, done by its Washington lobbyist, Deborah Sliz. 

There were also plenty of opportunities for networking and socializing. There was an excellent awards banquet in the Grand Ballroom—one of the awardees was Sharon Staz, the recently-retired General Manager of Kennebunk Light and Power in Maine. She served on the APPA board, and was the long-time chair of NEPPA’s legislative committee. She worked tireless on public power’s legislative agenda for many years. Having personally seen her in the trenches on Capitol Hill and at FERC, I can attest to her strong leadership. 

But the most telling part of the conference was the Engineering tour of the hotel, held at 7 a.m. the morning after the awards banquet. About 30 people in our group got up early in the morning (after a late night!) to tour the "back of house" of this grand old hotel, including the boiler room, laundry, trash/recycling dock, and carpenter’s shop. And then we tramped in the rain down the hill to the out-building housing the on-site steam facility, asking questions all the way about the No. 6 fuel oil supply that powers the current boiler, when the facility was converted from coal to oil, how the coal deliveries were made (by rail), etc. The best part of the tour for many was going into the back of the building, past the now-abandoned boilers, to see the ancient electric generator that powered the original lights when the hotel opened in 1902.  (It is said that Thomas Edison himself had a hand in designing the system.)  One attendee said he had read about these generators, but never seen one.  

This tour brought home to me just how "hands on," curious and dedicated public power people really are. Talk about your busman’s holiday!  Congratulations to NEPPA and its members on NEPPA’s 50 years of service.  May you continue to serve your public power communities for many more!

Sue Kelly, President & CEO - APPA

Groton Utilities has a new leader;  Ron Gaudet has been named the Director of Utilities. The Old Lyme resident’s utility experience includes time as a U.S Navy officer driving and operating ships, as Senior Utilities Engineer at Pfizer in Groton and as Director of Facility Operations at the University of Connecticut. 

He succeeds Paul Yatcko, who left Groton Utilities this past winter after six-and-a-half years to accept a similar position for South Norwalk Electric and Water.

Gaudet assumes responsibility for operating a multi-million dollar municipally owned and operated electric and water distribution system, which serves the greater Groton and Bozrah areas. Groton Utilities Electric and Water Divisions plus its Bozrah Division had revenues of $85 million in fiscal 2015. 

"I am pleased and honored to have the opportunity to help to manage a highly respected municipal utility," Gaudet said. "I developed a high regard for GU while working at Pfizer. The challenge ahead is to maintain and enhance Groton Utilities’ reputation for providing low cost, reliable electric power and quality water."

"Like all industries in today’s world, technology is changing at a rapid rate," he stated. "As we proceed with our plans for the future, we intend to integrate those technologies into our system in support of our work force in order to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations."

"My goal is to give our employees the best tools possible so that they can maintain the highest level of service expected by our customers," Gaudet stated.

At Pfizer, he was responsible for mechanical maintenance projects on the cogeneration plant and its associated distribution equipment for all utilities – water, sewer, storm, electric distribution, steam and compressed air.

Gaudet left Pfizer to work for the University of Connecticut where he worked from 2005 to 2014. He was Utility and Energy Operations Manager for his first seven years and Director of Utilities and Energy services his last three years there. His responsibilities included a combined cogeneration and chiller plant, building energy management systems, the high/low voltage distribution system, fuel cells and energy, water distribution, and waste treatment systems. 

Gaudet gained start-up business experience as the General Manager of Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions from April 2014 to May 2015. 

He has a BSME and an MBA. He was a Commissioned Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy from 1988 to 1991.

Belmont Light has issued an alert to all commercial and residential customers about a scam that involves telephone calls from individuals claiming to be collection agents for Belmont Light. The fraudulent callers demand immediate payments to ensure that electricity is not terminated to customers’ homes or businesses. This latest increase in calls is similar to those reported to Belmont Light several months ago.

Belmont Light wants its customers to be wary of this scam and to practice vigilance when responding to unsolicited collections calls. General Manager Jim Palmer reminds customers that all legitimate billing inquiries regarding active Belmont Light accounts will come directly from Belmont Light’s Customer Service Department and not a "1-800" or "1-866" number. Additionally, Belmont Light does not take telephone payments or push for immediate money orders. 

Palmer also explained that Belmont Light does not use third-party collection agencies for active accounts in arrears. "We work with any customers who may be having difficulty in making timely payments," he said, adding that, "the only instance where the account would be sent to collection is when the account is no longer active and service has already been terminated, but a balance remains."

Customers should never give out their banking information over the telephone unless they themselves initiated the call to Belmont Light at 617-993-2800, nor should they issue money orders to anyone claiming to represent Belmont Light. Please notify Belmont Light of suspicious phone calls by calling 617-993-2800 or emailing customerservice@belmontlight.com. 

ISO New England Inc.'s pay-for-performance capacity market program, long touted as a way to get merchant generators to sign up for firm natural gas supplies, will not result in new pipelines but instead will drive the region further down the rabbit hole of growing dependence on dual-fuel generation, ISO-NE President and CEO Gordon van Welie predicted. 

The New England region for some years has been plagued with winter gas-fired generation supply shortages. The problem has been exacerbated by the region's growing dependence on cheaper gas-fired generation and merchant gas generators' refusal to shore up supplies through expensive long-term pipeline contracts because, for all but a few cold days a year, they could get by on scraps.

 

The RTO has tweaked the penalty and incentive structure of the capacity market through which it signs up and pays generators and other resources to be on-call three years down the road. The pay-for-performance market regime, which takes effect in 2018, imposes harsher penalties on generators that fail to meet their capacity commitments when the region is experiencing a supply pinch and rewards resources that perform well. 

"By creating incentives for generators to firm up their fuel supply, pay-for-performance may indirectly incentivize the development of oil or LNG fuel storage or gas pipeline infrastructure," ISO-NE said in its 2015 regional electricity outlook. 

To ensure the region would not suffer from supply shortages and face possible blackouts in the intervening years, the RTO proposed a winter reliability program to shore up dual-fuel generation oil supplies starting with the 2013-2014 season. FERC is considering competing proposals to tweak that program once again. 

But now it appears that the winter program and the pay-for-performance incentives are prompting more of a shift to dual fuel — oil and gas — generation, which means the region is burning more oil for generation even as states are looking to curb emissions and use more renewables. 

"Our solution to reliability ... is not going to have generators invest in new pipelines," van Welie told an Aug. 25 North American Electric Reliability Corp. summit in Washington, D.C. ISO-NE is "seeing them instead invest in dual fuel," he said.  The "consequence is that you see really high price volatility and emissions, which run counter to policies of the New England states," he said. "That's causing a lot of tension." 

The region currently has 58 dual-fuel units with a combined summer generating capability of about 7,600 MW, ISO-NE spokeswoman Marcia Blomberg said in an Aug. 27 email. The ISO-NE's 2014-2015 winter reliability program offered an incentive for generators to convert to dual fuel. Six units, totaling 1,774 MW, said they would take the ISO up on the offer, and three resources representing 720 MW converted to dual fuel before that winter, Blomberg said. 

In February, the ISO-NE held its ninth forward capacity auction for the 2018-2019 delivery year, which is when the new pay-for-performance incentives begin. Whereas no new dual-fuel units were added in the prior auction held in 2014, two new dual-fuel units totaling 920 MW cleared the ninth auction in 2015. The most recent auction also saw an increase in new gas-fired generation compared to the prior auction, but at nowhere near the capacity increase that occurred for dual fuel. Four new gas-fired generation units in Connecticut and Rhode Island totaling about 123 MW cleared the most recent auction, while only one new unit with a 13.9 MW capacity cleared the auction in 2014.

NEPPA welcomes Dynegy Marketing & Trade, LLC as a corporate member as of Monday, August 3, 2015! Dynegy Marketing & Trade, LLC’s portfolio consists of nearly 26,000 megawatts of generating facilities that are capable of generating enough electricity to power about 21 million homes nationwide. The company serves residential, municipal, commercial and industrial customers through its Homefield Energy and Dynegy Energy Services businesses in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company is located at 601 Travis Street, Suite 1400, Houston, TX 77025. The primary contact person is Ralph Adams. He can be reached at rgad@dynegy.com or 713.767.5134.

Shell Energy North America (US), L.P. became a corporate member of NEPPA on Wednesday, August 5, 2015! Shell Energy North America (US), L.P. is a power and gas marketer. The company is located at 4 Clinton Square, Suite 101, Syracuse, NY 13202. The primary contact person is Robin Battersby, who is the Originator – North Power U&M. She can be reached at robin.battersby@shell.com or 315.423.4802 (phone) or 713.265.2131 (fax). 

NEPPA welcomes SourceOne, Inc. as a corporate member as of Tuesday, August 11, 2015! SourceOne, Inc is an energy & utility consulting services company. The company is located at 53 State Street, 14th Floor, Boston, MA 02109. The primary contact person is Dick Fay. He can be reached at dfay@s1inc.com or 617.399.6144.

Northern Energy Services became an associate member of NEPPA on Thursday, August 13, 2015! Northern Energy Services is a full service energy management company dedicated to providing businesses and government customers throughout the region with the most comprehensive turn-key solutions for all their energy needs.The company is located at 78 West Main Street, Northborough, MA 01532. The primary contact person is Donald Robinson, who is the Business Development Manager. He can be reached at drobinson@northenergy.net or 508.393.7500.

The 9th Annual Northeast Public Power Lineworker's Rodeo will be held September 17 & 18, 2015, at the NEPPA Training Center in Littleton, Mass.

If you are interested in learning more or coming out to watch, please click here!

November 13, 2015

Chocksett Inn

Sterling, MA

Please keep an eye out for more information coming soon!

In This Issue:

• Energy Bill: Senate energy bill passes Committee...
• Energy Policy: Final Clean Power Plan released...
• Grid Security:  Senate punts consideration of cyber information sharing bill...

Over three days (July 28-30), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) successfully reported the "Energy Policy Modernization Act" from their panel in a 18-4 vote. Nearly 100 amendments were considered. 

The bill addresses energy efficiency as well as infrastructure issues including grid security, energy supply, and improvements to the hydropower licensing process.  It does not include a provision to ensure that public power utilities in regions with Regional Transmission Organizations can self-supply capacity resources, but APPA efforts continue in that regard. 

Of interest to public power, the Senate Committee considered the following items:  

Flake (R-AZ): Protects public power entities from disclosing critical electric infrastructure information under state and local disclosure laws.  Unexpectedly, Sen. Cantwell tried to strike the disclosure protection provision, but her amendment failed.  APPA supported the Flake amendment, and will work to allay Cantwell’s concerns before the bill moves to the Senate floor in the fall.

 

Capito (R-WV): To ensure that public power systems are covered by liability protection during activities authorized during grid emergencies.

  

King (I-ME): Would direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to study net metering.

King (I-ME): Would have added interconnection of distributed energy resources to PURPA’s "must consider" requirements, as well as required consideration of compensation criteria for DG resources.  Sen. King withdrew the measure, but plans to offer it again on the floor.

Risch (R-ID): The provision would have streamlined siting of renewable generation facilities on federal lands.  

Sanders (I-VT): Would have stated that climate change is real, caused by human activity, and should be addressed.  A second amendment would have provided loans and grants to low-income households and underserved areas to install community solar. Both failed.

Franken (D-MN): Would have required utility customers to increase their energy efficiency by 1.5% each year.  Failed 13-9. 

Capito (R-WV): Would have expedited and streamlined permitting and siting for oil and natural gas pipelines. 

Barrasso (R-WY): Would have increased the portion of funds states receive from the LWCF to at least 50% - a 10% increase. Failed 7-15.

In addition to reporting the larger energy bill, the Committee also approved the "Energy Savings and Industry Competitiveness Act" (S. 270) by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) by a vote of 20-2.  Even though most of the provisions of S. 720 were incorporated into the larger bill, it was approved separately in case the larger bill fails to move.   Separately, on Aug. 11, DOE published new energy efficiency rules for grid-enabled water heaters as a result of the April 30, 2015 passage of the Portman- Shaheen Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015. 

The bill now moves to the full Senate for consideration after the August recess.  

The Bay State has made dramatic improvements to reduce carbon emissions from power plants within its borders, but expense and ensuring a steady energy supply are slowing that process.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 77 percent of the state’s greenhouse gases came from power plants in 2013, a decrease from the 85.2 percent in 2010.

That is attributed, in part, to the rise of less-expensive natural gas as a primary fuel source and less reliance on nuclear power and coal as fuel, said Marcia Bloomberg, a spokeswoman for New England ISO, an independent, non-profit organization that manages New England’s power grid.

From 2000 to 2014, Bloomberg said the system’s power has shifted from being generated by coal, nuclear and oil, to natural gas.

In 2000, nuclear energy made up 18 percent of the system’s capacity, or maximum power that can be generated with existing resources. That figure is now down to 15 percent.

Oil made up 34 percent of the system’s capacity, but dropped to 21 percent in 2014.

Coal, the dirtiest fuel in terms of air pollution, dropped from 12 percent to 7 percent capacity, while natural gas, which emits less carbon emissions than any other fossil fuel, increased from 18 percent to 43 percent.

Power from hydro-electric dams and other renewables, including wind and solar, decreased from 11 percent to 9 percent capacity, but Bloomberg said that is mainly due to several hydro plants being shut down.

There are, however, 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects planned throughout New England, she said.

Out of the total energy produced by fuel type over the same time span, nuclear has increased from 31 percent to 34 percent, natural gas from 15 percent to 44 percent, and hydro and other renewables from 13 percent to 15 percent.

Coal and oil, which tend to emit more greenhouse gases, dropped from 18 percent to 5 percent and from 22 percent to 1 percent in production, respectively.

Despite the relative progress in ridding the air of harmful greenhouse gases emitted from power plants that burn coal and oil, energy companies are still proposing to burn fossil fuels, and in some instances, get paid to do so.

But Exelon, which operates an existing 117-megawatt oil-burning peaking plant in Medway, is proposing to add 200 megawatts from two new efficient turbines capable of running on both natural gas and fuel oil, although the company is proposing to only run on oil a maximum of 1,440 hours each year for both turbines.

Because of natural gas pipeline "constraints," Bloomberg said ISO has been providing incentives for power generators to run on more than one kind of fuel, including oil, which emits more greenhouse gases than natural gas.

In 2018, when a market change is set to go into effect, generators that over-perform "will get paid extra," and generators and under-perform will be subject to fines.

To read more of the story, please click here!

www.milforddailynews.com/