ISO New England garnered more than 40,000 megawatts of energy in its latest auction, ensuring the region will have enough power to meet demand in the next four years.
The Forward Capacity Market auction comes from ISO’s projection of the six New England state’s energy needs over the next three years, and bidders offer either generation or demand side resources for the power grid.
For 2013/2014, ISO predicts the absolute peak demand for the region will be 32,000 at one time, so the auction guaranteed the region will have 8,000 more megawatts than needed.Â
Generation bidders offer megawatts from power plants and other electricity supply. Demand side bidders offer a list of clients willing to decrease their energy use during a crisis. More than 2,200 companies sold energy capacity in the auction, including 330 major generators and 300 minor generators.
The total list of sellers in the auction won’t be available until after ISO files the auction with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission later this months.
The buyer in the auction was ISO New England, which serves all the electric utilities in the six New England states.
The minimum price the sellers agreed to sell their capacity at was $2.95 per kilowatt month. The indirect impact on individual bills will be determined by electric utilities.
The total megawatts available to ISO New England for 2013-2014 are 40,412. Generation accounts for 32,247, and demand management accounts for 3,261. The rest comes from imports.
