Windpower can be a significant resource for electricity for Connecticut and the rest of New England, according to a blueprint for developing renewable resources adopted by New England’s six governors and premiers from Eastern Canada at their annual meeting last week.
Windpower is the area’s major renewable resource, a months-long study that is the basis for the blueprint says.
The study, by a team of engineers and economists from ISO New England, the region’s electricity grid coordinator, analyzed more than 40 scenarios to integrate primarily large-scale wind resources onshore and offshore into the grid by 2030.
Key findings include:
• Offshore wind resource integration offers the most cost-effective use of new and existing transmission. The study considered and tested wind resource integration scenarios from 2,000 to 12,000 megawatts.
Currently, New England’s power plants can generate about 31,400 megawatts of electricity. Connecticut power plants can generate around 7,650 megawatts. Peak demand in Connecticut last year was 7,070 megawatts. Connecticut is responsible for about 26 percent of the region’s total electricity consumption.
• New transmission investment would be required to integrate wind resources.
• Annual wholesale electricity prices would be generally lower with the addition of renewable wind resources and demand response resources (paying businesses for conservation, voluntary energy cutbacks, and off-peak energy use) because they have low or no fuel costs.
• Lower levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide result when low-carbon-emitting-resources are used or when older fossil-fueled generators are either retired and replaced by new, natural gas combined-cycle units or repowered with more efficient combustion technologies incorporating new natural-gas fired technology with portions of the existing unit’s infrastructure.
The study also considered resources such as plug-in electric vehicles, expanded imports, and energy storage.
The blueprint also advocates that the states synchronize power procurement and long-term power contract activities and coordinate reviews of proposed interstate transmission facilities needed to reach renewable resources distant from population centers.
“We have an abundance of native renewable resource potential in New England,” ISO CEO Gordon van Welie said. “Tapping into these available resources can create potential benefits but would require new transmission to move power from where it is produced to where it is consumed. Before the states now are the questions as to how much regional renewable development should be pursued and at what cost.”
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