Our electricity grid is bending

 Our electricity grid is bending

For the past two years, New England has seen its energy rates rise from 3.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2012 to 5.6 cents in 2013 — more than a 50 percent increase. New England ratepayers paid an additional $3 billion for the energy we consumed last winter and as a result of capacity shortages in the most recent auction we will be doling out an additional $1.8 billion in payments to generators just to be available.

The regional organization that oversees our energy grid, ISO-New England, has repeatedly warned us of our overreliance on natural gas for electricity generation, which currently accounts for more than half of our capacity. Add to that 8,000 megawatts of expected-to-retire generation over the next decade and New England is looking at a real future capacity shortfall — a gap that all of the energy efficiency, conservation and demand response in the world won’t be able to close.

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20140903/OPINION04/709039959