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mittee in March 2013, saying that “the
status quo is unsustainable.”
American Energy Coalition (AEC)
reported on this in a March 20, 2013 E-Alert
entitled “Grid Chief Warns of Future NE
Power Problems.” Van Welie also noted
that during the February 2013 blizzard
and resultant widespread power outages
a month earlier “6,000 megawatts of elec-
tricity, about a fifth of the region’s total
capacity, wasn’t available, in part because
gas generators couldn’t find [gas].”
Another ISONewEngland spokesperson,
Marcia Blomberg said the organization was
in the midst of a major study to determine
if the region’s power grid has become too
reliant on natural gas. AEC reported on this
in a July 17, 2013 E-Alert entitled “New
England’s Love Affair With Natural Gas
Cools.” In that same story, van Welie was
quoted as telling the U.S. Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee that, “We are
very close to the edge of reliability in very
poor weather circumstances.”
In a September 6, 2013 E-Alert entitled
“Vermont Yankee Shutdown Makes New
England Too Dependent on Natural Gas,”
AEC reported on an article from
The
Republican
announcing the closing of the
Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and a
smaller coal fired plant, Mount Tom Power
Station, in Holyoke MA.
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In that article Westfield Gas & Electric
general manager Daniel Howard said that,
“The pipelines are oversubscribed during
these peak periods.” Noting that natural
gas prices had doubled in a year, Howard
said, “All that gets passed on to the power
generators and residential gas [and electric]
customers.” Howard was quoted in another
article from
The Republican
on the Vermont
Yankee shutdown, saying that, “It’s not
something that is going to fix itself.”
In a September 21, 2013 E-Alert entitled
“With Natural Gas Supplies Squeezed,
Prices Will Be Volatile In New England,”
AEC reported on comments by Holyoke
Gas & Electric general manager James
Lavelle echoing Howard’s comments on
how this pipeline shortage is driving spikes
in the price of natural gas.
That same article quoted U.S. Energy
Information Agency data showing that
electric generation in New England using
natural gas has increased from 30 percent
in 2001 to 52 percent today, adding to the
pipeline capacity problem.
Also noted was the planned closure of
the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
that produces 620 megawatts of power,
some 20 percent of New England’s total
usage, which will further add to the natural
gas dependency in N.E. An October 27, 2013
Boston Business Journal
article reported that
natural gas prices were expected to increase
18 percent between November and April
this winter due to the pipeline capacity
shortcomings.
In a more recent article in the
Hartford
Courant
and reported by AEC in a December
18, 2013 E-Alert entitled “Electricity Prices
To Jump Due To Natural Gas Concerns,”
the
Courant
reported that, “A shortage of
capacity in natural gas pipelines serving
the Northeast is driving electric rates up
throughout southern New England. In
Massachusetts, rates will increase by as much
as 38 percent, while customers in Rhode
Island and Connecticut can expect increases
of 27 percent and 20 percent respectively.”
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Remember that first “inconvenient fact”
I mentioned earlier and promised to return
to: namely that the natural gas infrastructure
is already limited and cannot reliably supply
their customer base if the temperature falls
below 20 degrees for any extended period of
time? Well, with dozens sounding the alarm
relative to inadequate interstate transmission
pipeline capacity, and that “under-capacity”
status driving gas prices up at double digit
rates in New England, why are New England
state governments, state utility regulators
and the gas utilities themselves advocating
for natural gas pipeline expansions within
their states when they don’t have enough
capacity at their City Gates to supply their
current customers, never mind the new
customers they want to add?
I don’t have an answer to that ques-
tion, but the oil heat industry needs to
get this message out and have its voices
heard on this subject. NEFI (New England
Fuel Institute) President Michael Trunzo
recently authored a letter to the editor on
this subject of inadequate pipeline capacity
and went on to talk about a number of other
issues, including: price, environmental
concerns, the cost of pipeline leaks, safety
concerns, etc.
(See Page 22.)
It is a great piece. AEC, for its part, has
issued dozens of E-Alerts also speaking
to these same issues and concerns. Those
E-Alerts are archived on AEC’s website
americanenergycoalition.org under the
“News” tab, and I urge you to visit the
website and learn more.
And then there is that second incon-
venient fact that the gas utilities need
the ability to shut off the interruptible
customers, and without that they simply
could not reliably supply all their customers
during cold weather periods. Well, with
capacity maxed out, as the utilities add new
customers, don’t they also need to add more
interruptible customers? And don’t they
need to add them, therm for therm? That
is one therm of interruptible customer for
every one therm of new customer? Oh, but
that only shifts more supply responsibility to
oil heat. Should regulators just eliminate the
interruptible customer option altogether?
Please visit the AEC website, and get
the facts. Then talk with your customers,
neighbors, relatives and especially your
elected officials and public policy makers,
and urge them to act responsibly. Our
industry depends upon it.
Not only are we losing customers to gas
conversions, but when it gets cold, oil heat
is asked to bail out the very competitor that
is taking our customers through gas conver-
sions. Instead of states advocating pipeline
expansions and conversions from oil to gas,
maybe the states should be placing a mora-
torium on any more gas conversions until
the utilities get their act together and secure
sufficient supply lines for their existing
customer base.
To receive AEC’s weekly E-Alerts,
send your e-mail address to info@
americanenergycoalition.org.
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