NASHUA – “This was a normal January and February, yet we came very close to having rolling blackouts. What happens if we have a very cold winter? We could be in trouble.”
That startling assessment was made Wednesday by Michael Harrington, who as a commissioner with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission knows more about the region’s electricity system than most people.
Just as startling is the fact that his audience, consisting of representatives from the power industry, large corporations and regulators who are also knowledgeable about the electricity system, wasn’t startled.
The standing-room-only crowd came to the innocuously named Consumer Liaison Group meeting largely to discuss what happened in late January and early February, when bottlenecks in natural gas shipments, a shutdown of Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station on Boston’s South Shore, and a couple of snowstorms almost overwhelmed New England’s ability to provide electricity.
ISO-New England, the nonprofit agency that manages the electricity grid throughout the six New England states, organized the meeting. A report issued described “extremely vulnerable and likely unsustainable operating conditions,” which it called “a highest-priority strategic risk for the region” that “will threaten the reliability of the power system.”
“We’re looking for solutions, and I don’t think we have anything yet,” said Harrington.
The liaison group is overseen by ISO-NE, which has several other meetings scheduled in coming months to discuss steps to ward off power shortages next winter.
News of electricity problems comes as a surprise to the New Hampshire public, which has seen no effects of it.![]()
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