US announces offshore wind leasing schedule through 2028, finalizes Gulf of Maine area

The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced a schedule for up to 12 potential offshore wind energy lease sales through 2028, in Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and territorial waters.

According to Interior, the new offshore wind leasing plan features the following schedule:

2024 Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, and Oregon 

2025 Gulf of Mexico 

2026 Central Atlantic 

2027 Gulf of Mexico and New York Bight 

2028 California, a U.S. Territory, Gulf of Maine, and Hawaii 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, within the Interior Department, produced a visual-format schedule showing more detail on the estimated time range for each round of leasing.

To date, BOEM has held 12 offshore wind competitive lease sales resulting in the issuance of at least 26 leases. 

In support of planned leasing activity, BOEM recently finalized its designation of a Wind Energy Area (WEA) in the Gulf of Maine, capable of supporting 32 gigawatts of generation. The Gulf of Maine WEA covers about two million acres offshore Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, ranging from approximately 23 to 92 miles off the coast.

BOEM plans to hold a lease auction for sites within the Gulf of Maine WEA later this year.

Bourne tidal hydrokinetic project obtains FERC pilot project license

U.S. hydropower regulators have issued a pilot project license to the Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative of New England (MRECo) for its proposed Bourne tidal hydrokinetic energy project to be located on the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts.

MRECo describes itself as a nonprofit corporation that educates and involves all stakeholders (Academic, industry, governmental/regulatory, and public interest groups) to promote the sustainable development of renewable energy in New England ocean waters.

In 2023, MRECo applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision for an 8-year pilot project license for the proposed Bourne Tidal Hydrokinetic Test Site Project. The 50-kilowatt project would include an existing steel platform (installed in 2017), an existing mounting pole, and a new tidal turbine-generator. According to the FERC order, MRECo plans to test various turbine-generator units at the project, including axial, cross flow, oscillating, conveyor, and Archimedes Screw turbine-generator units, but only one turbine-generator unit will be tested at a time. MRECo estimates that testing for any turbine-generator unit will occur for one to two months at a time, with three to four tests per calendar year.  

Photo from MRECo "Current Projects" website

The facilities will be located within the Army Corps-managed canal, less than a mile north of its southern entrance from Buzzards Bay. According to FERC, about 15,000 commercial vessels up to 825 feet in length use the canal each year. 

FERC issued the license under its hydrokinetic pilot project licensing process, a special procedure FERC uses "to meet the needs of entities, such as MRECo, who are interested in testing new hydropower technologies while minimizing the risk of adverse environmental impacts." FERC has described the goal of this process as "to allow developers to test new hydrokinetic technologies, to determine appropriate sites for these technologies, and to confirm the technology’s environmental and other effects without compromising the Commission’s oversight of the projects or limiting agency and stakeholder input."

As outlined in FERC staff’s 2008 white paper presenting the pilot project licensing process, a pilot project should be (1) small, (2) installed for a short term, (3) located in non-sensitive areas based on the Commission’s review of the record, (4) removable and able to be shut down on short notice, (5) removed, with the site restored, before the end of the license term (unless a new license is granted), and (6) initiated by a draft application in a form sufficient to support environmental analysis.

FERC found that these factors applied to the Bourne tidal project, and granted MRECo a pilot license for "an 8-year license term to allow it sufficient time to validate the efficiency of the project prior to applying for a longer-term license for the platform."

Solar power and the Great American Eclipse of 2024

A total solar eclipse traversed North America on April 8, 2024, on a path from Mexico, across the U.S. from Dallas to northern New England, and into Canada. No total eclipse has covered such a large extent of the U.S. in recent years (a 2017 eclipse was the first in the U.S. in 26 years); meanwhile, an increasing amount of solar photovoltaic power plants have been built. The "Great North American Eclipse" of 2024 thus provided an opportunity to examine how a total solar eclipse affects solar power and the broader grid, using New England as an example.

According to New England's regional grid operator ISO New England, "the April 8 solar eclipse led to a steep and significant decrease in solar energy production, but due to extensive planning by ISO New England operators, the event caused no disruptions to the power system." All of New England experienced at least a partial eclipse where the moon blocked at least 80% of the sun. Parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine experienced totality.

During the two hours around the eclipse's peak, ISO-NE reports that regional solar production dropped by as much as 4,000 megawatts. 

Chart from ISO-NE (source)

Most of the drop-off -- about 3,300 to 3,500 MW -- came from small-scale, distributed photovoltaic panels connected directly to distribution systems which ISO-NE says "make up the vast majority of solar resources in New England", while grid-connected solar system production dropped by about 650 MW. The timing of the eclipse, relatively late in the afternoon, meant that only about 1,350 MW of solar production returned to the system after the eclipse passed.

ISO reports that its market yielded negative real-time prices as the eclipse approached, followed by a price spike over $100 as the eclipse passed overhead, and then price moderation toward the day's average value.

ISO-NE reports no power system or reliability disruptions from the eclipse, thanks to the system operator's planning for the eclipse, and operations which dispatched natural gas and hydroelectric generators to make up the solar power blocked by the moon. 

New England must balance multiple objectives, says grid operator

New England must balance multiple objectives as it navigates the clean energy transition, according to the operator of the region's electric grid and wholesale electricity markets.

ISO New England, Inc. is the regional transmission organization serving all of New England except northern Maine. ISO-NE administers the regional electric transmission system and wholesale markets for electricity. 

The region must increasingly balance multiple objectives in light of state policies promoting renewable energy and decarbonization, according to recent remarks by ISO-NE President and Chief Executive Officer Gordon van Welie. 

Historically, the grid and markets were designed to maintain the reliability of the regional bulk electric system, while minimizing costs by selecting the lowest-price resources: what ISO-NE calls the "least-cost security-constrained economic energy-dispatch model". But according to a presentation by Gordon van Welie at the March 22 meeting of the New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable, "there is not an adequate regional mechanism to sufficiently value clean energy attributes or price carbon – which are public policy decisions."

Additionally, each of the six New England states has adopted various policies regarding renewable energy and decarbonization or beneficial electrification of the whole economy or of specific sectors like transportation and heating. ISO-NE projects a significant increase in electricity consumption as a result of these state policies, with the potential to triple existing peak demand by the early 2030s. This will require a large scale of carbon-free generating resources. According to van Welie, "Existing carbon-free energy resources are an important part of achieving these policies."

The ISO-NE leader noted the consequence of these dynamics: "Greater dependency on the capacity market for all resources, and a need for supplementary, out-of-market revenues for carbon-free resources that are uneconomic in the wholesale market".

ISO-NE 2024 Regional Electricity Outlook

ISO New England Inc., the operator of New England's wholesale electricity markets and transmission system, has published its 2024 Regional Electricity Outlook. The report examines trends affecting supply and demand for electricity, through the ongoing clean energy transition.

Specifically, ISO-NE notes the dawn of "a new era in our energy history", as broad decarbonization in the name of climate change becomes public policy. According to the grid operator, "This era will be marked by rapid and significant change. Over the next 20 years, we expect that renewable resources will displace natural gas as the main source of electricity generation in the region—just as natural gas displaced coal and oil generation beginning 20 years ago."

As in its most recent prior Regional Electricity Outlook report (issued in 2022), ISO-NE's 2024 report identifies "four pillars for a reliable transition to a greener grid: clean energy, balancing resources, energy adequacy, and robust transmission."

• Pillar One: Clean Energy. "In the coming years, construction of unprecedented amounts of clean energy resources will be needed to meet state decarbonization goals while serving significantly increased demand."
• Pillar Two: Balancing Resources. "Dispatchable generators, energy storage, demand response, and a range of services will be crucial to ensure equilibrium as intermittent resources see swings in energy production."
• Pillar Three: Energy Adequacy. "Risks to energy adequacy could increase if expected renewable resources don’t materialize, needed transmission isn’t built, or fuel supply chains are disrupted."
• Pillar Four: Robust Transmission. "Significant investment in new and existing infrastructure will be critical to enabling the clean energy transition."

In its 2024 report, ISO-NE rated each pillar as green, yellow, or red, based on its relative health and readiness to meet the needs ahead. For example, ISO-NE assigned the first three pillars a rating of "yellow trending green", but ranked transmission development as yellow.

The report concludes that collaboration is essential:

All four pillars must be robust—there is no path to a reliable, clean energy future without all four elements working in concert. That same balance is required from the partnership among the region’s energy stakeholders, with each—the ISO, policymakers, and market participants—doing their part to bring a shared vision for a greener future to fruition.

ISO-NE also notes the importance of education for "all stakeholders—including consumers—to understand how our electric power system operates, and the roles we each can play in ensuring it is clean, cost-effective, and reliable for generations to come."

Court suspends EIA-862 survey of crypto mining energy use

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's efforts to require cryptocurrency miners to report on their electricity use have been suspended by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, following a complaint by Texas crypto miners alleging that EIA exceeded its regulatory authority in requiring the report. 

Earlier this year, EIA announced a new, mandatory survey of crypto miners. The Form EIA-862 report would cover topics like the nature and scale of equipment installed, electricity consumption, and sources of power. EIA developed the survey and announced it as a new requirement, after requesting and receiving approval from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for an "emergency data collection request". Emergency requests generally skip procedural steps including publication of a 60-day notice in the Federal Register and public comment. 

But a trade group and a crypto miner sued to block EIA from implementing the EIA-862 survey requirement. They argued that EIA and OMB committed procedural violations in approving the survey, including that EIA failed to establish a bona fide emergency, and that OMB authorized the emergency data collection for 189 days (longer than the 180-day maximum under the Paperwork Reduction Act). 

On February 23, a judge from the federal District Court issued a 14-day temporary restraining order enjoining EIA from implementing the survey requirement, based on a finding that the plaintiffs were "likely to succeed on the merits". The order scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for February 27.

Regardless of the outcome of the judicial challenge to EIA's Form EIA-862 survey requirement, policymakers will likely continue to be interested in understanding energy consumption requirements for blockchain, crypto, hyper-scaling facilities, and even other data center activities.

Will ISO-NE capacity market shift from forward to prompt/seasonal?

The operator of New England's transmission grid and wholesale electricity markets has proposed major reforms to its market for capacity. For 18 years, ISO New England has administered a "Forward Capacity Market", featuring annual auctions to procure commitments from energy resources, for a capacity commitment period three years in the future. ISO-NE has now proposed to shift to a "prompt/seasonal" model. If adopted, the reforms will change important elements of New England's electric market systems.

According to ISO-NE, its Forward Capacity Market "ensures that the New England power system will have sufficient resources to meet the future demand for electricity." The grid operator adopted a capacity market 18 years ago, to provide a revenue stream to support the development and sustained availability of enough power plants (and eventually other resources like storage and demand response). Under the present construct, ISO-NE holds annual Forward Capacity Auctions (FCA), in which resources compete to obtain a capacity supply obligation (a commitment to supply capacity) in exchange for a capacity payment determined by the auction price.

But now the grid operator has proposed to shift away from a forward market design, to a "prompt/seasonal" design:

“Prompt” means the capacity auction would take place much closer to the delivery period. As a result, the auctions would be based on more accurate information about the expected demand for electricity and resources’ ability to meet that demand during the most stressed system conditions. A prompt auction would better accommodate the development timelines of diverse resources, and reduce risk of resources securing capacity supply obligations but being unable to deliver.

The “seasonal” element involves procuring capacity in a way that better addresses the distinct reliability challenges of winter and summer, as well as variations in resource performance from season to season. Winter risks are expected to increase as weather becomes more extreme and unpredictable, and as public policies guide the region toward wider adoption of weather-dependent clean energy resources and the electrification of heating and transportation.

According to ISO-NE's proposal, the reforms would take effect beginning with the 2028/2029 capacity commitment period. Absent reform, that period would be the subject of the 19th Forward Capacity Auction (FCA 19). FCA 19 was originally scheduled for 2025, but the auction timeline was extended by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at ISO-NE's request to allow time for a separate, lesser reform to how it accredits capacity to resources. The grid operator says it will pursue a further FERC approval to delay the auction until 2028, so it can develop rules for the prompt/seasonal market, and hold the first prompt capacity auction in early 2028.