ISO-NE requests $60 million for new offices

Wow. That seems like quite a lot in this environment of ever-increasing electric prices.

Other members of our little working group follow ISO-NE rather closely. I do not, but this news item passed by this week and I could not help but be flabbergasted.

ISO-NE is a not-for-profit that manages the grid interconnections between CMP, Versant, and the other New England electric T&Ds. New Hampshire is currently considering withdrawing from ISO-NE because it is might be part of the reason that electric costs are untethered to normal fiscal responsibility (or even to inflation).

But get this: ISO-NE has 855 employees and contractors right now. (I would have guessed 50-100 based on what I understand them to do.) If you’ve ever been inside of CMP for a tour, you will know that CMP has a huge grid management room. This would be true for all the T&Ds. So what is ISO-NE but a hefty layer of administration on top of that, asking for a loan of $60 million to renovate their offices? Could that somehow end up as costs that increase the electric costs to consumers?

Moreover, ISO-NE has only been around since 1997! How did we get electricity before then? My guess: from the T&D, for cheaper, without an administrative layer. Has “expanding competitive market forces” done anything for the average ratepayer?

Who here remembers what their electric bill was in 1996?

Here’s what they want to do:

1. full renovation on the 150k sq foot facility (approx 20 years old) at 1 Sullivan Ave, Holyoke, Mass

2. Building a new 75k sq foot building next door

   
   
   Some screenshots from the request, below.

The wind line circled (about 6% of total) is the line that ISO-NE and five of the six New England states want to increase: by building wind turbines on Maine mountain tops and cutting transmission lines across Maine fields and forests.