... too bad Massachusetts may not have enough electricity for the charging stations.
https://www.iso-ne.com/static-assets/documents/2022/07/2021_economic_study_future_grid_reliability_study_phase_1_report.pdf... Electrification of heating and transportation will radically change the demand for electrical power.
These changes will make it difficult for energy storage to charge enough to support periods of
sustained high demand due to cold weather, as well as periods of low renewable production. Current simulation software seeks to optimize the profits of storage resources over short time periods and assumes this aligns with the reliability needs of the system. The results of the FGRS did not support this assumption. Current software has been developed in an environment where wind, solar, and storage are a small part of the resource mix, instead of the dominant role they will likely play in the future. Results of the FGRS indicate that simulation software requires an overhaul to model variable resources and storage with more granularity and realism. ...
... Energy adequacy will continue to be a challenge as the New England grid decarbonizes. In the initial production cost runs, natural gas generators utilized as much gas as they needed. However, the ISO already faces gas constraints in the current system during the winter. Using the ISO’s natural gas and liquefied natural gas fuel availability curve for 2025 as an approximation, some Scenarios experienced fuel shortages and would not be able to meet reliability criteria. Though residual fuel oil and distillate fuel oil were sometimes available as alternative fuel sources, another low emission fuel source may be needed in the future. Wind and solar will not always be able to supply energy, and dispatchable generation must be available to support the grid through lulls and droughts of variable energy. These dispatchable generators may not be able to rely on natural gas and may need some other synthetic or renewable fuel to operate during these periods. Nearly any resource and fuel type combination could fit this profile (e.g., co-located renewable and storage, imported hydro, or solar/wind farms operated in a particular way) as long as the resource is dispatchable with enough stored energy to supply the grid. ...
... The FGRS Phase 1 is a turning point study for our region. Many existing long-term assumptions were called into question as part of this analysis, and results show that the methods by which the ISO and region at large evaluate future grids require an overhaul. The hypothetical future resources and demand mixes assumed by the FGRS are very different from today’s system and cannot be fully evaluated with our current tools or assumptions. The FGRS identifies and quantifies many reliability and operation challenges, transmission problems, and ancillary services gaps. Additionally, this analysis identifies areas where gaps of a future grid cannot as of yet be identified or quantified in sufficient detail to suggest a potential path forward. ...
