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We’re on the precipice of a radical experiment with a national electricity grid The AEMO (manager of the Australian grid) has finally released the major report on problems coming in the next ten years on our national grid, and it’s worse than they thought even six months ago. They euphemistically refer to the coming “reliability gaps”. They could have said “blackouts” instead, but a gap in reliability sounds so much nicer. Bizarrely, the lead graph of the 175 page AEMO report goes right off the scale, mysteriously peaking in the unknown and invisible real estate off the top of the...

The Biden administration is reportedly finalizing a proposal that would force fossil fuel-fired power plants to substantially curb emissions or utilize costly carbon capture technology.The proposal — which will soon be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — is expected to require coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to cut or capture the vast majority of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing officials briefed on a draft of the plan. The regulation, if finalized, would represent the first-ever federal action curbing power plant emissions."EPA cannot comment because the proposals are currently...

After a four-year battle with the state, the proposed Constitution natural-gas pipeline project has been abandoned, as National Grid warns of a coming natural gas supply emergency next Winter. The State of New York has a natural gas shortage, the result of years of the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and environmentalists fighting the construction of new supply pipelines. A June 2019 report by The Manhattan Institute documented the shortage and its causes, Out of Gas: New York’s Blocked Pipelines Will Hurt Northeast Consumers:

For months, the utility that provides gas to Long Island and parts of New York City refused to activate gas hookups for both new and returning customers, casting some real estate developments into limbo. The utility’s moratorium triggered a political standoff that intensified this month, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a threat: either the company, National Grid, turn the gas on for all its potential customers, or the state would pull its license to operate in southern New York. The threat apparently worked. On Monday, the governor and National Grid announced an agreement that would restore gas service to...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a proud opponent of fossil fuels. But now that the consequences of his policies are harming people in the real world—those who can’t afford to escape to Florida—the Governor is blaming others. Mr. Cuomo has blocked shale fracking upstate and several pipelines delivering natural gas from Pennsylvania in the name of protecting waterways. But this is an excuse. Natural-gas production in Pennsylvania has increased 60% since Mr. Cuomo banned fracking five years ago, adding $6 billion to Keystone State GDP and its waterways are fine. Mr. Cuomo’s real purpose is to eliminate natural gas...

Now the Governor has come up with a unique plan to end the stalemate. Using an obscure state law regulating utility companies through the power of the Public Service Commission, Andrew Cuomo (who helped kill the pipeline project) is simply ordering the utility to hook up the gas lines anyway. But there isn’t enough natural gas in the existing pipeline to keep adding more service points. If they continue to hook up new customers, you’re going to see the backpressure in the lines start dropping during peak demand hours. If you look at the configuration of a typical gas furnace...

A gas shortage threatens the Long Island region,” bleat six Long Island state senators, all Democrats, in a letter pleading for approval of a pipeline proposed to fix the problem — belatedly admitting that the policies they’ve long favored don’t work for their own constituents. This year, Sens. Todd Kaminsky, John Brooks, James Gaughran, Anna Kaplan, Monica Martinez and Kevin Thomas all voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Green New Deal law, whose very purpose is to further crimp energy supplies, and for a $100 million hike in taxes on energy. And, as Senate GOP leader John Flanagan (their fellow Long...

Britain's National Grid has asked for more power generation capacity to come online between 4.30pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday to balance supply and demand, after "multiple plant breakdowns". The Grid said in a statement it had issued a notice to the industry at 1.30pm "asking for more generation to be brought onto the system."

Attorney General Martha M. Coakley on Thursday proposed a $16.3 million fine against National Grid, saying the giant utility failed to communicate effectively, neglected to mobilize enough crews and was delinquent in responding to thousands of fallen wires during last year's October snow storm and Tropical Storm Irene. ... Deborah Drew, a spokeswoman for National Grid in New England, issued a prepared statement, saying company officials "strongly disagree with the extreme conclusions of the attorney general. Drew said she would not comment beyond the statement. She said the company will file its formal response on Wednesday with the state Department...

Officials and residents in towns hard hit by power outages after Tropical Storm Irene and the freak Halloween weekend snowstorm are criticizing the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s decision to honor National Grid Massachusetts President Marcy Reed for “outstanding achievement in the workplace.” “I don’t think that she deserves that,” said Denise Williams, 40, of Foxboro. “You know it’s going to happen again, and I don’t know if she’s done anything to reassure anybody it won’t happen again.” Virginia Hobbs, 75, of Foxboro said, “I don’t think it is justified. ... We had two storms, and we never saw the...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire regulators said Thursday an electric utility acted appropriately when it shut off power to a woman who didn't pay her power bill and died after an oxygen machine she needed stopped working. The state Public Utilities Commission reviewed National Grid's disconnection of service to Kay Phaneuf, 53, of Salem. She died on June 24, three days after her husband found her unconscious, about an hour after power was cut. Police said the bill wasn't paid. Her account had a medical protection notice intended to prevent such a shutoff in the past, but it had...

Boston Globe / July 31, 2010 >> Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office, signed an agreement in May to purchase 50 percent of Cape Wind’s 130-turbine's power, at prices more than double the current cost of electricity from fossil fuels...Snip & fast forward… Coakley -- whose office recently negotiated a 10 percent reduction in how much Cape Wind and National Grid can charge customers for wind-generated electricity -- submitted official justification of her rate settlement. The report includes "redacted" words, numbers, sentences, paragraphs and charts. It even blanked out a question asked of an energy expert hired by Coakley's office --...

SALEM – A woman, whose oxygen machine failed after a power company turned off electricity to her home, died last night, according to a spokesman for Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Mass. Kay Phaneuf, 53, of 18 Charles St. was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Monday after she went into cardiac arrest less than an hour after National Grid cut power her home because she hadn't paid the bill. She was in critical condition when admitted and died last night. When Salem police and fire rescue workers arrived at her 18 Charles St. home around 10 a.m....

The UK is at "real risk" of imminent power shortages as a result of attempts to shift to more environmentally friendly methods of electrictity production The study, which was carried out by Capgemini, a global energy consultancy firm, also claims that electricity generation has fallen to its lowest level in ten years. The shortage has been caused by the increase in the level of demand for energy combined with a growing tendency to build wind turbines, at the expense of other, more reliable, electricity sources, it says. The report estimates that around one quarter of the UK's energy plant capacity...

National Grid Transco plc is an international energy delivery business, whose principal activities are in the regulated electricity and gas industries. We are the largest investor-owned utility in the UK, where we own and operate the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, and Britain's natural gas transportation system. We are one of the top ten electricity companies in the US, with the largest electricity transmission and distribution network in the New England/New York region, and also operate a gas distribution network in New York. Other electricity interests include interconnectors in the UK, US and Australia, and joint venture...

Yesterday's widespread blackouts stretching from New York to the Great Lakes and parts of Canada originated in a power system owned by Westborough-based National Grid USA. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., based in Syracuse, N.Y., was one of several energy providers knocked out of service yesterday after a massive power surge crippled power grids around New York City, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa and parts of Massachusetts. Preliminary reports from affected areas tied the blackout's origins to the Mohawk-Niagara line. In January 2002, National Grid USA acquired Niagara Mohawk, which provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers in upstate New York,...