Here is an ISO-NE chart of real time wholesale prices throughout the date of March 17,2026. A windy day with an abundance of sunshine, very common on a New England Spring day.
Notice how prices become negative several times between noon and 5 pm. Negative prices mean generators must pay for market access to their output.
ISO-NE would like to be able to estimate the output from wind and solar to match with demand at any given moment. This would prevent negative prices which occur when output exceeds needs of electric customers.
This only proves that wind and solar are fickle and extremely difficult to predict.
It also reveals that wind and solar obtain out of market payments that far exceed market payments and do not suffer from market negative prices like unsubsidized generators do.
It could be that wind and solar might have colluded with battery storage devices that would welcome payments and electricity from the market to charge up.
When the clearing price is negative, all generators that remain online must pay the load (wholesale buyers) to deliver their energy. (Statement from ISO-NE).
Very few generators can ramp down their output quick enough to avoid negative prices and suffer loss of revenue because of excessive subsidized wind, solar and battery.
This chart depicts pricing occurences in the Maine Zone which has the majority of grid scale, land-based wind turbines and many, many solar projects and an increasing amount of grid scale batteries.
How can ISO-NE seriously consider charging electric customers a billion dollars to build out transmission in Maine to bring yet another wind project with a nameplate capacity of 1200 megawatts without having the adverse affect of more negative prices occurring? Hopefully, they will conduct a benefit/cost study before making a decision on this NESCOE driven project.
Remember, Troy Jackson, Philip Bartlett, Heather Sanborn, Janet Mills and all the Democrats in the Maine Legislature are on record promoting this project.
ISO-NE is Hiding the Negative Affects of the Aroostook County Wind Development
by Dan McKay
7 hours ago
Here is an ISO-NE chart of real time wholesale prices throughout the date of March 17,2026. A windy day with an abundance of sunshine, very common on a New England Spring day.
Notice how prices become negative several times between noon and 5 pm. Negative prices mean generators must pay for market access to their output.
ISO-NE would like to be able to estimate the output from wind and solar to match with demand at any given moment. This would prevent negative prices which occur when output exceeds needs of electric customers.
This only proves that wind and solar are fickle and extremely difficult to predict.
It also reveals that wind and solar obtain out of market payments that far exceed market payments and do not suffer from market negative prices like unsubsidized generators do.
It could be that wind and solar might have colluded with battery storage devices that would welcome payments and electricity from the market to charge up.
When the clearing price is negative, all generators that remain online must pay the load (wholesale buyers) to deliver their energy. (Statement from ISO-NE).
Very few generators can ramp down their output quick enough to avoid negative prices and suffer loss of revenue because of excessive subsidized wind, solar and battery.
This chart depicts pricing occurences in the Maine Zone which has the majority of grid scale, land-based wind turbines and many, many solar projects and an increasing amount of grid scale batteries.
How can ISO-NE seriously consider charging electric customers a billion dollars to build out transmission in Maine to bring yet another wind project with a nameplate capacity of 1200 megawatts without having the adverse affect of more negative prices occurring? Hopefully, they will conduct a benefit/cost study before making a decision on this NESCOE driven project.
Remember, Troy Jackson, Philip Bartlett, Heather Sanborn, Janet Mills and all the Democrats in the Maine Legislature are on record promoting this project.