How Will the Flim-Flam Man of the PUC Try to Pull the Wool Over the Eyes of the Maine People After Aroostook County Wind Project Bids Become Available?
The Flim-Flam man, AKA Philip Bartlett, PUC Commissioner will present the Maine people with some numbers from the 1200 megawatt wind project bid that he will say saves us money on our electric bills.
He will not tell you about all the other numbers that come with this wind project. He will focus on the bid amount per megawatt hour against the ISO-NE wholesale market price. That number may be less than wholesale which will result in a savings per the "Energy Portion" of the contract, but there is more amounts payable by Maine electric customers than just the "Energy Portion"
There is the ISO-NE transmission component that is currently over $2billion dollars and, if approved, will cost all New England states porportional to their sales compared to other New England states. For Maine that would be about 10% of the 2+ billion dollar cost.
There are the Renewable Energy Credits(RECs) gifted to the wind project output which will be between $28 to $50 per megawatt hour. A 1200 megawatt wind project is estimated to produce 3,500,000 megawatt hours/RECS per year.
There will be the added standby cost of "Flexible Resources" needed to backstop the intermittent output of the wind project and requiring added compensation for the times this wind project causes negative wholesale pricing.
There is the cost of the Maine utilities to address purchasing and selling the wind output as well as the costs of reporting these numbers to the PUC.
And there will probably be more unintended costs to come.
The Flim-Flam man will avoid telling you about these extra costs, but they will add up to hundreds of millions of dollars over a 20 year contract timeline. And the fact is that the PUC has the staff that can determine these costs.
How Will the Flim-Flam Man of the PUC Try to Pull the Wool Over the Eyes of the Maine People After Aroostook County Wind Project Bids Become Available?
by Dan McKay
yesterday
The Flim-Flam man, AKA Philip Bartlett, PUC Commissioner will present the Maine people with some numbers from the 1200 megawatt wind project bid that he will say saves us money on our electric bills.
He will not tell you about all the other numbers that come with this wind project. He will focus on the bid amount per megawatt hour against the ISO-NE wholesale market price. That number may be less than wholesale which will result in a savings per the "Energy Portion" of the contract, but there is more amounts payable by Maine electric customers than just the "Energy Portion"
There is the ISO-NE transmission component that is currently over $2billion dollars and, if approved, will cost all New England states porportional to their sales compared to other New England states. For Maine that would be about 10% of the 2+ billion dollar cost.
There are the Renewable Energy Credits(RECs) gifted to the wind project output which will be between $28 to $50 per megawatt hour. A 1200 megawatt wind project is estimated to produce 3,500,000 megawatt hours/RECS per year.
There will be the added standby cost of "Flexible Resources" needed to backstop the intermittent output of the wind project and requiring added compensation for the times this wind project causes negative wholesale pricing.
There is the cost of the Maine utilities to address purchasing and selling the wind output as well as the costs of reporting these numbers to the PUC.
And there will probably be more unintended costs to come.
The Flim-Flam man will avoid telling you about these extra costs, but they will add up to hundreds of millions of dollars over a 20 year contract timeline. And the fact is that the PUC has the staff that can determine these costs.