Sometimes, ISO-NE  decisions indicate a severe case of schizophrenia. Why would they propose a $2.2 billion dollar transmission line upgrade to allow a wind project to enter the New England Network when the wind project is not even in the ISO-NE territory. Shouldn't this project be delivering its energy to the Northern Maine Independent System Administered Network? 
 
But what is really baffling is that ISO-NE has changed the way generators are paid to attract generation with attributes described as "Flexible Resources" or generation plants that can react to the notorious intermittency of wind. Naturally, Flexible Resources do not include wind. Natural Gas and Oil are New England's Flexible Resources.  
 
To make sure this Northern Maine Wind Project gets to unload it's intermittent resource to the wrong grid network, the Maine Legislators have assigned the Maine PUC to make this happen and enacted a law to assure it is built, i.e. Title 35-A, Section 32-I states "The Commission Shall Encourage the rapid development of renewable resource in northern Maine to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the State and realize direct and near-term economic benefits in northern Maine" 
 
The law allows this project to offer the PUC with the terms of service that the wind project desires, including acceptable prices to be paid by CMP and Versant. Why would CMP and Versant want to buy generation output when they have both been barred from owning generation? The PUC has full authority to approve or reject the offer. CMP and Versant must comply with the PUC decision.
 
So, we have a wind project which is not in the ISO-NE area awaiting a decision by the Maine PUC, headed by Philip Bartlett, which will be paid by ratepayers to trigger higher costs to counteract it's unpredictability with "Flexible Resources" that are in the ISO-NE area. 
 
How can the ISO-NE administrators accept something that betrays it's mission to provide lowest cost wholesale prices. This wind project will not offer any prices to reduce electricity costs.  It will determine the price it wants and the ratepayers will be stuck paying, as well as paying more for "Flexible Resources" 
 
Is it any wonder that Philip Bartlett who chairs the PUC also is a Manager in NESCOE( New England States Committee on Electricity) which promoted the idea of the $2.2 billion dollar transmission upgrade to the ISO-NE ?
 
BTW, ISO-NE calculated that "Flexible Resource" payments add $5.66 per megawatt hour to wholesale costs.

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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