The Irony Of Wind And One's Emergency Act.

In a "what goes around comes around " potentially, ironic situation, could former Governor Baldacci, the one time Champion of Maine Wind Energy actually become an unwitting participant in it's demise ?

Baldacci is now an employee of Avangrid, a worldwide leader in service, innovation and investment in the U.S. energy industry.

More specifically, he is Vice Chair of the Board at Avangrid.

Avangrid owns CMP, an electrical transmission and distribution company in Maine.

Last year, Avangrid tried to persuade the Maine Legislature to accept a bill that would allow them to construct renewable generation within the CMP service territory, thereby, destructing the Electric Restructuring Act which expressing prohibits a company from owning generation within a T & D area owned by the same company. The bill failed

No doubt Avangrid had intentions to construct wind projects and to construct upgrades to the transmission to allow for this enormous spread of wind. It, after all, would coincide with Baldacci's goals in his Wind Energy Act.

With their vision of becoming the Maine Wind King cast aside, they decided to reap profits from their T & D affiliate, and, to those ends, they may still prove to be a formidable wind generation competitor.

Avangrid's ( CMP) NECEC project which now still has a chance to be selected to advance Massachusetts's clean energy goals is a major transmission project through the heart of Western Maine Wind Country. It is a high voltage DC line bringing power from Canadian hydro and wind energy resources to a convertor station in Lewiston, Maine. Massachusetts's utilities will pay the cost of construction of this line and generation through a twenty year contract.

The irony of this is in the situation pertaining to the reactions of the grid components, i.e. the physical makeup and the wholesale pricing rules,

The project has to guarantee that upgrades downstream of Lewiston will guarantee that existing generators will have continued access to accommodate their power output. And it does, but, there are factors in play that may change things.

The current situation finds the current Maine fed power at the Maine interface with the rest of New England market is often constrained by competition from generators south of this interface. There is not enough In-State demand to absorb all this Maine made generation and it needs outlets to the South. Maine wind normally accepts any price, sometimes above zero, sometimes below zero, to gain market entry. It's income is based on long term contracted , out of market, prices arranged with mostly Massachusetts's utilities, so wholesale pricing is irrelevant to the wind project owner, but very relevant to the Mass. utility.

The NECEC project will also receive it's income by way of a long term contract with Massachusetts's utilities, but, with the addition of this project, an additional potential 1200 megawatts of electricity comes into play and along with the existing Maine Wind Farms will compete with generators south of the Maine Interface.
No doubt, shoving another 1200 megawatts out of Maine isn't a 100% 24/7 happening. Some power will be constrained by the wholesale market. If the price offered is not low enough to justify market entry, it must not operate.

So, a reliable output from Canada (NECEC) with the same type of power purchase contract with the same Massachusetts's utilities will compete with an intermittent generation at a time when plant retirements in New England are signaling an urgent need for reliable base-load generation.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Avangrid through this project shut down significant wind farm output from Maine and permanently crippled Baldacci's wind megawatt goals.