Governor vows to get more renewable power onto grid

Source: Associated Press • Posted: Monday, October 28, 2013

Vermont’s governor said Wednesday that he wants to better coordinate a regional effort to exploit renewable energy resources.

Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) said after touring the headquarters of ISO New England, the company that manages the regional power grid, that the region’s power operators need to work together to incorporate the growing renewable energy market into the power grid.

A spokeswoman for ISO New England, Ellen Foley, said the company is launching a working group of energy and utility officials to better manage a system for distributed generation from solar and wind energy in the region. The company expects the system to have more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity available for the region by 2021, far more than the 600 MW currently generated by the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which is due to close next year.

The move toward greater coordination among regulators and utilities comes after some high-profile problems with the area’s power grid. ISO New England had to order a Vermont wind power plant to stop sending surplus energy into the system during a heat wave because it did not have enough capacity to handle the extra electricity — a move that prompted criticism from the governor.