Aging Oil Plants Face Unclear Future in New England as Winter Risks Rise

In New England, increasing winter reliability concerns are driving questions about how long the region’s aging fleet of oil-fired power plants can, or should, remain on the system.

Power generation from oil has declined dramatically in New England since the start of the century. The oil plants that have remained on the system have run less frequently, mostly during tight winter periods when gas generators have limited access to pipelines.

Oil-firing power plants “are among the highest-polluting resources that we have,” said Joe LaRusso, manager of the clean grid program at the Acadia Center. “Many of them are located in communities that are overburdened with air pollution as it is.”

LaRusso said he is optimistic that three large projects nearing completion — Revolution Wind, Vineyard Wind and the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line — will reduce the need for oil peakers, potentially pushing additional units into retirement.

NECEC is intended to supply the region with a consistent source of baseload power, while offshore wind performs best in the winter, when oil units run the most. Clean energy and consumer advocates also hope that aggressive demand-side initiatives will cause load to grow at a slower pace than is projected by ISO-NE.

In the long term, LaRusso said the resumption of offshore wind development in New England, the start of offshore wind development in Nova Scotia and increased bilateral power exchanges with Quebec could help the region meet growing winter demands while eliminating most of the remaining need for oil-fired generation.

“It seems that oil is going to follow the same path as coal, unless the demand curve starts rising so fast that batteries can’t keep up,” he said. “There are so many factors in play, but none of it appears to provide a rosy picture for an oil-firing plant.”

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