Mass. governor orders state to pursue 15 GW of resources, including storage, VPPs
Massachusetts has some of the highest electricity prices in the country, though the prices are similar to those in the rest of New England and some other states.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential customers in Massachusetts paid an average of 30.88 cents/kWh in December, compared with 31.15 cents/kWh in Rhode Island and 34.71 cents/kWh in California.
Healey officials said the new energy resource and storage targets can help to address the region’s affordability issues.
The Acadia Center, which supports clean energy solutions, applauded Healey’s executive order.
“Proposals such as developing new natural gas pipeline capacity will only do more to exacerbate the overreliance and overexposure New England ratepayers already face” to the price volatility of fossil fuel-based energy, Jamie Dickerson, senior director of climate and clean energy programs at Acadia Center, said in a statement. The Healey administration has “wisely chosen to keep the focus where it needs to be: on promoting new clean electricity supply, new energy storage, new grid connections, and new demand-side flexibility measures.”
At 10 GW, Dickerson said the proposal “can collectively deliver a clean energy pipeline to meet the reliability needs of the region at far lower cost.”
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