Predictably, promoters of Brian Dubie’s agenda have seized on the ISO-New England statements about Vermont Yankee’s withdrawal from the power auction, to do a little campaign cover-shot. It’s no longer possible to link to the editorial content of the St. Albans Messenger, so you will just have to take my word for it that Emerson Lynn’s Sept. 1 editorial is all over this opportunity. Get this:
…understandably, the other states in the region cant’ be too happy about it. They are already beginning to talk about how the cost should not be borne by them, but by Vermont. If we cause the problem (deny the company its license) then Vermont should share more of the burden in making sure the energy source is replaced.
He goes on…and on…and finally gets to the point of lambasting Peter Shumlin for his opposition to relicensing.
Here is my e-mailed response to Mr. Lynn:
‘Looks like another election year fact-check is in order when it comes to the ISO-New England and Vermont Yankee. In your September 1 editorial, you refer to the ISO as “independent.” Even though it may be independent of control by any single power supplier, it is nevertheless a vehicle of the energy market as a whole, and so represents the interest of all the companies that supply power in New England. To imply that the ISO is entirely independent of Entergy is therefore somewhat disingenuous.
The ISO’s clucking over the possibility that Vermont Yankee soon will not be part of the configuration of power suppliers to New England as a whole is kind of like an entity representing “big dairy” scolding Vermont for wanting to protect it’s small dairy farms. As the coordinating arm of an industry dominated by big power corporations, it is unsurprising that they would take a dim view of replacing a plant operated by one of their constituents with alternative sources. If the ISO is indeed suggesting that Vermont should bear more of the burden of replacing the megawatts lost from the grid when VY goes off-line, the idea is absurd. Vermont has hosted Vermont Yankee for forty years, while consuming only a very small portion of its output. For forty years, the state has absorbed all of the risk of hosting the plant on its soil; and when it’s gone, we will be the state that must cope with a long-term clean-up issue of unknown proportions.
ISO’s sabre-rattling is most unbecoming, and if Brian Dubie is foolish enough to pick-up this line of argument in his campaign for governor, he can well expect that Vermonters will consider this disloyalty rather worse than what was displayed in his recent banner ads announcing that Vermont is in 47th place as one of the least friendly places in which to do business in the United States.
As [business persons’] thoughts…are commonly exercised rather about the interest of their own particular branch of business, than about that of the society, their judgment, even when given with the greatest candour (which it has not been upon every occasion) is much more to be depended upon with regard to the former of those two objects than with regard to the latter.
My diary entitled “The Entergy’s New Clothes,” posted 9/1. The presence or absence of VY is simply not that significant to the broad regional power supply. This whole notion that decommissioning VY will cause power shortages and price shocks is nonsense, based on a misrepresentation of the reality of our power system. And ISO knows this.
Did everyone see Doug Hoffer’s response to some of Dubie’s so-called “facts” about taxes in Vermont? It was picked up by Blurt: http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010…
If Lynn’s argument is that ISO is worried about “the burden of making sure the energy source is replaced,” then he hasn’t read the press release, and neither have you.
What the auction showed, quite demonstrably actually, is that there is a huge (5+ MW, which is almost 9 times VY’s output) EXCESS supply of power in New England. There is NO need to “replace” this energy source. It is also worth noting that “cleared demand resources”(aka energy efficiency) now constitute over 3 MW of power available in New England, which is 5 times the output of VY, growing last year by about 14%.
The question ISO raised is about reliability of the grid in Vermont, but again, if you read carefully, they’re raising that question WHETHER OR NOT Vermont Yankee continues to operate.
The question NOT asked is why ISO allowed a plant whose relicensing is more than dubious to participate in an auction geared towards system reliability. After all, they have NOT received a new license from the NRC, have NOT received an affirmative vote by either house of the legislature (indeed, they received an overwhelming rejection by the Senate), and have NOT received approval from the PSB. The only one of these things likely to occur is federal relicensing, which means that actual continued operation has very low odds of actually taking place. For an organization dedicated to system reliability to include such a generator in its auction should raise red flags of all kinds, and their refusal to allow Entergy to withdraw should raise even more.
The gop propagandists are great creating convenient myths to exploit fears and this is just another one of them. We’ve got to convince the voters that this spin cycle is off key.
The blog “Yes, Vermont Yankee” has a good explanation of the issue. ISO New England has the job of insuring reliability. They have to plan for failure.
Any one plant will be down for maintenance at some time. If a plant goes down unexpectedly, then another thing goes down such as a line, then they still have to have enough plants and lines to keep power on, on a hot day or cold night.
ISO seems to be saying that if a big generator is not there permanently, then they move to one down for maintenance, another down and a line down. So now they must plan on one more thing being down than before. It seems that is where there would be problems and a new line of new sources would be needed.
Yes, the is plenty of CAPCITY but if lines and plants are down, Vermont could still be in the dark.
Vermont can’t manage its own power. It is dependent on outside soureces – HQ and the NE grid for half its power.
May I quote you to Deb Katz of CAN in Massachustts, that Vermont has borne all the risk of VY? She doesn’t think so.