Killingly power plant dealt a major setback as ISO-NE abandons plans

A proposal for a natural gas power plant in Killingly, which has drawn the ire of environmental activists for six years, was dealt a major setback after the regional electric grid operator — ISO-New England — said it doesn’t want Killingly to be part of its future plans.

In a Nov. 4 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the independent system operator that runs the New England grid — known as ISO-New England — has requested permission to cut Killingly from future power considerations. ISO-NE set up a battle over the proposed Killingly plant with its decision to include it in future power plans, known as Capacity Supply Obligation (CSO). Killingly is owned by NTE Energy.

The letter to FERC says, in part, that after consultation with NTE Energy, ISO-NE is “exercising its right to seek to terminate Killingly’s CSO.” If accepted by FERC, ISO-NE will “draw down the financial assurance” NTE Energy was required to provide to back up their commitment to the project, and ISO-NE would remove Killingly’s qualified capacity from future plans. ISO-NE asked FERC to issue an order within 60 days from the date of the letter and set a date of Jan. 3, 2022 for the termination, in advance of the next time ISO-NE is scheduled to pick future generation facilities in February.

Without a commitment from ISO-NE to use the 650 megawatts the plant would have supplied, building the Killingly Energy Center would likely be a less economically viable project. Whether NTE would simply scuttle the project at that point is unknown. NTE did not reply Friday morning to a request for comment.

Read more: https://ctmirror.org/2021/11/05/killingly-power-plant-dealt-a-major-setback-as-iso-ne-abandons-plans/