It is going to be hot this week which means high prices for electricity. Ratepayers will not see the effects of the high wholesale prices now. But the next Standard Offer price will reflect the pattern that, more and more often, has Maine burning natural gas and expensive oil to keep the lights on. A similar price spike happened during the cold-snap in January. For weeks, the majority of Maine’s electricity was generated by burning oil! Even today (Monday) about 60% of the electricity on the New England grid (NE grid) is being generated by burning gas. At noon time, aka prime time for solar generation, solar was contributing a pathetic 5% and wind was almost zero.

By Thursday, the peak demand on the NE grid will exceed New England’s generating capacity. To cover the deficit, the Independent System Operator of the NE grid (ISO NE) will rely on even more imports than usual. That will probably work out okay. But, you never know: When power grids are maxed out bad things sometimes happen. A lightning strike on a powerline can start a cascade of circuit interruptions designed to save the grid from further damage; or an unexpected problem at a major generating station, like Veazie, Seabrook or Cousins Island, could trigger a blackout.

One thing is for sure: The hot weather will mean ISO NE will be buying power from anyone who can make electricity, regardless of price. That is bad news for ratepayers but good news for companies like NextEra who own generating plants that run on fossil fuels. They will be making a lot of money. For example, NextERA owns the oil-fired power plant on Cousin’s Island near Portland. While NextEra gets paid just to keep the plant ready to go, it makes even more when the plant is on line, burning over 40,000 gallons of oil an hour to make electricity.

The impact of the hot weather on the price of electricity can be viewed in real time on ISO NE’s website. Watching the numbers and graphs as they are updated is kinda like watching a reality TV show. When you are looking at the dashboards, pay particular attention to two displays:

1. The Map of New England – The color of the map changes to reflect the price of electricity:

If the map is Blue, that means the price of electricity is low

Green means the price is normal.

Yellow means demand is driving the price up.

Orange means the price is really high.

Red means big trouble.

2. The Resource Donut – The Donut is a kind of pie chart that illustrates, by percentage, what fuels are being utilized to provide your electricity. Pay attention to the percentage that is being generated by “renewables*” vs gas and oil. On average, renewables provide about 10% of New England’s electricity

(* ISO NE classifies the electricity generated by solar, wind and burning trash as “renewable”. Yup, trash is considered a renewable resource!).

Pull-up the ISO NE website around 5 PM each day this week and play along. Guess how high the price of electricity will go. See what percent of our electricity is generated by burning oil. Learn which generation resource is the least help. (My money is on solar). To tune-in, Google: “ISO NE Real Time Dashboard”. And remember, the Ds have been telling us wind and solar are the way to power Maine. I say if Trump were running this reality show, he would tell the Ds: You’re FIRED!