Electricity Ratepayers: Sound Off about Your Electric Grid in Portsmouth on March 30

We at the Office of the Consumer Advocate are hoping for a huge turnout of New Hampshire ratepayers when ISO New England's Consumer Liaison Group convenes for a public meeting in Portsmouth on March 30 from noon to 3:30 p.m.

The speakers and major topic have now been announced!  The featured event will be a discussion of this subject: What is the Energy Transition and What Does it Mean for ISO New England?

It will be a panel discussion, moderated by Consumer Advocate Don Kreis, featuring these distinguished speakers:

Rep. Michael Harrington (R-Strafford), a former PUC Commissioner

Chris Skoglund, Director of Energy Transition, Clean Energy New Hampshire

Susan Muller, Senior Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists

Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association

Robert Ethier, Vice President for System Planning, ISO New England

"The CLG is supposed to be the ratepayers' voice at ISO New England," said Kreis.  "And since I am moderating this panel, I promise there will be plenty of opportunities for the ratepayers in the room to ask questions of these knowledgeable and opinionated panelists."

There will also be a separate presentation from ISO New England, whose purpose is to update the region's ratepayers about the latest developments at our nonprofit regional grid operator and its stakeholder 'advisory' body NEPOOL.  (The 'advisory' gets the proverbial air quotes because NEPOOL is, in reality, very powerful and influential body in which legacy generators and legacy transmission owners essentially wield veto power.)

Unfortunately, preregistration rigamarole is required to attend the CLG meeting.  By "preregistration rigamarole" we mean:  You have to follow this link, set up an account with ISO-New England's training program (called ISO-TEN), sign into your ISO-TEN account and then request a spot at the CLG meeting.  Unfortunately the ISO booked a room for the CLG meeting that can only accommodate 200 people; we don't know what will happen if more than 200 people want to attend.

'Free' lunch is part of the meeting.  The 'free' is in air quotes because, as everyone knows, there is no such thing as a free lunch.  In this instance, the food is paid for by all of the region's electricity customers via the ISO New England tariff as approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ISO New England likes to hold all of its events in hotel ballrooms.  This time the ballroom is located at the AC Hotel Portsmouth Downtown at 299 Vaughn Street in Portsmouth.  The Office of the Consumer Advocate hopes to see many, many ratepayers there!  Because ISO New England oversees the region's wholesale electricity markets and its bulk power transmission system, you should care about this for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks.