New England’s transmission operator ISO New England reportedly boasts an interconnection queue of 20,000 megawatts (MW) and includes 10,000 MW of offshore wind.
The 30 MW Block Island offshore wind farm, the United States’ (currently) only offshore wind farm
ISO New England’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Vamsi Chadalavada, gave a market update presentation at a New England Power Pool meeting earlier this month in which he outlined how the ISO’s generator interconnection queue has seen significant additions over the past few months.
Currently, according to Chadalavada, there are over 20,000 MW of resources seeking interconnection to the system including approximately 10,000 MW of offshore wind.
According to S&P Global Platts’s Jared Anderson, writing about the presentation last week, this means there is more offshore wind in ISO New England’s interconnection queue than natural gas, which currently has about 7,500 MW.
An “interconnection queue” represents the “requests for the interconnection of new or uprated (increased capacity) generating facilities in New England, including elective transmission upgrades (ETUs) and transmission service requests,” according to ISO New England.
“New England’s power system is undergoing a rapid transformation, driven in part by public policy initiatives, as evidenced by the high levels of offshore wind in the interconnection queue,” said a spokesperson for ISO New England.
Anyone looking to find out more about what exactly is populating ISO New England’s interconnection queue can access public Queue data here.
