ISO New England’s president and CEO, Gordon van Welie, briefed reporters on the State of the Grid during a webinar on January 30, 2017. A recording of the State of the Grid: 2017 briefing includes audio of the prepared remarks that accompany the presentation, as well as the question-and-answer session. van Welie noted that the state of the power system’s infrastructure—the resources, the transmission grid, and the competitive markets—is good. He also pointed to the fundamental challenges, masked in recent years by low wholesale electricity prices and mild weather, that could derail the region’s progress toward a cleaner, greener power system that provides competitively-priced and reliable electricity. Fuel security—the assurance that sufficient fuel will be available for power plants to generate the electricity needed—is the most pressing challenge.
