ISO New England: Markets tied to natural gas, transmission and storage must expand to meet electrification

ISO New England representatives told a Connecticut informational forum that the region's wholesale electricity markets remain tightly linked to natural gas pricing, and that meeting state clean‑energy goals will require major additions of transmission capacity and energy-storage resources. ISO officials said wholesale market signals generally bring cost‑efficient resources into the system, but that the states' off‑market procurements and the changing resource mix present planning and policy challenges.

At the forum, Carrie Schlichting, ISO New England’s lead state policy advisor for Connecticut, described the operator's three principal roles: operating the power system in real time, designing and overseeing the wholesale markets, and performing regional power‑system planning out to multi‑decadal horizons. "We are the regional grid operator in New England," she said, noting ISO responsibilities for day‑to‑day balancing, market administration and long‑term planning.

Schlichting and Anne George, ISO New England vice president for external affairs and communications, stressed that prices in New England are sensitive to natural‑gas markets and recent global events. "Natural gas and wholesale electricity are linked," they said, citing spikes in liquefied natural gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a recent example that pushed wholesale electricity costs…