GOV. MAURA HEALEY confirmed she has discussed with her Connecticut counterpart the possibility of Massachusetts ratepayers purchasing a portion of the output of the Millstone nuclear power plant.
Hints of those discussions surfaced earlier this month, shortly after Healey, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, and other New England governors and Canadian premiers met in Boston to discuss regional energy policies.
After a bill signing in her office on Tuesday, Healey shared a few details of those private discussions. She said the goal of the meeting was to promote cooperation on procurements between the New England states and eastern Canadian provinces.
“We’ve got to work together regionally and that is especially true when you are talking about energy supply,” Healey said. “What are the opportunities for joint procurements?”
Healey said the leaders discussed working together on hydroelectricity from Quebec and offshore wind, as well as nuclear power from the Millstone plant in Waterford, Connecticut.
“Millstone is a good example,” Healey said. “Millstone is a nuclear power plant in Connecticut. There’s an opportunity for Massachusetts to purchase energy from Millstone. There’s a nice synergy there.”
As Lamont talked up Millstone with Healey, Healey pushed Lamont to join Massachusetts in purchasing the output of the proposed Vineyard Wind 2 wind farm. “We hope that Connecticut also buys in there,” Healey said.
On September 6, Healey announced the results of a three-state procurement of offshore wind. Massachusetts agreed to purchase 791 megawatts from a wind farm being developed by Avangrid, 1,087 megawatts from a wind farm being developed by Ocean Wind, and 800 megawatts from Vineyard Wind 2, a wind farm being developed by Vineyard Offshore.
Rhode Island agreed to purchase the remaining 200 megawatts from the Ocean Wind project but Connecticut wouldn’t commit to the remaining 400 megawatts of the Vineyard Wind 2 deal, putting that project in jeopardy.
Healey said on Tuesday that she hopes Connecticut will come around on Vineyard Wind 2 but also suggested a ”business entity” might buy in.
Lamont told the Hartford Courant that offshore wind is important to Connecticut’s future but he suggested it might be wise to wait until interest rates come down and prices ease. That strategy is similar to what Attorney General Andrea Campbell recommended in Massachusetts at the start of the offshore wind procurement – go with a smaller project now and wait for prices to come down.
But Healey said she decided to go big with this procurement because offshore wind is crucial to meeting the state’s greenhouse gas emission targets and it’s important to be an early leader with the industry.
Lamont also apparently tried to convince Healey buying some of the output of Millstone might be helpful to Massachusetts in its efforts to meet its greenhouse gas emission targets. Connecticut in 2019 signed a 10-year deal for half of Millstone’s output at 4.9 cents a kilowatt hour. That saved Connecticut ratepayers a lot of money when natural gas prices shot up after the Ukraine war began, but it cost them money more recently when natural gas prices plummeted.
“Look, it’s better if we do it together,” Lamont told the Hartford Courant. “Right now Connecticut takes all the risk. We have all the downside and all the upside. We made $250 million on the Millstone trade back when Putin was invading Ukraine and the price of natural gas was through the roof.
“But now we are getting crushed because natural gas is almost free, there is so much of it. And it is costing us something like $250 million and that is why we are hearing from ratepayers. And so, if we could share that with the rest of the region, wouldn’t that be good? The answer is yes.”
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