Dave Solomon at the Union-Leader wrote a good, long look at the price/customer issues facing Eversource (nee PSNH), the state’s largest electricity utility. He says the majority of commercial customers and 23 percent of residential customer now buy from alternative suppliers under the deregulated market. Eversource says its rates are so high largely because of the cost of operating a dozen power plants – a number of dams and three coal-fired, one wood-fired and one gas/oil-fired plant. (Here’s a story I wrote about the biggest coal-fired plant, in Bow.)
These plants are on the market, with bids expected to be announced next month. If, as Eversource says, they’re overall money-losers I’m not sure why anybody would buy them, but market forces in the power system are complicated. The dams, which are relatively small, will probably go easily as will the gas/oil plant in Newington, but who knows about the others.
Return to the Concord Monitor