The organization that oversees the six-state power grid predicts New England will see one million electric cars and trucks on its roads and more than one million electric heat pumps in homes and businesses by the end of the decade.
The forecast is good news for the climate, since switching our transportation and building heat to electricity is considered an important step for reducing the economy’s environmental impact. But it also focuses attention on the stresses that will be placed on the regional power system, especially in winter.
In its forecast, ISO-New England estimated that the increase in electric heats pumps could increase wintertime peak demand by 7.4%, adding to concern about electricity supplies during prolonged cold snaps.
In its forecast, ISO-New England estimated that the increase in electric heats pumps could increase wintertime peak demand by 7.4%, adding to concern about electricity supplies during prolonged cold snaps.
As for buildings, New Hampshire alone has more than 500,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of commercial and industrial buildings.
This means even if the forecast comes true, there will still be millions of vehicles and buildings burning fossil fuels in the six New England states by 2030.
ISO-New England makes forecasts about transportation and heating as part of deciding how much electricity production will be needed in future years. This process has been complicated by calls to increase non-polluting solar and wind power, which is more intermittent that the nuclear or gas-fired power plants that produce about three-quarters of New England’s electricity.
Electric heat pumps operate on the same technical principle as refrigerators. Despite that name, they can work both as heating and as air conditioning. They move heat from the air – or from underground, in the case of ground-sourced heat pumps – into buildings when it’s cold outside and move heat from indoors to outside when it’s hot outside.
Return to the Concord Monitor