Massachusetts hits a solar milestone, but can the grid handle the heat?
Statehouse News Service Deputy Editor Colin Young discusses state budget talks, expanded need for food pantries and he explains "duck curve days" and the effects of solar on daily electricity use in the state.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: You reported that solar had a sort of a moment in Massachusetts last week. First, can you explain what record low midday electric demand with a higher demand called for in the evening, looks like on a graph? And then how does solar really reshape daily electricity use in the state? What are folks in the energy world taking away from this?
Colin Young, SHNS: So, when you look at what happened on April 20th on a chart that charts the demand on the electric grid, you see demand fall at midday and then rise through the evening and into the night. And the grid operator, ISO New England, points out that when you look at those charts, it sort of looks like the profile of a duck. So, they call these days duck curve days.
A duck facing right, I think it is.
That's right. It sort of looks like the profile of a duck. It used to be a rare phenomenon. This is when demand for electricity is lower at midday than it is in the evenings and overnight periods. Usually it's the other way around. But what happens in these days is that sunny skies produce more and more solar power, and that solar power is able to essentially keep a large portion of the demand — about half of the region's demand — off of the grid. That solar is able to meet that demand on its own.
So what are the challenges ahead for the state in continuing to integrate solar power into the grid, as federal energy policy is shifting away from renewables, and tariffs are being levied on goods made elsewhere?
This is something that Massachusetts has been working on for years and years, and now it is really only getting harder. So, there are things like this that renewable energy advocates can point to and say, see, we're actually seeing benefits from renewable energy. Let's keep going. But even if everyone was on board with that, the grid needs major updates to be able to accommodate all of these renewable resources before we see the real and full benefits of renewable energy.
This week the budget debate begins on the House Ways and Means committee. A $61.4 billion budget. Now, House lawmakers have submitted over 1,600 amendments, and many of those come with spending attached. Many will boost that bottom line with federal funding cuts, tightening resources at local organizations, institutions and for the state itself. What are some of the amendment proposals on the table?
The ones that jumped out the most to me when I looked through these amendments were the earmarks seeking extra funding for local food pantries. It seemed to be a big trend among the amendments this year that the local food pantries in communities all around Massachusetts are seeing such great demand for their services. They just don't have enough money to be able to meet that demand. So, there are a lot of lawmakers looking for extra money for food pantries, and we're talking an extra 10 or $20,000, not millions and millions here.
There are also amendments like Rep. Michael Finn, from West Springfield, looking for $175,000 for the Western Mass Sports Commission. There are other earmarks for schools. In fact, 80% of the over 1,600 amendments that representatives filed would be those local earmarks. You know, looking for money, or a little bit more money, for their projects in their district.
But they're not baked in yet. What is the process look like for House lawmakers as they navigate the budget debate and sift through those amendments this week?
hat's going to be a fascinating thing to watch all week. You know, we have heard time and time again that this is going to be a tight budget, that House leaders think there is very little wiggle room here. If you were to adopt every amendment that got filed, the House would be adding at least $2.5 billion to the budget. That's just not going to happen. Usually they add about $120 million in additional spending through their amendments.
So, what we're going to be watching this week is which amendments do get added into the budget. And usually that happens through a process where they take all the amendments of a particular category, say public safety, and they go through all of those hundreds of amendments and decide which ones are yeses and which ones are no's, and then they vote on them all in one big bundle. So, all of the amendments that are deemed yeses get consolidated together and passed as one. It's going to be a bit of a process of trying to unwind and unwrap exactly what does get added. But we're looking for it to be about $100 million.
