Tag Archives: hydro

Late last night, the Massachusetts legislature enacted House Bill 4568, an act to promote energy diversity (the “Act”). Overall, the Act marks a compromise between the House’s original procurement-only legislation and the Senate’s more comprehensive “omnibus” bill. It is expected Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker will sign the legislation shortly. After that, regulations will be required to be implemented and other regulatory actions will need to be taken by Massachusetts’ Department of Public Utilities,… More

Massachusetts may soon add hydroelectric facilities to the growing list of net metering eligible distributed generation in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has issued a notice and order opening a proceeding (DPU 14-118) under which DPU will take the first steps towards developing legislation to enable net metering of small hydro.

Enabling small hydro to participate in net metering has the potential to provide benefits not only to owners of such current facilities but potentially also for the redevelopment of dams,… More

Back in June, I noted that the New England states had tasked the New England States Committee on Electricity (“NESCOE”) with exploring the possibility of importing more large-scale Canadian hydro into New England.  Earlier this month, the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (“NEG-ECP”) met in La Malbaie, Quebec, and indications from that conference are that importing Canadian large hydro is still very much on the table,… More

Last week, five New England States (all but New Hampshire) announced a collaborative effort to explore opportunities for expanding imports of power from large hydro facilities into New England.  The states tabbed the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) , which is already working on a regional procurement of renewable energy, to evaluate “opportunities, options and issues relating to the expansion of large hydro into New England” – no small task. … More