Price Suppression and Emissions Reductions with Offshore Wind: An Analysis of the Impact of Increased Capacity in New England

Abstract

Offshore wind provides multiple benefits both in terms of economic savings to consumers and reduction in environmental residuals. The current paper uses a state-of-of-the-art software system, pCloudAnalyticsa#x2122; to evaluate multiple scenarios of the incorporation of offshore wind assets in the New England electric power system ranging in size from 100MW to 1200MW. The analysis is focused on the benefits to consumers -- the price suppression impacts -- of increasing quantities of offshore wind. The analysis provides a detailed evaluation of the locational marginal price (LMP) impact of increasing MW of offshore wind for a single study year, 2015. In addition the analysis tracks and presents the reductions in air emissions that result from incorporation of increased quantities of offshore wind in the New England system.