Ayotte pushes ISO-New England to make reforms to market that saw cost overruns

As energy costs rise, Gov. Kelly Ayotte is calling out the organization that runs the regional power grid.The governor is calling for ISO-New England to make reforms to a program designed to ensure grid reliability that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns.”We know that families in New Hampshire are struggling with costs that are too high,” Ayotte said.In a letter to regional power grid operator ISO-New England, Ayotte called for expedited reforms to what’s known as the Day-Ahead Ancillary Services Market. >> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go <<The letter cites a report from ISO-New England’s internal market monitor that found that the market “has resulted in approximately $921 million in incremental costs… These figures far exceed the ISO-NE’s pre-implementation impact assessment, which projected annual costs of about $140 million,” according to the letter.The day-ahead market is a financial market where participants can buy and sell energy at financially binding prices for the following day. It’s a way of helping to guarantee stable energy generation while allowing buyers and sellers to hedge against price volatility. The Day-Ahead Ancillary Services Initiative was launched in March 2025 to meet the next-day operating plan while providing compensation and incentives for power generation.Consumer advocate Don Kreis said it’s not yet clear why the projections were so wildly off base.”The governor’s letter is extremely welcome and correct that we really need to investigate this and see what’s going wrong, because at present, it looks like millions and millions and millions of dollars of free money coming from ratepayers and going into the pockets of generators,” Kreis said.In response to the governor’s letter, ISO-New England told News 9 that day-ahead ancillary services have improved reliability, but certain changes have had an impact on market costs.”Specifically, variables like higher consumer demand, higher natural gas prices, a shift in the resource mix, and extended extreme cold have resulted in different outcomes from those initially modeled,” ISO-New England said.ISO-New England said it is evaluating market rule changes and anticipates making a filing on the issue with its federal regulator this summer. Its own internal market monitor made three specific recommendations that Ayotte asked the grid operator to support.The governor said the bottom line is that ratepayers in the region need relief.”Electric bills are too high for people in New Hampshire, and we need to eliminate these unnecessary costs,” she said. “We could save almost $1 billion for people, and we need to do it.”