经过长时间的干旱，现在在新英格兰开发的发电厂比十多年来正在开发的发电厂更多，但是这种趋势可以持续多长时间。

In late February, three power-plant projects, representing 1302 MW of new capacity, cleared the capacity auction conducted by ISO New England, the operator of the region’s electric grid, bringing to 3126 MW the total of power projects under development in the region.

Invenergy cleared 485 MW of a 1000-MW project in Burrillville, R.I. PSEG Power cleared a 484-MW project in Bridgeport, Conn., and NRG Energy cleared its 333-MW Canal 3 project in Sandwich, Mass.

ISO新英格兰每年进行产能拍卖，以确保该地区具有足够的产能来满足未来需求。This year’s capacity auction, which was for the 2019-20 delivery year, was watched closely because of Entergy’s October announcement that it would close its 680-MW Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth, Mass., by June 2019. That announcement, combined with others, stirred concerns that New England would run short of capacity.

In addition to the 4200 MW from plants that already have retired or plan to retire, ISO New England says another 6000 MW are at risk of retirement.

但是，直到马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的足迹动力在马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的674兆瓦天然气燃烧项目之前，2014年的拍卖价格如此之低，以至于一些分析师质疑任何开发商是否会付诸实践挑战。

Footprint的塞勒姆项目将拍卖清算为每月每千瓦14.99美元，但由于它位于波士顿附近的约束区域，因此被认为是一种异常。在先前的拍卖中，容量价格徘徊在$ 3/kW/月的地板价格左右。

This year’s auction results are remarkable: The auction not only set a high-water mark in terms of cleared capacity, it did so at a price lower than last year’s auction and about half of Salem’s clearing price.

这三个项目以$ 7.新利18备用网址03/kW/kw的价格清除了2016年拍卖。在清除2015年拍卖的三个新利18备用网址项目中，两个项目以$ 9/kW/月的价格为$ 11/kW/kw/kw/kw/kw。

Of the seven projects that cleared the auction in the past three years, only two are in construction: Footprint Power’s Salem project and Competitive Power Venture’s 725-MW Towantic project in Oxford, Conn.

Despite declining prices, this year’s auction attracted 6700 MW of projects, of which only 1302 MW cleared, leaving “a whole lot of megawatts ready, willing and able” to bid into next year’s auction, says Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association.

“Those projects are not going to disappear overnight,” he says, but that optimism has to be tempered by the fact that state energy- efficiency measures are reducing demand. ISO New England has noted that the outlook for load growth is flat to negative, which could slow the need for more power plants.