ISO-NE grid manager selects Ready Path Solution as cost-effective solution for grid reliability

With the pending retirement of the Mystic Generating Station in 2024, the Independent System Operators-NE (ISO-NE) required new means to maintain grid reliability in the Boston area, and this week, its solution was the Ready Path Solution, created by Eversource and Nation Grid.

From a review of 36 bids, Ready Path Solution was chosen as ISO-NE’s most cost-effective option. The solution would allow the region to meet the transmission reliability needs called for in the Boston 2028 request for proposals, the regional grid manager said. Plus, with Ready Path at hand, the fossil-fuel-based Mystic plant can be closed without fear of upsetting reliability in the region.

“We are confident that our joint solution will be delivered on time and will provide significant environmental and financial benefits to customers throughout our region,” Bill Quinlan, Eversource President of Transmission, said. “As operators of New England’s largest energy delivery system, we have the expertise and the experience to ensure that our electric system keeps pace with the evolving needs of our customers.”

Ready Path would cost around $49 million to install. By contrast, the Mystic Station costs approximately $175 million to stay operational. In addition to the major cost win, the project beat out its competitors for how quickly it could be brought into service and the fact that it would be built entirely within existing National Grid and Eversource facilities, minimizing its footprint.

“The retirement of Mystic helps reduce fossil fuels from our energy mix in New England, and this proposal will help ensure reliable electricity service in the region,” Rudy Wynter, National Grid’s President and COO of Wholesale Networks & U.S. Capital Delivery, said. “National Grid and Eversource will be able to cost-effectively deliver these critical infrastructure projects on time to meet the needs of Greater Boston.”

Construction for the new project should involve equipment for Eversource’s North Cambridge substation and National Grid’s Tewksbury, Amesbury and Haverhill substations.

Without Ready Path, the closing of the Mystic Generating Station could have caused overloaded transmission lines and overall system instability, the ISO-NE noted. Other developers — there were eight, in all — offered options priced all over the place, including as high as $745 million.