ISO New England’s capacity auction meets peak demand requirements

New England’s annual capacity auction closed last week with sufficient power system resources to meet peak demand for the 2026/2027 period, according to ISO New England.

Preliminary results from the auction, run by ISO New England, indicate the clearing price was among the lowest in the auction’s history. Nearly all of the new resources securing capacity supply obligations were wind, solar, energy storage, or demand-reducing resources.

ISO New England runs the auction annually to procure the resources needed to meet consumer demand for electricity three years later. This year it was held on March 6 and closed after four rounds of competitive bidding. The auction secured capacity commitments of 31,370 megawatts (MW) to be available in the 2026/2027 commitment period, with almost 750 MW of new renewable energy, energy storage, and demand-reducing resources secured obligations.

It came in at a preliminary price of $2.590 per kilowatt-month (kW-month). This was the rate in all zones and import interfaces except the New Brunswick interface, which cleared at $2.551 per kW-month. For comparison, last year’s clearing prices ranged from $2.531 per kW-month to $2.639 per kW-month across different pricing zones. The auction’s lowest clearing price, $2.001 per kW-month, was recorded in 2020.

“This year’s auction secured the lineup of resources—including clean electricity generation, energy storage, and resources that reduce demand—needed to meet the region’s power system reliability requirements at a low price,” Peter Brandien, vice president of System Operations and Market Administration at ISO New England, said. “The results represent clear benefits to New England’s residents and businesses in the form of cost-effective resource adequacy and support for the clean energy transition.”

New and existing solar and wind generation, energy storage, and demand resources secured obligations totaling more than 5,000 MW. This accounted for about 16 percent of all capacity clearing the auction.

New solar generation and energy storage resources, or facilities combining the two, secured obligations totaling 519 MW. This accounted for the majority of new generating resources, including wind and a small amount of hydroelectric resources.

Overall, the total value of the capacity market in 2026/2027 will be approximately $946 million.

The annual auction of the Forward Capacity Market is held three years before each capacity commitment period to provide time for new resources to be developed. Capacity resources can include traditional power plants, renewable generation, imports, and demand resources.