Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has sent subpoenas to owners of power plants in Connecticut as part of an ongoing investigation into whether power suppliers may have done anything improper during a January cold snap that prompted blackout warnings by the regional grid operator. Blumenthal also is preparing to issue similar subpoenas to other generators in the New England region.

Blumenthal previously said that he received information that some generators sold natural gas on the spot market that could have otherwise been used for their own power plants during the recent power supply crunch (see Power Market Today, Jan. 21). Gas prices during the cold snap hit record highs of more than $70/MMBtu in New England and New York.

As part of his probe, Blumenthal recently sent a subpoena to ISO New England (ISO-NE) asking the electric grid operator to submit, among other things, bidding-related data (see Power Market Today, Feb. 10).

According to a report in the Hartford Courant, along with the subpoenas issued to Connecticut power plant owners, Blumenthal is preparing additional subpoenas that will be sent to generators throughout New England.

An official with the Competitive Power Coalition, a group of power suppliers in the region, denies there was manipulation of the grid during the timeframe being looked at by Blumenthal. “Not only did generators not manipulate the market, the generators’ actions Jan. 14 to 16 made sure the lights stayed on and consumers in Connecticut had home heating fuel,” Neal Costello, general counsel for the coalition, was quoted as saying in the article. “That’s an irrefutable fact, and we are confident any investigation will demonstrate that.”

According to the newspaper, officials with ISO-NE have said that the grid operator’s reply to the Blumenthal subpoena will be completed by Thursday.

In the wake of Blumenthal’s investigation, FERC Chairman Pat Wood last month said that he had seen no indications that the power market in New England was manipulated (see Power Market Today, Jan. 29). “I’ve seen nothing that makes me think that at all,” Wood said. Wood noted that FERC has launched an inquiry looking at “the allegations that people made on both sides” in the wake of the cold snap.

ISO-NE, which has launched its own investigation into the January events, already has met with state and federal regulators in separate meetings in Nashua, NH, and Washington, DC, to provide them with a status report of both system conditions and an update on its comprehensive review of the situation.

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