Key Grid
and Market Stats

Key Grid and Market Stats

Explore some of ISO New England’s most helpful and popular data about the region’s power system and wholesale electricity markets. Many stats illustrate the significant progress made since the ISO’s inception in developing a regional power system that is more reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally sound.

Read the Regional Electricity Outlook (REO) to learn about New England’s decarbonization journey and how the ISO is working to ensure a reliable power system and competitive wholesale electricity markets that will enable the clean-energy future.

Fast Stats

Here’s a quick look at some key statistics about the region, its high-voltage transmission system, and its wholesale electricity markets. Numbers are rounded.

Electricity Use

7.4 million retail electricity customers; population 15.1 million
118,878 gigawatt-hours (GWh) total annual energy served in 2022 (subject to adjustments)
136,355 GWh all-time highest total annual energy served, set in 2005
28,130 megawatts (MW) all-time summer peak demand, set on August 2, 2006
22,818 MW all-time winter peak demand, set on January 15, 2004

2.3% average annual increase in regional electricity demand forecast through 2032, factoring in forecasts for energy efficiency, behind-the-meter photovoltaics, and electrification of transportation and heating
1.1% average annual increase in summer peak demand forecast through 2032 under typical weather conditions, factoring in forecasts for energy efficiency, behind-the-meter photovoltaics, and electrification of transportation and heating
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Resource Mix

About 350 dispatchable generators
About 32,600 MW of generating capability (seasonal claimed capability)
99.7% of the region’s electricity in 2022 was provided by natural gas, nuclear, hydro, imported electricity (mostly hydropower from Eastern Canada), and renewables
More than 30,000 MW of new generating capacity, mostly wind, proposed to be built, though many projects ultimately withdraw (source: January 2023, ISO Interconnection Request Queue)

Roughly 7,000 MW of generation have retired since 2013 or will retire in the next few years
About 3,800 MW of demand capacity resources (DCRs)—including active DCRs, energy efficiency, and other passive DCRs—are registered in New England
About 1,500 MW of imported electricity are obligated to be available for the region—mostly hydropower from Eastern Canada
About 283,000 distributed solar power installations totaling about 5,500 MW (nameplate), with most connected “behind the meter”
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Transmission

9,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines (115 kV and above)
13 transmission interconnections to electricity systems in New York and Eastern Canada
850 project components placed in service across the region since 2002 to fortify the transmission system; 42 planned, proposed, or under construction as of the October 2022 System Plan Project List

16% of region’s energy needs met by imports in 2021
5 elective transmission upgrades proposed to help deliver more than 10,000 MW of clean energy to New England load centers, as of November 2022, according to the ISO Generator Interconnection Queue
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Markets

Around 550 buyers and sellers in the wholesale electricity marketplace
The average real-time price for wholesale power in New England in 2022 was $84.92 per megawatt-hour

$13.7 billion traded in wholesale electricity markets in 2022: $11.7 billion in energy markets and $2.0 billion in capacity and ancillary services markets
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Air Emissions

99%, 80%, and 41% decrease in annual regional emissions between 2001 and 2021 for sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), and carbon dioxide (CO₂), respectively
2.3% of the electricity produced in New England came from oil- or coal-fired resources in 2022, compared to 40% in 2000

10% increase in production from solar and wind resources, combined, between 2020 and 2021
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Key Grid and Market Stats