This Blog is About the New England Grid of 2030

My day job is to plan next year’s integrated resource strategy for a specific utility’s service territory—tactical work1 befitting a young analyst, with deliverables provided to my boss.

This blog, by contrast, is operational analysis2—three- to five-year timelines, ears on the ground—with the deliverables being uncomfortable questions posited to strategic 2050-benchmarked goals.3

I’m doing this partially for my entertainment, and partially because the profound uncertainty of the current global energy map renders all pre-2020 conventional wisdom suspect. I need to build my own understanding of federal policy, talent pipelines, energy markets, geopolitics, and ISO New England’s back rooms, lest I get punched in the nose by the next Totally Unprecedented Development.

Some Ground Rules

However, this is a public platform, and I need to set some ground rules for my accountability and safety.

I Have No Strategic Opinions

I have no official opinion on:

• What we should do about climate change

• Who should be in a given elected office

• Who should pay for a given grid project

• Any other strategic policy debates

Fundamentally, I serve the public by providing nonpartisan analysis. The public decides the strategic direction of the grid. I will identify contradictions and tradeoffs in current and proposed policy, but the ultimate decisions are not my job.

I Make No Specific Recommendations

I don’t know you, or your organization, or your specific challenges. I can make broad projections in the three- to five-year timeline, and I will even suggest what they mean to New England utilities, but I cannot promise that my analysis will map perfectly onto your organization.

Don’t take me as gospel.

I Will Remain Anonymous Here

This blog will contain no customer data, comments made in confidence, or internal documents. I also will not disclose details about my specific job or employer.

I am a real analyst with a real job, but on this blog, I’m F. Ichiro Gifford, an independent analyst with neither sanction nor endorsement from any organization or elected office.

This Blog is Also an Email Newsletter

In particular, a Substack! You can subscribe to this blog, and you’ll get a newsletter direct to your email. You can also like, comment, and share these posts with your colleagues.