New England regulators agreed that their region faces a growing winter reliability challenge but expressed skepticism over ISO-NE’s proposed solutions.

FERC Commissioner Robert Powelson said ISO New England (ISO-NE) needs to overcome its aversion to new energy infrastructure to avoid natural gas shortages in the winter.

ISO-NE is racing to relieve natural gas pipelines constraints and interconnect new resources, CEO Gordon van Welie said.

Grid operators turned to coal- and oil-fired generation as Arctic air sent temperatures plunging to record lows from the Great Plains to the Deep South.

ISO-NE presented five resource scenarios it will evaluate in its 2016 Economic Study at the Planning Advisory Committee last week.