Connecticut’s legislation to bring 300 megawatts of Canadian hydropower as state-designated renewable energy doesn’t need the $1.2 billion Northern Pass transmission in New Hampshire and Quebec.
“The amounts that are in the bill could come over existing transmission lines,” said Jessie Stratton, director of policy for the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.
The proposal by DEEP and the co-chairs of the General Assembly’s Energy & Technology Committee allows large-scale hydropower from Canada to be classified for the first time as non-subsidized renewable electricity and count toward 30 percent of the state’s clean energy goals. Currently, only small-scale river hydro counts as renewable.
The bill rankled the clean energy industry, as companies and advocates perceive the inclusion of hydro as eroding the incentives for higher cost renewables such as solar, fuel cells, wind, and tidal power.
“What people aren’t looking at is that unlike in-state renewable generation … is there is a huge cost of transmitting power down from Canada,” said Paul Michaud, executive director of the Hartford trade group Renewable Energy & Efficiency Business Association.
The cost of building transmission lines in New England is split among ratepayers in the six states based upon energy usage. Connecticut ratepayers are responsible for 26 percent.
New England already transmits 1,200 megawatts from Canadian power company Hydro-Quebec via existing lines. That power does not 100 percent come from hydro, but fluctuates between 54-98 percent.
The only way Connecticut’s proposal necessitates more transmission is if other states decide to pursue more hydropower, which they are considering, Stratton said.
Transmission lines would be built between Canada and states bordering Canada. The proposal would not result in a new transmission line in Connecticut.
The only Canadian-New England transmission line under development is the $1.2 billion Northern Pass that Hartford conglomerate Northeast Utilities proposed between Quebec and New Hampshire..
Opposition from property owners led NU to explore a new route for Northern Pass, which the company hoped to unveil by April. That new route is in development, and NU will have details soon, said Michael Skelton, NU spokesman.
NU plans on a three-year construction process once the line is approved and projects an in-service date between 2016-2017.
As natural gas supplies 45 percent of New England’s electricity, the region needs more hydropower to diversify, Skelton said. The wholesale price of electricity in February reached the second highest level in 10 years because of the dependence on natural gas.
“Now, more than ever, the region needs new sources of clean, low-cost power to diversify our power supply and secure our energy future,” Skelton said.
Northern Pass does not need Connecticut’s changes to pass the General Assembly, said Skelton. New England has demand for power priced below the average grid rate.
The New England Power Generators Association, which opposed Northern Pass before Connecticut’s proposal, sees classifying hydro as renewable as an boon to Canada, pushing out local generating plants.
“By providing this long-term contract to bring in hydro, it provides a subsidy that makes transmission projects more economical and creates an unlevel playing field for supplying power in New England,” said Dan Dolan, president of NEPGA, which represents companies such as Dominion and NRG Energy that operate Connecticut power plants.
Even if Northern Pass doesn’t come to fruition, New England has other options to import Canadian power, Stratton said.
The Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island have the potential for large amounts of hydro, along with planned wind farms along the Atlantic Coast.
They could run a transmission line from these Atlantic Canadian provinces along the coast of Maine — where it could pick up power from a proposed wind farm there — and connect to the New England power grid.
“The eastern Canadian provinces have significant amounts of clean, renewable hydropower, a portion of which can be brought into the New England and Connecticut markets,” said Frank Poirot, NU transmissionspokesman.
The proposed Connecticut legislation calls for the state to contract with 150 megawatts of wind power, which would help ensure the construction of wind farms in Maine, New York, or Vermont, said Stratton.
DEEP is pushing for the legislature to pass the entire proposal in early April because these wind projects must be started by the end of the year in order to obtain a federal production tax credit worth 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
“That is the reason, absolutely, we want to move quickly,” Stratton said.
Even with potential new transmission, the changes would result in Connecticut getting cheaper renewable energy, Stratton said.
The last round of renewable energy credits for in-state solar provided 20 cents per kilowatt in incentives. Imported hydro and wind would be well below that figure, Stratton said.
“The real reason for providing incentives for in-state renewables is to provide an economic incentive,” Stratton said.
