New Jersey electricity generator NRG Energy Inc. – operator of nine Connecticut power plants – pledged Thursday to invest $100 million to re-energize its Montville power plant with renewable power if the state or a utility commits to buying the electricity produced.
NRG wants to convert its 82-megawatt natural gas- and diesel-fired facility in Montville into a 40-megawatt biomass plant, considered renewable by Connecticut’s current standards.
For more than a year, the producer has shopped a sales contract for the plant’s power output, but so far no utility has signed up. NRG went as far as asking state regulators to mandate the biomass purchase as part of the Northeast Utilities merger with NStar.
On Thursday, NRG and local supporters lobbied again for the project, saying that the $100 million cost of repowering the Montville plant will be borne solely by NRG, and not passed onto ratepayers or taxpayers through the power purchase agreement.
The new RenewMontville.org coalition created Thursday consists of state, local and labor officials led by Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel.
The coalition is urging the state to create a process that would result in a contract for the power from one the generating units. Probable purchasers would be Connecticut Light & Power of Berlin, United Illuminating of New Haven, or the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative.
The biomass fuel for the plant would come from waste from Connecticut’s forestry industry.
NRG estimates the project will create 200 long-term regional jobs in the forestry and logistics industries, along with the temporary construction jobs.
