Yale University has asked state utility regulators to reconsider a previous denial of incentives tied to the school’s planned replacement of its central power plant.
Yale argued in its Nov. 25 request that new facts, including the impending closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts, should spur the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission to reconsider its August decision.
At the time, PURA ruled that the $50 million combined-heat-and-power plant would not qualify for incentives, including a natural gas rebate and “demand ratchet waiver,” because the 15.8-megawatt project would remove 2.5 megawatts of capacity from the electric distribution system.
United Illuminating, which would supply power to Yale during the retirement of the old plant and construction of the new one, asked PURA to deny Yale’s original petition, arguing that the plant would not benefit customers because it reduced capacity and added load to UI’s system.
Yale is now arguing that the closure of the 685 megawatt Massachusetts nuclear plant — the only one in that state — has created tighter market capacity in Connecticut, and that PURA should want to increase distributed generation to offset that impact.
Yale also said the August denial could impact those companies and other owners of distribution generation plants in Connecticut.
“Based on the precedent established in the decision, a significant amount of Connecticut’s existing DG capacity could be lost,” Yale wrote.
Yale’s PURA petitions and related documents don’t say how much the incentives would be worth to the school. The value of the natural gas rebate would depend on how much gas was delivered to the plant, while the value of the waiver from the ratchet provision would depend on average energy usage over certain time periods.
But according to PURA testimony from Mark Kopera, manager of facilities and energy services at Pratt & Whitney, the incentives are significant factors in choosing whether or not to invest in power plants.
Pratt has its own 29-megawatt cogeneration plant in East Hartford, and is evaluating a potential replacement, Kopera wrote.
“While there are many factors that go into a decision on whether to replace or upgrade this asset, the availability of [distributed generation] incentives will be a key factor,” Kopera wrote.
