Planned Renewable Power Projects in the North Need New Transmission Lines

By David Darman on Monday, June 2, 2008.

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Governor Lynch signed a bill last year requiring 25% of the state's energy come from renewable sources by 2025.

Since then several companies have proposed building renewable energy projects in the North Country.

But the transmission system that brings the power to the southern part of the state is already near capacity.

Lawmakers, regulators and the energy companies are looking for ways to build a new, more modern system.

But construction can't start until they decide who should pay the estimated 200 million dollars to build it.

New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman has more.

Noble Environmental Power has plans to produce 99 megawatts of power on the hills in and around Dummer.

Spokesman Pip Decker says the company plans to build 33 windmills there.

The project will span across four unincorporated places and a portion of the town of Dummer NH. So there’s Millsfield, Irving’s location, Dixville and parts of Odell, and finally, Dummer.

Noble is lucky.

It’s first in line.

The company only has to make a 20 million dollar upgrade to existing transmission lines to bring that power to the southern part of the state.

But other future projects won’t be that fortunate.

For instance, a 60 megawatt project in Berlin will need new transmission lines to get its power out of the North Country.

So will a proposed 70 megawatt project in Groveton.

Senator Martha Fuller Clark of Portsmouth says a new system might cost as much as 200 million dollars to construct.

She says it’s not clear how that cost should be paid.

…….Do ratepayers in new Hampshire pay for it through psnh do the merchant developers pay for it. If a certain amount of this renewable energy is going to be used by the rest of New England pay for it in what is known as “socialized costs”.

The question of who should pay for the system is on the minds of many decision makers.

The legislature has passed a bill creating a commission to study the question.

The Public Utilities Commission is also examining the problem.

And the region’s electric grid manager has recently taken up the matter.

Erin O’Brien is a spokesperson for I-S-O New England, in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

What we are doing now, given the groundswell of development in the renewable area and the transmission that will ultimately be needed to deliver it is taking a look at what to do and how to evaluate projects in terms of their economic benefit in terms of how to pay for those projects.

While there is little consensus on who should pay, there are some ideas being floated that could end up being part of a solution.

Pip Decker of Noble Environmental says he’s in favor of the solution the West Coast came up with.

So there was a decision in California called the California ISO compromise where they were able to regionalize the costs across the grid to help pay for getting the transmission lines upgraded.

The solution in which every ratepayer in New England ponies up something for transmission could please New Hampshire officials.

New Hampshire Public Utility Commissioner Clifton Below says renewable projects will be getting extra money in the form of renewable certificates.

He says lawmakers would be wise to look closely at this source of funds.

A question that’s out there that this commission should be taking a look at is whether that premium which is about 5 cents per kilowatt hour for that portion that comes from the renewable resources, whether that premium in part can be used to pay for the transmission upgrades to make help make these projects feasible.

The legislative commission studying the Northern Transmission system is aiming to finish its work by December.

In the meantime, companies are lining up with their proposals for new renewable power projects for the North country.