State regulators stall pipeline to controversial power plant site
Connecticut regulators are making Eversource resubmit its homework on an application for a new natural gas pipeline to a proposed power plant — one Gov. Ned Lamont has complained is an unnecessary addition to the region’s grid.
NTE Energy wants to build a
650-megawatt plant in Killingly that would provide power for the equivalent of 500,000 homes, at a projected cost of $500 million. The St. Augustine, Fla.-based firm says it hopes to begin construction in the coming few months, with the goal of firing up the plant in
2023.
The plant would depend on pipeline access, with Eversource designing a conduit 16 inches in diameter running more than twoand-a-half miles from a gateway station in Pomfret run by its Yankee Gas subsidiary. While the Connecticut Siting Council approved the plant’s construction several years ago, the pipeline still requires a thumbs up from the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
On Wednesday, PURA denied that request on grounds Eversource filed incomplete information, leaving the door open for the company to fill in the blanks.
Eversource has stated NTE would likely become Yankee Gas’ largest customer, without airing publicly projected annual revenue. Yankee Gas sales totaled $556 million last year, contributing $58 million in profits to the parent company. Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross noted Friday the project has been selected by the wholesale electric market overseer ISO New England as part of a prior “forward capacity” auction to ensure sufficient power for the region’s grid.
“As a natural gas distribution company, we work to provide
service to various potential customers,” Gross stated in an email response to a query. “Regarding PURA’s draft decision, we’re evaluating our options.”
Lamont slammed NTE’s plans last January during an interview on WINY AM 1350.
“I’m going to be pretty tough when it comes to these negotiations — I will step in,” Lamont said at the time. “I’d like to find a way that we don’t need a new power plant in Killingly.”
But dozens of Connecticut residents and activists have since criticized the Lamont administration for not finding levers to halt the project, noting one of his early
executive orders committing the state to a “net zero” policy on carbon emissions two decades from now.
An NTE spokesperson indicated Friday that the company remains confident that it will get the few remaining approvals required to begin construction, and that the Killingly Energy Center will help fill the gap from the 2024 retirement of a power plant outside Boston.
“Since the project’s inception more than five years ago, NTE Energy has diligently followed Connecticut’s rigorous permitting and regulatory approval process,” stated Jennifer Logue. “In light of
ISO New England projections showing an increased demand for electric power and the recent announcement of the impending closure of the Mystic Generating Station, the need for the Killingly Energy Center has never been greater.”
PURA commissioners faulted Eversource’s application on grounds the company asserted it had satisfied six criteria for approval, but without submitting direct evidence supporting its statements — to include basics such as its competence in running natural gas mains and pipelines.
Under its mandate, PURA must include a determination that the gas pipeline has “a clear public need” with the authority not issuing an opinion either way in its initial draft decision. In June 2019, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the plant’s construction on grounds a public need exists.
An activist group called Not Another Power Plant challenged that approval subsequently in state court, arguing the Connecticut Siting Council did not adequately factor in the impact of the pipeline’s construction on wetlands in its deliberations. The Connecticut Supreme Court added the case to its docket last spring.
The six New England states derive roughly 45 percent of their energy from natural gas power plants, which ISO New England has cited as a concern for price stability and overall “energy security” in the words of the regional overseer of wholesale power markets. With about a third of Connecticut homes heated by natural gas and prices at record lows this year, there is nevertheless the possibility of price spikes during cold snaps as power plant operators bid against residential suppliers like Eversource and Avangrid for available supplies.
Two new natural gas plants have come online in Connecticut in the past four years: the PSEG Bridgeport Harbor Station plant that replaces the city’s aging coal and oil plant set to be mothballed next year; and the CPV Towantic plant in Oxford.
PURA has posted dozens of letters of protest against the Killingly plant citing the state’s commitments to renewable energy like offshore wind farms, including one in August from New Haven resident Lynne Bonnett.
“How are we to reach the governor's goal of net zero carbon if we keep committing to fossil fuel infrastructure?” Bonnett wrote. “It’s not too late to say that we made a mistake and this proposal should not go forward. It should not have happened in the first place.”