Power plant won’t open until 2020 at earliest
BURRILLVILLE – The opening of Invenergy’s proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Pascoag has been delayed until at least 2020.
In a letter to the state Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB), John Niland, director of business development for Invenergy, cited delays in permitting, saying the company is now targeting a June 1, 2020 opening for the $700 million Clear River Energy Center in Pascoag.
The Chicago-based company had previously agreed to start selling power to the regional grid in 2019. The delay means it has to find an alternative method to fulfill that obligation, such as contracting with another supplier.
Niland said timeline changes are not uncommon.
“The permitting process for the Clear River Energy Center has taken longer than originally anticipated, so we have shifted our project timelines by a year and notified ISO New England of that adjustment,” he said. “We now estimate that construction could start in 2018, with the facility operational no earlier than June 2020.”
“Our plans are to deliver power to the grid starting in 2020, when the Clear River Energy Center will help fill a roughly 10,000-megawatt gap that ISO-NE predicts will occur over the next decade with a third of the region’s energy supply leaving the grid,” he said.
Opponents of the plant say the delay raises the question
of whether it is needed as more renewable energy sources may become available.
“The Town of Burrillville believes that the proposed Invenergy plant is not needed to supply the state or the region’s energy needs, which can be supplied from existing and emerging energy sources,” said town spokeswoman Dyana Koelsch. “The proposed plant has caused deep concern and opposition from almost every Rhode Island Community as well as the Town of Burrillville.”
At present, the EFSB final hearing on the power plant is scheduled to occur on 18 non-consecutive days between Oct. 4 and Dec. 25.
Last month, a Superior Court judge denied Invenergy’s motion to dismiss two lawsuits filed in April by the Town of Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation. The two lawsuits both seek the same thing: A declaration that the town of Johnston has no legal right under the 1915 Act to obtain water from Providence for the power plant.
Invenergy had argued for dismissal of the suits, saying Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, which is a prerequisite to seeking a declaratory judgment.
In his decision, Judge Michael A. Silverstein rejected CLF’s two main arguments in favor of its standing, but accepted CLF’s argument that the court should overlook the lack of standing to proceed to the merits of the case anyway because of the strong public interest in having the legality of the water contract decided.
On Jan. 11, the Johnston City Council approved a longterm agreement to sell water to the company, but the town and CLF argue in their lawsuits that selling water to Invenergy for use at a power plant is not a use anticipated by the 1915 Act that established the Providence Water Supply.
Both the Conservation Law Foundation and the Town of Burrillville are asking a Superior Court judge to issue a summary judgment in the matter.
According to the lawsuits, the current the version of the 1915 Act provides that certain cities and towns, including the Town of Johnston, ‘shall have the right to take and receive water … for use for domestic, fire and other ordinary municipal water supply purposes.” Johnston’s selling water to Invenergy for Invenergy to use at a power plant located in Burrillville is not a use by Johnston “for domestic, fire, or ordinary municipal water supply purposes,” the complaint says. “Johnston therefore has no legal right to purchase water from Providence for resale to Invenergy.”
The EFSB has asked for five supplemental advisory opinions on Invenergy’s new water supply plan. In addition to the Burrillville building inspector, the Rhode Island Department of Health, Department of Environmental Management, Department of Transportation and Statewide Planning will have four months to provide supplemental advisory opinions to address the impacts of the proposed new water plan and gaps identified in the original advisory opinions.
Last year, the EFSB denied separate motions by Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation to dismiss Invenergy’s application. The town’s original motion to dismiss was filed in September on the grounds that Invenergy’s application is incomplete and did not include information regarding all required support facilities, including water resources. The EFSB, which will have final say on whether the plant is built, voted a month later in October to suspend the application and ordered the company to report back by Jan. 11, 2017 with a new plan to secure water for plant after two water suppliers in Burrillville rejected proposals to sell water.
On Jan. 11, the last day of the suspension period and the day after the Johnston City Council approved a long-term agreement to sell water to the company, Invenergy filed its revised water supply plan.