More from Mr. Muntz et al.

Testimonies, with Translations for Concerned Citizens



Excerpts from the prepared testimonies of Messrs. James A. Muntz, Northern Pass, Michael Ausere, Northeast Utilities, and Geoffrey Lubbock, NStar, before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, submitted December 15, 2010.


Mr. Muntz: “The NPT Line also helps set the stage for additional future
transmission improvements in New England, and thus added transmission

system reliability. The 40-mile AC Line from Franklin to Deerfield
extends the existing 345-kV bulk power system further north into New
Hampshire. This part of the NPT Line may provide an attractive “jump
off” point for additional reliability-based 345-kV upgrades in the future as
loads grow. Potential reliability projects enabled by this extension include
the addition of autotransformers in Franklin to enhance reliability in that
region and further expansion of the 345-kV system to points north or west
to meet future reliability needs in either New Hampshire or Vermont.”


Translation: the NPT line is just the beginning, the foot in the door. Expect wider and wider ROWs, more and more towers as Hydro-Quebec extends its reach via PSNH ROWs.


Mr Muntz: “The construction of any major transmission project requires a significant effort in the areas of siting and permitting. However, the NPT Line faces a number of unique siting and permitting risks. The NPT Line needs to obtain regulatory approvals both in New Hampshire and at the federal level. At the federal level, this involves obtaining a Presidential Permit from the DOE. One or more special use permits from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may also be needed. In New England, these are not permitting requirements and risks that are commonly associated with ordinary, routine transmission upgrades. In addition to increasing the complexity of the processes

and requirements that Northern Pass must engage in and satisfy, the additional

permitting requirements increase the possibility that federal and state agencies
will issue decisions that conflict with one another, an outcome that could delay
the project or result in its cancellation.”

Translation: NPT is “unique” because nobody has ever tried to run an HVDC line with massive towers through the White Mountain National Forest, across the National Scenic Appalachian Trail, and through the Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge.

Mr Muntz: “The NH SEC siting process involves consideration of numerous factors, including project solution alternatives, route alternatives, review of wetlands, floodplains and water resources, critical wildlife habitat, threatened or endangered wildlife and plant life, historic and cultural resources, social issues, electric and magnetic fields, engineering designs, and cost review.

Translation: “social issues” would be us, the people who will bear the brunt of this ill-conceived project; “electric and magnetic fields” is cancer.

Is there any unique risk associated with the fact that the TSA counter party is an affiliate of a foreign entity?
Messrs. Ausere and Lubbock: “Yes. HQ Hydro Renewable is affiliated with a Québec crown corporation, which in turn, is governed by Canadian laws. Despite the present cooperation between Québec and New England utilities, the fact remains that an international transaction has inherent risks that are absent in a purely domestic transaction. Although the TSA and parent guaranty include protections for Northern Pass in the event of a default by the customer, our lawyers have advised us that it is not possible to entirely eliminate the risk associated with contracting with a sovereign entity. Of course, no comparable risk exposure exists when constructing regional transmission projects, as the costs are borne by New England load under the ISO-NE OATT.”

Translation: isn’t this why the United States wished to end its dependence on OPEC? Do we now want to take the risk of making Montreal the capital of New Hampshire?  


Bury the Northern Pass is a group of concerned citizens in Grafton County working in coordination with our neighbors in Coos County. To join the email list, write to burynorthernpass@gmail.com.

Talking Turkey to the Regulators

Not Simple NIMBYism



In his prepared testimony to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filed on December 15, 2010, James A. Muntz, president of Northeast Utilities, was asked why the plan for Northern Pass includes both an HVDC line [to the Franklin converter station] and, below that, a conventional AC radial line [to Deerfield]. In other words, if HVDC transmission is so much more efficient than AC, and if most of the power is going to metro Boston and south, why not take the DC line further south in New Hampshire?

Muntz answered that the original preference was to extend the HVDC line much further south in NH, to a converter station at Scobie Pond in Londonderry, but PSNH backed off. Why? Muntz explains it:

In addition to economic and technical considerations, the design of the NPT

Line was heavily influenced by siting considerations. The initial preference

was to build the southern terminus converter station at PSNH’s Scobie

Pond substation in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Scobie Pond has

substantial developable real estate on which to build the converter and is a

robust location to interconnect into the 345-kV transmission grid. Losses

would have been lower, as well, which could have improved the economics

of the project overall. However, a thorough examination of the ROW

between PSNH’s Deerfield substation and Scobie Pond led us to conclude

that the project could not be sited at Scobie Pond. Expansion of that ROW

to accommodate the new HVDC line would result in impacts on Land Trust

areas, conservation easements, commercial buildings, and up to 50-60

private homes.

It was concluded that expansion of the ROW would result in extremely
negative public and political reaction against the plan and the overall HVDC project. It was further determined that in order to locate

the HVDC converter terminal at Scobie Pond, the ROW would need to be reconfigured with taller structures in order to incorporate the HVDC line and/or the HVDC line would need to be built underground. Either option would have been very expensive and taller structures would have had the

additional downside of not being acceptable to the home owners along

the ROW. [bold emphases ours]

 

So, in its testimony to FERC, PSNH claims that it canceled the HVDC line extension past Concord and down into southern NH because they knew that homeowners would find it unaccaptable, that there would be extremely negative public reaction, and that there would be destructive impacts on conservation easements, land trust areas, commercial buildings, and up to 50-60 private homes. 

 

By that logic, PSNH should have never even contemplated running the HVDC line 140 miles through Coos and Grafton Counties. Homeowners here find it unacceptable too, and there are more than 50-60 private homes that will be disastrously affected; so too will conservation easements and land trust areas, not to mention NH State Parks, the White Mountain National Forest, tourist facilities that feed the state's revenue coffers with meals and rooms taxes, and much more. 

 

But there is one more reason that Manchester-based PSNH didn't try to ram this down the throat of its neighbors in Rockingham County, and it's not simple NIMBYism: it would result in "extremely negative political reaction." 

 

We leave PSNH and spokesperson Muntz with several questions that FERC did not ask. What did they think was the nature of this "extremely negative political reaction"? Why did they not anticipate similar "extremely negative political reaction" in Coos and Grafton Counties? Is it because citizens in southern New Hampshire have access to political power in ways that citizens in northernmost New Hampshire do not? Should this not invoke concerns about environmental justice, the official policy of the United States meant to ensure that those without access to political power do not suffer environmental degradation? Doesn't everyone remember "Erin Brockovich" (2000), the film that explores how communities that lack resources and power can suffer environmental discrimination? And how that film ends?

Bury the Northern Pass is a group of concerned citizens in Grafton County; we work in coordination with our neighbors in Coos County. To join the email list, write to burynorthernpass@gmail.com.

Guest Column by Alexander Lee: A Second PSNH Bailout and a Montreal Takeover?

                                       PSNH Plan Is Not In The Public Good

A Letter to the Concord Monitor, December 23, 2010

                                    (reprinted by permission of the author)

 

(Founder and Executive Director of Project Laundry List, Alexander Lee received his B.A. from Middlebury College and his law degree from Vermont Law School. Alex was Assistant to the Commissioners at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, where he worked on energy efficiency programs; he has also served as staff co-chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Committee on Energy Resources & the Environment and was an active, regular participant in the New England Demand Response Initiative. Formed in 1996, Project Laundry List promotes simple, effective ways to save energy and money. Alex lives in Concord NH. He has generously granted permission to reprint his thoughts on PSNH's Northern Pass.)

 

What will Gov. John Lynch do to make his mark on New Hampshire now that he approaches his fourth term? If his friend, Gary Long, CEO of Public Service of New Hampshire, prevails, Lynch will not leave so much a mark as a scar. What a legacy!

New Hampshire is a net exporter of electricity, much of it generated from the dirty resources that PSNH still owns. Northern Pass Transmission is not a public utility, so one must wonder how, without a purchase power agreement, NSTAR/NU plans to invoke eminent domain to destroy the real estate and aesthetic values of the North Country so that it can pipe electricity to Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is not in the public good.

Hydro-Quebec (a foreign corporation) is desperately trying to wheel its power to markets across the Northeast in a buyer's market where natural gas prices have hit rock bottom. This whole project makes no sense right now, and if you want to spend $1.1 billion on an energy project (or what could be referred to as PSNH's second bailout), how about investing in conservation and efficiency?

With the highest rates in the region and an aging population, one has to wonder who Lynch thinks will be here to pay the property taxes and use the electricity. PSNH has already lost oodles of commercial and industrial customers. This cockamamie scheme will not stop the bleeding.

                                           __________________________



Bury the Northern Pass is a group of concerned citizens in Grafton County who work in coordination with our neighbors to the north in Coos County. To join the email list, write to burynorthernpass@gmail.com.