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Connecticut Ratepayers to Pay Bulk of Costs for Regional Power Line

Posted on: Monday, 19 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Rob Varnon, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport

Jun. 16--The region's electricity grid operator disallowed $120 million in costs for a new power line between Bethel and Norwalk on Thursday, almost doubling the cost to Connecticut ratepayers.

In all, state residents will pay for $173 million of the $357 million cost of the Bethel-to-Norwalk power line.

The Connecticut Light & Power Co., which is building the line, applied to the region's grid manager to have those costs shared among the six New England states. The new line will stretch 20 miles when completed, with 12 underground. It will be fully energized this fall, according to CL&P.

Beryl Lyons, a state Department of Public Utility Control spokeswoman, said the Bethel line could add between $8 and $12 a year to customers' bills. But, she said, the cost will slowly decrease over the 40 years customers will pay for the line.

Under federal rules, states on a common grid system can share the cost of projects that benefit that grid system. In a perfect scenario, each state's portion of projects would equal the amount of power the state consumes.

Connecticut uses about 27 percent of New England's power, and CL&P argued residents here should only pay approximately $96 million of the total.

But in its draft decision, Independent System Operator New England said $119.9 million of the project only benefits Connecticut. The ISO specifically targeted the decision to place 12 miles of the project underground instead of above ground and disputed some routing changes. Because the project will help ease some of the strain on the region's grid, the ISO supported the sharing of the remaining costs among the states.

Many of Connecticut's sister New England states objected to paying for the placement of the lines underground and called it "gold plating.""We gave it our best shot," said Frank Poirot, a CL&P spokesman. He said the ISO's criteria only looks at the functionality and cost of the line, not the aesthetics. CL&P argued the line would not have been built at all if the demands of communities along the route were not honored.

Connecticut pays about $100 million a month in federal charges because its power lines are aging and in danger of being overloaded, Poirot said.

But, Poirot added, the fight isn't over because CL&P has 30 days to file comments and the final figure could change.

He said the ISO's decision does not necessarily bode ill for CL&P and The United Illuminating Co.'s much larger, $1.3 billion Middletown-to-Norwalk transmission line.

The 69-mile Middletown project includes 24 miles of underground line.

But Poirot said the underground portion of this project runs through heavily urbanized areas in Fairfield County where putting lines overhead would be almost as expensive. The ISO has not taken up the question of the cost allocation for the Middletown project.

After the final cost for the Bethel project is determined, Poirot said, CL&P must apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recoup the costs of building the line.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport

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NU,

Source: Connecticut Post

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