Rhode Island Breaking News
Proposed Power Grid Upgrade to Cost Rhode Island Ratepayers $63
Million 8/21
Proposed Power Grid Upgrade to Cost
Rhode Island Ratepayers $63 Million
(August 21) A proposal before the Federal Regulatory Energy
Commission (FERC) would require Rhode Island ratepayers to pay some $63 million to upgrade
antiquated sections of the power grid in New England, even though the state's transmission
system is working just fine. Elia Germani, chairman of Rhode Island's Public Utilities
Commission, opposes the idea and says the ratepayers who live in the areas and who will
directly benefit from the upgrades should pay more than everyone else.
Last week's massive power outage has called attention to the
aging transmission lines within the nation's power grid.In New England, weak transmission
systems were blamed for the outage that struck southwest Connecticut and small sections of
Massachusetts and Vermont. The rest of the region was not affected, largely because other
parts of the system are in good shape, power-grid officials said.
While regulators, utility companies and ISO New England, the
company that operates New England's power grid, agree that upgrades are needed in
Connecticut and elsewhere, there's no consensus about who should pay for it.
Some argue that the entire region would benefit from the
improvements, so all electricity customers in New England should share the costs equally.
Others, such as Germani, say local areas that will see the most benefit from power-grid
upgrades should shoulder more of the costs.
ISO New England, which operates the six-state power grid, has
estimated that $900 million needs to be spent to improve the region's power grid over the
next 5 to 10 years. "The projects are to bolster our grid for New England," said
Steve Whitley, chief operating officer for ISO New England. "If we have pockets that
are unreliable, it can affect the whole grid."
About $700 million of that would beef up the transmission system
in southwest Connecticut, which ISO New England has described as "antiquated"
and the "weak link" in the region's power grid. Other projects include
transmission improvements in Massachusetts and Vermont. There are no plans for work in
Rhode Island, Whitley said.
ISO New England and New England Power Pool, an association of
electric utility companies in the region, have proposed paying for upgrades, such as those
planned for Connecticut, by sharing the costs proportionally among all the states, based
on how much electricity is used. The two organizations filed such a plan, as they were
required to do by FERC.
Rhode Island consumes about 7 percent of New England's
electricity, Germani said. The current plan to invest $900 million in New England would
mean that electricity customers in the state would be responsible for about $63 million
for the improvement projects.
Germani said that Rhode Islanders should not have to pay for the
problems in Connecticut because, to some degree, that state brought the problems on
itself. He said the Connecticut state legislature had imposed a moratorium that restricted
transmission improvements. And the not-in-my-backyard phenomenon among residents in
Connecticut has contributed to the problems as well, he said.
Whitley said the problem with that approach is that it's very
difficult to tell who is the beneficiary of a particular project. "You can't chase
who really got the benefit," he said. "It's just an impossible task. The New
England grid is closely tied together and improvements to its reliability benefit all the
states. We look at the system in total, not from the perspective of one state," he
said.
Source: Providence Journal
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