Power plant expected to be a start to solve power costs

REALLY NOT NEEDED? The proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Burrillville was rejected over the summer by state regulators after the company proposing to build it, Invenergy, could not prove to the state Energy Facility Siting Board that it was needed. Now a study by the Rocky Mountain Institute questions whether nearly all plants across the nation such as this will be economically feasible at all within a decade and a half, thus supporting more investments in renewable energy. / COURTESY INVENERGY LLC
REALLY NOT NEEDED? The proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Burrillville was rejected over the summer by state regulators after the company proposing to build it, Invenergy, could not prove to the state Energy Facility Siting Board that it was needed. Now a study by the Rocky Mountain Institute questions whether nearly all plants across the nation such as this will be economically feasible at all within a decade and a half, thus supporting more investments in renewable energy. / COURTESY INVENERGY LLC

A natural gas-powered electrical plant proposed in Burrillville could introduce more than 900 megawatts to the New England grid, and is the largest generation project in a decade in Rhode Island.

But even if approved, it won’t eradicate demand for more power supply in the region, given the expected exit of several older energy plants that produce electricity from coal or oil.

The $700 million Rhode Island plant, proposed by the Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, will replace about 26 percent of the electrical supply generated by plants in New England that are expected to retire by June 2017, according to the region’s electricity regulator, ISO-New England.

If the new plant is approved, the company anticipates starting construction in 2016. The construction would take about 30 months, said John Niland, director of business development for Invenergy. Power generation could begin by 2019.

- Advertisement -

“It’s really a good thing,” he said. “It’s going to lower gas prices for consumers in all of New England. [And] it’s going to displace some older, gas or coal-fired plants that are much more polluting.”

Plants that are closing soon include Brayton Point Station in Somerset, which produces 1,535 megawatts from coal, and which opened in 1963. It is scheduled to close in 2017.

Others already have exited the system. Salem Harbor Station, on the north shore of Massachusetts, was a coal-fired plant that produced 749 megawatts. It was retired in 2014 but will be replaced by a natural gas-fueled plant. Vermont Yankee Station in southeastern Vermont, a nuclear plant that produced 604 megawatts, closed in 2014.

ISO-New England reported in February that its annual auction to line up power resources to meet demand in the near future, for 2018-19, had attracted new competitors, but that the southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island region still had a capacity shortfall, triggering a pricing policy that will result in increased costs.

The natural gas plant proposed for Burrillville would be the first venture of Invenergy into New England. The project, called the Clear River Energy Center, would occupy a site about two miles from Wallum Lake and the Massachusetts border, now occupied by a compressor station operated by Spectra Energy Partners LP.

Spectra is the parent company of Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC, which operates a natural gas pipeline that runs north from New Jersey through Rhode Island and into Massachusetts, and connects to other transmission lines in the Southeast and Middle Atlantic. Algonquin in March received approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to upgrade its distribution pipeline and related stations in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, according to an online filing.

The new plant will help pay for expansion of the Algonquin transmission lines, Niland said.

“Right now, New England has the highest natural gas prices in the country,” he said. “If I were just to connect this plant into the pipeline and not do an expansion, I’d be aggravating the situation. I’d be making prices even higher. I can’t do that.”

In Providence, National Grid is also pursuing an expansion of its natural gas processing capabilities.

The utility company is seeking approval for a natural gas liquefaction facility at its Fields Point property, which would allow it to provide additional storage of natural gas on-site to be used for heating purposes.

The facility sought by National Grid would allow the company to chill natural gas until it reaches a liquid state, where it could be stored in an existing tank on the site.

Potentially, the new facility would cost $100 million, but it is in initial planning stages, according to National Grid spokesman David Graves.

If approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the project construction could begin in the fall of 2016.

For the Burrillville plant, Invenergy has filed an air-emission application with the R.I. Department of Environmental Management. But the siting decision falls to the state Energy Facility Siting Board. Burrillville has created a page on the project on its website, although it acknowledges that “the town has very little legal control over the siting.”

In Greater New England, natural gas provided 43 percent of the region’s peak usage in the summer of 2013, according to a recent report published by the ISO, followed by nuclear at 18 percent, oil at 11 percent, coal at 9 percent and hydro at 10 percent. Electricity generated by wind farms fell into the 5 percent “other” category that year. •

No posts to display