The state’s transmission utility has set a price for Vermont Gas to use its utility corridor as part of its natural gas pipeline extension through Addison County.
Vermont Gas spokesman Steve Wark said Friday the company intends to pay $450,000 for about 51 acres within the utility corridor. The price includes access roads, he said.
The company plans to route sections of a 41-mile pipeline extension through a utility corridor owned by Vermont Electric Power Co., or VELCO. Vermont Gas said it has already started site work in one section of the corridor.
Wark said Vermont Gas supports the financial agreement with VELCO but has not signed it.
“We believe it to be fair. Obviously, we would like it to be less if we could,” Wark said.
VELCO Vice President Kerrick Johnson said the price is designed to strike a balance between state land use and energy planning policy, the safety and reliability of the state’s electric grid, and flexibility to accommodate any future uses of the corridor, such as new transmission lines.
Johnson said the right of way for Vermont Gas could set a new precedent for future uses in utility corridors, including co-locating electric and gas infrastructure.
The cost of the company’s pipeline is will be $121 million, up from the original estimate of $83 million submitted to state regulators last year.
Wark said the cost of using the utility corridor was included in the company’s most recent estimate filed to the Vermont Public Service Board.
The Vermont Public Service Board has ordered the company not to work in all but one section of the corridor as part of its investigation into soil contamination resulting from a toxic chemical used to treat utility poles.
