[D]evelopers are proposing to build a 400-megawatt power inverter facility in New Haven that would be fed by a transmission line from New York state.
National Grid, an international energy company, wants to erect a power inverter near downtown New Haven that would turn direct current power from New York into alternating current. That power would then be sold to the New England grid, according to Joe Rossignoli, the development director for National Grid.
Rossignoli said direct current experiences less loss over distance than alternating current, and said that it’s preferable for transmitting power between regional grids.
The project, a joint venture of National Grid and Anbaric Transmission, includes construction of a new 60-mile, two-strand power line from Plattsburgh, New York, to New Haven. Forty miles of the transmission line would run beneath Lake Champlain, Rossignoli said.
The facility would bring “clean hydro and wind [energy] into New England,” Rossignoli said.
Company representatives did not provide additional details on the source of the energy, other than to say that it would include hydropower from Canada and new wind power from New York.
Dubbed “The Vermont Green Line,” National Grid’s proposal is one of several under consideration in Vermont and New Hampshire that would carry “green” hydropower to southern New England. States in the region have passed new laws requiring that a certain portion of their energy needs be met with power from renewable sources, and electricity from large hydro plants, such as Hydro-Quebec, is considered to be renewable.
New Haven pushes back on noise from inverter
But at a town meeting that drew testy remarks from company representatives, New Haven residents who are worried about the impact of noise from the inverter on property values wanted to know just how loud the facility will be.
National Grid, an international energy company, has built power facilities in the United States and abroad, but Rossignoli said he was unable to say how much noise the proposed electrical station would produce.
Pam Marsh, the meeting moderator and a justice of the peace in New Haven, was not satisfied with Rossignoli’s response. “You’ve been asked multiple times what [the sound level] is going to be at the property line — answer the question,” Marsh said.
“I think I have: We’re not going to measure that,” Rossignoli said.
The company will agree to limit noise levels measured at the exterior of a resident’s home, he said, but will not limit sound from the inverter that could be audible from residential property beyond a resident’s walls.
Rossignoli later agreed to allow residents to view sound modeling projections, but said his company would not agree to sound limits except at the walls of neighboring homes.
National Grid does not compensate neighbors for the impact of power facilities on property values and therefore does not collect historical information about noise levels elsewhere, Rossignoli said. Compensation to neighbors for potential harm to property values would result in an increase in energy prices, he said.
“I respect the fact that you’d like to know that, but we’re thinking that it’s more important for folks to know what it’s going to sound like at their home,” Rossignoli said. “No one’s going to live at the property line.”
Richard Saudek, the town’s attorney and a former chair of the Vermont Public Service Board, told residents their fears about noise from the inverter harming property values were well-founded, and that they were justified in seeking to establish noise limits at the developer’s property lines.
Sound has been “a big issue” in power-related developments across the state, Saudek said, citing wind turbines as an example. He said residents would be better off establishing sound limits at property lines rather than at the walls of neighboring homes.
“Initially when they put wind generators in, when they were going through the permitting process, everybody thought they were going to be silent,” Saudek said. “They’re not.
“The measurement of sound, and this whole business of ambient sound … I think in going for certain standards at the property lines that kind of takes out the questions having to do with ambient sound,” Saudek said.
Noise produced by power facilities has repeatedly led to litigation before the Public Service Board, he said.
“I think you’re right to be concerned about it,” Saudek said. “I think the [New Haven] Select Board is going to want to nail that down pretty definitively before they come to any judgment on it.”
One New Haven resident said the town already has more than its share of Vermont’s energy infrastructure.
“We know that VELCO line that’s just a mile down the road is very loud as it is — it echoes through the village,” Suzy Roorda said.
“I understand that we need certain things in Vermont that come from other places, but we don’t need to be a conduit for everything” she said. “We’ve got Vermont Gas on North Street, we’ve got the VELCO line … We’re surrounded by all these power structures in this little town.”
National Grid is prepared to pay the town of New Haven up to $1 million per year in property and other taxes, Rossignoli said.
The project would create 500 jobs, Rossignoli said, including indirect jobs created to provide service to construction workers.
A former top aide for Gov. Peter Shumlin, now employed by a prominent Montpelier lobbying firm, expanded on that number.
The project would create 1,578 jobs, Alexandra MacLean, partner at KSE Partners and a spokesperson for the project, wrote in an email.
That number actually represents the average number of people employed each year over the three-year construction cycle, multiplied by three, MacLean stated — the equivalent, in other words, of 500 jobs each lasting three years.
Of what she described as 1,578 jobs, 375 would be held by construction workers, MacLean said. MacLean said she could not answer whether that figure represents the equivalent of 125 jobs each lasting three years.
The remaining job numbers represent a projection of the number of people who would be employed in the community to provide services to the construction workers, Rossignoli said.
One or two of those jobs may remain to staff the facility after the three-year construction period, he said. The facility may be run remotely instead, in which case no jobs will remain at the site, he said.
The project “will prioritize hiring locally wherever possible,” MacLean said.
Residents should be heartened by the significant concessions the company has already extended to them, Rossignoli said.
Originally, National Grid wanted to build a 1,000 megawatt facility, according to information provided to the Department of Public Service in 2014.
In addition, he said, National Grid would build the New Haven facility to better aesthetic standards than a similar structure in New Jersey, which used only the cheapest materials.
