[D]evelopers say they’re undeterred by New York’s rejection of an application for a 400-megawatt power line that would run under Lake Champlain and end in New Haven, for which they filed pre-application paperwork in Vermont last week.
The seven reasons the New York Public Service Commission cites in its denial of the application all concern additional information the agency seeks. None of the items takes issue with the project itself.
“Those letters are quite common with large-scale, comprehensive applications like we’re proposing,” said Joe Rossignoli, director of U.S. business development at National Grid, which is a partner in the project with another energy infrastructure company, Anbaric. “That letter is not a concern to us.”
Anbaric and National Grid are undertaking the project through a limited liability corporation called Green Line Infrastructure Alliance.
Documents filed in Vermont give the developer 45 days to file an application with the Public Service Board. The developers submitted their 45-day pre-application notice with affected municipalities Friday.
The New Haven Selectboard gave its support to the project last month in response to a survey in which a small subset of residents endorsed it by almost a 2-to-1 margin, according to the Selectboard chairwoman.
That should affect how things go when the application comes before the Public Service Board, a state official said.
“Any application … is going to have a smoother path when they’re working closely with the municipalities to secure their support,” said Deputy Public Service Commissioner Jon Copans, speaking in particular of so-called Section 248 applications for energy infrastructure.
As part of the survey process, New Haven leaders convened technical experts, including an attorney and a sound engineer, over three evenings to answer residents’ questions, said Selectboard Chairwoman Kathy Barrett. Residents who took the survey favored the project in spite of reluctance many expressed when it first came before them about six months ago, she said.
Since first proposing the project to townspeople in December, the developers have offered the town more compensation, Barrett said. Instead of paying $1 million a year for the next 20 years, including property taxes, the corporation will pay $1.4 million the first year, including property taxes, and increase that 1 percent a year for the next 40 years, she said.
The company also promised New Haven more than $3 million to replace its aging fire station, Barrett said.
Only a fraction of New Haven residents filled out the survey, Barrett said, but Selectboard members had committed to acting based on its results.
“A lot of people are upset, but that’s the way the survey went,” Barrett said. “A lot of people are happy, too.”
“If people are upset because it didn’t go the way they wanted, and they didn’t vote, well, shame on them,” she said. “You can’t complain about who’s president if you didn’t vote.”
Barrett said the Selectboard intends to protect neighbors of the project as much as possible. New Haven would host a station converting the line’s power from direct current to alternating current, which the developers say is necessary for long-distance transmission. The board has negotiated assurances the facility won’t emit more than 40 decibels as measured at its property line, Barrett said.
Company representatives at a public meeting in December refused to agree to any sound limits that would be measured at the facility’s property line.
“I think there’s potential for this to be very good for New Haven, but I think the neighbors need to be treated fairly,” Barrett said.
Proponents expect the project to carry about 400 megawatts of power from wind turbines in upstate New York to the New England power grid. Hydroelectric power, likely from Quebec, would supplement the wind energy when conditions require, according to the developers.
Southern New England states want the power to help them meet targets for how much of their energy comes from renewable sources. A group of states had requested proposals for projects to help them meet those renewable energy standards, and this one — dubbed the Vermont Green Line — is meant to be one.
The cable would stretch roughly 60 miles from Beekmantown, New York, to New Haven, running beneath Lake Champlain for most of that length.
