03.30.05
The power problem
Lamoille's critical electric need dates
back three decades
BY LISA MCCORMACK, STOWE REPORTER
Stowe
Electric Department’s decision last week to cease guaranteeing
power for new construction raised an alarm on a problem first
identified in 1974.
In the three decades since, utility companies in Lamoille
County have made several temporary fixes to the power system,
but they have consistently balked at what experts say is the
only long-term solution – building larger lines into
the county to provide substantially more electricity to the
local power grid.
The stumbling block has always been the cost of new lines.
It has risen from $2.6 million in 1974 to a current estimate
of more than $20 million for a new and controversial power
line from Duxbury to Stowe and system upgrades.
Then in 2001, with Stowe Mountain Resort’s expansion
in mid review and approvals for several large-scale developments
pending, Stowe Electric decided it had to take action.
It contacted the Vermont Electric Power Company, asked it
to create a design for a 115 kilovolt line, and offered to
pay for the state permit fee application and a large share
of the construction costs. VELCO finished its planning work
in 2003 and filed its proposal for the new line in 2004.
“Stowe deserves credit for pushing the request forward
and taking the bull by the horns to make the project happen,”
said VELCO Manager of Public Relations Dave Mace.
VELCO studies power needs, and proposes, builds and owns power
lines, while Green Mountain Power provides the electricity
to Stowe’s system, which is managed by the Stowe electric
department.
Small
patches, bigger problem
Back in 1976 VELCO recommended that the four utility companies
serving Lamoille County connect to one another to serve as
back ups should one or more system run into problems or get
overloaded. VELCO warned that this would only be a temporary
fix and that it would be necessary to bring in substantially
more power. As far back as 1974 state and local officials
were talking about a 115kV line from Duxbury, which is what
is currently proposed.
The Vermont Department of Public Service, which oversees the
state’s utility companies, agreed with VELCO’s
assessment. A document circulated by the department at that
time states that while the emergency tie would delay the expenditure
on the 115 kV line, it would eventually have to be done.
The emergency tie and other smaller temporary fixes were completed
in the late 1970s. They helped to maintain reliability, but
with continued development and demand on the system its inadequacies
again became apparent in 1986.
It was at that time that the Public Service Board demanded
that Lamoille County utility companies convene to work out
a solution to the problem. Public service board records show
that numerous meetings were held, but no resolution was reached,
based in large part on disagreements over the cost of the
improvements would be divided up among the utility companies
serving the area, Green Mountain Power, Morrisville Power
and Light, Stowe electric and the Hardwick electric department.
More studies were conducted by Green Mountain Power, VELCO
and Central Vermont Public Service from 1987 through 1992,
all showing the need for system upgrades to maintain the reliability
of the system.
No action was taken, however, until 1993 when Morrisville
Water and Light took the lead and filed an application to
rebuild the power line that runs from Johnson to Morrisville.
When that permit was granted in 1994, state regulators again
warned that this was yet another temporary fix and that the
115 kV line was still needed.
Documents from the Department of Public Service at the time
stated: “If the proposed project is not built, development
within Stowe’s service territory will be significantly
hampered.”
The Morrisville Water and Light project was completed in 1996
and was the last significant power line upgrade in the county.
Then came the proposed $300 expansion at Stowe Mountain Resort.
Identifying the need for more power, the District 5 Environmental
Commission during Act 250 proceedings made energy demand –
and supply shortages – a top priority.
A 1999 study by Central Vermont Public Service found that
Stowe Mountain Resort’s master plan would add 13.8 megawatts
of demand over a decade, leading up to 2008. Stowe’s
grid could safely handle up to about 75 megawatts, and it
was already being stressed.
The study also found that: “...The existing Stowe Electric
system and Northern Loop configuration cannot carry the additional
load proposed for SMR without some type of system upgrades.”
As a result of increased electrical demand, the environmental
commission concluded in its land use permit to the resort
that all new construction should be reported to and approved
by the electric department annually.
The proposed upgrade would increase Stowe’s electric
capacity by about 25 megawatts. Now, as Stowe Electric and
other area utilities wait for state approval on the new 115
kV all agree that they can’t wait much longer.
“This problem is not going away,” Richard Hinners,
a VELCO electrical planning engineer, said at a recent hearing
for the project. “For each increase in load over the
past 30 years, an incremental transmission upgrade has been
proposed and implemented. No one fix has been so successful
that a subsequent need has not been identified due to additional
load growth.”
When will demand exceed supply
Just how many new construction projects—or more specifically,
how many new homes—it will take to push the system serving
Stowe past the breaking point is hard to determine, experts
say.
“It’s not a finite amount where you get to a certain
point, and when it’s gone it’s gone,” Mace
said. “As far as a single house is concerned, it’s
like a grain of sand on the beach. But, the cumulative effect
is that it weakens an already stretched system.”
Unlike like water which just runs out, electric supply gets
thinner and thinner, leading to increased service problems
and brownouts.
Currently, the entire Lamoille County electrical grid, known
as the Green Mountain Power Northern Loop, is at its capacity
of 75 megawatts. At that level a single event such as a fallen
power line or damage to a key piece of equipment could cause
brown outs or black outs in the Stowe area, Mace said.
The problem is entirely local and is caused by reliability
issues within the Lamoille County grid, unlike the Northwest
Reliability Project in Chittenden County, which involves the
overall electric grid in Vermont, according to Mace. That
is why local utility companies must cover the cost of the
new line.
Just how much each utility company will be responsible for
will be determined once the state has issued a permit for
the project.
Reprinted
with permission of the Stowe Reporter
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