12.07.04
VELCO upgrade costs skyrocket
PETER HIRSCHFELD, TIMES ARGUS

Town-requested revisions to the design and an unanticipated need for outside contractors have driven up the cost of a transmission line upgrade between Stowe and Duxbury by nearly 50 percent from original estimates, a spokesman for Vermont Electric Power Co. said Monday.

VELCO officials say the Lamoille County project has been redesigned to address concerns of landowners along the route and the new design has, in part, driven the cost from $13.4 million to an estimated $20.3 million. VELCO, the private company that owns and operates Vermont's high-voltage transmission lines, filed an application for the project with the Vermont Public Service Board Monday.

VELCO originally planned on running the new line in an existing 34.5kV transmission corridor, keeping the 34.5kV line in place and building a larger 115kV line next to it. Landowners responded unfavorably to the plan, however, which would have increased rights of way along the corridor from 100 to 150 feet.
VELCO's new design calls for the existing 34.5kV line to be removed and then reconstructed 25 feet away from where it is now; the 115kV line would be built in the 34.5kV line's place, keeping the rights of way at 100 feet, but sending the cost skyward.

"We redesigned the project significantly from when we first proposed it, and the reduction in the expansion of the right of way and re-engineering the project to put both the 34.5 kV line currently in place and the 115kV line in the same 100-foot corridor added to the expense," said VELCO spokesman David Mace. He said the design revisions stemmed from "concerns from towns and individual landowners."

Mace said the company's use of outside contractors for construction would further spike the project's costs. VELCO's intial estimates were based on in-house construction rates. Mace said the company is already overextended with other projects and will be unable to perform the work itself.

"Some of the initial estimates were based on having VELCO perform some of this work, but due to the extremely high workload VELCO personnel are currently carrying, our proposal is to use outside contractors for some of this work," Mace said. "Obviously that is more expensive than doing the work ourselves."

Project manager Kim Moulton has said increased electricity demands and aging infrastructure have led to substandard reliability of the transmission system and a likely shortage of capacity in the near future. The project would safeguard ratepayers in Duxbury, Waterbury and Stowe against blackouts and brownouts, company officials say.

VELCO said in a press release that about $2 million of the $20.3 million price tag will be eligible for "regional cost-sharing." The remaining $18.3 million will be absorbed by ratepayers who subscribe to area utilities, including the municipal electric departments of Stowe, Hardwick, Hyde Park, Johnson and Morrisville; Central Vermont Public Service; Green Mountain Power; and Washington Electric Co-op. The utilities are currently negotiating their respective shares.

Mace said VELCO hopes to begin construction in the summer of 2005 and have the line completed by November 2006.

Reprinted with permission of the Times Argus

DOCKET 7032
CASE SCHEDULE

02.09.05
Public hearing

02.18.05
Deadline for intervention requests

03.10.05
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03.18.05
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03.28.05
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04.11.05
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05.02.05
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05.12.05
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05.23.05
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06.03.05
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06.13.05
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06.27.05
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07.06.05
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07.07.05
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07.08.05
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08.08.05
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08.22.05
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10.19.05
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11.04.05
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12.07.05
Oral argument on proposal for decision

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