FYI: Northern Pass High Voltage Transmission Project

[peakbagger]

A recent editorial in the Concord Monitor

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/8782786-95/my-turn-suddenly-northern-pass-doesnt-look-unstoppable

I would expect PSNH may object to the characterization.

 

[peakbagger]

AMC has released a series of flyover of the impact of the route

http://www.outdoors.org/conservation/wherewework/wmnf/northern-pass-video-project.cfm

 

[peakbagger]

I didn't look at all of them but didn't realize that they crossed over WMNF territory south of Lincoln (Russell Pond area?) as well as the big crossing south of South Kinsman

 

[RoySwkr]

A recent editorial in the Concord Monitor

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/8782786-95/my-turn-suddenly-northern-pass-doesnt-look-unstoppable

Note that this is _not_ an editorial written by the Monitor, it is an opinion piece written by a reader which exceeds the 300-word length for a letter

The Monitor editorially supports Northern Pass (if buried in Concord), and prints a full-page NP ad in many issues

 

[peakbagger]

Competing proposal. Of interest is its is a merchant line. Hydro Quebec is not a partner.

http://nhpr.org/post/new-hydropower-transmission-line-proposed-vermont

 

[Raven]

The newly proposed high voltage line is called the New England Clean Power Link (NECPL). This is their website:

http://necplink.com/clippings.php

The project is being privately funded by Blackstone and TDI who are also backing the Champlain-Hudson line for NY (the same scale project, 1000MW). The NY project has received state permitting and has published a draft EIS. This project was proposed at the same time as NP but has had far less opposition and has a reputation of working with environmental groups and local citizens.

An interesting blog from CLF:

http://www.clf.org/blog/clean-energy-climate-change/promising-option-new-england-clean-power-link-means-region-northern-pass/

From the above:

"Champlain Hudson has earned the support of environmental groups and New York state government agencies, in part through the developer’s agreement to fund a $117 million environmental trust that will help enhance aquatic habitats and fisheries resources in Lake Champlain and the Hudson, Harlem, and East River systems. Notably, for both Champlain Hudson and the Clean Power Link, the project developers have engaged CLF and other stakeholders with openness and a commitment to addressing important concerns with accurately conveyed data and analysis. This is in stark contrast to Northeast Utilities’ disingenuous, adversarial, and dishonest approach to promoting Northern Pass."

If you are interested, you can file a new scoping comment that requests the DOE to undertake a complete analysis of underground transmission alternatives in New Hampshire AND IN OTHER STATES. That can be done through the link below but the deadline is Tuesday, November 5 (this Tuesday!)

http://northernpasseis.us/comments/

NP has continually claimed burying the line would be prohibitively expensive. There are now two similar proposals in NY/NE that contradict this and are planning on being 100% buried with no above ground lines. This fact, combined with the strong opposition to NP, NP's refusal to work with the citizens of NH, and the strong push back by groups like the Forest Society, IMO NP may be about to go away for good.

 

[Red Oak]

http://www.necn.com/12/05/13/Report...g.html?&apID=1beadc53705b4fa5a1d51673d2383448 Kind of related maine news on alternative energy.

 

[Vermonster]

http://www.necn.com/12/05/13/Report...g.html?&apID=1beadc53705b4fa5a1d51673d2383448 Related maine news on this threads topic.

For those interested in reading the summary or full report, they are found on this page:
https://maineaudubon.org/wildlife-habitat/wind-power-and-wildlife/

Direct link to the full report --Warning 7MB PDF -- is here: http://maineaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wind-Power-and-Wildlife-Full-Report.pdf

This is only peripherally related to northern pass--in fact the analysis completely fails t take into account the need for new transmission line construction.

Regardless, very VFTT relevant as you will see from the statewide map broadly, and the specific illustrated example, which is centered on Saddleback/Horn.

 

[peakbagger]

This link http://bangordailynews.com/2013/11/...-energy-future-in-new-england/?ref=relatedBox contains a nice summary of where new England is getting its energy and also has a section on regional transmission lines.

I did note this interesting quote
“I think all of us are very flexible as to where new transmission would go, and whether Northern Pass is a future part of the energy structure is up to the people of New Hampshire,” said Esty, Connecticut’s energy and environmental protection commissioner.

 

[Creag Nan Drochaid]

Listening Sessions on Site Evaluation Committee criteria 12/10 Lebanon, 12/17 Plymouth

Pursuant to Senate bill 99 from the 2013 session, the Office of Energy and Planning is hosting two more public listening sessions to gather citizen input on the criteria used to site energy facilities in NH. This of course includes wind turbines on our ridges. Both sessions start at 6 PM. Lebanon is at the city council chambers in city hall on Colburn Park. Plymouth is at the PSU ice arena on Rte 175A (Holderness Road). Background info at the OEP website.

 

[Red Oak]

http://www.necn.com/12/12/13/Maine-...g.html?&apID=bbb27a2fa6884f7f9bcd95ed10540a84 more info on the Maine front of "alternative energy".interesting if this development changes maine audubon's stance on wind energy.Also how does this affect the future of northern pass here in nh?

 

[peakbagger]

Recent news

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20131231/NEWS05/131239845

The quick summary is that technically the new england grid can take the power supplied by Northern Pass. Generally a project does not submit an application unless they reasonably can expect that they can connect but the process is they have to pay ISO New England to do a third party study confirming it

Important to note is this section

Rourke noted that the New England Power Pool Reliability Committee, set up to advise ISO on such matters, did not vote in support of the determination.

Therefore this committee has deemed that NP is not needed for reliability at this time. I expect this will change as the impact of the current Natural Gas shortages in southern New England and the retirement of coal plants continues. In some ways delaying NP tends to make it somewhat more viable if it gets to the point where it is needed for reliability.

 

[Red Oak]

http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/nh...ass/-/9857858/24069990/-/3nw7juz/-/index.html some recent news....

 

[Tom_Murphy]

This short slide presenation examines the issues ISO New England will face as the power generation mix changes from coal, oil, nuclear to nat gas and renewables.

http://www.scottmadden.com/insight/674/Light-or-Heat.html

 

[Vermonster]

This short slide presenation examines the issues ISO New England will face as the power generation mix changes from coal, oil, nuclear to nat gas and renewables.

http://www.scottmadden.com/insight/674/Light-or-Heat.html

Which ties nicely with the following article in the Portland Press Herald:

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Governors_craft_plan_to_develop_gas_and_electric_resources.html

Governors craft plan to develop gas and electric resources
New England ratepayers would help foot bill, but would save on overall energy costs

By Tux Turkel [email protected]
Staff Writer

The six New England governors have set in motion a first-of-its-kind plan to increase the region’s natural gas pipeline capacity by nearly 20 percent in three years and to build at least one major electric transmission line to bring renewable energy from Canada.

Utility customers would be asked to help pay for these projects, which together could cost billions of dollars. But the costs soon would be recovered by savings on energy bills as the projects increase supplies of lower cost power, according to Tom Welch, chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission and an architect of the plan.

 

[RoySwkr]

The Winter 2014 issue of the SPNHF magazine FOREST NOTES has an article on various powerline proposals, which includes (p. 32)

"In New York, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) opposed the Power Express project over concerns that it would compete unfairly with domestic power producers. In New Hampshire, the IBEW has been a proponent of Northern Pass, hoping for transmission construction jobs while arguing that its members do not have the expertise to build an underground line."

http://forestsociety.org/pdf/fn20141.pdf

This sounded peculiar so I asked an IBEW rep, after saying that the burial technology was untested and shouldn't be tried on such a long line to begin with, he said the cable manufacturer was a foreign company and would only warranty the cable if it was installed by their own employees - so it sounds more like the IBEW won't be allowed to install the buried line rather than that they are unable to. So now we may have a jobs fight - foreign cable and foreign workers vs. USA cable and USA jobs.

 

[peakbagger]

Its pretty easy to ally those fears, I work with European equipment suppliers on occasion, including I expect the cable supplier. Rarely if ever does a European supplier ship their own crews to the US to actually do installation as work rules in Europe are far more restrictive than even union rules in the US. The firms generally send over technical supervisors and hire local labor which could be union or non union. The majority of the cost for a buried line is the cost to blast a trench in the ground and lay it out so that minimum bend radii are maintained which may require cutting and filling of the right of way. This is done by a civil sub with no direct involvement by IBEW. The reality is that there are few skilled linesmen in the region that can support the work so that the above the ground project will be staffed predominately by IBEW workers from outside the area. NP could easily specify union crewing to the firm doing the cables. This was done on the Berlin boiler project with mixed results .

I expect IBEW is supporting the project as they have been given a choice of supporting an above ground project or no project at all as PSNH's intransigence to date has most likely put them out of the running if they have to rescope for a buried line.

 

[RoySwkr]

The majority of the cost for a buried line is the cost to blast a trench in the ground and lay it out so that minimum bend radii are maintained which may require cutting and filling of the right of way.

The above-ground lines allow kinks in the bare cable, is it the coating that requires a certain radius?

Following existing transportation corridors would pretty much guarantee acceptable grades. Do they really use much blasting, or is it like septic systems where they put it above existing ledge and just fill over?

 

[DougPaul]

The above-ground lines allow kinks in the bare cable, is it the coating that requires a certain radius?

Remember, these cables carry hundreds of thousands of volts. Sharp bends and points increase the local electric field--not a problem with the low voltage cables that are familiar to most of us, but a serious issue for high voltage cables.

An above ground line is insulated by the air surrounding it so in theory a kink may not be catastrophic. (In practice, a kink will mechanically weaken the line and increase the chance of corona and arcing.) Note that there are moderately sharp bends at the insulators.

An underground cable consists of a center conductor surrounded by a thick insulator, a (grounded) conducting layer, and then a protective jacket. Sharp bends can deform the geometry of the cable and cause it to arc and/or short out. An example of a 400KV cable is shown in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_cable (One reference suggests that such cables might be 6 inches to a foot in diameter.)

Following existing transportation corridors would pretty much guarantee acceptable grades. Do they really use much blasting, or is it like septic systems where they put it above existing ledge and just fill over?

Maybe--if damaged these cables can explode and/or kill anyone who happens to be nearby. (Do you really want to step on one while wearing crampons?)

Above ground wires can cross ledges without difficulty, buried lines have to be buried below some depth to protect them from injury. Stream crossings are also more problematical for buried cables than for aerial cables.

 

[Waumbek]

New petition to NH Governor Hassan to stop or bury the Northern Pass transmission line, to be presented to her on the occasion of the 38th annual New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers economic/energy conference at Bretton Woods in July 2014. The goal is 6,000 signatures; nearly 2,000 have signed on the first weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiD_lD0Rq8&feature=youtu.be