The Honorable Russell Prescott, Chairman
Committee on Energy & Natural Resources
New Hampshire State Senate
The State House
Concord, NH 03301
Dear Chairman Prescott:
Our organizations support SB 200 and the protocols it creates for the potential use of state-owned transportation rights of way as locations for energy infrastructure. We believe SB 200 provides a possible pathway for a win-win resolution of difficult issues presented by new merchant transmission projects likely to arise in today’s rapidly transforming energy market place.
We recognize that to successfully meet future electricity needs in New Hampshire and New England new and upgraded transmission systems will be needed to get electricity from its source to consumers. We also recognize that in each choice we make about specific energy projects there are trade-offs, often complicated by the dynamic electricity market itself. SB 200 provides New Hampshire with a new pathway to meet future electricity transmission needs while at the same time avoiding the most negative impacts of large over-head transmission towers. It may also provide a new stream of revenue to the State to help meet the needs of highway and bridge maintenance.
If New Hampshire is to host a high voltage extension cord from Quebec to electricity markets to our south, the extension cord must only be built on terms that are acceptable to the people of New Hampshire, and particularly to the communities directly affected by a proposed project. SB 200 provides New Hampshire with a means to address the new breed of overhead merchant transmission lines that can unnecessarily scar communities and their natural landscapes. New burial technology developed by manufacturers in Europe allow for burial of high-voltage direct current cables in a way that could deliver power through New Hampshire to markets south of us without the unsightly impacts of an overhead transmission system.
In its 2012 session the General Court enacted SB 361, which created a legislative commission to look into the feasibility of undergrounding of high voltage electric transmission systems within state-owned transportation corridors. The final report of the SB 361 Commission was conveyed to former Governor John Lynch on November 30, 2012. The Commission heard testimony over four months from a wide variety of stakeholders, including:
·
The Maine State Office of Planning, charged
with implementation of a Maine statute designed to invite bids from private
energy facility developers to use Maine
transportation corridors for underground utility infrastructure;
·
ABB, a Swiss company that has developed “ HVDC
Light” technology, which it claims can be cost competitive with overhead
transmission systems when taking into account all operating expenses over the
life of a project; the company has working applications of this technology in
Denmark and Australia; ABB has started to build a manufacturing facility for
this new HVDC Light cable in the southeastern United States in anticipation of a
growing market for their produce in North America;
·
The New Hampshire Department of
Transportation, which identified for the Commission four specific
transportation corridors that would be eligible for hosting such underground
electric systems — Interstates 93, 89, 95 and Route 101 between Manchester and
the Seacoast;
·
Independent System Operator New England, the
non-profit that manages wholesale electricity markets for the New England grid;
·
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission;
and
·
Representatives of utilities serving the New
Hampshire electricity market.
The
Commission unanimously concluded that use of state-owned transportation
corridors should be explored further.
The majority of legislators on the panel concluded that legislation
should be introduced that requires merchant transmission projects proposing to
build an overhead transmission system in New Hampshire also submit to the NH
Site Evaluation Committee an underground alternative. Earlier this year, the House passed HB 569,
which would amend the SEC’s authorizing statute to provide the guidance that
favors underground alternatives to overhead merchant transmission systems. SB 200 puts the State in the position of
having a process in place that allows the State to offer specific state-owned
corridors for such underground facilities.With SB 200, New Hampshire can set a high but attainable bar for meeting new electricity needs while at the same time protecting the natural landscapes that make our State so distinctive. We strongly encourage the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to recommend “Ought to Pass” on SB 200 to the full Senate.
Sincerely,
wabbott@forestsociety.org,
224-9945, Ext 327
Susan Arnold,
Appalachian Mountain Club
sarnold@outdoors.org,
664-2050
Christophe
Courchesne, Conservation Law Foundation
ccourchesne@clf.org,
225-3060, Ext 3017
Jim O’Brien, The
Nature Conservancy
jim_obrien@tnc.org,
224-5853, Ext 28
