By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
PROVIDENCE — The construction of 10 wind turbines, and possibly
dozens more, has been stymied by a dispute between a renewable-energy developer
and National Grid.
For more than three years, Wind Energy Development LLC, headed by
construction company owner Mark DePasquale, has been feuding with National Grid
over the cost of connecting proposed turbines to the electric grid, a process
known as interconnection.
So far, Wind Energy Development (WED) has built one
commercial-scale turbine in North Kingstown and has received approval to build
10 400-foot-high wind turbines in Coventry.
Construction is ongoing for two of
those turbines at the site of the former Picillo Farm, a 99-acre Superfund site
owned by Coventry. Site work is underway for another six turbines on private
property adjacent to the former pig farm. Sites are also being prepared for two
more turbines along Route 117.
On Feb. 17, WED is scheduled to present proposals for two turbines
to the North Smithfield Town Council.
He believes National Grid is stymieing interconnections and
intentionally inflating costs to dissuade developers like him from generating
electricity and selling it directly to customers. This process was helped last
year by a change in state law that allows all public entities, such as water
supply boards and sewage treatment facilities, to enter into long-term
power-purchase agreements.
“That’s a threat to National Grid. A big threat,” DePasquale said
during a Jan. 29 Statehouse hearing for a bill that requires utilities such as
National Grid to complete interconnection agreements within 60 days.
The legislation asks the utility to pay for the interconnection
through its maintenance fund, called the Electric Infrastructure, Safety and
Reliability Account. The bill also looks to double the size of a
renewable-energy project that qualifies for the state’s fixed-pricing program,
known as distributed generation (DG).
DePasquale said he’s willing to pay his fair share of the
interconnection costs, but not for maintenance that should have been done years
ago. The stall tactics, he claimed, are holding up $81 million in new
construction and $12 million in lease revenue to private property owners.
Coventry and West Warwick have already signed long-term,
fixed-price agreements to buy power from WED turbines and are eager to receive
the savings, he said.
DePasquale added that the interconnection dispute also is delaying
new contracts with hundreds of other potential partners for wind turbines, such
as farmers. German wind turbine company Vensys, he said, is also looking to
open a facility at the Quonset Business Park to import its turbines and meet
the demand WED is creating in the region.
WED has filed a dispute with
the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission that seeks to prohibit National
Grid from assessing a charge-through tax and ends the practice of overcharging
for studies.
National Grid says the delays and the 150-day waiting period are
justified in order to address the complexities of a relatively new renewable-energy
program.
Mike Ryan, National Grid’s vice president of government affairs
for Rhode Island, said the company has devoted $500 million to update its
substations, utility poles and electric wires.
He said using funds from the Electric Infrastructure, Safety and
Reliability Account for interconnection would increase ratepayer costs. He
noted that all other states require renewable-energy developers to pay the
entire cost for interconnection.
“Those costs are always built into it,” Ryan said.
The state Office of Energy Resources, which oversees the DG
program and other renewable-energy incentives, said it hasn’t received
complaints about interconnection from other commercial-scale renewable
developers. However, the three turbines built at the Narragansett Bay
Commission water treatment facility at Field’s Point was delayed by a
protracted dispute over interconnection costs.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence, said
National Grid is using delay tactics and “squeezing” WED to pay for maintenance
the company has neglected for decades. Carnevale claimed National Grid is
instead spending its money on executive pay.
He noted that last year compensation to National Grid CEO Steve Holliday
increased 56 percent, to $7.8 million. He said Steve King, head of the U.S.
operations for National Grid, received a 58 percent pay raise, to $6.8 million.
“And they hit our ratepayers with a 23 percent increase,”
Carnevale said.
He noted National Grid’s repeated resistance to legislation that
expanded wholesale buying and selling of electricity, known as net metering, by
independent power producers.
“They don’t want competition plain and simple,” Carnevale said.
The legislation was held for further study by the House Committee
on Corporations. The PUC said it expects to conduct a full review of the
matter.