After 2012 How Will Vt. Get Its Electricity?

By M. D. Drysdale

Starting in 2012, just four years from now, Vermont faces the expiration of contracts that cover 75-85% of its electric power.

Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

But it’s not.

That, at least, is the message being carried around the state by Bob Young, the president and CEO of Central Vermont Public Service. In a column and interviews with news outlets, Young is endeavoring to make it clear that there’s no danger that the lights will go out in Vermont. After all, he said, there are 80-90 electric power producers in the New England marketplace, so there are a lot places to shop.

Young’s tour also responds to Vermonters’ opinions as expressed in recent statewide hearings, which were sponsored by the Department of Public Service, in cooperation with the legislature.

There are significant policy choices to be made. But Young, as he travels, is making it clear that while the public has an important role, Vermont’s energy future will ultimately be secured by contracts drawn up by the private utilities.

"We at the utilities have the statutory responsibility for our electricity future," he declared at the top of his recent interview at The Herald. And long before the recent round of public hearings, the utilities had begun the process of determining the electrical sources of the future. That planning process is going smoothly, he said.

The two expiring contracts, which purchase a huge (and relatively inexpensive) proportion of Vermont’s power, are with HydroQuebec and Vermont Yankee. For the future, Vermont’s utilities are constructing a scenario that looks something like this:

• A broader base of contracts so that, as Young says, "we don’t have so many eggs in two baskets;"

• A new and expanded contract with HydroQuebec, which is building even more generating capacity. Part of that capacity will include wind power from enormous wind farms, and that power could be part of Vermont’s mix;

• A 20-year extension of the Vermont Yankee contract if Vermont and regulators decide that the plant can continue to operate. Safety is the top concern, Young insists, but as noted below, CVPS and the other utilities will have a huge financial benefit if the nuclear plant is relicensed;

• An increasing likelihood of a new gas-burning power plant that would generate 100 to 200 megawatts of power and be located in the fast-growing northwest part of Vermont;

• More use of renewable sources which, however, will not be able to replace a significant part of the baseload power from Vermont Yankee and HydroQuebec.

• Sophisticated new metering systems that will take conservation of energy to a whole new level, allowing both consumers and suppliers to shut off high-energy uses when necessary.

Renewable Energy?

Young acknowledged that during the recent round of hearings, Vermonters indicated that they "want more renewable energy." And, he said, "we are very interested in renewables."

He pointed to the CVPS "Cow Power" project to turn methane gas from cow manure into electricity. "Cow Power" just nabbed its biggest customer this week, when Long Trail Brewing Co. in Bridgewater signed on.

"Each year, Long Trail’s Cow Power purchases will have an environmental impact equivalent to taking 106 cars off the road," Young said. "Their commitment will be equivalent to capturing the carbon dioxide emissions from burning 65,834 gallons of gasoline annually.

Realistically, however, he cautioned in his interview, the baseload power that CVPS needs "by its nature can’t be replaced by renewables." For instance, windmills don’t produce power when the wind doesn’t blow, and solar panels don’t produce power except on bright or sunny days. Baseload power plants produce it 24/7.

The renewable energy source that has greatest potential, Young said, is probably wind power. Some 200 megawatts might be generated (compared to 500 at Vermont Yankee) if dozens of large commercial windmills were placed on ridgelines at four or five good sites, he estimated. However, he noted, wind power on that scale has so far attracted a great deal of opposition in Vermont.

The other renewable source with considerable potential, he said, is wood-powered generation.

New Generating Plant

In order to obtain new baseload power, and to reduce reliance on Vermont Yankee and HydroQuebec, the utilities decided last year, Young said, to study construction of a new generating plant, which would be the first major new generator in Vermont since Vermont Yankee. It likely would burn natural gas and be located in the St. Albans area. Results of the study are expected shortly.

The Rutland Herald is already convinced. "Vermont needs to build a power plant," proclaimed the first sentence of a recent editorial.

Vermont Yankee

While not taking a public position on whether or not to extend the life of Vermont Yankee, CVPS is clearly hoping the extension will happen. In his Herald interview, Young ticked off the advantages.

Yankee’s low carbon emissions help make Vermont’s electricity one of the "greenest" in the country, he said, while the plant provides "800 of the best paying jobs in Vermont." Yankee’s price is also low; if it stopped operating today, rates would jump 20%, he said.

In addition, the utilities have a special stake in Yankee’s continuing operation. As part of the sale to Entergy, the utilities will receive—for 10 years—one-half of the receipts resulting whenever electricity is sold for more than 6.1 cents per kilowatt. That, he acknowledged, could bring in "hundreds of millions of dollars" that would be of "tremendous benefit to CVPS ratepayers," and to the company in general.

Still, Young insisted, CVPS will not oppose any safeguards that Vermont may try to impose, nor will it pressure the legislature, which must vote on extending the Yankee operation.

The Vermont public remains worried about safety issues especially after a cooling tower collapsed in spectacular fashion last year, he acknowledged, and opinions at the recent forums were "wildly mixed."

CVPS will respect those concerns, he pledged: "From the standpoint of CVPS, safety is issue No. 1."