Case Details

- Case Details:

Case Number:

2021-00369

Case Status:

Open

Utility/Industry Type :

Electric

Utility/Industry Subtype :

Transmission and Distribution Utilities (T and Ds)

Case Type :

COMMISSION INITIATED

Case Subtype :

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Pertaining to Utility/Company :

VERSANT POWER^CENTRAL MAINE POWER COMPANY

Case Title :

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION AND TRANSMISSION PROJECTS PURSUANT TO THE NORTHERN MAINE RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Initiating Filer :

COMMISSION STAFF, CMS

Case Start Date :

11/16/2021

Assigned Staff :

Benedict.Cracolici,
Dale.Coty,
Deirdre.Schneider,
Faith.Huntington,
Julie.Pallozzi,
liz.wyman,
Sally.Zeh,
amy.mills,
Christine.R.Cook,
robert.a.creamer

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This is a secured case so only fillings by Commission Staff or Commission will be Displayed

Filings (49) Data RequestsPublic Comments (162) Active Party and Notification List (372) Assigned Staff (10)

Item No.	Date Filed	Description Of Filing	Filing Party	Filed By	No of Attachments	Deleted Filings
183	1/11/2024	Letter to Commission	LS POWER GRID MAINE LLC	Sanders, Matthew	1
182	12/22/2023	ORDER TERMINATING PROCUREMENT	COMMISSION, MPUC	COMMISSION, MPUC	1
181	12/12/2023	Letter in support of advancing Northern Maine transmission	CLEARWAY ENERGY GROUP	Sims, Dave	1
180	12/1/2023	CMP Northern Maine Filing - Cover Letter	CENTRAL MAINE POWER COMPANY	Mills, Debra	1
178	12/1/2023	Versant Power Response to the October 30, 2023 Procedural Order	VERSANT POWER	Silver Karsh, Arielle	1
175	11/20/2023	PROCEDURAL ORDER GRANTING REQUEST FOR EXTENSION	COMMISSION STAFF, CMS	COMMISSION STAFF, CMS	1
171	10/30/2023	eNGO Letter Regarding Negotiations for the Aroostook Renewable Gateway Project	NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL OF MAINE	Schultz, Rebecca	1
170	10/30/2023	PROCEDURAL ORDER ON TRANSMISSION SERVICE AGREEMENT	COMMISSION STAFF, CMS	COMMISSION STAFF, CMS	1
169	10/13/2023	PROCEDURAL ORDER ON LATE FILED PETITION TO INTERVENE	COMMISSION, MPUC	COMMISSION, MPUC	1
168	10/8/2023	Late Filed Petition from Preserve Rural Maine	PRESERVE RURAL MAINE	Blanchard, Tanya	1

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Posted By	Posted Date	Comments	Attachment(s)
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY Ratepayer, Inc. 35 Bruce Tibbetts Drive, Dixfield, Maine 04224 Dixfield, Maine 04224 Email ID: mckaydan2@gmail.com Phone No.: 2074410479	10/4/2024	Yesterday, October 3,2024 the Federal Department of Energy posted a $425 million award to Avangrid for the Northern Maine Renewable Energy Project: Project: Aroostook Renewable Project Applicant/Selectee: Avangrid Type of Financial Assistance: Capacity Contract Project size: 1,200 MW, 111 miles Planned project location: Maine Award amount: Up to $425 million My question: Is this "capacity contract" available to Avangrid exclusively and curiously before selection of the winning bidder by the PUC? I am not aware of the PUC having selected anyone yet.
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY Ratepayer, Inc. 35 Bruce Tibbetts Drive, Dixfield, Maine 04224 Email ID: mckaydan2@gmail.com Phone No.: 12074410479	1/8/2024	The action to terminate the procurement deal with LS Power to provide a power line form Aroostook County is commendable. It is absolutely mandatory that the ratepayers of Maine accept any risks concerning unknown monies. The project is very regional and burdens the vast majority of Mainers with ill conceived costs. Why was this project brought forward as an ETU project (Elective Transmission Upgrade) ? If the County is relying on this project so much, the county should absorb the costs or petition the ISO-NE to accept the project as a Reliability Project where the costs would be shared by all in New England. I truly hope the PUC accepts no bids that exceed the initial offer by LS Power in the next procurement effort. Maine people have no need for this project and the options the state currently has to secure cheap and reliable electricity will be forever terminated.
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY Ratepayer, Inc. 35 Bruce Tibbetts Drive, Dixfield, Maine Email ID: mckaydan2@gmail.com Phone No.: 12074410479	12/22/2023	The question now is what will Massachusetts do? Will they offer to pick up the whole tab? Will they drop out? Will they retaliate by refusing to pay the additional half billion dollars to keep the NECEC project going? There is opportunity for Maine who now has the leverage over any action by Massachusetts. The NMREDP is still in the early stages with many permitting hurdles awaiting the project. Maine people are learning what a disastrous project this is and now have a dollar figure that can not be exceeded for this project to succeed. Massachusetts, even given they may offer a greater than 40% of the cost, would come to regret such a move as this project will never survive environmental permits, not to mention rejection by the many localities within the path of this monstrous power corridor. If they decide to target NECEC and refuse to pay the additional half billion, the numbers already show that a half billion paid by Maine for a third of the output from NECEC is a far better option to allowing the NMREDP to proceed and imperil Maine's possibility of ever reverting back to the states' sovereignty over its own power supply and delivery, as Maine was before the electric market restructuring act of 1999, which enrolled us into ISO-NE, a market which we as a state have little to no influence upon due to our relative size compared to Mass., and Connecticut.
Shari Garland Corinth	12/21/2023	With everything the state is currently going through right now with the mass power outages due to downed trees, common sense would say the way of the future is to bury any future transmission lines. Especially high powered transmission lines. This is done in other states and CAN be done here! Do what is right for the people and the environment.
CLAYTON DAN MCKAY Ratepayer, Inc. 35 Bruce Tibbetts Drive, Dixfield, Maine 04224 Email ID: mckaydan2@gmail.com Phone No.: 12074410479	12/5/2023	ISO-NE socializes reliability projects amongst the six states, such that a transmission project deemed to be necessary for the stability of the grid shares its costs among the six states based on relative consumption of electricity for each state. In this scenario, Maine would be on the hook for 9% of the cost. This transmission project is not deemed a reliability project; therefore Maine is on the hook for over 6 times the cost = 60%. Anyone claiming this project is good for Maine is lying through their teeth.
Wilson Giroux 406 Palmer Road Thorndike ME 04986	12/5/2023	Public Comments Attached	grroux comments.pdf
Eric Rolfson 301 Barnes Road Albion, ME 04910 Email ID: eric.rolfson@icloud.com	12/2/2023	As someone who supports and uses renewable energy, understands the critical need for expanding Maine's power grid, recognizes the real threat from climate change, and fully supports the state's renewable energy goals, I am dismayed with the process by which the Aroostook Renewable Gateway was conceived and is unfolding. Maine, unlike New Hampshire lacks a Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) that includes Commissioners from the PUC, the Department of Environmental Services, the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, among others. https://www.nhsec.nh.gov As such, they are able take a more holistic view of the careful planning required for the dramatic, necessary expansion of transmission lines in their state.
Eric Rolfson 301 Barnes Road Albion, ME 04910 Email ID: eric.rolfson@icloud.com	12/2/2023	Have we Mainers learned nothing from the New England Clean Energy Connect Project (NECEC) or from the Northern Pass in New Hampshire that failed due to fierce community opposition? The successful 2021 referendum aimed at defeating NECEC contained language that requires the Legislature to approve any new high-impact electric transmission lines as a check against developers running them through reluctant communities. But LD 924 was passed without Legislators even knowing the proposed route. Further, language in an initial 2021 transmission line bill encouraged locating new lines in existing rights of way or corridors "whenever feasible." The proposed LS Power solution seems at odds with both these requirements. For a state that depends upon tourism for nearly 20 percent of its GDP, are there not better solutions than building HVAC Power above ground, approving projects one at a time rather than having a long-term strategic growth plan, and running roughshod over agricultural and forest land? Will Maine become known as the "Pine Tower" state over the next decade as another dozen similar projects are initiated? Fortunately, it turns out that there are better solutions for the state and for stakeholders, such as running HVDC lines underground along existing corridors. Note that our neighbors in New Hampshire and Vermont have insisted on this to preserve the rural nature of their states, offer a greener solution to the recognized need, and respect agriculture, silviculture, the environment, and landowner rights. https://www.twinstatescleanenergylink.com Several months ago, a poll was conducted among 1,000 individuals in a local Facebook group created to seek a better solution than the one proposed by LS Power. When asked how they would prefer transmission lines to be constructed should they necessarily pass through their properties, 98% chose underground vs. above ground.
Eric Rolfson 301 Barnes Road Albion, ME 04910 Email ID: eric.rolfson@icloud.com	12/2/2023	The primary argument against this solution [i.e. running HVDC underground along existing corridors] is that it is "too expensive," costing five or more times the price, which would hurt ratepayers in the long term. But that is a short-term view and a faulty analysis, since the calculation for initial construction does not include the long-term "costs" inherent with a disruptive climate environment, documented real estate devaluations, tourism issues, and socio/economic disruptions. Further, in 2022, NextGen Highways conducted an independent Feasibility Study for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, with funding support provided by McKnight Foundation, Energy Foundation, and Breakthrough Energy, in which they presented key findings. On page 66 of the report, the study team supports their conclusion that the cost of buried HVDC transmission is comparable in cost to overhead AC transmission. "Buried HVDC transmission costs have declined and become competitive with traditional overhead AC transmission. The technology for buried HVDC transmission has matured, and the industry has gained experience designing and building projects across the world...." Even the multiple contractual parties that need to agree on a path forward cannot come to terms. With neither public support nor multi-party private support, is it not time to pull the plug on this project, do some further planning via a feasibility study, re-bid it, and come up with a win-win solution as our New England neighbors have done to the satisfaction of all? Ultimately, the rate payers, the contractual partners, and the stakeholders in 41 currently impacted towns will thank you for it.
Eric Rolfson 301 Barnes Road Albion, ME 04910 Email ID: eric.rolfson@icloud.com	12/2/2023	Please see attached.	PUC Comments 12.2.23.pdf

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Notification List Active Party List

Name of Person/Company	Representing Company	Mailing Address	Email/Phone/Fax
Abbott, Charles Lincoln		12 Mill Brook Road Plainfield CT 06374	Email ID: cabbott@greenleaf-power.com Phone Ph: 916-596-2503 Fax:
Abradi, Richard		35 Hartford Street Rumford ME 04276	Email ID: Richard.Abradi@catalystpaper.com Phone Ph: 207-369-2823 Fax:
Akers, Keith		250 West 57th Street Suite 701 New York NY 10107	Email ID: keith@syncarpha.com Phone Ph: 513-237-1749 Fax:
Albert, Eben M		254 Commercial St Portland ME 04101	Email ID: ealbert@pierceatwood.com Phone Ph: 207-791-1282 Fax:
Allegretti, Dan		ME	Email ID: daniel.w.allegretti@constellation.com Phone Fax:
Allen, Chad		PO Box 1000 Pittsfield ME 04967	Email ID: callen@cianbro.com Phone Ph: 207-553-2735 Fax:
Aronson, George		ME	Email ID: GARONSON@CRMCX.COM Phone Fax:
Assistant, Smith Legal LLC		P.O. 5418 4 Wabon Street, Suite 1 Augusta ME 04332 5418	Email ID: Assistant@smithlawmaine.com Phone Ph: 207-480-1543 Fax: Fax: 207-480-1532
Bailey, Ryan		55 Technology Drive Suite 102 Lowell MA 01851	Email ID: rbailey@borregosolar.com Phone Ph: 508-240-4256 Fax:
Baker, George		ME	Email ID: GBAKER@HBS.EDU Phone Fax:

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Staff Name	Role
Cook, Christine	Staff Analyst
Coty, Dale	Support Staff
Cracolici, Benedict	Staff Analyst
Creamer, Robert	Hearing Examiner
Huntington, Faith	Staff Analyst
Mills, Amy	Support Staff
Pallozzi, Julie	Staff Analyst
Schneider, Deirdre	Staff Analyst
Wyman, Liz	Hearing Examiner
Zeh, Sally	Staff Analyst

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