Bangor Hydro reveals new power plan

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ORRINGTON – By 2006, 345 kilovolts of electricity could be crackling through new power lines in wooded Down East Maine, carrying power to a potentially lucrative Canadian market.

Friday, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. announced its plans to build a new $90.4 million electricity transmission line through portions of Hancock, Penobscot and Washington counties, its most recent attempt in a decades-long effort to link the New England and Canadian power grids.

The 85-mile route revealed Friday would parallel existing industrial development for 96 percent of its journey, said Gil Paquette, a consultant from Devine Tarbell & Associates Inc. in Portland who is project manager for the line.

The line would connect to the New England power grid at Bangor Hydro’s substation in Orrington. For its first 12 miles it would follow an existing high-voltage line, then switch to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and International Paper Co.’s private Stud Mill Road. A few miles from Canada, the transmission line would veer off into the industrial forest to cross the border just north of Baileyville, where it would meet a line being constructed by Bangor Hydro’s Canadian partner, NB Power.

Bangor Hydro believes that the connection is necessary because just one line, a route through northern Maine known as the MEPCO line, connects New England to Canada. That leaves the region vulnerable should the single existing line need repair or, as is usually the case, reach its capacity. Frequently, the line is so filled with power flowing though Maine that no capacity remains to transport excess power produced here, Bangor Hydro spokeswoman LuAnn Ballesteros said Friday.

The new line would go both ways, allowing 300 megawatts of power to travel into Maine, while 400 megawatts could be exported from the state. The direction of electricity flow could be changed in an instant as power demand shifts, she said.

Atlantic Canada’s power use peaks during the winter with the use of electric space heaters, while New England has its highest power demand during the summer air-conditioning season, said Maine director Beth Nagusky, whose Office of Energy Independence and Security supports the project.

“It’s a good synergy,” Nagusky said Friday.

Soon New Brunswick is expected to have an even larger power demand as the Point Lepreau nuclear plant southwest of Saint John, which supplies 30 percent of the province’s electricity, must either go offline temporarily for improvements or shut down permanently by 2008, according to Canadian news reports.

Bangor Hydro has argued for years that Maine needed a second tie to Canada, citing the power that is lost in transporting it long distances on the 30-year-old MEPCO line. Recent blackouts in the region boost the argument that the international power grid needs more duplication, Ballesteros said.

“The new line is not in a void. It will be tied into the entire system,” she said.

Bangor Hydro abandoned a 2001 attempt to build the line opposed by environmental lobbyists and regulators, but last fall the company announced its intention to try again. This time, however, the company put public relations front and center. Most of the past year has been spent meeting with environmental and business groups, state and federal regulators, and local residents to select which of five proposed routes would be best.

“We didn’t really pick up where we left off. We went back to the drawing board,” Paquette said.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine, which led opposition to the last transmission line proposal, Friday called the consolidated corridors route less than ideal, but said that Bangor Hydro’s decision-making process was “exemplary.” The route improves on the past proposal, but still passes through wild forests and the watersheds of Atlantic salmon rivers, said the group, which has advocated for running a second power line alongside the MEPCO route.

“It will still unnecessarily harm recreational, scenic and ecological resources in Down East Maine by running hundreds of 100-foot-tall towers and miles of high power lines through a beautiful area currently unmarred by transmission lines,” said Cathy Johnson, North Woods project director for NRCM, in a statement released Friday.

But installing the line along the Stud Mill Road and the Maritimes & Northeast natural gas pipeline reduces the need for environmental disruption, the company said.

The selected route also has just two major landowners, International Paper and a forest investment company represented locally by Wagner Forest Management of Lyme, N.H., who own a combined 70 percent of the route.

IP spokesman Rick Ouellette said Friday that his company preferred the consolidated route both now and in 2001 because it reduces impacts on natural resources, avoiding unnecessary habitat fragmentation, stream crossings and loss of working forest.

Wagner does not oppose the selected route, but had no comment Friday.

In the past, safety concerns have been raised about running electric lines so close to natural gas lines, but Paquette said this week that safety precautions, which may include using the Stud Mill Road as a buffer between the two utilities, can allay any risks. A Maritimes & Northeast spokesman had no comment Friday.

“Some of the current goes into the ground, but it’s not going to blow up the pipeline,” Paquette said. “There are hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines that are co-located [with electric lines] throughout the United States.”

The transmission line’s cost has nearly doubled since last fall’s announcement, primarily because higher gas prices have boosted the price of building materials, but Maine electricity consumers shouldn’t see it in their bills, Ballesteros said.

The Independent System Operator of New England, administrator for the regional power grid, in August agreed that the transmission line would have regional benefits and voted to distribute the $90.4 million cost among its 6.5 million customers, based on their power use.

Maine will be responsible for about 8 percent of that cost, which could mean annual rate increases of about $1 for residential customers of Bangor Hydro and Central Maine Power, which are members of ISO New England. But over time that rate increase should be balanced by cost savings, Ballesteros said.

“We believe the market benefits are going to ultimately outweigh the cost of the line,” she said Friday.

The project could also mean increased competitiveness and overall reliability for electricity consumers in far northern and eastern Maine, which are independent of the New England grid, said Stephen Ward of the Public Advocate’s office, which has not yet taken a formal position on the project.

Ken Belcher, president and CEO of the Northern Maine Independent System Administration, the grid administrator for Aroostook County, said Friday that the new connection could provide energy generators in his region with a link to Canadian markets.

Gail Nicholson of Domtar Industries in Baileyville said Thursday that the line would provide her company, which produces much of its own power, an avenue to market excess electricity.

“We’re fortunate that we have a hydro system and biomass resources … what we lack is a critical connection to an electrical grid,” she said. “It’s good for Maine, and it’s particularly welcome in Washington County.”

NB Power hopes to see Bangor Hydro achieve regulatory approval for the project by next fall so the company can begin clearing the Canadian route before its permit deadline at the end of 2005, said Wayne Snowden, vice-president of NB Power’s transmission business unit in Fredericton, N.B.

Before any construction begins, Bangor Hydro must now obtain permits from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the state Public Utilities Commission, which could take many months and multiple public hearings.

Still the company is optimistic about the transmission line’s chances.

“I’ll be very surprised if someone brings up an issue that we’re not aware of,” Paquette said. “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to surprise me.”