Woodland
Coalition, founded by
Westonites and others, wins!!! Power to the people!
Weston fought for underground lines north - south (even tho'
Weston did not immediately seem to profit from this tactic...), and
won! Excellent strategy! Once CL&P agreed to
underground the lines north-south, the east-west connecting towns
demanded equal treatment!!! So no new power towers (example
above, center) thru Weston were needed!!! And now in June 2008,
the culmination of routing of cables
from Middletown to Norwalk! WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW YEARS MAKES...TROPICAL
STORM IRENE DIS-EMPOWERS WESTON IN 2011.
THE THREE PHASES OF
345kV POWER LINES: IN 2011, U.S. SEEKS POWER GRID EXPANSION.
#1 -
BETHEL-NORWALK (North-South) phase
one story...in the beginning there was only a hope that 345kV
technology could be "underground."
#2 - MIDDLETOWN-NORWALK
(East - West) phase two story below (now in business) on this page. NOTE: One Phase #2 above ground
tower option crossed lower Weston east-west along the route of present,
shorter towers.
#3 - NORWALK-STAMFORD is phase three.
And then there was the "fix" to
existing underwater cables under the L.I.Sound...
D I S A S
T E R S T R I K E S
How does this disaster affect
any other energy projects on the boards?
Dodd tours destroyed Kleen Energy
power plant
YAHOO
The Associated Press
Article published Feb 16, 2010
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) _ Preliminary reviews by several state agencies
have failed to reveal any problems that could have caused a Connecticut
power plant to explode earlier this month, killing five people and
wounding a dozen others.
The head of the state's public utility regulator said Tuesday that a
review of previous safety inspections of the gas pipeline leading to
the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown found nothing that would
have raised red flags.
Officials revealed the preliminary findings at a meeting of
representatives from six state agencies.
The state's public safety commissioner says he expects investigators
will finish their work at the scene of the Feb. 7 blast in a few weeks.
Sen. Chris Dodd, who toured the plant Tuesday, says stronger federal
guidelines are needed to prevent an explosion similar to the blast that
occurred at the power plant.
All Workers Accounted For in
Connecticut Blast
NYTIMES
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and JAMES BARRON
February 8, 2010
All workers at a Connecticut power plant that exploded have been
accounted for, leaving the death toll at five, the mayor of Middletown
said on Monday afternoon.
The mayor, Sebastian N. Giuliano, did not rule out the discovery of
additional bodies in the rubble from Sunday morning’s blast. But he
said that eight people who were not among the dead or the 12 who were
injured had been located, and were all alive. The search for survivors
had continued through the night on Sunday but was suspended around 2:30
a.m. Monday when rescuers realized that one section was an unstable
mess of twisted beams and cracked flooring. “You don’t want the
rescuers becoming victims themselves,” Mayor Giuliano said on Monday
morning.
He and other officials had said they believed that about 100 people had
been on the job on Sunday at the Kleen Energy Systems plant, which was
still under construction. But after checking with subcontractors and
even interviewing employees who reported for work on Monday, the mayor
said only 25 had been on hand when the explosion rocked the plant and
the surrounding area at 11:17 a.m. on Sunday.
It happened as workers purged natural gas lines in preparation for the
plant’s opening later this year. On Monday, S. Derek Phelps, the
executive director of the Connecticut Siting Council, which had
approved a permit for the plant, said that clearing the gas lines was
“the last thing you do” to make sure that there were no obstructions.
“The smallest debris can do damage,” he said.
“We hear, this is uncorroborated, there was a flame device proximate
enough to it to light the gas,” Mr. Phelps said.
Middletown’s deputy fire marshal, Al Santostefano, said that rescue
teams had gone through the rubble in all but about 15 percent of the
plant’s main building before the search was called off. He said they
stopped when they reached the section they deemed unstable. Mayor
Giuliano, describing the decision to order the rescue workers out,
said, “It got windier, darker, colder.”
That decision was made about 15 hours after dark smoke and bright
flames had shot into the sky and the ground had rumbled as far as 30
miles away. The explosion brought ambulances, fire engines, police cars
and helicopters to the scene on the west bank of the Connecticut River
on the southern outskirts of the city, the home of Wesleyan University.
Flames were seen shooting from a pipeline after the blast, but the line
was capped shortly after noon, officials said. Even so, scattered fires
blazed and smoke billowed over the scene for hours, and
search-and-rescue teams looked through the rubble for victims into the
night. The search, with dogs, sound-detecting and thermal-imaging
equipment, could go on for days, officials said.
Mayor Giuliano had said on Sunday that the five people were known to be
dead, but he did not release names pending notification of their
families. The son of one victim, Raymond Dobratz, 57, of Old Saybrook,
a pipe fitter who had been working at the plant for a year, said his
father had been killed.
And while the cause of the blast remained undetermined, the mayor said
that a natural gas explosion was “the assumed cause.” He added,
“Terrorism has been ruled out.”
Mayor Giuliano said many of the construction workers had been evacuated
from the site before draining the lines of natural gas, a standard
procedure. He said there had been no previous accidents at the plant —
“not so much as a hangnail,” the mayor said.
The explosion was under investigation by the state and local police and
by several federal agencies, including the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the United States Chemical Safety
Board, which examines chemical industrial accidents. Daniel M.
Horowitz, a spokesman for the chemical safety board, said a team of
investigators would be at the site on Monday.
Mr. Horowitz said a gas purge — a procedure known as a blow-down —
happened last June at a food-processing plant in Garner, N.C., killing
four people and injuring 67 others. He said his agency had issued
urgent safety recommendations in that case just Thursday related to
purging, the clearing of air during maintenance or installation of new
piping.
Gordon Holk, the Middletown plant’s general manager, said workers —
from the construction company, O & G Industries, and also from
Ducci Electrical Contractors, of Torrington, and Keystone Mechanical
Electrical Contractors — had been at the site on Sunday.
Tests were under way in preparation for a spring or summer opening of
the 620-megawatt plant, which has been under construction since
September 2007 in an old feldspar quarry; it was 95 percent finished.
The plant, one of the largest power facilities to be built in New
England in recent years, was to supply electricity to Connecticut Light
and Power.
As many as 1,000 workers had been employed in building the plant, but
the number had declined to 400 or 500 recently, according to Philip
Armetta, the project’s developer, whose 45 percent interest was placed
in a trust when he pleaded guilty in 2007 to a charge of failing to
disclose knowledge of price-fixing in the state’s trash disposal
industry.
State Representative Matthew Lesser, a freshman Democrat who lives a
mile from the plant and represents an adjacent district, said the $1
billion plant, which has faced “regulatory hurdles,” had been expected
to cut the costs of power in a state that has some of the highest rates
in the nation.
While the number of casualties was uncertain, hospitals in Middletown,
Hartford and New Haven reported receiving more than two dozen injured
people.
At Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Peg Arico, a spokeswoman, said 26
people were brought from the site for treatment. Two victims who
sustained major injuries that could not be treated at Middlesex were
transferred to trauma centers, one to Hartford Hospital and one to
Yale-New Haven, Ms. Arico said. A hospital spokesman, Mark D’Antonio,
said on Monday that the man, Benjamin Lee, was in good condition. The
others were treated and released.
“We did not see a lot of burn victims,” she said. “Of the ones that we
are still treating, many have broken bones and others have abdominal
pain. The injuries can be described as impact injuries from the
explosion.”
Hartford Hospital said two injured people were brought directly from
the explosion, in addition to one transferred from Middlesex.
The project contractor, O & G, is described on its Web site as a
closely held company based in Torrington. Algonquin Gas Transmission is
listed as the gas supplier, and the plant’s turbines were manufactured
by Siemens Power Generation. Kleen Energy Systems is owned principally
by Energy Investors Funds, which recently acquired an 80 percent share.
Mr. Lesser, a member of the Energy and Technology Committee of the
State House, said he was having a cup of coffee when his building shook.
“There was a loud rumble and my windows in my apartment rattled for
five to 10 seconds,” he recalled. “I had no idea what it was. It was
peculiar, but I didn’t think anything of it.” Then, he said, he began
getting phone calls and text messages about the explosion.
“The first couple asked, ‘Did you feel that?’ and one person thought it
was an earthquake,” he said. “And then the subsequent ones reported
about the explosion itself.”
I-BBC -
Page last updated at 23:19 GMT, Sunday, 7 February 2010
Connecticut power plant gas
explosion kills five people...
The 620MW Kleen Energy plant was due to come
online in the summer
A huge explosion has rocked a power plant in
the US state of Connecticut, killing at least five people and injuring
12, the local mayor has said.
Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said it was caused by a
gas explosion.
People living up to 50km (30 miles) away reported that their
homes were shaken by the blast at the Kleen Energy plant, being built
outside Middletown.
There are reports of people trapped under the remains of a
plant building, and a rescue operation is under way.
Search experts and specialist dog teams were at the site
combing through the wreckage, the mayor said.
 |
 It really shook the
house and everybody was scared and the kids started to cry 
|
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday evening, Mr Giuliano
said that the identities of the dead had not yet been released as some
of the victim's families had not yet been informed.
Mr Giuliano said the plant, which was only 95% complete and
due to open fully in the summer, was undergoing a series of gas tests
when the explosion occurred.
He said between 100 and 200 people worked on the massive
site, and were employed by multiple contracting companies.
"How many people were here today - that's the number they
can't really nail down. They were purging gas lines all night long,
most people were evacuated from the building when they ran the tests,"
Mr Giuliano said.
The plant is located to the south of the town, on the
Connecticut River.
Earlier, deputy fire marshall Al Santostefano said there were
some 50 construction workers on the site at the time of the explosion.
At least 100 firefighters were sent to the scene and it had
taken them an hour to contain the fire caused by the blast, he said.
Officials say there is no further danger to the public, and
have not evacuated the area. The plant, however, remains cordoned off.
The nearby Middlesex Hospital told the Associated Press it
had received 11 victims, while the hospital in the state capital,
Hartford, has treated three others.
'Gas line test'
Mr Santostefano said a natural gas pipeline running near the
plant had exploded at 1117 (1617 GMT) sending a shockwave that one
local resident compared to an earthquake.
"We heard such a loud explosion and the dog was outside and I
heard her bark. And then when we went outside we saw a very big
explosion of bright orange flame between the two smoke stacks," Lynn
Townsend told the Associated Press.
"It really shook the house and everybody was scared and the
kids started to cry because they did not know if the house was going to
catch fire."
Fighting through tears, plant worker Paul Venti said: "It's
just horrible. All I know is I lost some union brothers. They are some
close close personal friends. It's horrible. They were working. They
were testing."
"I just heard there was a gas explosion and I'm getting all
kinds of phone calls from union brothers. We got some people up there
they got little kids that are at home and we lost them."
Middletown
Power Plant Was To Be Biggest In Region
By JOSH KOVNER, The Hartford Courant
3:23 PM EST, February 7, 2010
MIDDLETOWN, Conn.
The 620-megawatt Kleen Energy power plant that was rocked by a deadly
explosion this morning sits on a moonscape of rock and cliff on a
former feldspar mine overlooking the Connecticut River.
Approved by state regulators earlier in the decade and funded by
hundreds of millions of dollars from one of the largest private
energy-investment firms in the country, the plant was to be the biggest
in New England.
Construction workers had to move 1.6 million yards of earth and rock to
claw out a 137-acre site for the plant on land owned by Middletown
trash czar Phil Armetta. He's a former partner in the project who
withdrew after he was convicted in a federal crackdown the trash
industry.
William Corvo, a former Middletown councilman who is a principal
partner in the project, said from the chaotic scene at the plant this
morning that the plant was 96 percent complete. He said a test of the
natural gas-fired turbines "was being lined up.'' Middletown fire
officials said the explosion involved natural gas.
The Kleen Energy plant would burn a huge amount of natural gas piped to
the site, and to a lesser extent, low-sulfur oil.
The proposal for the plant was controversial in Middletown because it
involved drawing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water from the
Connecticut River to cool the turbines, and because the project was
awarded tax-breaks by the common council during the administration of
former Mayor Domenique Thornton.
But Corvo fired back with studies that showed that the water-draw would
not affect the flow of the river, and said the project would be one of
Middletown's largest taxpayers event with the tax abatements.
He said the plant was needed to give much needed electrical capacity to
the power grid feeding Southern New England.
To make the plant's application to divert water from the river more
palatable, Corvo partnered with the city of Middletown on a joint
application the state Department of Environmental Protection.
When Mayor Sebastian Giuliano took office in 2005, he was less inclined
to play ball with Corvo, canceling a deal in which the power-plant
partnership was paying the city's legal bills for issues relating to
the project.
But the plant stayed on track, receiving Connecticut Siting Council and
DEP permits.
The project cost nearly $1 billion.
Energy Investors Funds, with a multibillion-dollar power-generation
portfolio stretching across the country, in 2008 acquired 80 percent of
Kleen Energy by pulling together $985 million in construction financing.
Corvo and partner David Oneglia held onto the remaining 20 percent and
have positions on the board, offices at the plant and roles as the
local representatives of the project . After Enron collapsed and banks
stopped financing power plants Corvo lobbied state regulators,
newspaper editors, politicians and anyone else who would listen about
something called "capacity contracts" - 15-year agreements that pay
plants just to exist and act as incentives to developers to build them.
The deals - between the power plants and utility companies - have their
critics because the payments are for capacity, not for the production
of electricity.
The state Department of Public Utility Control issued four of these
contracts in 2007 in a fiercely competitive bid that drew some of the
largest operators in the country. Kleen Energy bagged the biggest share
of the capacity payments. These four commitments will cost ratepayers
$340 million, but will save them $552 million in electricity generation
costs over the 15 years, in part by bringing new plants online, state
energy officials have said.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
APNewsBreak: Obama to
step up power line projects
AP
By MATTHEW DALY
5 October 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration wants to speed up permitting
and construction of seven proposed electric transmission lines in 12
states, as it moves to create jobs and modernize the nation's power
grid.
The projects are intended to serve as pilot demonstrations of
streamlined federal permitting and improved cooperation among federal,
state and tribal governments. The lines will provide electricity in
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The projects are expected to create thousands of jobs, help avoid
blackouts, restore power more quickly when outages occur and reduce the
need for new power plants.
"To compete in the global economy, we need a modern electricity grid,"
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement obtained by The
Associated Press. "An upgraded electricity grid will give consumers
choices while promoting energy savings, increasing energy efficiency
and fostering the growth of renewable energy resources."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the seven power lines being
expedited under the pilot program will serve as important links across
the country to increase the capacity and reliability of the nation's
power grid.
"This is the kind of critical infrastructure we should be working
together to advance in order to create jobs and move our nation toward
energy independence," he said.
David DeCampli, president of PPL Electric Utilities, and Ralph LaRossa,
president of Public Service Electric and Gas. Co., who are teaming up
to build a 145-mile transmission line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
applauded the administration's efforts. Their project and others should
ensure that high-priority electric infrastructure projects are built
and placed in service in a timely manner, the power executives said.
Pam Eaton, deputy vice president for public lands at The Wilderness
Society, also hailed the project.
"Building responsibly sited power lines to access world-class renewable
resources can put thousands of Americans to work, bring cost-effective
clean power to people who need it, and help some of the rural counties
in the West hardest hit by the economic downturn," she said.
The projects are:
— A 500 kilovolt (kV), 300-mile transmission line proposed by Idaho
Power in Oregon and Idaho.
— 1,150 miles of high-voltage lines across Wyoming and Idaho.
— A 210-mile, 500 kV line near Salem, Ore.
— Two 500 kV transmission lines in Arizona and New Mexico.
— A 700-mile, 600 kV transmission line in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. The
project is intended to help develop new wind projects in Wyoming.
— A 345 kV transmission line in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
— A 145-mile, 500 kV transmission line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
A formal announcement was expected Wednesday. A copy of the plan was
obtained by The Associated Press.
A $1B upgrade of Northeast
Utilities transmission lines has been powered up
By ROBERT KOCH, Hour Staff Writer
Posted on 07/04/2009
A half year after Northeast Utilities Co. threw the power switch to its
new electric grid in southwestern Connecticut, the utility company and
others are standing back to critique the $1-billion project.
Northeast Utilities announced last month that it had received the 2009
Edison Award for the four-phase project, which upgraded transmission
lines between Norwalk and Bethel, Norwalk and Middletown, Norwalk and
Stamford, and Connecticut and Long Island.
The annual award recognizes U.S. and international electric companies
for "outstanding leadership, innovation and advancement of the electric
industry," according to Edison Electric Institute, an association of
shareholder-owned electric companies. Northeast Utilities, based in
Hartford, along with American Transmission Co. of Waukesha, Wisc.,
together received this year's award.
"Both of these companies have succeeded in remarkable reliability
efforts, as they have each completed extensive transmission projects to
improve reliability and operation for their respective service
territories," said Thomas R. Kuhn, Edison Electric Institute president.
"The need to bring power to customers efficiently continues to be a
major concern, and it's critically important to our energy future that
this challenge be addressed."
The Northeast Utilities project entailed burying an existing
115-kilovolt line and constructing a 345-kilovolt line between Norwalk
and Bethel; installing a 345-kilovolt cable and reconstructing existing
lines between Norwalk and Middletown; and installing two new
underground 115-kilovolt cables between Norwalk and the Glenbrook
substation in Stamford.
The multi-year project didn't sail through without debate or
controversy, particularly in Norwalk, where the transmission lines
converged. The project tore up roads and frustrated motorists. Six
months after the last segment was energized, road restoration work
continues in Norwalk. And the Bethel-Norwalk portion resulted in tall
poles being erected in the Silvermine neighborhood.
"From a Silvermine perspective, Norwalk got really stuck with the
above-ground section, from Wilton south to New Canaan Avenue. They are
unsightly and houses adjacent to the power line, quite a number of them
are for sale and they're not selling," said Lee Levey, president of the
Norwalk Association of Silvermine Homeowners. "The (road)work is
nowhere near done and the project has left a scar in Silvermine."
Levey calls the New Canaan Avenue substation -- the hub of the improved
grid -- "Grand Central Station."
The upgrade was done to reduce the possibility of blackouts and to
release Northeast Utilities' and its customers from federal congestion
charges. To those ends, it has been a success, according to the
Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, which reviewed and
approved the four phases of the project.
Before the upgrade, rate payers were paying hundreds of millions of
dollars a year in federal congestion charges, according to Philip
Dukes, DPUC spokesman.
"The 'pipes' that were carrying the electricity couldn't handle the
load, which was why we were having all these brownouts over Stamford,"
Dukes said. "This was a wholesale upgrade of essentially the grid's
backbone for southwestern Connecticut from 115 kilovolts to 345
kilovolts. My guess is that there are going to be days where there are
still congestion problems because of the sheer demand in Fairfield
County, but they are going to be far fewer."
According to Northeast Utilities, the Bethel-Norwalk line has generated
more than $150 million in congestion-related savings. And there's the
technology. The Middletown-Norwalk line includes a 24-mile,
345-kilovolt buried, solid-core cable -- the world's longest. The Long
Island Sound project buried 11 miles of cable six feet under the sea
bed, according to Northeast Utilities.
"These southwest Connecticut projects provide a more secure, efficient
and sophisticated electric grid, and save our customers millions of
dollars in congestion costs," said Northeast Utilities CEO Charles W.
Shivery.
The power grid upgrade has helped consumers but more needs to be done,
according to former Norwalk Mayor Bill Collins, a public power
proponent who has been critical of electric companies. He distinguished
between the generation and distribution of electricity. While the
upgrade improved distribution, problems remain with generation,
according to Collins.
"I think it was a good project to undertake -- very responsible. While
it was naturally annoying, I think the pain was worth it," Collins
said. But "turning the generators on, whether it's nuclear up in
Millstone, or oil in Milford, or coal in Bridgeport, or
hydro(electricity) in Quebec, that's the part that's subject to cartel
manipulation. It's where rate payers can get ripped off."
Thousands
leave CL&P, UI for other providers
New Haven REGISTER
By Luther Turmelle, North Bureau Chief
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Customers of the state’s two largest electric utilities are continuing
to seek new power providers at a steady rate in an effort to reduce
their electric bills.
Another 11,024 United Illuminating Co. customers have signed up with a
new power provider since May 31, 2008, the date by which 32,306
customers had made the switch during the 10-year period since
Connecticut lawmakers deregulated the electric generation business.
That means a total of 43,330 of UI’s 325,000 customers, or 13.3
percent, have alternative electric suppliers rather than accepting the
New Haven utility’s standard offer service. Al Carbone, a UI
spokesman, said the company does not view customers who switch electric
power supplier as a negative.
“If you can save on the generation charge, you’re doing a good thing,”
Carbone said, referring to the portion of customers’ bills that makes
up the largest part of the charge. “We have to buy the electricity in a
prescribed manner. Some of the alternative suppliers don’t have to do
it that way and that’s where people can save.”
Over at Connecticut Light & Power, the state’s other large electric
utility, 48,456 customers have migrated to alternative energy suppliers
in the past year. That means that of the 1.2 million CL&P
customers, there are 134,000 who don’t use the company’s standard offer
service. That figure for CL&P doesn’t include the roughly
17,000 customers of the utility who are enrolled in a program in which
they voluntarily pay a “clean energy surcharge” on their monthly bills
to support energy derived from renewable resources such as wind.
Mitch Gross, a CL&P spokesman, said that though customers of both
utilities are switching to alternative power providers, it doesn’t
financially weaken the companies.
“The bottom line is that no matter who supplies your electricity, we
are the delivery company and the business model is based on the
earnings from providing that service,” Gross said.
The portion of the customer base that has sought out alternative
suppliers differs between the two companies.
Of the 134,000 CL&P customers who use alternative power providers,
92,000 of them are business customers, Gross said. UI has more
residential customers making the switch: 31,084 of the 43,330 who have
signed up with alternative power providers.
Carbone said that even those UI customers that haven’t switched power
providers will see a portion of their utility bills decrease over the
second half of this year. Transmission rates dropped Wednesday
from 1.95 cents per kilowatt hour to just under 1.7 cents power
kilowatt hour, he said. The rate will decrease again Oct. 1 to 1.35
cents per kilowatt hour, Carbone said.
“If you use 700 kilowatt hours per month, your bill went down by 92
cents as of July 1,” he said. “By the time the transmission rate is
lowered again in October, that same customer’s bill will be $2.80 lower
per month.”
Carbone said the
reason for the decline in the transmission rates is last December’s
completion of the Middletown-to-Norwalk power line.
Luther Turmelle can be reached at
lturmelle@nhregister.com or 789-5706.
Construction
to Start On Cleaner Power Plant In Middletown
By JOSH KOVNER, Courant Staff Writer
June 26, 2008
MIDDLETOWN —
After the blasting, crushing and spreading of 1.6 million yards of
earth and rock, construction is about to start on the Kleen Energy
power plant on the site of an old feldspar mine in the Maromas area.
It's a nearly $1 billion job, and the plant is one of the largest to be
built in New England in many years. Whether your electric bill goes
down when Kleen Energy turns on in 2010 remains to be seen.
The 620-megawatt plant (1 megawatt is enough to power 750 to 1,000
homes) will be, relatively speaking, clean and efficient. It's part of
an unprecedented power jolt planned for New England that, coupled with
the new high-powered, Norwalk-to- Middletown transmission lines slated
to be finished by 2009, will help cut reliance on older, dirtier plants
that cost more to run.
But Kleen Energy will still burn a huge amount of natural gas, and, to
a lesser extent, low-sulfur oil — and the price and availability of
that stuff is the wild card that causes very smart people to sputter
when asked: Will all this added capacity cut the cost of electricity in
Connecticut?
"Ninety percent of the cost of electricity is fuel," said Donald
Downes, chairman of the state Department of Public Utility Control.
In any case, Bill Corvo has a 1-megawatt smile right about now. He's
president of the partnership that developed the plant, and he spent the
past nine years pushing this thing across the finish line.
It looked bleak for Corvo after Enron Corp. collapsed and banks stopped
financing power projects, but the former Middletown city councilman,
newsletter publisher and history buff kept at it.
He lobbied regulators, newspaper editors, politicians and anyone else
who would listen about something called "capacity contracts" — 15-year
agreements that pay plants just to exist and act as incentives to
developers to build them.
The deals — between the power plants and utility companies — have their
critics because the payments are for capacity, not for the production
of electricity.
The DPUC issued four of these contracts last year in a fiercely
competitive bid that drew some of the largest operators in the country.
Kleen Energy bagged the biggest share of the capacity payments. These
four commitments will cost ratepayers $340 million, but will save them
$552 million in electricity generation costs over the 15 years, in part
by bringing new plants online, Downes said.
And now it's payoff time for Corvo and partner David Oneglia of O&G
Industries of Torrington, the company building the plant.
Energy Investors Funds, with a multibillion-dollar power-generation
portfolio stretching across the country, recently acquired 80 percent
of Kleen Energy by pulling together $985 million in construction
financing.
Corvo and Oneglia will hold on to the remaining 20 percent and will
have positions on the board, offices at the plant and roles as the
local representatives of the project.
"It's a great site, near transmission lines, water and fuel, and they
put a great package together for the DPUC," said Mark W. Voccola, a
vice president at Energy Investors Funds.
"Politically, permit-wise, it helps to have people with all the local
knowledge going forward," Voccola said of Corvo and Oneglia.
Corvo, 57, said Kleen Energy proved to be eminently marketable because
of its 15-year agreement with Connecticut Light & Power, its
location and its low-emission, "combined-cycle" design, which captures
waste steam to make more electricity.
"I used to go over to Portland and look across the Connecticut River at
this [site]," Corvo said the other day from the crest of the Kleen
Energy property 500 feet above River Road. "I used to wonder, 'How the
hell are we going to do this?' It blows my mind every time I'm up here."
He has had some setbacks during the past nine years, but the planets
kept lining up for him. From the city, he needed a tax break and a
partnership to install wells, pumps and pipes to draw millions of
gallons a day from the Connecticut River to cool the turbines.
He got both from the common council and the administration of former
Mayor Domenique Thornton, then sweated it out as current Mayor
Sebastian Giuliano questioned both of those agreements. Giuliano
reworked the water deal somewhat, but learned he could not do anything
about the tax breaks.
"I think they gave a little too much on the taxes," the mayor said this
week, "but I think the city covered itself on the water side, and a
fair agreement was made."
Phil Armetta, who started Kleen Energy LLC with Corvo, had to take a
back seat after he got into trouble with the law. Armetta, former
president of Dainty Rubbish, was indicted in 2006 in the federal
crackdown on racketeering in the Connecticut trash industry, and he
pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misprision, or concealing
information about a felony. He received a three-month prison
sentence. After he was indicted, Armetta transferred his interest
in the project to a trust and no longer has a role in the company,
Corvo said.
Contact Josh Kovner at jkovner@courant.com.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
CL&P's Middletown-Norwalk
project nears completion
By ROBERT KOCH
Hour Staff Writer
Feb. 2, 2008
NORWALK — By year's end, Norwalk residents will be largely out of the
woods with Connecticut Light & Power Co.'s roughly $2-billion plan
to upgrade the power grid in southwestern part of the state, according
to company officials.
"The work that most people would see from the street will be almost
complete — not fully complete," said Frank J. Poirot, spokesman for
Northeast Utilities Co., CL&P's parent company. "The vast majority
of work in 2009 will be in the splicing vaults under the streets, or in
the sub-stations. It's less noticeable. (But) the obvious work, the
excavation and the paving of the streets, should be done by end of the
2008."
The $350-million Bethel-Norwalk upgrade project, completed in 2006,
buried an existing 115-kilovolt line and constructed a 345-kilovolt
line.
Similar projects to boost the power grid, from Middletown to Norwalk,
Stamford to Norwalk, and across Long Island Sound, are well under way,
according to Christopher C. Swan, CL&P's director of municipal
relations and siting.
On Wednesday night, Swan updated the Common Council's Land Use and
Building Management Committee, and the public, on where the projects
stand in Norwalk. Much of the work will by done by the end of this
year, according to Swan.
"Construction-wise, that should be it for Norwalk for some time," Swan
said. "So we're really looking forward (to completion). I'm sure the
residents in the city are, as well, for the end of 2008, because
construction should pretty well be done on all these projects by then."
The $1.36-billion Middletown-Norwalk project entails installing a
345-kilovolt cable and reconstructing existing lines through 18 cities
and towns — underground in Norwalk and Westport — along the 69-mile
stretch. Construction is 60-percent complete, according to CL&P.
In mid-March, work will start in earnest on Main Street in Norwalk,
Swan said.
"It might be a real pain to drive on, but that'll be this coming
spring," Swan said. "That project we hope to be putting in service
about a year from now, maybe January or February 2009. And then, that
will complete a loop in and out of Norwalk."
Along Riverside Avenue, construction is under way on the Glenbrook
Cables project. The $183-million upgrade will install two new
underground 115-kilovolt, from Norwalk to the Glenbrook substation in
Stamford — a 9-mile stretch. Work is 70 percent complete, according to
CL&P.
Work on the Long Island Sound cable replacement project, meanwhile, is
60 percent complete. In December, crews finished removing seven
oil-filled transmission cables — long a concern of fishermen, boaters
and environmentalists — between Norwalk and Northport, N.Y.
The Skagerrak, a 350-foot Norwegian vessel that specializes in placing
submarine cables, recently arrived in Norwalk-area waters to begin
laying three solid-core electric cables.
