Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • April 15, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Matt Pilon | mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com Health Care/Bioscience, Startups & Entrepreneurs, Government/Law and Energy ENERGY & UTILITIES CT's sole wind farm wants Eversource to cover costly outages T he owners of Connecticut's only commercial wind farm say faulty and outdated utility equipment has caused their two Colebrook wind turbines to experience excessive downtime, costing the operation more than $1 million and counting. Wind Colebrook South LLC principals Gregory Zupkus and Paul Corey have been asking utility giant Eversource, which owns and operates the distribution line and safety-systems equipment alleged to be causing issues, to compensate them for their losses, but the state's utilities regula- tor has not yet been able to resolve the years-long dispute. The two turbines, each more than 320 feet tall, entered opera- tion in late 2015 high atop a hill overlooking Route 44. A third tur- bine has been approved, but not yet built. The wind farm received $23 million in financing, including backing from Webster Bank. Wind Colebrook operators say voltage fluctuations along Eversource's nearby distribution line have been causing the turbines to turn off suddenly. In addi- tion, they say a safety system designed by Eversource for the site has also been malfunctioning, causing similar shutoffs. In both instances, the turbines' massive rotating blades come to a hard stop, which has damaged their mechanical parts and driven up maintenance and repair costs. If the problems persist, Wind Colebrook said it expects to lose up to $6.3 million over the life of its 20-year power-purchase contract, through which it sells wind power to Eversource. The bulk of the losses stem from equipment damage. The company wants the Public Utilities Regu- latory Authority (PURA) to direct Eversource to upgrade the distribution line, which connects the wind farm to a substation five miles away, but that could cost somewhere between $2.8 million and $6.5 million. Eversource has argued there are cheaper fixes, but the wind farm's attorney says they haven't presented a realistic plan. Eversource has also disputed that the distribu- tion line is causing shutoffs. To help cover the unexpected costs, Wind Cole- brook wants to tweak the pricing schedule of its Eversource contract, and add five years to the deal. Eversource argues that wouldn't be legal and the Office of Consumer Counsel agrees. Meantime, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which selected the Colebrook project in a competitive-bidding process in 2011, also opposes changes to the original contract, argu- ing Wind Colebrook should have better priced risk, and that allowing a change now could set a negative precedent for future renewable projects. "It would be unfor- tunate if the only com- mercial wind project in Connecticut failed," DEEP wrote to PURA in February. However, ratepayers shouldn't be forced to provide an "economic backstop" for such projects either, the agency added. Wind Colebrook and Eversource are slated to return to PURA next month with a list of potential fixes. PURA also or- dered them to work on a plan to minimize forced turbine outages due to Eversource's maintenance on area substations — another problem that Wind Colebrook has complained about, in addi- tion to the faulty distribution equipment. Wind Colebrook attorney Lee Hoffman, of Pullman & Comley, expressed optimism about resolving the situation. "At the end of the day, I think we can arrive at a technical solution that satisfies all parties," Hoffman said. Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said the parties are trying to resolve their issues. "We support Connecticut's renewable energy goals, and continue to work with PURA, DEEP and Wind Colebrook South to develop cost- effective solutions to the technical challenges triggered by this project that are in the best interest of our customers," Gross said. HEALTH CARE Heart-procedure results boost Hartford Hospital A relatively new heart- valve replacement procedure could be- come more commonplace at Hartford Hospital, following promising results of a clinical study in which the care pro- vider played a direct role. Transcatheter aortic- valve replacement (TAVR) is a less invasive way, compared to open-heart surgery, to treat certain pa- tients with damaged aortic valves, which regulate the heart's blood flow. The procedure involves threading a man-made re- placement valve up through a patient's arteries, often from the groin, toward the heart. Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger recently under- went a TAVR in New York, drawing plenty of headlines and news coverage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn't given the procedure broad approval for patients considered a low risk of dying in an open-heart surgery, but in a recent clini- cal study, low-risk patients who received TAVR — includ- ing at Hartford Hospital — had lower instances of death, stroke and hospitalization at both the one-month and one- year marks, compared with those who received open- heart surgery. The results of the 1,000-pa- tient study were published last month by the New Eng- land Journal of Medicine. "The expectation is that later on this year, the ap- proval will be extended to lower-risk patients," said Hartford Hospital cardiolo- gist Dr. Francis Kiernan. Kiernan and his colleagues recently performed their 1,000th TAVR procedure, and hosted a small celebra- tion to mark the milestone. In attendance was Carl Corey, one of 19 patients whose outcomes Hartford Hospital tracked for the recent study. Though open-heart surgery is relatively safe, the 70-year-old Putnam resident said he didn't want to have his chest cut open if he could avoid it. So he enrolled and was selected for the TAVR procedure, which he underwent on Valentine's Day. His wedding anniver- sary was the next day. The irony wasn't lost on him. "I called it my heart week," Corey said. After surgery, he was soon able to walk two miles on a treadmill. "Everything is going good, I ride my motorcycle all the time," he said. Next month, Corey and his wife plan to head out to Oregon and Washington to ride their Harleys. As hospitals await word from the FDA, several dozen U.S. hospitals, including Hartford, have permission to continue to perform TAVR on low-risk patients. Jeffrey Flaks, president and chief operating officer of Hartford HealthCare, said bringing new, cutting-edge options to local patients is a point of pride. "We want people in the region to have access to world-class care," Flaks said. "We're amongst the world leaders with this set of [TAVR] capabilities." Greg Zupkus' Colebrook wind farm has had turbine stoppages caused by utility-equipment issues. Carl Corey (second from left), a Hartford Hospital TAVR patient, with some of the hospital's physicians at an April 2019 event. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED HBJ PHOTO | MATT PILON

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