Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 24, 2023 Duncan Broatch, president of Summit Hydropower Inc., at his facility in Dayville. He is concerned that the rates hydropower producers receive in Connecticut are so low that many can't afford to stay in business. HBJ PHOTO | BILL MORGAN Breaking The Dam After decades-long decline, advocates hope hydroelectric power could see rebirth as clean energy solution By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com H ydroelectric power, produced through carbon-free and effi- cient technology developed in the late-1800s to provide mechanical energy for mills, could see a rebirth, advocates hope. As Connecticut inches closer to its 2040 deadline to procure all of its energy from zero-carbon sources, the state needs to diversify production, and some experts say that hydro- power must become an increasingly important part of the energy mix if the Nutmeg State is going to meet its clean energy goals. "You're going to need a mix of zero- carbon resources in order to get to that goal," said Lee Hoffman, chair of law firm Pullman & Comley, and former co-chair of the firm's real estate, energy, environmental and land use department. "You're going to need nuclear, you're going to need wind, you're going to need solar and yes, you're going to need hydroelectric." However, for that to happen, hydro advocates say producers must be compensated more in order to sustain their businesses, and they complain that the state has largely ignored hydropower as a reliable clean energy source. Duncan Broatch, a hydropower operator and chairperson of the Connecticut Small Power Producers Association, recently submitted a report to the state legis- lature that said 11 hydroelectric dams have recently shut down, causing the state to lose 8 megawatts of generation capacity. An additional nine facilities are at risk of being decommissioned soon, a potential loss of another 10 MW. Meanwhile, he estimates that 47 undeveloped dams in Connecticut could be retooled as hydropower generators, if the economic situation makes the projects viable. That would create 27 MW of electricity — enough to power up to 24,300 homes annually. Broatch said many hydroelectric dams are struggling because oper- ators can't afford to maintain their Federal Energy Regulatory Commis- sion licenses, which require signif- icant plant upgrades roughly once every 40 years. Non-renewables reliance Hydroelectric technology has existed for centuries. Hydroelectric dams convert the energy of flowing water into kinetic energy using hydraulic turbines. A generator converts the mechanical energy into electricity. Hydroelectricity's share of total U.S. electricity generation decreased from the 1950s through 2020, mainly because of increases from other sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2022, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.2% of total U.S. elec- tricity generation. About 7% of Connecticut's electricity comes from hydropower, according to ISO-New England, which oversees the region's electrical grid. Fossil fuel-burning power plants, which use heat to generate steam that drives turbines to produce elec- tricity, generate the majority of elec- tricity in the United States, as well as in Connecticut. They became popular because they're reliable and relatively inexpensive to build, according to the World Nuclear Association. But they produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. Also, the earth's fossil fuels reserve is being depleted. Connecticut is heavily reliant on non-renewable energy sources. In 2022, most of the state's electricity (52%) was derived from natural gas, second to nuclear (26%), based on data from ISO-New England. In an effort to reverse that trend, in 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order setting the state's goal to have a zero-carbon electric grid by 2040. Last year, it was codi- fied into law. Hoffman said five of six New England states have decarbonization goals between now and 2050. "If those five states achieve their zero-carbon goals by 2050, we will need to roughly double our electric production in New England, and we will need to do so while replacing our current fossil fuel assets," Hoffman said. "So, right now, the biggest producer of electricity in New England is natural gas. We will have to replace a significant number of natural gas-fired power plants as well as other fossil fuel plants, while at the same time doubling the overall production, and that's a daunting task." The state has worked to provide incentives for wind and solar energy production, with many producers receiving about 20 cents per kilo- watt-hour of electricity — more than six times as much as what small hydroelectric facilities receive, according to Broatch. That puts hydropower producers at a major disadvantage. Broatch's business, Summit Hydropower, oper- ates a 100 KW hydroelectric facility in Dayville at a loss, he said. The plant brings in gross revenue of about $11,000 a year and gener- Lee Hoffman

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