Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com December 22, 2014 • Hartford Business Journal 31 Industry Focus E c o n o m i c F o r E c a s t YEar in rEviEW September 16 NU announces $3B natural gas pipeline expansion New England energy conglomerate Northeast Utilities in September unveiled its plans for a $3 billion expansion of the natural gas transmission system, believing it will relieve bottlenecks causing electric and heating price spikes. NU, which is dually headquartered in Hartford and Boston, will partner with Hous- ton-based Spectra Energy Corp. to expand two of the pipelines bringing natural gas into New England. The project, called Access Northeast, can be completed in phases to meet de- mand, but it has an anticipated in-service date of November 2018, as long as it is approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The expanded capacity of roughly 1 billion cubic feet of gas will help meet the growing demand for natural gas in power plants and home heating systems. The in- creased domestic mining of natural gas has made it significantly cheaper than most other fossil fuels — notably oil — causing the rise of New England natural gas power plants, which now produce roughly half the electricity in the region, and expansions of natural gas home heating systems, including a $7 billion project in Connecticut. Even though natural gas is cheap, the limited pipeline capacity makes it difficult to get the fuel to New England. April 21 cT lifts three-year ban on wind turbines Key legislative leaders and energy officials reached a tentative agreement in April to lift the state's three-year ban on wind turbine development, just in time for a northeast Connecticut project to move forward. The ban was lifted by the General Assembly's Regulation Review Committee, which approved wind turbine development regulations that were at the heart of the three-year moratorium. The regulations require, among other things, developers to provide upfront financial assurance so the state can decommission a turbine that is no longer in use. JAnuAry 23 DEEP chief of staff to succeed Esty The chief of staff at the Connecticut De- partment of Energy & Environmental Protec- tion took over as commissioner when Dan Esty resigned the post in February. Robert Klee served as Esty's chief of staff since April 2011 and became the second DEEP commissioner since Malloy expanded the Department of Environmental Protection to include energy strategy. Like Esty, Klee took over as DEEP commissioner with a Yale background. Klee received his master's degree in environmental management, his law degree, and his Ph.D. in forestry and environmental studies from Yale. December 1 Regulators approve $130M cL&P rate increase The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in December preliminarily approved a $130 million increase in the distribution rates of Berlin electric utility Connecticut Light & Power, a significant reduction in what the company had requested. CL&P originally asked for a $232 million increase in June but later revised that number to $221 million in September. That figure included amounts already pre-approved by PURA in previous cases, such as $89 million for storm recovery costs. Included in the PURA ruling was the penalty assessed against CL&P for its inadequate and deficient response to two storms in 2011, that each left more than 675,000 people without power, some for up to 11 days. PURA imposed a penalty of $4.4 million. AuguSt 14 Officials hit the switch on Hartford landfill solar array The Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority has turned on a new one-mega- watt solar panel array at the Hartford landfill alongside I-91. MIRA, formerly called the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, turned the system on in mid-June after capping the six-acre section of the landfill with the 3,993-panel array. In August, MIRA asked the Public Utilities Resources Authority to classify the system as a Class I renewable energy source, which will allow it to generate renewable energy credits. mArch 4 Power prices hit 10-year high in January New England wholesale electricity prices reached their highest level in 10 years this past January, as rising natural gas demand squeezed power plant capacity, ac- cording to grid administrator ISO New England. The average real-time wholesale electricity price during January was $162.88 per megawatt hour, a 94 percent increase from the January 2013 price. The 2014 price was 46 percent higher than the previous high set in October 2005 when hur- ricanes damaged the natural gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. July 31 yankee breaks ground on $7B gas expansion Berlin utility Yankee Gas in July broke ground on its natural gas system expan- sion, part of a statewide plan to make natural gas the fuel of choice in Connecticut through the addition of 280,000 customers. Yankee started the first project of this expansion in Wilton. The segment of the overall $7 billion natural gas system expansion performed by utilities Yankee, Con- necticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy championed this natural gas expansion in his comprehen- sive energy strategy in 2012. november 11 PURa issues regs for electricity supplier marketing, disclosures The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in November officially issued rules electricity suppliers must follow going forward. The regulations came after PURA received complaints from residents and businesses about hikes in their electricity rates, which many said occurred without prior notice. Officials said thousands of customers experienced the increases, which were as high as 200 and 300 percent above the current standard service rate of- fered by utility companies at the time. crews test natural gas flowing through a transmission pipeline as part of an expansion. Robert Klee, commissioner, DEEP P H O T O | H B J F i l e i l l u s T r a T i O n | H B J F i l e

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