Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • June 27, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com HEALTHCARE LOAN SALE 2016-1 Approximate Portfolio Size Unpaid Principal Balance: $40 Million Total Number of Loans: 8 Scheduled Bid Date July 20, 2016 For further information please visit the HUD HLS 2016-1 website at www.hud.gov/fhaloansales HLS 2016-1 includes mortgage notes secured by properties in Connecticut This announcement is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy mortgage loans. Information concerning the mortgage loans will be furnished only to, and bids will be accepted only from, bidders who certify that they have such knowledge and experience in financial and business matters so as to be capable of evaluating the merits and risk and who certify that they have the resources to bear the risk of a purchase of the mortgage loans. Transaction Specialist: J.S. Watkins Realty Partners 4600 East West Highway, Suite 610 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-215-7269 hls2016-1@debtx.com @jswpartners expansion of Spectra Energy's Algonquin pipeline, which runs from the Marcellus Shale and crosses Connecticut diagonally from the southwest to the northeast, before heading into Massachusetts. DEEP's selection of Access Northeast — in which Eversource owns a 40 percent stake — would provide a substantial amount of the demand needed to make the project economically viable, particularly since Con- necticut is the second-highest power user in New England, according to Morningstar ana- lyst Travis Miller, who covers Eversource. If Access Northeast doesn't get picked, however, it could threaten the project, lead- ing to the region's second major natural gas expansion hitting a roadblock this year. A competing $3.3 billion pipeline expan- sion — targeted largely at natural gas utili- ties — was shelved by Kinder Morgan in April after the company reported that it couldn't secure enough customer contracts. "If either Connecticut or Massachusetts decides not to move forward with con- tracts [for Access Northeast], it would be very challenging to justify constructing the pipeline," Miller said. At stake is potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in annual ratepayer savings that developers say Access Northeast could bring to Connecticut, although some are skeptical of those projections. Meantime, environmental- ists and others also worry that expanding the region's reliance on natural gas could cause greenhouse gas emissions to rise. Access Northeast will also be competing against clean-energy projects that supporters say would better allow the state to meet its energy needs and achieve environmental goals. Camilo Serna, Eversource's vice presi- dent for strategic planning and policy, said earlier this month that Access Northeast has approximately half of the commitments from New England utilities it feels are needed to make the project viable. "We continue to look for more commit- ments in the region and we're in good stand- ing today," Serna said. Serna said Access Northeast could translate to net annual savings of $1 billion to New England ratepayers for 15 years or more. Connecticut's portion of that number would be approximately $250 million. The promised savings have won the proj- ect support from the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and MetroHartford Alliance, which wrote in comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — which is currently reviewing Access North- east — that New England's energy prices have stifled economic growth. Under its RFP, DEEP could procure as much as approximately 300 million cubic feet per day of added natural gas capacity. That's the amount of gas consumed in one year by 3,750 of Eversource's aver- age residential customers for heating, hot water and appliances. But the gas sought in DEEP's RFP isn't for home heating. It's intended for gas-fired power plants, which have struggled on the state's cold- est days to secure enough gas to generate needed electricity, a situation that caused especially steep spikes in wholesale ener- gy prices in early 2014 and forced plants to burn dirtier oil. Another 300 million cubic feet of gas capacity is enough to generate approxi- mately 1,800 megawatts of power annually, depending on the efficiency of the gas-fired plants producing the electricity. New England has long suffered from from page 1 Ratepayer savings at stake Rate recovery controversy By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com P erhaps the most important question in building energy infrastructure is "who's going to pay for it?" Under Connecticut's ongoing procure- ment, and similar proceedings in other New England states, the answer is changing. In the past, local gas utility companies, such as Yankee Gas or Connecticut Natural Gas, have been responsible for contracting with developers for pipeline capacity, and passing the costs onto their gas ratepayers. This time, the cost of building out gas capacity would be borne by the electric util- ities, and would be spread across a larger population, including electric ratepayers. Those utilities would ask the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for per- mission to include charges on electricity customers' bills to pay for the costs they incurred securing the gas. Assuming PURA approves the final contracts, which could happen late this year, all electric ratepayers in the state, regardless of whether they use natural gas, would see an additional charge on their electric bills for natural gas. Proponents of the gas expansion say that's a fair proposal because electric ratepayers will save more money from lower electricity costs than they will pay in additional charges. But while Connecticut's 2015 law appears to pave the way for that cost recovery, there has been controversy in other New England states, such as Mas- sachusetts, which is the most important target customer of the Access Northeast project because it has the highest power needs in the region. Some policymakers in Massachusetts and Maine have opposed the rate recov- ery method. But in both cases, those states' utilities regulators will have the final say over the contracts. Travis Miller, a Morningstar analyst who covers Eversource, said the state regu- latory processes are "a big question mark" for Access Northeast. As such, he hasn't yet included any formal revenue projections for Access Northeast in his independent analyst reports on Eversource. n WALLINGFORD? ✓ PlugIn2Wallingford.com and click on 'New Businesses' or call 203-294-2062 56 New Businesses Opened in 2015! Convenient Central Location Affordable ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Lowest Electric Rates in CT! Qualified Workforce > To s e e t h e l i s t , v i s i t W hy

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