Newsletter and Subscription Sign Up
Subscribe

Big Changes for Eversource

Published Wednesday Apr 22, 2015

https://www.businessnhmagazine.com/UploadedFiles/Images/BizBits-Eversource.jpg

Power outages and price spikes have been huge PR headaches for the company formerly known as Public Service of NH. But a change in identity is also bringing big changes to its business model and infrastructure that it expects will mitigate those issues. Eversource agreed in March to sell its nine hydropower and three fossil fuel plants, a transaction that would end its unique status in New England as the only utility to own its power plants. Eversource estimates the sale of its generating plants will bring $300 million in savings to NH customers. As part of the plan to sell, the utility also has agreed to forego $25 million in recovery related to installing the scrubber at Merrimack Station as it will no longer have to pay for the costly operations of the plants that would otherwise have required investments for regulatory compliance.

Eversource is also partnering with Spectra Energy and National Grid on Access Northeast, a proposed expansion of existing natural gas pipelines that will bring in an additional 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day into the region. A competing proposal by Kinder Morgan would run a new natural gas pipeline through Southern NH. COO Bill Quinlan says the $3 billion project is unique because it would not only provide natural gas for heating but also supply power plants, generating more electricity that can be sold on the grid at lower rates. If approved, it is expected to be in service by 2018.

“If this line had been here last winter, [New Hampshire users] would have saved $2.5 billion on electricity,” Quinlan says. The project would add 5,000 megawatts of generation. He says lowering electricity rates is critical for area businesses, requiring some investments to be made. “There is going to be a certain amount of large scale infrastructure needed to keep the economy going,” Quinlan says. Granite State electricity rates for December 2014 were double the national average for industrial users and about 50 percent higher for commercial and residential users. The plan needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as well as the state siting authorities in states the pipeline traverses.

The company has also invested $3.5 million in distribution automation, sometimes called a smart grid. It plans to invest another $60 million over the next five years. Eversource will be filing with the NH Public Utilities Commission to recover the costs over an extended period of time from ratepayers. The system will operate out of a central hub that has 24/7 monitoring. And while it won’t identify every power outage, once a handful of people call in from one area, the system can use that data and knowledge of the grid to determine how many people are likely in the dark. Later this year, Eversource is also launching a troubleshooting organization dedicated to watching the network for problems. “It’s going to be a game changer, reducing the impact of weather and moving the number of customers without power to the smallest possible sooner,” Quinlan says.

All Stories