All of the New England states except New Hampshire plan to jointly explore ways to import large amounts of Canadian hydro-electricity into the region, an acknowledgment that hydro power is needed for the states to reach their carbon emission reduction targets.
Steven Clarke, the Massachusetts assistant secretary of energy, said the states are preparing to announce that a region-wide group will be gathering information on Canadian hydro over the next few months and presenting import options to the governors by the end of the summer.
“It’s very broad,” Clarke said of the work by the New England States Committee on Electricity. “It’s not limited to specific projects or specific parts of Canada.”
Hydro power from Canada is attractive to New England because it’s relatively cheap, plentiful, and reliable. It also has low carbon emissions and has the potential to reduce New England’s over-dependence on natural gas, a fossil fuel used to produce more than half of the region’s electricity.
Seth Kaplan, vice president of policy and climate advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, said large-scale hydro from Canada is needed for the New England states to reach their long-term greenhouse gas emissions targets. Massachusetts has a goal of reducing its emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The sticking point with Canadian hydro is how it should be priced. Hydro-Quebec already delivers power to Vermont and Massachusetts at market prices, but company officials are now saying the environmental benefits of their power dictate some form of premium price for the product. Canadian officials have lobbied New England officials for several years to treat hydro as a form of renewable energy eligible for subsidies.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy just signed legislation that would count large-scale hydro toward that state’s renewable energy goals under certain conditions, but Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts does not want large-scale hydro included in his state’s renewable portfolio standard, or RPS. Massachusetts officials say renewable energy subsidies should only go to emerging technologies that would be uneconomical without them.
“We have no intention of including large hydro in our RPS,” Clarke said. “We think it’s a mature technology and we don’t think it’s appropriate for the RPS.”
But Clarke didn’t rule out the possibility that large-scale hydro from Canada could be offered special incentives under a regional procurement process. He declined to speculate about what kind of incentives might be offered.
New Hampshire officials could not be reached for comment on why they are not participating in the regional planning process on hydro. Asked about New Hampshire’s absence, Clarke said: “New Hampshire is still sort of deciding how to proceed.”
New Hampshire is struggling with its own Canadian hydro problem right now. Hydro-Quebec has proposed building the so-called Northern Pass power line into southern New Hampshire to sell 1,200 megawatts of electricity to the region. The power line faces fierce opposition in New Hampshire, but officials at Public Service of New Hampshire, the utility building the line, say they plan to address community concerns with a new route scheduled to be unveiled soon.
Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation said he expects the New England states will set up a regional procurement process for Canadian hydro the same way they are setting up a joint procurement process for renewable energy. All six New England states plan to jointly solicit projects that meet the states’ definition of renewable energy later this year, and Kaplan said he expects the same competitive bidding process will eventually be used to solicit competing hydro proposals from Quebec and the Maritime provinces.
“It makes sense to buy in bulk,” Kaplan said.
