Expanded gas line Access Northeast is the new target
New Hampshire Union Leader
May 14. 2016 6:13PM
Anti-pipeline organizations formed to fight the now-defunct Kinder Morgan proposal are turning their sights on the other big project designed to increase the flow of natural gas into New England — Access Northeast.
Unlike the Kinder Morgan plan, which involved more than 100 miles of new construction across western Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, the Access Northeast project would upgrade the existing Algonquin pipeline system in Connecticut and Massachusetts with bigger pipe, new compressor stations, additional laterals and new storage facilities for liquefied natural gas.
Spectra energy, owner of the Algonquin system, has partnered with electric utilities Eversource in New Hampshire and National Grid in Massachusetts on Access Northeast, since the project is designed primarily to get natural gas to the gas-fired power plants that feed the New England grid.
Supporters of the project say Access Northeast is the most benign way to get extra natural gas into New England to help lower electricity prices, particularly in the winter.
"It’s really a tale of two different approaches," said Bill Yardley, Spectra Energy’s president of transmission and storage, comparing the Kinder Morgan proposal to Access Northeast. "(Access Northeast) is incremental expansion of our pipeline within our right of way. Instead of trying to build a brand new pipeline, we said, ‘Let’s just provide enhancements — change a 24-inch line and replace with 42-inch, and add some compression to push it along.’ "
Access Northeast does not involve any work in New Hampshire. The Algonquin system runs up the east coast of Connecticut and Massachusetts. But New Hampshire electricity customers could benefit from the new source of fuel for power plants, since New England states share the same grid.
Opponents seek delay
In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday, the Pipeline Awareness Network for the Northeast asked for a more comprehensive environmental review of the Algonquin expansion plans and an extension of the deadline for comments.
Although not as disruptive as the NED project, Access Northeast has its own environmental impacts, says Katy Eiseman, PLAN president.
"In our list of priorities, new interstate infrastructure is a last resort," she said. "Before you get to that, we should be exploring better and more coordinated use of the existing pipeline, which has been improving."
Opponents also object to the way the project is funded, with electricity customers being asked to pay for a pipeline project through electric rates on the premise that more natural gas will lower those rates.
New Hampshire’s Consumer Advocate at the Public Utilities Commission, Donald Kreis, shares that view. He worries that electricity consumers will be stuck with a big bill if Access Northeast doesn’t work out as planned.
In a recent filing with the PUC, he called the idea of having electricity customers finance the natural gas project "llegal, unjust, and unreasonable."
The New Hampshire Municipal Pipeline Coalition filed an April 28 brief with the PUC also arguing there is no state law that allows such an agreement.
Funding dilemma
The PUC legal staff has advised the commissioners that they do have the legal authority to approve the Access Northeast funding plan, and in an earlier analysis made the case that additional natural gas capacity would lower electricity rates.
If regulators in New Hampshire and other New England states refuse to allow electricity customers to pay for natural gas pipelines, any hope of new pipeline capacity into the region is likely to be dead for years to come.
The demise of the Kinder Morgan project demonstrated once and for all that the owners of natural gas-fired power plants are not going to sign up for the long-term contracts needed to justify pipeline construction.
"We know the merchant generators who own the power plants are not signing up for new capacity," said Yardley. "It’s too big a financial commitment for any one generator in this system, and we’ve seen that for 10 years now."
That might not be such a bad thing in the long run, according to Matthew Piatek, a consultant with IHS Energy who specializes in North American natural gas markets.
"A pipeline isn't necessarily the only solution," he said. "There are other solutions, such as bringing power by wire from Eastern Canada into New England, or a combined solution when you have new pipeline capacity on a smaller scale."
But doing nothing to increase the volume of electricity coming into the region will have consequences, according to Piatek.
"In the absence of both of those things moving forward, I think you will still have risk of considerable and unknown price spikes during peak periods," he said.
New England governors have been aware of the problem since 2013, when they urged the New England States Committee on Electricity to begin investigating the concept of a pipeline funded by electric ratepayers.
More cautious tone
Gov. Maggie Hassan was part of that initiative, although she is sounding a more cautious note about the concept these days.
In an April 13 letter to the PUC on the Access Northeast funding proposal, she writes, "I strongly encourage the commission to take a broad view and thoroughly review and examine the costs and benefits of this proposal in contrast to other alternatives, including increasing small-scale renewable energy generation and increasing investments in cost-effective energy efficiency."
That type of hedging is frustrating to pipeline supporters, who argue that the need for more natural gas into New England has been well-documented by the Independent System Operator of the New England grid, and in numerous studies.
The experience of the past two winters has eased some of the urgency surrounding the problem, they say, but it hasn’t gone away.
"There’s really a hole in our roof, and it’s not raining, so people aren’t worried," says Eversource spokesperson Martin Murray. "But there are going to be times ahead when we are really going to be in desperate need of additional natural gas and other energy sources, and we have to address that now while we have the time to do so."
