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ORANGE — One day before the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) is to officially decide on the next steps in the United Illuminating Fairfield to Congress project, the utility released a report today that says putting in underground transmission lines would cost about $500 million more than installing overhead monopoles.
According to the estimate, completed by Dashiell Corp. and HBK Engineering, “undergrounding” the transmission line from Congress Street Substation in Bridgeport to Sasco Creek in Fairfield would cost approximately $838 million, as opposed to the $306 million estimate for an overhead solution.
UI stated in a press release that the higher cost would be borne entirely by Connecticut ratepayers. The finding aligns with the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC)’s decision in Docket No. 516, in which they found, “based on the record of this proceeding, the Council finds the cost of any underground configuration would result in an unreasonable economic burden on the ratepayers of the state.”
However, that decision was struck down by New Britain Superior Court Judge Matthew Budzik in April, who ruled that CSC should not have approved the monopoles north of the Metro-North train tracks after it originally filed a similar plan for the southside of the tracks.
Fairfield First Selectman Bill Gerber and Easton First Selectman David Bindelglass filed as intervenors in the CSC proceedings. The CSC meeting is at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 12 via Zoom. The Zoom link is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81351401216… The meeting ID: 813 5140 1216 and passcode is a39FiM. To Dial In by phone, call 1 (929) 205 6099 US (New York) The meeting ID is 813 5140 1216 and the passcode is 950005.
“At UI, our responsibility – to our 345,000 customers and all our stakeholders across Connecticut – is to design and implement the least-cost solution that best achieves our primary obligation: providing safe, reliable, and resilient electricity to our customers,” said Frank Reynolds, UI president and CEO. “In both transmission and distribution projects, there are certainly times when we recommend an underground solution, but given the cost increases our customers bear for underground projects, we must offer substantial proof to regulators that an overhead solution is either not viable or would be more costly.”
He went on to say that in the case of Fairfield to Congress, the utility knew there has been strong community advocacy for an underground design plan. “But because we can achieve our reliability and resiliency objectives with a more affordable overhead route,” he continued. “We have always stood by our preferred alternative for the benefit of the customers we serve.”
The third-party assessment for an underground route is within the range of accuracy for the $1.01 billion cost that UI estimated and provided to the CSC in its 2023 application to rebuild this segment of the Metro-North transmission line corridor (Docket No. 516), UI stated. As part of the application, UI included a conceptual underground alternative for the CSC commissioners’ consideration.
“Contrary to some public commentary on this issue, it would actually be in UI’s best interest financially to select a more expensive project design as its ‘preferred alternative,’ as a more expensive project would result in higher earnings for the company,” according to the statement.
UI went on to explain that since it is a regulated company that does not compete for customers it cannot lawfully consider only financial gain in its project design process. Thus, UI states that regulators require utilities like UI to select the most prudent design: the design that achieves the necessary objectives at the least cost for the company’s customers.
“With Connecticut’s high electricity rates continually in the news, it is frankly surprising to see so many elected officials and their constituents continue to push for a project design that would add half a billion dollars to Connecticut electric rates,” said Jim Cole, vice president of projects at UI parent company Avangrid. “At UI, we recognize the immense responsibility we have to provide best-in-class reliability and resiliency at the least possible cost to our customers.”
Cole pointed out the need for rebuilding the existing monopole infrastructure.
“The transmission system is only as strong as its weakest link,” he said. “These aging assets no longer meet minimum design standards, and less than a week after failing Metro-North electrical infrastructure halted and delayed trains on Connecticut’s railroad for more than 12 hours (recently), our customers know more than ever the cascading effects that failures in this system can have.”
For more information on UI’s Railroad Transmission Line Upgrade program, go to this website.
