Vermont lawmakers pass bill to force regional utilities to consider grid options

Vermont lawmakers pass bill to force regional utilities to consider grid options

Platts T&D - 03/10/2004

Despite opposition from Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power, the Vermont Senate has approved an amendment to an energy bill (S 261) to require state officials to seek financial support from all New England ratepayers for distributed generation and energy efficiency projects in the state as alternatives to new transmission lines.

The current New England transmission cost allocation system, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year, requires region-wide financial support for new transmission projects that improve regional reliability.

The Vermont bill mandates that state officials and utilities “negotiate” with the ISO and FERC and take all other possible actions to expand the New England cost-sharing system to cover non-transmission alternatives that are shown to be less costly.

The bill also says Vermont ratepayers should not support transmission projects elsewhere in the region unless they were approved using a least-cost planning process like the one used in Vermont.

The Senate Feb. 25 passed the measure 22-6 and must still vote once more; then the House of Representatives must consider it.

In a statement, the two utilities said they supported the state’s least-cost planning policy but they had been unsuccessful last year in getting the rest of New England to agree. They said the new bill would force them to start this unsuccessful fight again and could lead to litigation with the ISO, which could cause Vermont to lose the benefits of the current ISO system for local transmission projects.