An artist's rendering of Invenergy's proposed 1,000-MW Clear River Energy Center in Burrillville, R.I. Source: Invenergy LLC |
Rhode Island's siting agency has rejected a two-year-old regulatory opinion favoring the construction of Invenergy LLC's proposed natural gas- and diesel oil-fired 1,000-MW Clear River Energy Center (Burrillville Power Plant).
In what amounts to another setback for Invenergy in the permitting process, Rhode Island's Energy Facilities Siting Board, or EFSB, voted Oct. 31 to adopt three motions in favor of Conservation Law Foundation, or CLF, and the town of Burrillville, the two intervenors opposed to the $1 billion gas project.
The most important of the motions, passed in a 2-0 vote after EFSB Chair Margaret Curran left the hearing early due to illness, rejected the state Public Utility Commission's advisory opinion from September 2016 for being old and no longer relevant. The board will no longer take into consideration the earlier PUC opinion and instead will decide the issue of need based on all the evidence presented, included updated testimonies that will be filed by the parties.
The EFSB rejected the PUC's advisory opinion because state regulators had issued the favorable endorsement when the two-unit Clear River project still had a capacity supply obligation, CSO, from regional power grid operator ISO New England.
However, the ISO-NE on Sept. 20 moved to terminate that CSO because "little progress" had been made in building its 495-MW Cunit 1 generator. Clear River was supposed to provide capacity from the project from June 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020, but Invenergy now does not expect the project to come online until 2021, the grid operator reasoned.
The board also unanimously approved a CLF motion asking the EFSB to consider an ISO-NE document allegedly showing that Clear River project's electricity is not wanted or needed and therefore further proving that Invenergy misstated the facts about the project. The CLF also successfully submitted a request for the EFSB to take "administrative notice" of a post-PUC hearing memo by Invenergy from August 2016 that said that if the Clear River project fails to get a CSO it will not be needed.
In a statement, Conservation Law Foundation attorney Jerry Elmer said that after the involuntary termination of Invenergy's CSO — "a first in the history of the ISO" — clearly the PUC advisory opinion "is badly out of date and the proposed plant is not needed."
CLF opposes the planned use of fracked natural gas at the Clear River project and its expected greenhouse gas emissions "at a time when Rhode Island should be focusing on clean, renewable energy," Elmer said. "Today's decision makes it clear: Invenergy needs to admit defeat and stop forcing this unwanted plant on Rhode Islanders."
Invenergy said in a statement that the permit process is proceeding as scheduled and noted that the EFSB will hold the cost and need portions of the hearings starting early January 2019. Invenergy is also waiting on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to decide on the ISO-NE's request to cancel its CSO with the Clear River project. FERC's decision is expected sometime in November.
Far from dissuaded, Invenergy said, "Rhode Island faces some of the nation's highest electric rates and thousands of megawatts of capacity will come off the grid in the coming years; the need for the Clear River Energy Center is only growing." (Docket No. SB 2015-06)

