Berlin planning to building new community, senior center, but plenty of questions remain
Erica Drzewiecki BERLIN – The town is planning to build a new community and senior center sometime in the near future, but the “when” and “how” are still uncertain.
Berlin officials recently posted a link on the town’s Facebook page to the new project website. This sparked interest from local residents, who queried as to the project timeline, the possibility of a pool and more.
However, Town Manager Arosha Jayawickrema confirmed with the Herald on Monday the project was no closer to a groundbreaking due to the covid-19 pandemic.
No referendum date has been set and community information sessions are not yet in the works.
“Public outreach is still in limbo due to covid,” Jayawickrema said. “No public meetings are scheduled at this time.”
Public forums initially gaged interest in 2018, with residents expressing excitement about the possibility of a project. The town was awarded a $750,000 grant from the state in 2019, to begin a study for the new facility. Quisenberry Aracri Malik (QA+M Architecture) was enlisted in April 2020 to design the project and execute the plans.
But before the design is finalized, the price tag is set and the plans are put out for voters’ approval, a list of steps must be completed. This pre-referendum work started in May of 2020.
Four potential sites for the new building were examined by the project team, which determined Patterson Way, close to Berlin High School, to be the most viable building location.
The next steps would be to hold public information meetings, revise the designs based on feedback and finalize the concept plans before a referendum.
Town plan and zoning staff have reviewed the architect’s initial drawings and the firm is currently revising exterior plans in response to their comments.
MONDAY FEBURARY 22 BEGINS HERE FOR THOSE DID NOT RECIEVE YESTERDAY'S EMAIL
Carrier Construction plans for commercial, residential development of large section of Centre Square
Susan Corica BRISTOL – Carrier Construction Inc. has plans for commercial and residential development of a large section of Centre Square downtown.
The plans have grown so much that the City Council was forced to postpone till next month approving the sale of three parcels of the square because Carrier decided to acquire a fourth parcel as well.
The city’s Economic and Community Development Commission reviewed Carrier’s letter of intent earlier in the month, planning to send them on to the council for action. The letter said Carrier intended to buy Parcels 6, 7, and 8 – a total of 3.44 acres – for $172,000.
“Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, when we got to the meeting the Carrier Construction representatives had asked to revise their letter of intent to now also include Parcel 5,” said Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
That means Carrier would acquire the entire remaining vacant land in Centre Square, from the northerly portion where McDonald’s is all the way down to Hope Street, then over to where the Public Works Department recently constructed a public parking lot by the railroad tracks, she said.
“So all of the paperwork and everything that we had prepared was for lots 6, 7, and 8, not 5, 6, 7, and 8,” she said, adding that the issue will now have to go through the commission’s downtown subcommittee and then to the full commission again before the council can consider it.
“But we’re very excited about this, because I think this represents what people are waiting for in terms of not just looking at an empty parking lot, but actually seeing plans and how they are going to be reviewed and then built over the next few months,” she said.
Carrier’s original plan was to build at least two mixed use buildings, with associated parking, that combined would offer 60 to 70 market rate apartments on the upper floors and 10,000 square feet of retail/office/commercial space on the ground floors, with frontage on North Main Street.
Zoppo-Sassu said Carrier does “incredible work,” citing the townhouses the company is currently building on Main Street across from the Bristol Public Library.
“If we can get that type of quality for market rate apartments across the street from City Hall and the Police Department, with some planned open space and everything else that’s happening, I think we’re going to finally get to that point where we have achieved some type of synergy for downtown,” she said.
Zoppo-Sassu said adding so many housing units to downtown would be a boost to local businesses and restaurants.
Combine that with the planned cleanup and residential renovation at the Sessions Building on Riverside Avenue, “and all of a sudden you have a downtown that’s filled with people that both are working here and living here. That’s something that we have been striving for, so it’s great to see it happen,” she said.
“And with all those people downtown they might even have an opportunity to attend something at the Rockwell Theater,” said Councilman Peter Kelley, referring to the theater being renovated at the planned Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School nearby.
Waterford moves forward with demolishing abandoned marina
Sten Spinella Waterford — Two abandoned docks adjacent to the condominiums on Scotch Cap Road are set to be demolished.
On Tuesday, the Board of Selectmen approved a bid from Mohawk Northeast, a construction company, to conduct the dock removals. The project represents a partnership between the state, the town and the Navy. The Navy has long wanted the remnants of the abandoned marina just past the train tracks to go because it's across from the piers where submarines dock at the base.
"We're going to start home-porting the new Virginia Class submarines at the submarine base," executive director at the state Office of Military Affairs Bob Ross said Thursday. "These are the Block V submarines that are about 80 feet longer than the previous submarines. When we want to homeport those in Groton, we have to have room to maneuver them, so the submarine base is going to have to create a larger turning basin for these submarines. And that derelict dock, marina, is in the way. That marina has never been used. It was built, but never used, so we'll be very happy to get it out of the way as a hazard to navigation."
Town Planner Abby Piersall said the docks are a part of what was going to be a sort of riverfront yacht club. That never came to fruition, as the funding ran out. In recent years there was a separation of the parcels with the condos further inland. The town foreclosed on the property due to tax delinquencies.
Piersall said the Navy reached out to Waterford about the docks even before the town took control of the property in 2018.
The state gave Waterford $525,000 in 2018 to cover the costs of the project and the back taxes that were owed on the property by the previous owners. After going out to bid to handle the project, the town found out that state money wasn't going to be enough for the prices contractors were offering.
"We worked with the state, the Navy, to modify the project scope in order to make it work with our budget," Piersall said. "The change to the project was whether we would still remove the hellicle anchors that were buried into the mud, or if we would just remove all cables and the dock system above the mudline. We're basically taking out everything above the mudline."
Ross said this type of initiative isn't uncommon, and that the Navy has a long history of collaboration with surrounding towns, including multiple projects working with municipalities around the base to resolve problems facing the Navy.
"We helped the town of Ledyard buy land on the north end of the base, outside the fence line, to make sure it doesn't get developed in a way that's incompatible with the Navy," Ross said. "We helped the town of Groton do the same thing on the south end. This is kind of the same project — we're trying to deal with encroachment mitigation, to stop encroachment that's going to interfere with the Navy operations."
Ross said he hoped the project would be complete before the year's up. Piersall didn't have an estimate for completion, but she said the town would like this to be a speedy process as well. Ross noted that the first Block V submarines are anticipated to arrive at the base in 2025.
"I think in comparison to most public sector-private sector interactions, this moved pretty quickly," Ross said. "The town of Waterford and former First Selectman Dan Steward deserve a lot of credit for recognizing how important this was and then moving it efficiently through their municipal government and process."
The condos near the docks are situated up the hill on the Thames River. The docks are at the base of that hill, and people have to cross railroad tracks to reach the land where the docks are. The town is considering what to do with the slice of land with the docks it owns. Piersall said the property only allows for passive recreation, so in terms of possible future uses, it's either recreation or conservation.
"There have been very preliminary discussions on our ability to open that up safely to the public," Piersall said. "One of the big things we have to work out is access over the railroad tracks. That is something the town will continue to have discussions about, but that'll be the primary piece — safe pedestrian access over those tracks. Anytime publicly owned coastal property is part of the conversation, generally speaking, the goal is for us to open it up to folks as soon as we're able."
Connecticut Port Authority members seek ethics opinions
Greg Smith New London — Members of the Connecticut Port Authority have sought opinions from the Connecticut Office of State Ethics in response to questions and a challenge issued by The Day Editorial Board about whether certain activities constitute a conflict of interest.
CPA board member John Johnson has asked for a ruling on whether his ownership of a commercial property near State Pier should prohibit him from voting on matters related to the pier. The quasi-public agency now owns and is managing the multi-million reconstruction of State Pier.
Day opinion columnist David Collins, in a recent column, argues Johnson “continues to participate in votes and discussion of State Pier while he stands to profit by industrial property he owns nearby.”
The Day Editorial Board wrote that “what happens at State Pier could have much to do with the future value of Johnson’s property and his business.”
Johnson owns a 35,000-square-foot warehouse at 75 Crystal Ave. that he purchased in 1999, prior to the formation of the Connecticut Port Authority. The assessed value is $1.4 million. Johnson said none of the businesses leasing space on his property have any connection with State Pier or Gateway, the State Pier operator. The businesses there include NorthEast Electrical, defense contractor Curtiss-Wright and Asplundh Construction.
And while Johnson said he has recused himself from board discussions in the past related to State Pier, “whether or not my property is close by… I don’t see where there is a conflict of interest.”
“I’m perfectly willing to have (the Office of State Ethics) look at it. I think it’s an accusation without a whole lot of merit. I think the CPA has been unjustifiably crucified on a lot of these issues, and it’s time this stuff stops,” Johnson said.
The Day has additionally questioned the Connecticut Port Authority about a 2018 contract with Seabury Capital, a group paid in excess of $700,000 for work that included managing the process of finding a new operator and negotiating the final contract.
The State Contracting Review Board, a group looking at CPA contracts, has raised questions about the need to hire the company, which was paid a success fee. The signing of the contract also came three months after Henry Juan III of Greenwich, a managing director with Seabury, resigned from the port authority board.
Collins has argued that the awarding of a contract with Gateway, which also runs the port of New Haven “was engineered by a venture capital firm with insider ties to the port authority.”
Connecticut Port Authority Chairman David Kooris, who was not chairman at the time the contract with Seabury was signed, said Juan was not a member of the committee that reviewed and scored RFP responses.
Juan was also not on the board when the recommendation to hire Seabury came to a vote and there is no evidence to show Juan represented the interest of Seabury before the CPA. Generally, Kooris said, a former board member could not represent their company before the board within the year after leaving.
Kooris said he has submitted information related to the Seabury contract and was advised that the Office of State Ethics does not issue advisory opinions on past actions, only on potential future actions. He said it was unclear whether the Office of State Ethics would decide to refer the issue to its enforcement division.
Both Johnson and Kooris said they await further word from the Office of State Ethics.
Spring groundbreaking set for 111-unit upscale Bloomfield apartment development
Matt Pilon With local approvals and a branding plan in hand, developers Avner Krohn and Brian Zelman are set to break ground this spring on a 111-unit upscale apartment complex on Jolley Drive in Bloomfield.
Krohn, of New Britain’s Jasko Development, and Zelman, of West Hartford’s Zelman Real Estate, said in a recent interview that they’ve named the project The Residences at Wash Brook, after one of several nearby brooks at the 20-acre site located midway between Routes 178 and 218.
While the two partners have worked together in the past, including on a recently completed Jolley Drive medical building, Wash Brook is their first multifamily collaboration.
Fresh project renderings show a two-story atrium with a mezzanine just inside the entrance to the four-story building.
“It’s not a massive building, it has kind of a boutique hotel feel,” said Krohn, who has been one of New Britain’s more active developers in recent years.
Krohn and Zelman declined to disclose the project price tag and said it was too early to reveal asking rents. They did say Wash Brook will offer six different unit layouts at market rates, ranging from studios up to three-bedrooms.
The development is targeting young professionals and empty-nesters alike.
There will be a gym, yoga studio, pool, pet grooming stations, golf and sports simulator, bicycle storage, shared office area, covered parking ports, electric vehicle chargers, a smart door access system, and other amenities.
“I don’t think you can build 111 units that are higher end and not have those things or else your competition knocks you out,” Zelman said of the planned amenities. “It’s kind of a given that you have to have them.”
The developers applied for and received town approvals for the project last year after the COVID-19 pandemic struck Connecticut. The coronavirus had minimal impact on the project’s design, though Zelman and Krohn made sure to include nooks or other spaces inside the apartments that can be used as workstations for tenants who telecommute. They also beefed up the size of the shared business center on the ground floor.
The two hope that when units begin leasing by the summer or fall of 2022 the pandemic will be in the rearview mirror.
“It’s about a 15-month timeline from the start of construction, so we’re kind of anticipating that things will be different or, I hate to say, ‘back to normal’ when we start tenanting the building,” Zelman said.
Offshore wind a good bet for CT
Matthew Satnick and Philippe De Montigny With the new Biden administration comes an aggressive climate plan that includes building several new offshore wind farms to help reach the country’s goal of a carbon-free electric sector by 2035.
Currently, the United States has more than 28 gigawatts of offshore wind in development. According to the Department of Energy, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 2,000 gigawatts of clean, renewable power per year, nearly double the nation's current electricity use.
Our company, Massachusetts-based Enstructure, owns and operates a network of dry, liquid and breakbulk terminals and logistics assets on the East Coast and Inland River System of the U.S., including two right here in Connecticut – Gateway Terminal in New Haven and New London at State Pier.
We are constantly evaluating smaller, niche ports across the country as we expand our business. We have seen firsthand the challenges that many of these ports face as they struggle to compete for traditional cargo opportunities.
Offshore wind has established itself as a proven industry globally, bringing new jobs, clean energy and revitalized infrastructure to ports across Europe and Asia. As the industry continues to advance domestically, it will create tens of thousands of skilled jobs and a robust national supply chain will emerge, revitalizing ports up and down our coasts.
In Connecticut, a redeveloped State Pier will be one of these thriving ports and deliver local, regional and national economic and climate benefits. The state was an early-mover by recognizing its once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be an epicenter for this new U.S. industry, with State Pier playing a critical role.
Make no mistake, the competition is fierce.
For example, New York recently announced a 2,500 megawatt offshore wind procurement that includes transforming the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and the Port of Albany into large-scale offshore wind working industrial facilities.
Built more than 100 years ago, State Pier is an underutilized state asset that has been in disrepair and in need of modernization for decades.
Through a public-private partnership with Ørsted and Eversource, the companies will be covering a significant portion – $77.5 million – of the project costs for infrastructure improvements at State Pier that will transform it into a modern facility and, most importantly, give it heavy-lift capabilities.
It will serve as a premier staging and assembly port for Ørsted and Eversource’s Northeast offshore wind projects, which include Revolution Wind, a 704 megawatt project that will deliver 304 megawatts of clean energy to Connecticut and 400 megawatts to Rhode Island – enough to power nearly 350,000 homes across both states.
At the same time, State Pier will continue to support other existing long-term breakbulk operations for steel, lumber, salt and other cargoes. During Ørsted and Eversource’s 10-year lease period, we will market the facility for other cargo when it is not used for offshore wind.
On the regional level, Connecticut will benefit for decades to come from this enhanced state asset that creates jobs and provides economic development opportunities. The State Pier redevelopment project is expected to deliver more than 400 construction jobs.
The redeveloped State Pier will also serve as an asset to New England, facilitating decades of future growth long after offshore wind. Its reconfiguration significantly increases State Pier’s addressable market through its heavy-lift capabilities and enhanced footprint. Maintaining the status quo at State Pier could lead to lost opportunity and declining activity.
From a national perspective, State Pier and the wind projects it supports will spur the creation of a sustainable new industry and a significant opportunity to cut carbon emissions.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the state had the early vision to invest in New London’s infrastructure. We are eager to see the project continue to advance to ensure that Connecticut can realize the economic and environmental benefits that will come from an upgraded port facility and the offshore wind industry.
Referendum on $137 million Farmington High School plan slated for June
Dao Stacom Hoping to overcome opposition that scuttled their plan in 2017, Farmington educators are preparing for a spring referendum on replacing Farmington High School.
Municipal officials are tentatively looking for a townwide
vote June 3 on whether to tear down the high school and build a three-story
replacement for $137 million.
If voters approve the idea, architects would start work this
summer, construction could begin in early 2022 and wrap up in mid-2025, Finance
Director Joseph Swetcky told the council last week at a meeting on Zoom.
All of that hinges on winning taxpayer support. The town
council and school board are looking to bounce back from the contentious 2017
vote, when residents voted roughly 2-1 against a massive renovation plan for
the existing school.
The Farmington High School Building Committee has been using
Ira Yellen, a consultant with Tall Timbers Marketing, to help make its case to
the public.
Yellen advised the council last week that a January survey
about the project shows widespread public interest. But he also advised that
45% of the people who returned the survey were retirees while just 23% were
parents, the group most likely to vote “yes” in a referendum.
“The return was low from parents, especially elementary
parents,” Yellen said. “They’re not seeing that this is probably going to
affect them the most.”
Yellen advised outreach efforts at the various senior living
complexes around town. Traditionally retired voters on fixed incomes are likely
to be deeply concerned about tax implications of a major school project, while
parents of school-age students focus more on the impact on education.
Yellen mailed surveys to 11,600 households asking basic
questions about the project, and 1,111 — about 9.8% — responded.
“That’s the highest I’ve seen in 20 years of doing these
surveys,” Yellen told the council.
Respondents were split between the factors they felt should
be the most important focus of the high school replacement.
Roughly 75% cited improving educational programming, 81%
listed safety improvements and 76% mentioned remedying deficiencies at the
current building.
But the factor getting the most attention — from 84% of
respondents — was the cost and its impact on property taxes.
Swetcky said long-term financial projections show the town
could borrow its roughly $110 million share of the cost by issuing four sets of
bonds between 2022 and 2025. Taxpayers would get several years of increases in
a row, but after that the debt service would level out or drop for the rest of
the bonds’ 20-year term, he said.
Swetcky said taxes on an average home assessed at $227,000
would rise $77 in 2022-23, then $189 in 2023-24, $98 in 2024-25, $94 in 2025-26
and $8.50 in 2026-27. The project would require no further tax increases, and
the bonds would be repaid by 2045, he said.
Local taxpayers would cover $110 million of the project,
with state aid accounting for the other $27 million.
The Farmington High School Building Committee plans numerous
public outreach efforts before any referendum, and is posting documents about
the project at its website at https://fhsbuildingproject.org.
‘Looking to develop’: Demand for homes could lead to construction spike in Connecticut
Alexander Soule As properties go, it was not going to last long on the market — a dream home on more than an acre of land in Greenwich, abutting more than three acres of conservation area and priced at a mere $1.8 million in an enclave where other houses are selling for more than $5 million.
The only element missing? The dream home itself, which
exists only in the mind of the buyer who bought the acreage. But it won’t be
long before a builder has that blueprint in hand, as a backhoe breaks ground on
a new house.
As home hunters pounce
on listings nearly as fast as sellers are putting them onto the market
in Connecticut, construction of single-family homes is shaping up as the
state’s next boom following a decade of apartment construction.
The last burst of new construction in Connecticut in 2008
ended up with many homes built “on spec” languishing empty for extended periods
and some going into foreclosure for lack of buyers, after a hot housing market
imploded in the sub-prime mortgage collapse that triggered the Great Recession.
But experts agree that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to
drive city dwellers to outlying towns, as more employers embrace remote working
arrangements they cobbled together on the fly last year.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England
Properties does not see a spec-building bubble like 2007 in the offing, but
says there is sufficient interest in Connecticut options that newly built homes
will find buyers in a hurry.
“We’re seeing more permits, for sure, and we’ll see more
builders much more willing to bring their product and at a little bit higher of
a price,” said Candace Adams, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New
England Properties. “I’ve gotten ... inquiries for large parcels of land in
Connecticut of people looking to develop it.”
A year after permits for apartments outnumbered new houses
in Connecticut by 1,300 units, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction
last year according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The more than 2,900 home permits
estimated by the Census Bureau was the highest total since 2008, when municipal
officials signed off on nearly 3,100 projects.
The SmartMLS multiple listing service had more than 2,500
listings for available residential lots in Connecticut, from a 19-acre
waterfront spread on Greenwich’s Field Point Road priced at more than $45
million to a 33-acre wooded parcel in Stonington that sold this week for less
than $1 million. Many of those lots carry approvals to be subdivided for
multiple homes.
Currently in Connecticut, 1,600 newly constructed homes are
listed for sale on Zillow, including 200 in the past month alone and several of
those already under contract. But it is not quite yet a build-it-and-sell-it
bonanza — large numbers more remain available that came on the market last
summer and fall.
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection currently
lists 1,600 home builders approved to perform new construction.
“As far as who is buying, it depends on what part of the
state we’re talking about,” Jim Perras, president of the Home Builders &
Remodelers Association of Connecticut, said in an email. “In central
Connecticut, typically what we are seeing is customers in their 30s or 40s with
children — most are second time home buyers and residents from the area.
Contrast that with the Fairfield County area, where the vast majority of new
home buyers are from out of state, with many existing residents opting to
remodel and build additions.”
Perras said that builders are busy enough that it is
squeezing out any excess capacity for speculative home construction for
subsequent sale. And he said builders are getting squeezed on another front —
the cost of materials.
Prices for building materials have escalated sharply the
past several months including for lumber, confounding builders who are
purchasing supplies after locking in prices for existing projects. The Associated
General Contractors of America beseeched President Joe Biden on Thursday to
intercede by finding ways to increase domestic lumber production or make it
easier for suppliers to import from Canada or other countries.
But today’s buyers and builders have another extraordinary
tool at their disposal — interest rates that at 2.7 percent for a 30-year
mortgage are at nearly half their level of two years ago. The Federal Reserve
has indicated it will hold interest rates steady for at least the next year in
an effort to boost economic activity coming out of the pandemic.
In Stonington, the agent who sold the 33-acre parcel near
Lord’s Point indicated that activity is booming elsewhere as well, including on
Mason’s Island at the mouth of the Mystic River.
“I just sold or put under deposit about six or seven lots
there,” said Judi Caracausa of Market Realty in Mystic. “Wonderful new
construction happening there too.”
Getting There: Lamont’s transportation budget doesn’t add up
Jim Cameron The Governor’s proposed biennial budget for transportation just doesn’t add up.
Thanks to reduced rail ridership, Gov. Ned Lamont’s
projecting cost
savings in the Connecticut Department of Transportation budget of $82 million over
the next two years but promises no further cuts in service beyond those already
taken during the pandemic. But how does that jibe with Metro-North parent MTA’s
projected $8
billion operating deficit through 2024?
Even pre-pandemic when ridership was at record highs,
Metro-North still lost money. And taxpayers made up the difference. Grumbling
commuters packed in rush-hour trains paying the highest commuter rail fares in
the US still couldn’t cover operating costs, let alone capital expansion.
Now, with ridership down 80 percent those
deficits are exploding. And even if relief money comes from Uncle Sam, how long
can near-empty trains be kept running?
As I’ve written before, I
don’t think commuters will be coming back post-pandemic in anywhere
near the old numbers. So if ridership remains low and the MTA sticks to its
promise of no layoffs or fare hikes, something’s got to give.
Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi says I’m wrong. She
says post-COVID daily ridership will only
drop 10 - 20 percent. But it’s those monthly pass holders who gave the
railroad almost half of its revenue pre-COVID and their loss can never be made
up by off-peak and weekend day-trippers to New York City’s attractions as she
hopes.
Stay tuned for mandatory public hearings on all this, what
I’ve called “political
theater.” But whatever commuters may say, however they might complain,
their testimony won’t make a darn bit of difference. The DOT budget won’t
change. The fiscal die has been cast and come up “snake eyes.”
None of this should surprise you when you consider how the
governor writes his budget. In fact, the document is not of his creation but
the Office of Policy and Management.
OPM doesn’t ask the DOT “how much do you need for roads and
rails?”. They tell the agency, “Here’s how much you’ll get. And here’s where to
make the cuts.”
But while the Lamont budget sees “savings” through reduced
rail and bus operations, it has found money for any number of highway
projects while at the same time saying we need to reduce air pollution.
More highways, more cars, more pollution. So much for their vaunted Transportation
Climate Initiative.
Folks, it just doesn’t add up.
There are no tolls in this proposed budget. But there is
a “mileage
tax” on heavy trucks passing through our state. That’s fine with me as
I’ve always supported user fees. But the $90 million that tax is expected to
generate will do little to save the Special Transportation Fund from a deficit
this year and insolvency by 2024.
In fact, that $90 million will just be used to fund issuance
of more bonds to be paid off by our grandchildren. Never mind the $92 billion —
yes, billion — in long term debt coming due in the next 20 years for
underfunded teacher pensions and such.
Today, 40%
of the DOT budget goes to paying debt service on bonds issued decades
back. We can’t even pay for the decrepit transportation we have today, so our
short-sighted lawmakers just kick the proverbial can down the road.
The problem is we’ve run out of road.
As the Electrical Grid Collapses in Texas, New England Takes Note
Brendan Crowley As power grid operators restore power to the millions of Texans who have endured freezing temperatures and no heat or running water for days, experts say that it’s unlikely New England’s relatively hardy grid would fail due to cold weather.
With the caveat that much still has to be learned about the root causes of widespread power outages and skyrocketing energy prices across Texas and the Midwest, they also cautioned that electric grids are going to have to prepare for the unexpected as the changing climate makes unlikely weather a reality.
New England knows cold
Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, the trade group representing the region’s power producers, said the widespread power outages in Texas are a product of the state’s grid not being prepared for the extreme and prolonged temperatures that the state is experiencing.
New England, where extreme and prolonged cold is a fact of life, has a grid that can manage that weather because it’s been designed to manage it.
Early reports from the Texas grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, point to frozen equipment at natural gas wellheads and power plants that provide a majority of the power in Texas as a primary culprit for the state’s shortfall in power supply.
Natural gas isn’t produced in New England, so frozen wellheads here aren’t a concern – though constraints on gas imported through pipelines do cause supply disruptions from time to time, Dolan said. That’s where having backups like reserve fuel oil is important in the winter, he said.
Texas power plants also aren’t prepared for the cold, said Susan Tierney, energy consultant for Analysis Group and a former energy and utilities official in both the U.S. and Massachusetts governments. Used to sun and warmth, a lot of equipment is outside and froze when exposed to the prolonged cold, she said.
In New England, power producers invest in winterization, Dolan said. Some of that has to do with using the right lubricants for power turbines, like using antifreeze in a car.
Interconnections and capacity market
Another key issue that has emerged in early evaluations of the power grid in Texas, is the state’s lack of connection to other grids that could have potentially provided power from as its own generators failed.
“Texas is not interconnected in a robust way to the rest of the United States, so if it’s got problems, it’s on an island having to help itself,” Tierney said.
Marcello Graziano, an associate professor and economic geographer at Southern Connecticut State University agreed that Texas has only a small ability to make up for losses of power by drawing from other grids.
New England is relatively well connected to other grids, in particular New York and Quebec. In 2020, about 20 percent of New England’s power came from other grids, largely from Quebec, Graziano said.
“That means you can rely on sources that are located elsewhere, and that is good,” Graziano said. “That means, like a diversified portfolio, if something goes bad in one sector, you can rely on something else.”
While a more integrated grid probably would have helped Texas, Graziano said, there were multiple failures at multiple levels of the system, particularly with power generators, and the issue still needs to be evaluated more closely.
Along with its connections to other grids, Dolan said that ISO-New England’s forward capacity market is another feature designed to avoid crises like the one in Texas. The capacity market provides funding to allow the major capital investments in power plants that would help ensure that they can perform in a harsh winter. The market also ensures there are enough resources available to meet the expected demand for power at peak times in the winter and summer, he said.
“There’s going to be other elements of this that come out that could show further improvements that could be made to the market to prepare for these extreme weather events,” Dolan said. “It’s too early to tie those directly, but I do think it underscores why we have some of the market structures we have, while recognizing some improvements can certainly be made.”
Planning for the unexpected in a changing climate
New England power plants and the region’s power grid are designed for cold weather, Dolan said. It’s a necessity in the frigid northeast winters, but it comes with added costs.
“Given that this is a 50- to 100-year type of situation, it’s pretty clear that a lot of facilities in Texas were not designed for it, and the market wasn’t paying for it,” Dolan said.
The prolonged cold across such a large portion of the middle U.S. is the product of a historically unprecedented set of conditions that has people hunkering down and relying on electricity to keep themselves warm, Tierney said.
That means demand for power is off the charts, higher than what the grid operator planned for. At the same time that cold is causing demand to spike, it’s taken a large part of the electric supply out of commission, including frozen mechanics at gas-fired plants and frozen wind turbines – two key sources of energy for the state.
Traditionally, electric utilities have used forecasting tools that use historical data to predict future energy demand, Tierney said. As the climate changes, we’re seeing more unusual events and extreme weather that we haven’t seen in the past, she said.
“The world is changing, and it’s not like this is a surprise to anyone in this field, but I’ve asked utilities across the country, ‘How are you figuring new weather patterns and conditions into your planning and forecasting?’ and they say they haven’t yet,” Tierney said, adding that she wasn’t referring to New England utilities in particular.
Tierney said that it will be difficult to integrate climate modeling in the transmission planning process, because, while it gives some expectation of what events could occur, it doesn’t necessarily give the granular details utilities are looking for.
“Humidity and cold creates ice, and that happened in Texas – it’s a huge surprise,” Tierney said. “But it happened two years ago, too. So there have to be different risk assessments with pushing for ‘what if’ kinds of scenarios that are not necessarily based on probabilities, but on expectations that, at some point, there will be a convergence of conditions and a ‘perfect storm.’”
On Wednesday, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said it was too early to say what the precise causes of the outages are in Texas, but said she was encouraged when federal regulators announced they would be investigating the root causes. Connecticut will be following that investigation closely to ensure New England’s grid operator is appropriately planning for extreme weather, she said.
“I think that the one thing that is clear, if you look at any meteorologist presentation over the last day or two, is that the jetstream has collapsed,” Dykes said. “This is something that climate scientists have been telling us we have to be prepared for.”
Dolan said it’s clear the climate is changing, and we’re seeing the impacts in Texas and the midwest, as we’ve seen the impacts in New England. The issue is balancing the cost of preparing for risks with the costs of a potential disaster, and “there is never going to be a perfect mousetrap,” Dolan said.
“You can plan for the most extreme event, but that does come at a cost, and the consumer ultimately pays for that,” Dolan said.
What about those frozen wind turbines?
Initial headlines and political reaction focused on wind turbines in Texas that had been frozen and were not producing power. For opponents of a quick shift to renewable energy, it looked like one of their primary arguments had come to life – a grid too reliant on sources of energy that need specific weather conditions to produce power is at risk of major disruptions.
Throughout the week, the Texas grid operator has debunked the notion that frozen wind turbines were the primary cause of the power outages. Instead, ERCOT pointed to issues at thermal plants, including gas, coal and nuclear, which provide about 80 percent of the grid’s winter capacity.
Graziano said that, while there were renewables like wind that failed as they froze up, they are known to be weather-dependent and behaved about as expected. When a power source acts as expected, the grid operator has planned for it, so it’s not necessarily the problem because there will be backup plans in place.
“The real problem is uncertainty, and the failures you did not expect,” Graziano said.
The unexpected failure came largely from natural gas production, ERCOT has said. For opponents of natural gas, it’s an indictment of a resource that backers say is a reliable source of energy, cleaner than coal, that is perfect to fill the gaps left by weather-dependent renewables.
Tierney said electric grids are more complicated than they’re made out to be in political debates, where the tendency is to simplify the trade-offs between different sources of energy into finger-pointing and claims that renewables or gas can’t be counted on in times of need.
Different components of the energy system have different functions, costs and benefits, Tierney said. Solar and wind projects are expensive to build compared to gas plants, but then they don’t need gas to run and aren’t subject to the kinds of price swings that Texas and the Midwest are now coping with, and that happen in New England when there are constraints on gas.
But the trade off is that renewables rely on the sun and wind to generate power. Solar can’t provide power at night, for example, unless it’s combined with battery storage, Tierney explained, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have value, or can’t be part of a reliable grid.
Dolan agreed that the initial assessment shows that the crisis in Texas was caused by unexpected and extreme weather, not the shortcomings of any one particular source of power.
“This is where some caution is warranted, and we do need to do the full audit of what actually happened to draw those conclusions, but at this early stage, I think this is a weather issue,” Dolan said.