A tug of war has developed over the aging Merrimack Station in Bow after state energy regulators approved the sale of it and other Eversource Energy power plants last week.
Environmentalists hope the sale spells the end of dirty, coal-fired power in New Hampshire, but Bow officials and residents hope the plant keeps running, primarily for its tax value.
Merrimack Station, once a powerhouse of revenue streaming hundreds of thousands of dollars into Bow’s tax base, has seen its influence dwindle as coal-fired plants have shut down across the country. The plant, with an output of 439 megawatts burning coal, was once responsible for about 70 percent of the town’s tax base, but that figure has deflated to about 15 percent today.
“Bow was attractive as a low tax community, but the gravy train is over now,” said Chuck Douglas, head of the Concerned Taxpayers of Bow and a member of the town’s budget committee. “We’ve only got three more years and then the goose dies.”
The settlement covers three years of property tax stabilization payments to Bow if the plant sells for less than its assessed value. But the town and Eversource are at odds on determining the plant’s value. A state-commissioned assessment from 2014 set the plant’s net value at $10 million in 2012. But in the same year, the town valued it at $82.5 million.
The town and Eversource went to court earlier this year to settle the dispute, and both sides are awaiting a judge’s decision.
If the town loses in court and the plant is sold at a lower value, Bow will face a hole in revenue that critics say it is not prepared to cover.
“It’s very concerning,” Douglas said. “We’ve all known for years this was a possibility, and it’s now become a probability if not a certainty. The wild card is the amount.”
Bow select board Chairman Harold Judd said the town has been preparing for the plant to someday be sold and will weather the challenges it brings if the value plummets.
“We’ve been watching the value adjust over time, and this is certainly no surprise,” Judd said. “It is part of why we have been working so hard to bring businesses in.”
The largest recent addition to Bow’s business sector was the Exel liquor warehouse on Route 3A. And in March, voters approved a zoning change for 36 acres off Dow Road near Interstate 93 from rural to limited industrial use, where Peter Levine of Amber Properties plans to expand the company’s distribution center.
But Douglas says the town isn’t doing enough to attract new businesses to the Route 3A corridor.
“The town should be aggressively marketing itself,” Douglas said. “Expand existing businesses – we don’t have much else that can rival that. We need to enhance our business friendly approach. . . . I think it has to be a clearer focus than it has been.”
There is not a clear timetable set for when Eversource will put its nine hydro facilities and three fossil-fuel plants, including Merrimack Station, up for auction. But any offer that comes before Eversource must be approved by the Public Utilities Commission before a deal can be made.
In addition to Merrimack Station, Eversource has two more fossil-fuel power plants in New Hampshire – Newington Station and Schiller Station, both in Portsmouth. Schiller Station, with a rated output of 150 megawatts, is capable of burning coal, oil or wood chips. Newington Station can burn low-sulfur fuel oil or natural gas, and has an output of 400 megawatts.
The Conservation Law Foundation has for years criticized Merrimack Station and Schiller Station, including the two plants among the “Dirty Dozen,” a list of the top polluters in the region.
Melissa Birchard, a staff attorney with CLF New Hampshire, expects the forces of the energy market will push out fossil-fuel power plants in favor of renewable energy.
“Now they will have to compete in the markets with all the other energy out there, including renewable energy,” Birchard said. “If they are not economic, then their future will be short. . . . We hope something even better will come along, and that’s the future of New Hampshire.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3309, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)