Letter: Eversource claims warrant skepticism

InDepthNH.org editor Nancy West, commenting on the Monitor’s July 16 editorial “Bridging the gap of energy eras,” said, “Interesting that a newspaper that hasn’t bothered to cover the 20 or so adjudicative hearings being held right in Concord holds itself out as an expert on Northern Pass.” I agree.

Furthermore, I think any frustration apprehending “cost and benefits exaggerated by dueling experts” regarding Northern Pass lacks retrospect.

In 2006, PSNH estimated Merrimack Station’s scrubber project costs at $250 million but overran them to $420 million. Completed, the scrubber got two years use, part-time. In 2015, selling its divestiture to the governor and Legislature, Eversource estimated customer savings of $378 million, but subsequent PUC staff accounting rectified it to $165 million – less than half. At the 2015 Concord-Northern Pass SEC public hearing, Eversource specifically recognized and addressed the issue of New Hampshire’s “energy cost savings and benefits going elsewhere” with a confidential power purchase agreement company executives knew or should have known would violate the state’s new divestiture law.

With Eversource’s dubious power purchase agreement, and its missed scrubber project and divestiture estimates yielding a treasure in stranded costs, the company’s “cost and benefits” claims warrant our utmost skepticism.

Terry Cronin

Hopkinton