Colchester-based Green Mountain Power (GMP) announced on March 4 a power purchase agreement with Great River Hydro, based in New Hampshire, to provide power for customers.
Great Hydro purchased the currently operating hydro system from TransCanada four years ago.
The power purchase agreement, subject to Public Utility Commission review and approval, is for 30 years starting in 2023.
The contract, GM officials claim, will create “long-term stability in GMP’s power supply while also enabling opportunity for more local renewables as Vermont pushes to meet clean energy goals to combat climate change.”
GMP’s purchases from Great River Hydro’s facilities, mostly along the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers, will increase over time, just as other GMP power supply agreements step down, but will cover a smaller portion of GMP’s load.
“This will create opportunities for other complementary local and regional renewables like solar and wind, especially as customers transition heating and transportation to clean electricity as a part of Vermont’s climate goals,” GMP stated in a March 4 news release.
“We are focused on delivering clean, cost-effective, reliable power to our customers 24/7, 365. This resource fits really well in our portfolio and still leaves open tremendous availability for other renewable sources,” said GMP President and CEO Mari McClure. “Identifying and securing a clean, cost-effective, reliable source of power close to where Vermonters will use it is key to speeding up our transition to a 100 percent carbon-free and renewable power supply by 2030.”
Categories: Energy
This is dump GMP owned the dams in VT years ago.
All this talk about converting to “clean, green renewables” has me looking more intently at a back up generator, and stock in companies like Generac. I’ll bet generators are selling like cowboy boots in Texas now !
First: GMP did not buy the dams. They agreed to buy the electricity the dams generate. Great River Hydro owns the dams.
Second: consider the deal. GMP will pay the wholesale cost of 4.5 cents per kwh. It pays 6 cents to Hydro Quebec (still a great deal). GMP also buys backup power from the Seabrook nuclear plant from time to time at about 6 cents per kwh.
Now consider that GMP, as directed by Vermont’s Public Utility Commission, also buys solar and wind power through net-metering. GMP says more than 20% of its power comes from solar and wind, which some of us believe is an overstatement.
Nonetheless, do you know what GMP pays for solar? From all those cutesy solar arrays plastered around Vermont… never mind that they look ten times worse than billboards that were banned years ago, GMP pays, on average, three times more per kwh for that solar power than it will for Great River Hydro power. That’s right: GMP, through net-metering pays, on average, about 15 cents per kwh for solar. And then they pass the cost on to you, the rate payer.
This Great River Hydro contract is a great deal – no matter how one looks at it…unless you own solar collectors.
This is a recent lecture given by William Happer, Professor of Physics Emeritus, Princeton University on CO2 and climate change. I’ll post it on subsequent articles relating to alternate energy too.
Again, I classify it in the ‘facts matter’ catagory with the full understanding that everyone says that about everything they post. Nonetheless, it certaintly won’t hurt anyone to watch and listen to Dr. Happer…. unless, of course, you count potential for hurt feelings or egos in the mix.