How long will it take for Connecticut's power grid to be ready for a huge influx of electric cars and buses in the years to come? And who will be paying for the upgrades and the price of it, if it happens?
The planning for this has been going on for years - so what is the process now?
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Marissa Gillett, the chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) about it.
Mike Hydeck: So I've seen some webinars you've done in years past, news releases. Where are we right now when it comes to modernizing our grid?
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Marissa Gillett: So the Equitable Modern Grid Initiative that PURA's been pursuing for the past three years, we are pretty far along in terms of setting up the programs and the initiatives that we were looking to do. There's 11 different tracks. I believe seven of them, we've reached a final decision in. And several of those programs went live January 1 of this year. So we should start to see the results of some of those initiatives over the next couple of years.
Mike Hydeck: So when you say the initiatives, here's a case in point. A Westport lawmaker recently did an op-ed, Jonathan Steinberg, in a local paper, the importance of interactive high-tech meters for our homes. Apparently, they can adjust how much power is used for a situation like this when you recharging your car, and then making sure your home is taken care of as well, is that something that's part of the process?
Marissa Gillett: It is. So of the 11 tracks, that track, which is talking about advanced metering infrastructure, that is the second track. And so that is one of the last ones for us to wrap up. And we're hoping to do so in the first quarter of next year.
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Mike Hydeck: So those new meters right, who's responsible for them? Does Eversource, put those in and as the rate payer, pay for them, and UI put those in and their ratepayers pay for them? Is that how it works?
Marissa Gillett: Sure, so any infrastructure, whether it's the poles and wires, whether it's the meter on your house, all that is called what's part of rate base, which is the infrastructure that the utilities have in which they are collecting cost recovery through your monthly electric bills. So the utilities will be responsible for upgrading that infrastructure, they'll be responsible for maintaining it, it will come in waves. A lot of UI customers are, for example, already have advanced metering infrastructure in place. So eventually, once those meters go into place, the utilities will be responsible for keeping them up.
Mike Hydeck: So as a consumer and a ratepayer, myself, am I going to see a line item? Like if I live in a condo, and I get an assessment for a new roof, it shows assessment this much. Or is it gonna be woven into the bill? Am I gonna have to read through it and figure out, oh, that's why my bill was an extra 75 bucks this time.
Marissa Gillett: So I don't think we had a chance to discuss this. PURA went through a pretty lengthy exercise of redesigning customer's electric bills. And we issued a final decision a month or two ago. So over the next couple of months, the utilities will start to roll out those changes in your bill. So the residential customers will be able to tell more clearly which line item goes to what costs, what the policy drivers are. So in this instance, when the meters are part of what's called the distribution infrastructure, so there's a line item on your bill now, that is labeled distribution, it's on what's currently labeled your delivery side of your bill. So meters are already part of that charge. And, you know, we built into rate base, the expectation that infrastructure ages out and has to be replaced. So it will be part of that line item on your bill.
Mike Hydeck: So it'll be under that dreaded delivery that everybody's been talking about in the news recently. All right, let's move on to the next topic. There's been some concern expressed from some of the fossil fuel companies that the transition from gas and oil was moving too quickly here in Connecticut, and in the Northeast, and it could cost ratepayers a lot more per month in the near future. I'm talking about that minimum offer price rule that's now been kicked up to I guess, 2025. Where are we with that? Was that true on their assessment? And is that why it was moved to 2025?
Marissa Gillett: I do not think that's why it was moved to 2025. I think, you know, this is a very complicated industry. And folks tend to conflate, you know, there's really two issues here. There's the issue of supply, does the region have enough generation to meet our needs at all hours of the day? And then there's the issue of the distribution infrastructure and can our infrastructure deliver that electricity? And in my experience, since these are difficult conversations to have, folks often conflate those issues. And what we're focused at, PURA is making sure that the distribution infrastructure can deliver the electricity and meet what our increasing needs of our grid and of our constituents to rely on electricity. Whether it's for, you know, the traditional uses, whether it's because you're working from home more, but we are focused on making sure that that infrastructure, the poles and wires, the meters, all of that's in place to deliver electricity when you need it.
Mike Hydeck: One of the biggest challenges both on the small level and the grand level with electric power is being able to store that power. That was the case with trying to get a proper battery inside a car so it would work. What about on the grid side of things? Is that part of the initiative as well?
Marissa Gillett: It is. So that's the third track of our initiative. And that's one of those programs that I was speaking about just a minute ago, that launched January 1 of this year. So customers, whether you're a residential customer or a commercial customer, you can go through a program that's being jointly administered between our electric utilities and the Connecticut Green Bank right now. And you can receive incentives to deploy battery storage, what's called behind your meter. So in the customer side of the meter. And it works particularly well if it's paired with solar that's on your roof, but it can work as a standalone in place of like a traditional gas generator, for example. So we have programs in place as recently as January 1 of this year, that will help customers with this initiative because having batteries, whether they're behind the meter or they're on the grid at large, paired with larger generation, that is critical to the success of the clean energy transition.
