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Norwich council approves purchase of additional natural-gas capacity tied to Algonquin expansion
Summary
By unanimous vote the council authorized Norwich Public Utilities to pursue additional pipeline capacity through the Project RARE expansion and enter agreements with Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC; NPU said the subscription is roughly 1,000 decatherms per day (about 7% of peak capacity day) with an in-service date of Nov. 1, 2029.
The Norwich City Council unanimously approved an ordinance on Sept. 15 authorizing the Department of Public Utilities to pursue additional pipeline capacity through the Reliable, Affordable, Resilient Enhancement (RARE) expansion project and to enter related agreements with Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC.
Chris LaRose, general manager for Norwich Public Utilities, told the council the project would allow access to lower-cost natural gas sources primarily from the Marcellus Shale and that the utilitys subscription would be roughly 1,000 decatherms per day — roughly an additional 7% of the utilitys highest daily natural-gas capacity. LaRose said unused capacity could be remarketed to offset costs and that the projected in-service date for the project is Nov. 1, 2029.
Public comment included environmental and safety concerns. Mary Ann Victoria McNallen said expanding pipeline capacity and reliance on gas will harm public health and the environment and criticized the pipeline owner (Enbridge) for a record of spills and for hiring police to respond to protests. “Fracked gas is not clean,” McNallen said, and cited incidents and pipeline-safety statistics. LaRose responded to questions about document redactions by saying the redactions were requested by the pipeline company to protect commercially sensitive transactional material, and that Algonquin (operated by Enbridge) is the pipeline that serves the utility in the region.
Council members asked for clarifications on consumer rate impacts, timing and local benefits. LaRose said the projects capacity would be assigned to the gate station off Yannick Lane, enabling the utility to remove a regulator station next to Dixie Donuts that sits in a floodway. He said the additional capacity is intended to secure service on the coldest days of the year and to support development projects such as the Ockham Industrial Center and the Preston Riverwalk (though no specific gas contracts for those developments were presented at the meeting).
On rates, LaRose said the capacity associated with this project is likely more expensive than some of NPUs legacy contracts but that remarketing and future marketing contracts could mitigate impacts; he described the impact on rates as expected to be minimal and said upgrades to the local gate station through 2029 would not affect customers until the project is in service. He noted some components of the contract and supporting documents were redacted at the request of the pipeline company for competitive reasons.
The council voted 7-0 to adopt the ordinance. The motion to bring the ordinance to the floor came from Alderman Gold, seconded by Alderman Singh; the roll-call vote in favor was Nash, Hayes, Betancourt, Gould, Singh, DeLucia and Nystrom.
LaRose said the subscription was chosen to meet cold-day capacity needs and to allow the utility to reassign the regulator station located in a floodway; he also said NPU has five gate stations off the Algonquin system and limited interstate pipeline access in Connecticut (Algonquin and Iroquois).
