Coos Conversations

Lets create a real message board

Tim Cayer has set up a Berlin Message Board 
that creates a forum for more discussions about the future of Berlin. While we love the conversations on Coos Conversations and Citizens for a New Vision, leaving comments isn't as easy or interactive as it is in participating in a discussion board. So sign up and lets talk.

I hope they're smiling

The annual report of the The Neil and Louise Tillotson Advised Fund
is out and it's really cool to see all the good things going on in the North Country. Neil and Louise would be pleased, I think to see so many good things happening.  Congratulations to Rachael Stuart and the folks at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for making it happen.

What do we think about wind power?

Thanks to a reader for raising some very good questions. He/she wrote:

There is a lot of talk for and against the Biomass plant in Berlin, but what does everyone think about the proposed wind projects?  Initially, wind turbines will provide some jobs during construction and then a few long term jobs for maintenance, but a Biomass plant would definitely provide more jobs in the long run.  Do you support wind turbines in Coos County?  And do you know how many and where these giant structures are proposed?

The reality is that biomass, wind, and other energy will all add some jobs to the economy, but no one really knows how many net jobs they'll create. All power plants need maintenance, but it's a fixed business. Once its  up and running, the number of jobs will remain static, unlike service and manufacturing companies that grow and add jobs all the time. Coos County should be looking to attract businesses -- call centers, software, data storage, to name a few -- that need the smart, talented workforce we have and that are going to grow and add jobs every year.

This gives PR a bad name

As a PR researcher, I am all too well aware of just how bad a name PR has for honesty and truthfulness. One reason it's gotten that reputation is releases like this one from Laidlaw Energy Group. Never mind that it brags about its legal efforts to squelch community opposition to its plans (so much for democracy in New York State), the vaguely worded statement about "finalizing plans in Berlin" flies in the face of the facts.
Fact 1: Roughly 2/3 of the people in Berlin oppose the plant
Fact 2: A recent election proved to be a referendum on their plans, and the mayor who supported Laidlaw was defeated three to one.
Fact 3: There is a long line of projects that want to transmit power over existing transmission lines and Laidlaw hasn't even applied to enter the queue.
Fact 4: There are years of environmental and other permitting fights ahead of whatever Laidlaw proposes in Berlin.
This is a project that is anything but final, and to issue a release like this, does nothing to promote the credibility of the company behind it.

The spirit of Christmas in Coos County

"Why do we do Christmas?," the little girl said. I was half way thru a five mile morning run thru the streets of Berlin a few weeks ago, when this pint sized philosopher placed herself squarely in my path and asked me a very good question. She went on to explain "If half the people are giving, and the other half are receiving, what's the point?"  I said the first thing that popped into my head, "I guess that IS the point, its the process, not the actual gift part."  She nodded solemnly and said, "Yes, I guess you're right. I give away all my presents to needy people, except of course stuff that I really need like clothes for school."
That's what I love about this place. First of all, its way cool that a small girl can walk safely to school by herself AND have have be comfortable and have the confidence to ask a total stranger an important question. Secondly, at her tender age she has a far better understanding of Christmas than most people considered "older and wiser."  But far more importantly its the notion that up here in the North Country, without the malls and the traffic, you get to remember what Christmas really is for. You get to sit quietly in a beautiful church and listen to incredible voices sing an amazing variety of music and remember the wonder you felt as a child the first time you heard Christmas carols. You see people working together to achieve miracles all the time. You wake up in the morning and see the power and the glory of Mount Washington. Who needs gifts, when you can just be here and get all this?

A letter to Santa from Coos County

Dear Santa,

Up here in Coos County we have a pretty good understanding of what your life is like up there in the North. Lots of snow, lots of stuff to do, lots of hard working elves, .. yeah, we got all that. And this year, we've been really really good, so we have a bit of a list of things we want.

1. Make sure St. Kieran's Community Center for the Arts sells out every show.
    There is no more deserving, lovelier venue in the north country. It puts on great shows, and everyone of them should sell out. so Santa, please make sure it does, okay?

2.Triple the attendance at every event at the Northern Forest Heritage Park.
    The heritage park, and the river tours it offers, is a wonderful introduction to the the North Country's history and culture. It's also a great place for a party, I know, because we celebrated our first year in Berlin there.

3. Bless Berlin's new mayor and council with miraculous powers to heal wounds and solve problems and attract talent
    Mayor-elect Dave Bertrand and his new  city council have a huge challenge ahead of them given the mess that the prior administration left behind. Santa, if you can't give them superhero status, can you provide everyone around them with patience and cooperation so they can actually solve the problems that they face?

4.  Land your sleigh at Milan airport
Milan has a great airport, big enough to land 737s, so no matter how big your sleigh or how many presents your carrying, I'm sure they can handle it.

5. Make your toys out of North Country wood

Rather than importing all those toys from China, Santa, why don't you make them up here. We have lots of really talented wood workers, and of course, all the wood you could possibly want.

6. Bring your own hotel to Berlin

Santa, I know you'll be tired by the time you get to Berlin, but sad to say there's no place for you to rest your head. I know it's really wonderful place to visit and to do business, but there's absolutely no place to stay. So one of the things on our Christmas list is either a hotel or a bed and breakfast.

7. Bring several dozen new businesses to Coos County

Santa, there are several hundred terrific workers in Groveton, and even more in Berlin and other towns in the north country that are smart, self-motivating and have a work ethic most employers would kill for. But they don't need another big company to come in and promise them the moon and then close down the moment their particular market dips. To develop a truly sustainable economy in the North Country we need lots of small, diverse businesses  in lots of different markets employing people with lots of different skills.  And Santa, if you have any influence with Google or Microsoft or Yahoo or e-Bay, talk them into putting one of their big server farms up here, will you?  And if you run into HP or Dell or IBM, we have really great people that are much better at solving customer problems than those unintelligible people currently on your help lines.

8. Protect us from overly simple solutions from overly powerful people.

Santa, there are lots of powerful people out there that think that the North Country is  so desperate that they'll take any kind of industry or business  that  employs more than ten people. In fact, we do want jobs, but we also want to protect our beautiful views, our incredible night skies, our incredible rivers and  lakes, and the landscape that draws us all up here. So Santa, can you do something to protect the things that make the county so special from the special interests that want to exploit them?

9. Bring a major movie or event to either the Balsams or the Mountain View Grand

Everyone who has ever been to either one of these grand hotels, comes away raving about the service, the food, the views. And remember what Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand? Santa, we really need someone to do the same thing for the north country.

10. Give Coos County  a marketing budget and a VP of Corporate Communications

Santa, the one thing that Coos County needs more than anything else is to get the word out about what a wonderful place it is for business. My business, KDPaine & Partners has lowered its operating costs by 80%, doubled its sales and increased its profit by 12 percentage points. The people in Berlin have won awards for the quality of their work. Their work ethic is extraordinary. And you can catch a fish or be on skis in less than 30 minutes from leaving your desk. But no one knows that, and until we get pull together a marketing budget, we'll keep on being the best kept secret in New England.

Give yourself a Christmas treat, go to St.Kieran's this weekend

just got back from the Christmas concert at St. K's and it was incredible. I've been dying to go to an event there for a year, and this was the first time that the fates and my schedule and St K's performance schedule all collided. The church is lovely at any time, but lit up for Christmas it is magical. The evening started off with a brass jazz quartet.. I wasn't prepared to like anything with the name "jazz" in it, but the quartet that warmed up the crowd was wonderful. But the real joy is the Community Chorus. The selection was wonderfully diverse -- from gospel to Mr. Grint to the  Hallelujah Chorus. There's something there for everyone. But most surprising were the voices. The community chorus is an old tradition in Berlin, and obviously many people have been doing it year after year but with only 9 rehearsals they produce a sound and a quality of harmony that many many groups that rehearse for years can't achieve. The best news is that if you missed it tonight, you have two more opportunities to hear it this weekend.

Interesting comments we're getting

I've noted recently a spike in pro-Laidlaw comments  on this blog and on www.citizensforanewvision. Seems that most of the recent comments on this site and on the Citizens for a New Vision site seem to be coming from professional investment types like Jendrock Thomas and Laura Croft,  who are far more interested in the movement of the stock than they are in the future of our town.  There's nothing wrong with them expressing their opinions, but its worth noting that they seem to have a pathological distaste for facts, preferring instead to regurgitate what the CEO of Laidlaw tells them. Feel free to ignore or respond as you see fit.

Interesting comments we're getting

We've been getting some interesting comments on both this blog, and on the Citizens for  a New Vision site about the proposed Laidlaw biomass plant. Interestingly they all seem to be coming to investment types  like Jendrock Thomas  who clearly are trying to pump up Laidlaw's stock. If I were an investor, I'd want facts, not rumors and blind faith in everything the PR department says. But then again, risky ventures and penny stocks like Laidlaw are all about the movement of the stock price, not the fundamentals behind the company.  Their total lack of interest in facts and data makes you wonder if these folks used to be in the sub-prime mortgage game???

Transmission Loop expansion will add millions to the cost of transmission

The recently released report on the issue of transmission capacity in Coos County has huge implications for Laidlaw's plans for a biomass plant in downtown Berlin. It hasn't even applied to join the queue, and there are several other power generation plans ahead of it. The report suggests that expanding transmission capacity will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, throwing further doubts on the economic viability of the plan.
Here's the story:

Report lists three options for upgrading Coos transmission loop

   

Barbara Tetreault

 

GROVETON— A just released report presents three options for upgrading the electric transmission system in Coos County at price tags ranging from $165 million to $210 million.
Mandated by Senate Bill 140, the report was prepared by the N.H. Public Utilities Commission.
Presenting the report at last week’s meeting of the Groveton Regional Economic Action Team, PUC Senior Policy Advisor Michael Harrington warned the cost figures are rough since no detailed engineering analysis was performed.
“They’re only estimates at this point,” he stressed.
The existing 115-KV line in Coos County can only handle an additional 60 megawatts of power. That figure could be increased to 100 megawatts with some minor upgrading of the line. But handling more than 100 megawatts will require a major upgrade.
Developers proposing over 400 megawatts of wind and biomass projects in Coos County have applied to connect to the system. That does not include Laidlaw Energy’s proposed 60-megawatt biomass project for the former Berlin pulp mill property. Laidlaw has not yet filed with ISO-NE, the not-for-profit organization that operates the power system in New England.
Coos economic development officials are looking at renewable energy generation facilities, especially biomass plants, as a way to revive the economy of the North Country.
Under the current system, projects are considered in the order in which they apply to the ISO-NE’s so-called queue. First in the queue from Coos County are two wind projects proposed by Noble Environmental Power. The first is a 100-megawatt wind farm in the Phillips Brook watershed that the company expects to get on line in 2009. The second Noble project is a 140-megawatt wind farm in an undisclosed location.
Noble’s Phillips Brook project would use up all the available capacity in the Coos loop and require the company to cover the estimated $10 million cost of the minor upgrading to handle the full 100 megawatts.
Adding additional generation beyond the first wind farm to the Coos loop would be an expensive proposition. Paying for that upgrade is a major sticking point.
The Coos transmission loop runs between the Whitefield, Lost Nation (in Groveton), and Berlin substations and is owned by Public Service of N.H. A 115 KV line connects the Whitefield substation to the regional system at National Grid’s substation at Moore Dam in Littleton.
The report lists three options for upgrading the PSNH and National Grid systems to accommodate 400 to 500 megawatts of additional power. All three would use the existing system’s right-of-way.
* Option 1 would replace the entire 73-mile loop with a higher capacity line as well as upgrading a portion of the line from Whitefield to Littleton. The estimated cost of Option 1 is $210 million. It would allow new generation to connect anywhere on the loop.
* Option 2 would construct a new line from Whitefield through Lost Nation to Dummer. The line would accommodate Noble’s wind farm at Phillips Brook, freeing up 100 megawatts of transmission capacity on the Berlin to Whitefield line. It would still require upgrading the line between Whitefield and Moore Dam. The estimated cost is about $170 million. The option would somewhat limit locations for new generating facilities.
* Option 3 would construct a higher capacity line between Littleton and Dummer. Noble’s wind farm project at Phillips Brook would transfer to that line, freeing up 100 megawatts of capacity in the existing loop. The estimated cost of the option is $160 million. It would somewhat limit locations for new generating facilities.
The report also suggests an interim measure that would upgrade the loop by the 100 megawatts to accommodate the Nobel wind farm. Additional generators would be allowed to interconnect while upgrades were being made, even if transmission capacity did not exist all the time. The report noted such an arrangement would limit the output of such power plants, which might make the option unacceptable to the generators and their investors.
Then there is the issue of paying for the upgrade of the loop.   
Under the current system, developers are responsible for paying the cost of any transmission upgrades necessary to connect their facility to the grid. No mechanism exists to pro-rate the cost among future users and upgrading the Coos loop does not qualify for regional cost sharing through the ISO-NE grid.
Once the capacity in the Coos loop is used up, the entire cost of upgrading the system falls on the next developer to go on the loop.
“Everyone realizes something different has to be done,” said Harrington.
The report proposes a possible scenario to cover the cost of upgrading the Coos transmission system that would require generators to pay a pro rated share of the total costs. It also calls for ratepayers to pay the cost for surplus capacity with suggestions for funding sources. Enacting the funding scenario would require legislation and a commitment from the generators.
Even then, Harrington conceded it is a multi-step process with studies and state and federal reviews involved. Once an option is selected and approved, the report notes designing and constructing the upgrade could take three to five years.
The report points out the issue is not unique to New Hampshire. Other states face similar challenges. Renewable energy generators tend to be small and facilities must be built where the fuel source is located. In many cases those locations are in rural areas away from population centers where most large generating stations are sited.
The report recommends reconvening the Northern New Hampshire Electricity Transmission Upgrades Ad Hoc Working Group initially established by state Senator Martha Fuller Clark. It suggests the group use the data collected to develop detailed proposals to present to the legislature.
(A copy of the Background Report on N.H. Transmission Infrastructure can be found and downloaded off the PUC’s website at http://www.puc.state.nh.us.