Government

Utilities Commission: Yankee Gas’ New Plan ‘Worse Than Before’

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The latest proposal from Yankee Gas is to expand into New Canaan through Ponus Ridge and Jelliff Mill Road—the third plan that the utility has proposed—to serve New Canaan High School, South School and Saxe Middle School as well as the YMCA and an estimated additional 120 customers along the route who would also have access to the gas, town officials said Monday. Yankee Gas might also serve Waveny Care Center and the Mormon church on South Avenue, members of the Utilities Commission said at their regular monthly meeting, held at the New Canaan Nature Center. The proposal is far smaller than what had been proposed initially, and doesn’t include running the line into downtown New Canaan until potentially in a later phase—an expansion that New Canaan’s highest elected official has called an absolute requirement. Commissioner Scott LaShelle said at the meeting that in three years of discussion, Yankee Gas “has yet to show a cost proposal to the town.” “They say things like, ‘Natural gas can save you 50 percent compared to oil.’ They’ve never given an actual proposal to say ‘Your cost with oil is X, and if based on a contract with us, you can get gas for this.’ They can’t guarantee the commodity price of gas,” he said.

Around Town

Revised Natural Gas Proposal: 3 Schools Next Summer, Downtown within 5 Years

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A new agreement between New Canaan and Yankee Gas likely would see natural gas come to the area of South Avenue at Farm Road next summer, with a requirement that the utility bring its cost-saving service downtown within five years, officials say. After stirring interest among some businesses and residents, Yankee Gas was unable to lay out an implementation plan or to provide specifics on potential cost-savings to residents, and ultimately couldn’t make good on its vow to have natural gas in New Canaan this year. Yankee Gas’ ineptitude prompted town officials to consider starting negotiations anew with that utility as well as competitor CNG. Yet taxpayers stand to gain cost-savings if Yankee Gas runs a line from Stamford into New Canaan to serve three schools—South, Saxe and the high school (as well as two private organizations, the New Canaan YMCA and Waveny Care Center), First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said. “If that’s the way we go—and I’m pretty sure we’re going to go that way—we’re going to make that utility commit to bringing gas down South Avenue within a 5-year period,” Mallozzi said.

Government

Town Officials on Yankee Gas: ‘The Whole Thing Just Smacks of Bait and Switch’

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Saying Yankee Gas hasn’t played straight with New Canaan, town officials on Monday night opened the possibility of restarting its negotiations—possibly with a different utility—to get natural gas not just to large municipal or commercial buildings but also to residents who want it. It’s been nearly four months since Yankee Gas declared itself “fully committed” to bringing natural gas to New Canaan this fall, and nearly three months since local government and business leaders at a public forum urged the utility to get residents more specific numbers and a timetable for conversion. Yet no concrete plan is in sight. Now, the utility is proposing to town officials a project far smaller in scope that seemingly could leave out private homes, members of the New Canaan Utilities Commission said at their regular meeting Monday night. “I just think we need a plan that reflects a commitment by a company, an energy solution that gives the town the best long-term value,” Commissioner Dan Welch said at the meeting, held in the Brooks Room of the New Canaan Nature Center.

News

Forum with Yankee Gas in New Canaan: ‘Get Them the Concrete Numbers’

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New Canaanites are calling for harder numbers and timetables behind projected cost-savings in natural gas conversion—for example, how much it will cost to convert a home of X square feet that lays Y feet from a main line, and exactly when service will come to each property—prior to committing to Yankee Gas to the degree that the utility needs in order to put a shovel in the ground here. Yankee Gas said during a panel discussion at New Canaan Library Monday evening that it wants to have natural gas service available in New Canaan starting this fall. That service would start by following a roughly 5-mile main up from Stamford along Ponus Ridge, running the length of Frogtown Road, jogging down Weed, running from the top of Elm to South Avenue and then out to the high school. At first, the line would serve many New Canaan businesses in the heart of our downtown, as well as a lot of big town buildings near the route (Town Hall, Police Department, South, Saxe and the high school) and possibly the YMCA. Yet even those buildings no longer carry enough of the natural gas load to reasonably offset, in the eyes of state regulators, the cost of doing the infrastructure work here, according to Paul Zohorsky, vice president of gas operations at Northeast Utilities (which owns Berlin, CT-based Yankee Gas).

Business

Yankee Gas at Chamber Event with Mallozzi: ‘We Are Fully Committed’

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Yankee Gas has pledged to meet with New Canaan’s highest elected official within two weeks to review a widely anticipated plan to bring natural gas to businesses, public buildings and residences here, a sales manager with the Berlin, CT-based utility said Wednesday. Michael Collins told about 60 local businesspeople gathered for a special event downtown that Yankee Gas is “fully committed” to bringing natural gas to New Canaan starting prior to the “next heating season.”

“It’s a great thing for the town. It’s going to be a multi-year build-out,” Collins said during the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s Breakfast with First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. Held at elm restaurant, the 90-minute event featured a meet-and-greet session over buffet-style breakfast for chamber members, comments from Mallozzi as well as a chance to put questions to him and chamber Executive Director Tucker Murphy, and the update from Collins. Saying that Yankee Gas is not experiencing hiccups so much as “fitting it [the plan] into the box that we have been told to fit it into,” Collins told attendees that plans have changed since October-November due in part to new regulations at the state level.