Denmark’s Orsted (ORSTED.CO), the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer, said on Wednesday it may see U.S. impairments of 16 billion Danish crowns ($2.3 billion) due to supply chain problems, soaring interest rates and a lack of new tax credits. Orsted’s share price tumbled 20% to its lowest level in more than four years and is down almost 70% from its 2021 peak. The company’s Ocean Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, and Revolution Wind projects are adversely impacted by several supplier delays, which may trigger impairments of up to 5 billion crowns, the company said in a statement. Orsted said the company’s discussions with “senior federal stakeholders” on obtaining more U.S. tax credits for its offshore wind projects had not progressed as expected, which in turn could lead to impairments of another 6 billion crowns.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/denmarks-orsted-anticipates-730-mln-impact-us-portfolio-2023-08-29/

Ørsted, the Danish utility that Gov. Ned Lamont has lavishly accommodated with more than $300 million in renovations to New London’s State Pier, made a bombshell disclosure Tuesday that its U.S. offshore wind projects are in peril, facing a $2.3 billion loss in value. The company said it would continue to build the six new wind farms it is developing off the East Coast, although abandoning them is an option. Ørsted said it has not been successful so far in attempting to increase federal tax credits for the projects from 30% to 40%. And Tuesday’s dire warnings seem like a shot across the bow to U.S. interests hungry for renewable energy. Ørsted is not alone in blaming supply issues, inflation and rising interest rates as threatening the viability of electricity supply contracts it has already signed with New England states.

https://www.theday.com/local-columns/20230830/opinion-connecticuts-wind-partners-are-in-a-tailspin/

Despite the addition of massive distribution centers near Bradley International Airport in recent years, Windsor Locks rejected a developer’s proposal to create a mega-warehouse along Route 20. Scannell Properties had forecast creating 200 temporary construction jobs and 144 full-time warehouse jobs after the building was completed, and estimated Windsor Locks could get as much as $900,000 in new annual tax revenue. Scannell wanted Windsor Locks to rezone more than 70 acres to permit its project. When the planning and zoning commission reviewed the proposal earlier this month, Vice Chairman Alan Gannuscio said the town had seen ” a zone-change-a-palooza” since the Thrall family decided about a decade ago to stop growing tobacco on the property. The commission voted down Scannell’s request 4-1.

CT town nixes massive mega-warehouse plan with residents favoring conservation

Thirty-six percent of all U.S. bridges, more than 222,000 spans, require major repair work or replacement, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s 2023 analysis of the U.S. DOT’s National Bridge Inventory database. Based on average cost data that states submitted to the DOT, ARTBA estimates it would cost over $319 billion to make all needed repairs. By contrast, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act designates $40 billion in federal money over five years for bridge repairs and replacement. States currently have access to $10.6 billion in IIJA Bridge Formula Program funds to help make needed repairs, and another $15.9 billion will be available in the next three years. These funds have helped support over 2,060 bridge projects in the construction and repair pipeline, according to the ARTBA report. Another new IIJA bridge program, the Bridge Investment Program, has an additional $12.5 billion for projects that will be awarded through 2026.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/bridges-poor-condition-artba/691892/

Town planners approved a 283,000-square-foot warehouse off Spring Street, although it’s not known what company will coming to Southington. Johnson Development Associates received special permit approval last week for the project, which will take place at 99 Smoron Drive, a small street in an industrial area off Spring Street. The $45 million project will be built to attract a tenant next year. Opposition to the plan from neighbors focused mostly on traffic, although some were concerned about the noise from the warehouse as well. Commission members approved the project with only one member, Democrat Christina Volpe, voting in opposition.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Southington/Southington-News/Southington-approves-large-warehouse-on-Spring-Street.html

The town has applied to intervene in a United Illuminating petition to replace railroad power lines with monopoles that could be 95 to 145 feet tall and remove private acreage from local property owners. UI plans to rebuild 8.1 miles of transmission lines from the Eversource-UI demarcation point in Fairfield to the Congress Street substation in Bridgeport, the utility company announced last year. It’s the fifth phase of a larger project to rebuild 25 miles of transmission line from West Haven to Fairfield and aims to strengthen the reliability of the electrical grid and address the age and deterioration of the current transmission lines. UI submitted its application in March for the project to the Siting Council, which will grant final approval for the plans. Fairfield’s application to intervene states the project could impact “scenic vistas” and “historic districts,” remove trees, use herbicides, seize land, damage wetlands and harm property values.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/fairfield/article/united-illuminating-railroad-power-lines-fairfield-18329248.php

Federal regulators are proposing a series of rules changes aimed at toughening safety requirements for millions of miles of gas distribution pipelines nationwide following a string of gas explosions in Massachusetts in 2018. These proposed changes are designed to improve safety and ease risk through the improvement of emergency response plans, integrity management plans, operation manuals and other steps, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The proposal calls for improved construction procedures to minimize the risk of overpressurized pipelines and updated management programs to prepare for over-pressurization incidents. The changes require new regulator stations to be designed with secondary pressure relief valves and remote gas monitoring to prepare gas distribution systems to avoid overpressurization and to limit damage during those incidents. Finally, the plan calls for strengthening response plans for gas pipeline emergencies, including requirements for operators to contact local emergency responders and keep customers and the affected public informed of what to do in the event of an emergency.

https://www.theday.com/state/20230825/new-gas-pipeline-rules-floated-following-2018-blasts-in-massachusetts/

Within the last two weeks, a group of residents met twice to share concerns over a proposed data center to be constructed on the Millstone Power Station property. Additionally, a petition from Millstone owner Dominion to carve out space for the data center, is currently before the Connecticut Siting Council. Worried meeting attendees successfully petitioned the council to extend the deadline for public comment in order to allow more time for input. That petition would give NE Edge, LLC, which is trying to develop its first data center, the opportunity to install the facility on the Millstone property. In February, the town began discussing an agreement with NE Edge. Per the agreement, NE Edge would pay the town $231 million over a 30-year period. The Board of Selectmen has approved the agreement, but is unknown if First Selectman Rob Brule has signed it. Brule did not respond to multiple requests to discuss the status of the project over the past 10 days. NE Edge would not comment on the project this week. Construction would include a pair of two-story data buildings, that would provide approximately 1.5 million square feet of storage for cloud and data servers. The centers would be supplied with energy directly from Millstone.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230824/waterford-residents-criticize-lack-of-information-about-data-center/

Besides the promise of new recreational offerings, the community center construction project will offer a rare chance to connect with young residents even before the facility’s doors open, city officials said. With up to two years of work ahead on the city’s largest project, there’s plenty of time to use the Fort Trumbull-area building site as a sort of real-time construction classroom, said Felix Reyes, director of New London’s Office of Planning and Development. On Monday, Reyes presented the first of what is expected to be monthly summaries of the project’s progress to the City Council. After months of delays due to the state environmental permitting process, crews last month broke ground on the $40 million project that aims to transform a patch of brownfield into a 58,000-square-foot, recreational facility complete with competitive pool and basketball court areas, batting cages, recreation department offices and programming space.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230824/new-london-community-center-site-an-opportunity-for-budding-builders/

United Illuminating will have to pay up for breaking a promise to remediate a Fair Haven power plant after state utility regulators formally accused the company of mismanaging English Station — and of failing to prioritize New Haven residents over profit. In a nearly 300-page decision filed on Friday rejecting a proposed rate hike by the regional company, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) further cracked down on United Illuminating for stalling on its commitment to clean up the power plant at 511 Grand Ave. that they formerly owned and operated for decades. In that partial consent order, the company agreed to put $30 million towards investigating and completing a remediation of the site known as English Station — which is reportedly polluted with carcinogens, polychlorinated biphenyls, heavy metals and other contaminants produced over the years UI burned coal and oil on scene — over three years. PURA wrote that the penalty, which UI estimated would amount to a fine of around $1.63 million per year, is warranted to ​“incentivize the company to fulfill its obligation to remediate the site.”

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/ui_fined_for_english_station_mess