Concord Steam - Will They or Won’t They Build a New Plant

In the Concord Steam Corporations (CSC) September 12, 2013 filing with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Peter Bloomfield (CSC president) answered a question about the proposed development of their new plant as follows:

Q. Has any progress been made on development of the new steam plant project?

A. Yes. The project has all of its city permits and the State and federal permits. The power sales agreements with the State and the City have been canceled. We are working on building a smaller project and are in discussions with equity partners and banks. The project is in the process of arranging financing, with the intent to start construction this year. The Company anticipates that the new plant will be in service by December of 2015. Once the financing plans have been finalized, the Company intends to submit its Steam Purchase Agreement to the Commission for final approval, as contemplated by the Commission’s order in Docket DG 08-107.

So now some questions. 

Will this scaled down version of their original project be able to provide enough product for a snow melt system for the sidewalks and streets on Main Street? That’s assuming that the project will actually find the funding to move forward.

Will the city's Complete Streets project have enough funding to pay for installing a snow melt system? Let’s remember that the city and their consultants estimated the cost of the Main Street project at $7.85 million plus an additional $2.5 million for burying power lines on South Main Street. 

The one bid the city received and rejected for the Main Street project was over $12 million for the base project which did not include the burying of power lines or a snow melt system. Now add the burying of the power lines, a snow melt system and the consultants fees and the the estimated costs are just shy of $18.4 million.

So even if Concord Steam is able to move forward with their project and even if they will have enough product for a downtown snow melt system, where does the city get the money to install a snow melt system?

Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the city council  to have answered these questions before they accepted the TIGER grant for the Main Street project? And wouldn’t it have made sense to have these questions answered before they voted to spend our money on this project? Just asking.