Eversource announced it will sell its electricity generating stations in New Hampshire for nearly $260 million.
This comes after a 20-year process and 2015 agreement to deregulate the state's energy industry.
As NHPR's Sam Evans-Browns reports, Eversource's dams, hydro-facilities and fossil fuel plants will be owned by private companies - which will then sell the energy on the open market.
"It does have the potential to save ratepayers a lot of money, because these power plants are so old and expensive to run, and increasingly are not in use. So as it is now, people who are paying their electric bill in NH are paying for the operations and maintenance of a bunch of power plants that sit idle much of the year."
Evans-Brown continued, "When the deal was originally announced, which was two years ago, the estimate was that it would save $300 million over the course of five years, which is a big chunk of change. Market conditions have changed a little bit since then, and we haven't seen an update to that number, but I'd expect we'd see something coming out in the next few months, now that we know what the final sales price was."
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Eversource is New Hampshire's largest electric utility and, with about 8,000 employees, is one of the state's largest employers.
Bill Quinlan, president of Eversource NH, said in a statement that the sales agreements marks the completion of electric deregulation in the Granite State.
More About The Deal
- Eversourcesays it will sell its three fossil generation plants -- Merrimack Station, Newington Station, and Schiller Station -- and two combustion turbines to Granite Shore Power LLC in a $175 million agreement.
- Granite Share Power is a partnership between Atlas Holdings of Greenwich, Conn., and Castleton Commodities International of Stamfort, Conn.
- It will sell its nine hydro-electric facilities to Hull Street Energy LLC and its affiliates in Maryland for $83 million.
- The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission must approve the transactions. Eversource says it anticipates concluding the sales by early 2018.
