Hancock County reaches settlement over wind farm payments it said were too small

Hancock owner Novatus is of course the company which employs former EUT co-chair Stacey Fitts who helped kill about a dozen citizen initiated wind bills in the EUT committee. See: http://www.windtaskforce.org/photo/abstain-for-maine

Additionally, former Baldacci chief counsel and PUC Chair Kurt Adams, who according to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, received over $1 million in stock options from First Wind while he was still at the PUC, is on Novatus' board of directors. See: https://www.novatusenergy.com/who-we-are/

and also, http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/first-wind-the-kurt-ada...

Hancock County reaches settlement over wind farm payments it said were too small

By Bill Trotter, BDN Staff • July 24, 2019 6:00 am

Hancock County has reached a preliminary agreement in a dispute with a wind energy firm over community benefit payments that the firm had agreed to make to the county.

The county filed suit in the fall against Hancock Wind, a subsidiary of Novatus Energy, after the company made annual payments to the county that were less than what the county expected.

With the tentative agreement, which was reached after the parties went to mediation last week, Hancock Wind can continue to pay the county at a rating generating capacity of 51 megawatts, which amounts to an annual payment of $188,853, but also will pay an additional $7,500 each year in tangible benefits to communities in Hancock County, according to information released Tuesday by county officials.

Hancock County had expected annual payments from the wind firm based on a higher generating capacity, which would work out to almost $19,000 more in payments to the county each year over the course of a 20-year contract.

The county had signed an agreement in September 2014 to receive annual community benefit payments from First Wind, Novatus’ predecessor. That agreement called for the company to pay the county $3,703 annually for each megawatt of the project’s overall generating capacity, according to documents filed with the state’s business court in Portland.

The county’s position was that the 17-turbines in townships 16 and 22 northeast of Ellsworth each had a capacity of 3.3 megawatts for a total capacity of 56.1 megawatts, which would result in an annual payment of $207,738.30. The company countered that the power-converter system on each turbine actually limits their total output to 51 megawatts, resulting in a contractual annual payment of $188,853.

The county filed the lawsuit after the 2016 and 2017 payments it received from Hancock Wind combined were $37,770 less — $18,885 for each year — than what it said it was owed. Had the county not challenged Hancock Wind’s position, over the 20 years of the agreement it would have received $377,700 less than what it said the contract called for.

As it now stands the company will give the county $3.8 million in community benefit payments over the 20-year lifespan of the ori.......................

Read the rest here:

https://bangordailynews.com/2019/07/24/news/hancock/hancock-county-...

************************************* 

Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.