State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Connecticut > Title16a > Chap295 > Sec16a-7cSec. 16a-7c. Request for proposal: Solicitation, submission, evaluation, report, net energy analysis. (a) Not later than fifteen days after receiving information pursuant to subsection (e) of section 16-50l, the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board shall publish such information in one or more newspapers or periodicals, as selected by the board.
(b) On or after December 1, 2004, not later than fifteen days after the filing of an application pursuant to subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of section 16-50i, except for an application for a facility described in subdivision (5) or (6) of subsection (a) of section 16-50i, the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board shall issue a request for proposal to seek alternative solutions to the need that will be addressed by the proposed facility in such application. Such request for proposal shall, where relevant, solicit proposals that include distributed generation or energy efficiency measures. The board shall publish such request for proposal in one or more newspapers or periodicals, as selected by the board. Any facility generating not more than five megawatts and any electric transmission line, electric generation facility or electric substation otherwise constituting a facility as described in subsection (a) of section 16-50i that, as part of the proceeding conducted pursuant to section 8 of public act 07-242* and in accordance with this subsection, shall be determined by the Connecticut Siting Council and the Department of Public Utility Control to be required for the reliability of electric supply to critical national defense and homeland security infrastructure shall be exempt from the request for proposal process described in this subsection and exempt from the municipal participation fee requirements of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of section 16-50l. Such determination shall be made on or before December 31, 2007. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection, the board, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present and voting, may determine that a request for proposal is unnecessary for a specific application because the process is not likely to result in a reasonable alternative to the proposed facility. On or before December 1, 2007, after seeking public comment, the board shall approve additional criteria for considering whether a request for proposal process should not be required for a specific application. Any determination that a request for proposal is not required shall include the board's reasons for such determination.
(c) The board may issue a request for proposal for solutions to a need for new energy resources, new energy transmission facilities in the state, and new energy conservation initiatives in the state identified in regional energy system planning processes conducted by the regional independent system operator, as defined in section 16-1. Such request for proposal shall, where relevant, solicit proposals that include distributed generation or energy efficiency measures. The board shall publish such request for proposal in one or more newspapers or periodicals, as selected by the board.
(d) Not later than sixty days after the first date of publication of a request for proposal, a person or any legal entity may submit a proposal by filing with the board information as such person or entity may consider relevant to such proposal. The board may request further information from the person or entity that it deems necessary to evaluate the proposal pursuant to subsection (f) of this section.
(e) Upon the submission of a proposal pursuant to a request for proposal, the person or entity submitting the proposal shall consult with the municipality in which the facility may be located and with any other municipality that would be required to be served with a copy of an application for such proposal under subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of section 16-50l concerning the proposed and alternative sites of the facility. Such consultation with the municipality shall include, but not be limited to, good faith efforts to meet with the chief elected official of the municipality. At the time of the consultation, the person or entity submitting the proposal shall provide the chief elected official with any technical reports concerning the public need, the site selection process and the environmental effects of the proposed facility. The municipality may conduct public hearings and meetings as it deems necessary for it to advise the person or entity submitting the proposal of its recommendations concerning the proposed facility. Within sixty days of the initial consultation, the municipality shall issue its recommendations to the person or entity submitting the proposal. If a person or entity chooses to file an application pursuant to subdivision (3) of subsection (a) of section 16-50l, then such person or entity shall provide to the Connecticut Siting Council a summary of the consultations with the municipality, including all recommendations issued by the municipality. A person or entity that has complied with this subsection shall be exempt from the provisions of subsection (e) of section 16-50l.
(f) Not later than forty-five days after the deadline for submissions in response to a request for proposal, the board shall issue a report that evaluates each proposal received, including any proposal contained in an application to the council that initiated a request for proposal, based on the materials received pursuant to subsection (d) of this section, or information contained in the application, as required by section 16-50l, for conformance with the infrastructure criteria guidelines created pursuant to section 6a-7b. The board shall forward the results of such evaluation process to the Connecticut Siting Council.
(g) When evaluating submissions pursuant to subsection (f) of this section for a generation facility described in subdivision (3) of subsection (a) of section 16-50i that are in excess of sixty-five megawatts, the board shall perform a net energy analysis for each proposal. Such analysis shall include calculations of all embodied energy requirements used in the materials for initial construction of the facility over its projected useful lifetime. The analysis shall be expressed in a dimensionless unit as an energy profit ratio of energy generated by the facility to the calculated net energy expended in plant construction, maintenance and total fuel cycle energy requirements over the projected useful lifetime of the facility. The boundary for both the net energy calculations of the fuel cycle and materials for the facility construction and maintenance shall both be at the point of primary material extraction and include the energy consumed through the entire supply chain to final, but not be limited to, such subsequent steps as transportation, refinement and energy for delivery to the end consumer. The results of said net energy analysis shall be included in the results forwarded to the Connecticut Siting Council pursuant to subsection (f) of this section. For purposes of this subsection, "facility net energy" means the heat energy delivered by the facility contained in a fuel minus the life cycle energy used to produce the facility. "Fuel net energy" means the heat energy contained in a fuel minus the energy used to extract the fuel from the environment, refine it to a socially useful state and deliver it to consumers, and "embodied energy" means the total energy used to build and maintain a process, expressed in calorie equivalents of one type of energy.
(P.A. 03-140, S. 19; P.A. 07-242, S. 54; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 07-4, S. 117.)
*Note: Section 8 of public act 07-242 is special in nature and therefore has not been codified but remains in full force and effect according to its terms.
History: P.A. 03-140 effective October 1, 2004; P.A. 07-242 amended Subsec. (b) to exempt certain facilities deemed required for reliability of electric supply to critical national defense and homeland security infrastructure from request for proposal process and from municipal participation fee requirements of Sec. 16-50l(a)(1), deleted reference to comprehensive energy report in Subsec. (c) and added Subsec. (g) re performing net energy analysis for facilities in excess of 65 megawatts, effective July 1, 2007; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 07-4 amended Subsec. (g) to specify applicability to "generation" facilities, effective July 1, 2007.
