The build-out of natural gas pipelines in Connecticut, intended to widen energy choiced and save consumers mone,y may have a new beneficiary: the state’s fuel cell industry.
Eversource Energy, which provides natural gas to 46 fuel cells operating at 32 sites, is looking to increase its natural gas service to power a potential 135 fuel cells in various stages of development at 39 sites, spokesman Mitch Gross said.
At a recent gathering at Eversource’s Berlin campus to discuss broadening the utility’s natural gas markets, Paul Zohorsky, vice president of Eversource Gas, said that as electricity prices climb, so, too, will demand for fuel cells.
“It may not be a technology people feel comfortable with,” he told municipal officials, business representatives and fuel cell companies. “But it’s not some esoteric technology.”
Frank Wolak, vice president for sales in the Americas at Danbury-based Fuel Cell Energy, said the forum at Eversource was a “great place to start talking.”
“There’s plenty of gas infrastructure in Connecticut to serve larger load centers,” he said.
Municipal governments could be among the first beneficiaries of the tie-in of fuel cells and natural gas. Fuel cell technology is valued for its clean energy characteristics, generating energy with hydrogen and oxygen and combining to form water.
The state is making $4 million available in grants for the design of community microgrids and an additional $2 million is available in loans. Following destructive storms, the local grids can provide power to critical facilities such as police departments, wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, grocery stores and cell phone towers.
The grids, which may be run by fuel cells powered by natural gas, are a response to crippling snowstorms that left millions of Connecticut residents and businesses without power — and food, hot water and other necessities — for days at a time.
In addition, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy launched an ambitious plan in 2012 to encourage running natural gas lines to homes and businesses to take advantage of what was then a sizable gap between costly heating oil and less expensive natural gas.
The price spread has since narrowed as oil prices dropped. But fuel cell businesses, a much touted home-grown industry in Connecticut that includes Fuel Cell Energy and Doosan Fuel Cell America Inc. in South Windsor, are looking to capitalize on increasingly popular natural gas.
In Naugatuck, for example, Eversource is spending its own money to build residential gas lines and extend a 1,200-foot line to reach fuel cells at the borough’s wastewater treatment plant, Mayor Peter Hess said.
Using three fuel cell units made by Doosan will save Naugatuck $175,000 a year on electricity, he said.
“I have to say I was shocked at the potential of clean energy and how much we could save,” Hess said. “It seemed too good to be true.”
Durham, too, is benefiting from work by Eversource to connect natural gas lines from Wallingford to Middletown. The first stage is nearly complete, with two more planned for next year, said First Selectwoman Laura Francis.
Properties along the line will be able to connect to natural gas, and schools and industrial parks may follow, she said. Town officials are now looking at whether Durham can build a microgrid, she said.
Natural gas has become more plentiful as exploration has yielded more gas in the Northeast. In addition, Connecticut’s gas build-out program is “creating opportunities in towns,” said Paul Michaud of the Michaud Law Group, which helps draft legal requests for proposals for municipalities for fuel cell projects.
Michaud’s law firm developed a model to help municipalities develop microgrid or fuel cell projects, he said.
Fees are paid by the developer such as a microgrid company or fuel cell business, Michaud said. With the cost lifted from their shoulders, municipal officials like the model, he said.
“It’s wildly popular,” Michaud said. “They don’t know how to procure fuel cells, or microgrids: We gave them a model.”
In addition to legal help, engineers also are on hand for municipalities.
David Newman, vice president of engineering at The ECG Group, a Long Island energy consulting and design company, said his work with municipalities often involves technical reviews, analysis and working with the customer — the municipalities — to help complete the projects.
“We walk them through it so the vendor is not selling them a bill of goods,” Newman said.
Municipalities often are reluctant to spend tens of thousands of dollars to put in an application for grant money “just to get their hat in the ring,” said Kendra McQuilton, chief executive officer of ECG.
The engineering firm will work without compensation until the municipality it represents wins grant funding and moves forward with a fuel cell project, she said.
“If we can’t achieve a design that’s good enough for a grant, we don’t make money, either,” McQuilton said. “It puts the onus on us to have a competitive application.”
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