UI Watch

United Illuminating does quarterly conference calls to their shareholders. This archived audio was released to the UI shareholders to demonstrate the current progress of our energy grid.

To listen to the audio, click the link below and turn up your speaker volume. It is a very informative report from UI's "Top Brass." The most notable part of this audio is that Milford's "uncollectibles" are down. This is some long awaited good news. The bad news is that UI continues to pressure the DPUC for rate increases.

CLICK HERE FOR ARCHIVED AUDIO

Devon Power Station Nears Completion

The city has endured truck after truck of "wide load" vehicles up and down New Haven Ave. Local onlookers watched and wondered at what the massive oversize structures were, and what they were intended for.

Well after several months, we can now see the colossal structures rising into giant smoke stacks along the Housatonic river in Devon. The site is the one formerly known as the Devon Power Plant owned and operated by United Illuminating and NRG.

The new project is one run by the energy giant NRG, (pronounced "Energy.") The new plant is expected to function as a "peaking station" or in layman's terms, it will add power in the summer and winter when we all have the air conditioners, or heaters on in extreme weather.

The current power grid included the Middletown station. With it now in ruins the new gas powered power plant may evolve as more than just a "peaking station."

The new gas powered power plant is expected to go online as early as this summer, and the need for it appears to be increasing as the rebuilding of the Middletown plant drags on pending investigations and litigation.

The site is now clearly visible from Naugatuck Ave. Anyone curious in what the project currently looks like can park along side the road and see for them selves.

(Above photo is an artists rendering of the final project.)

Grid Nears Completion In Milford's Eisenhower Park

All of last week a small helicopter was buzzing my neighborhood pulling wire to complete the final construction of the second and very large electrical grid tower. These towers standing at nearly 120 feet high are strung with two pairs of wire strewn cross eight points.

This power grid is built with the taxes we all pay on our electric bills in conjunction with state and federal assistance and is hoped to save us the consumer money on our future electric bills. We were told this would happen by allowing our state to be more competitive in markets beyond our own.

The entire project has cost billions, and stretches for 75 miles. All cables after the Stratford bridge go underground at the highest expense, and at the consequence of local residential communities having their streets torn apart all through Fairfield County.

The project contractor has been giving local residents near the project pamphlets. These pamphlets are left on peoples doors as the work progresses. In my neighborhood alone those living near the razed areas have been less than happy with the aftermath of the gravel dumping, bulldozing, and un-natural structures that have clearly marred countless views.

A neighbor of mine indicated that the old grid was built using "natural materials, rested below the tree line, and possessed fewer lines. These new ones are more akin to an industrial cold and impersonal steel megalith. Hardly a pretty sight, and I certainly can see the before and after."

The good news is that someone has been somewhat concerned about our watershed, and the Army Corp of Engineers just completed a 4-5 acre drainage site at Eisenhower Park. This is our towns 350 acre nature preserve.

In personally visiting that site it appeared to be constructed on schedule and exactly as the town committee indicated it would be constructed. There is currently water in it along with an extensive fence around it. The purpose of this site is a drainage area that offsets the induced construction damage to the wetlands. The Eisenhower Park project is touted as an improvement boasting more drainage capacity even in the off chance of river flooding. Click HERE for minutes of this meeting.

To conclude this Blog I will say that I am thrilled that this project is rapidly approaching its final stage and conclusion, I now only hope and pray that it will deliver everything we were told prior to its construction and the natural landscape will be allowed to return.

(The above photo is an arial view of Eisenhower Park. At the center is a tan brown diagonal strip indicating how much razing took place while cutting through a natural area.)