Overview of Connecticut Siting Council: Regulation and Jurisdiction

1. Melanie Bachman Executive Director Connecticut Siting Council 101 Connecticut Association of Zoning Enforcement Officials June 5, 2019

2. What is the Connecticut Siting Council? • Established by Public Act 71-575 with the legislative purpose to end ad hoc town-by-town regulation of energy and telecommunications infrastructure in favor of regulation by a statewide body. • CSC has exclusive jurisdiction over the construction, operation and maintenance of electric transmission lines, fuel transmission lines, electric generating facilities, electric substations and telecommunications towers

3. Connecticut Siting Council Purpose To balance the need for: Adequate and reliable public utility services at the lowest reasonable cost to consumers Need to protect the environment and ecology of the state

4. Who are the members of CSC? • CSC consists of 9 per diem members: • DEEP Commissioner, or designee • PURA Chairperson, or designee • Speaker of the House designee • President Pro Tempore of Senate designee • 5 members appointed by Governor (1 is chairman)

5. Statutory Authority • Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, C.G.S. §4-166, et seq. • Public Utility Environmental Standards Act, C.G.S. 16-50g, et seq. • Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, §16-50j-1, et seq.

6. Interaction with Federal, Regional and State Entities Council on Environmental Quality Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Office of Policy and Management

7. Application for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need (CECPN) Balance the public need or public benefit for a proposed facility with the effects on the environment. Public Need or Public Benefit Environmental Effects

8. Pre-Hearing Application Process

9. Public Hearing Process

10. Post Hearing Process

11. Petition for a Declaratory Ruling Evaluation of whether a proposed facility or modification to an existing facility would not have a substantial adverse environmental effect and therefore, would not require a CECPN Substantial Adverse Environmental Effect No Substantial Adverse Environmental Effect

12. Petitions for Declaratory Rulings Process

13. Siting Council JurisdictionTelecommunications Facilities • Community antenna television towers and head-end structures • Telecommunications towers and associated equipment that are used in a cellular system • Distributed Antenna Systems and Small Cell facilities • Collocations or shared use of existing towers or structures • Modifications to existing telecommunications towers and associated equipment

14. What is a “tower?” A structure, whether free standing or attached to a building or another structure that has a height greater than its diameter that is used principally to support one or more antennas

15. Non-jurisdictional to CSC Ballast Frame Rooftop Mounted Installation Church Steeples Antenna installations around circumference of functioning water tank

16. Jurisdictional to CSC Small cell installation concealed in faux chimney Free Standing Telecommunications Towers Transmission Line structure mounted antenna arrays

17. Federal Communications Commission PreemptionTelecommunications Act of 1996 State and local authorities are preempted by the FCC on several matters relative to cell tower siting:

18. FCC Wireless Infrastructure Reports and OrdersEligible Facilities Requests State and local authorities may not deny and shall approve any request for collocation, removal or replacement of equipment on an existing wireless tower provided it does not constitute a “substantial change in the physical dimensions” of a tower

19. What is a “substantial change in the physical dimensions” of a tower? • Increase in existing height of tower by > 10% • Addition of an appurtenance protruding from edge of tower > 20 feet • Installation of > standard number of equipment cabinets • Change that entails any excavation or deployment outside of the current site

20. Telecommunications Coverage Coverage Gap New Tower Coverage

21. Telecommunications Capacity

22. Siting Council Jurisdiction Energy Facilities • Electric transmission lines ≥ 69 kilovolts (kV) • Fuel transmission facilities with a design capability of less than 200 pounds per square inch gauge pressure • Electric generating or storage facilities using any fuel, including renewable energy facilities with a generating capacity of > 1 megawatt (MW) • Substations and switchyards ≥ 69 kV

23. Jurisdictional to CSC Transmission substations Nuclear power plants concurrent with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Electric Transmission Lines Electric Generating Facilities

24. Docket 192B Towantic Energy Center • Facility certificated in 1999, reopened to consider modifications to original design • 25 parties and intervenors • 7 evidentiary hearings

25. Petitions for Declaratory RulingsEnergy Facilities CGS § 16-50k(a) - electric generating projects with a generating capacity under 65 MW and fuel cells shall be approved by petition for a declaratory ruling if comply with air and water quality standards of the DEEP Solar Projects Wind Projects Fuel Cells

26. Federal Energy Regulatory CommissionCritical Infrastructure Protection • April 2013 sniper attack knocked out Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf transmission substation in Silicon Valley, which has been referred to as “the most significant act of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred in the U.S.” • November 2014 FERC approved Critical Infrastructure Protection order for Reliability Standards for Physical Security Measures

27. Emerging Trends • Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection and Security • Telecommunications Eligible Facilities Requests • Small Cell Telecommunications Facilities and 5G • Telecommunications Towers for Capacity • Renewable Energy Development (solar, battery storage, off-shore wind)

28. CSC Website: siting.council@ct.gov

29. Connecticut Siting Council10 Franklin SquareNew Britain, CT 06051 (860) 827-2935 Siting.Council@ct.gov Contact Us