ORDER-2021-13 : Acceptance of a Net Metering Credit Agreement between the City of Melrose and Ampion for energy and cost savings. The agreement authorizes the production of alternative energy on behalf of the city through a State-endorsed program.

Transcript (~6 min @ 1:49:55)

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▶ 1:49:34 Christopher Cinella: 2021-13 acceptance of a net metering credit agreement between the city of melrose and the ambient for energy and cost savings the agreement authorizes the production of alternative energy on behalf of the city through the state endorsed program do we have somebody that's going to speak uh martha grover

▶ 1:49:59 Speaker 1: melina caracas ellis i think we all just like saying her name

▶ 1:50:08 Speaker 11: can you bring in jim troop as well of course thank you and anybody else

▶ 1:50:15 Speaker 11: Brian from Ampion. Brian Busby, yes. Here he is.

▶ 1:50:26 Christopher Cinella: All right. Not sure who wants to speak first, but you can do rock, paper, scissors.

▶ 1:50:31 Speaker 11: Well, Jim's going to start out and explain the content of the memo that he issued to the council on this item. And then if Martha and Brian have anything to add, and then we can take some questions.

▶ 1:50:47 Speaker 7: hey uh good evening council uh it's an honor to be here tonight to present this to you in your packet you have a memo that briefly explains to you this program and this agreement that we are entering with ampion what it really comes down to it allows the city to enter into an agreement with an alternative energy company that produces uh solar energy on our behalf and delivered it to the grid uh interestingly uh the location of this is in new marlborough uh massachusetts thus we don't receive the energy it just gets uh sent out to the to the local areas uh how the agreement works is uh the the solar provider uh produces this energy on our behalf uh and sells it pretty much to national grid uh that amount will be uh delivered to us in a credit on our monthly bills and then Ampion will bill us at 90% of that credit. The net effect for this agreement is approximately $30,000 in annual savings. The other benefits of this agreement is Ampion will look at our utility bills and they will help us identify other opportunities for even more credits and it doesn't necessarily have to be with them we could shop around and see if there are other uh other people that are offering these anchor agreements uh we would be have access to about 50 percent of the capacity of the farm uh well 50 percent of the capacity of that farm is available to anchor agreements in this particular case we would have 25 percent so we would have half of the 50 percent the other 50 is reserved for individual small businesses other people that are in that surrounding area of the community so that they can also take advantage uh for these credits on their utility bills um as mentioned champion will identify other opportunities for us to explore and to receive even more credits and other opportunities other solar farms other alternative energy providers. The term of this agreement is 10 years with an automatic five-year renewal at the end. And then the other thing to mention is that you also have in your packet a copy of the actual agreement. We reviewed, proposed some edits, which they accepted 100% of our edits without exception. So the contract that you see in your packet is the actual contract that we would be signing with them. The last thing that is pretty interesting and good to hear in terms of sustainability, if I could read to you the environmental benefits of this solar project, it is a pollinator-friendly solar project. All projects are certified as pollinator-friendly by umass clean energy center the native wildflowers flowers will be planted on the site which will benefit pollinators and local ecosystems and for each project one dollar per solar solar panel will be donated to local environmental organizations uh depending on the projects the donations will be from ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars and will support conservation reforestation and environmental education projects uh as a part of this initiative they've already donated eleven thousand dollars to an acushnet natural reserve as you can see i believe that a couple of these uh projects have been in front of the council for review in the past they just haven't been with solar farms that are up and ready this this solar farm is expected to be live uh sometime this month so we should be able to uh achieve these savings immediately uh the other thing that benefits the dpw in the city is that these savings can actually be reinvested in our operating budget to explore other energy savings measures, provide inventory and stock for our DPW to respond to streetlight outages and other things that may be difficult for us to achieve in the current environment. so we're asking for your support uh we think that this is really cut and dry and i have martha and brian here if you have any questions we could direct to them accordingly thank you very much

▶ 1:55:21 Christopher Cinella: thank you james um do any counselors have any questions

▶ 1:55:30 Speaker 7: not see any hands go up i don't know what is the uh will of the committee i don't want to jump at

▶ 1:55:37 Speaker 7: at once motion to recommend a discussion please call the roll I'm back chairman

▶ 1:56:04 Speaker 1: Sonnella yes nice Jim Egliorelli yes chairman

▶ 1:56:19 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes.