ORDER-2017-56 : Authorization for the Mayor of Melrose to execute a Power Purchase Agreement for the installation and location of solar voltaic panels on the roof top of the Public Works Operations Facility

Transcript (~12 min @ 9:16)

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▶ 9:14 Peter D. Mortimer: order 2017-56 it is authorization for the mayor of melrose to execute a power purchase agreement for the installation and location of solar voltaic panels on the rooftop of the public works operations facility we are still under suspension and we will ask miss grover to come forward and

▶ 9:47 Peter D. Mortimer: make her presentation please very good it was that's just for the record that's sandra brown welcome miss Brown thank you for coming hi my name is Martha Grover I'm the

▶ 9:58 Speaker 1: energy efficiency manager for the city of Melrose and this is Sandra Brown of blue wave capital a consultant that we've been working with now for about a year and a half two years on a variety of projects and this is the first project that we've been able to bring forward to you in this latest round of renewable energy projects for the city of Melrose and we're really excited to have this opportunity to put solar panels on the public works facility roof the south facing roof there's a photo of the layout in your packet which I think it's a great project because it's visible people driving down Tremont Street will be able to see it and see the city's efforts to diversify our electricity supply by using renewable energy and you know it's it's in contrast to the project that we put on the high school middle school route years ago that nobody sees so it's kind of you know out of sight out of mind people kind of forget so i think this is great um i provided to you the the agreement which is a department of energy template so then there's also an addendum where we you know with our city solicitor and blue wave capital worked with the developer to work out some addendums and edits to the agreement and then there's also an easement that is included in the agreement so tonight you'd be approving both the agreement and the easement to provide access to the to the roof and in my memo I've outlined just the highlights of this and I'm happy to answer any questions the solar development team was procured through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council there are 17 communities who took part in this procurement and the proposed project is 61.2 kilowatts of solar which will produce almost 76,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and the way that it's going to work is the same way as the high school middle school system which is that the city does not put any money up front we pay for it or it's partially funded through our guarantee or this agreement to purchase the electricity that it produces over the 20 years of the agreement at a fixed rate and then where we get the savings is a credit that comes back to the city by the utility in the way of a it's called a net metering credit and the Delta between that credit and what we're paying is the savings so first-year savings is 2000 projected to be about two thousand six hundred and seventy nine dollars and then over you know those savings accumulate over the life lifetime of the system so that's all I have it's pretty straightforward we're pretty comfortable now with these systems because we you know we now we've had a few years of experience with the one on the high school and middle school and it's gone quite well it's great to have somebody else own it and maintain it and and someone else monitoring it and you know it's a for us it's kind of a financial arrangement more than anything else but also the visible which I like about this project the nature of

▶ 13:43 Speaker 1: it so any questions from anyone very good thank you very much for your

▶ 13:47 Peter D. Mortimer: presentation and first we'll hear from president khan please yeah i i think this is a good order

▶ 13:52 Speaker 2: i'm gonna i'm in support of this order i would like to ask you a question though um would it be possible for you to quarterly update the board on savings relative to this and the other solar agreement that we previously entered into because we see these things and then they go but uh

▶ 14:14 Speaker 1: i i would like to get periodic i've got a lot of data i just never know what you what you at would be interested in I just did for instance my green community annual report and I don't know whether it just floods your inbox or you know but I'm happy I keep spreadsheets on all of these on the savings on the system and

▶ 14:34 Speaker 2: data on green communities may be very interested if you could follow us at

▶ 14:38 Speaker 1: least on the financial piece nice to know you're interested in that so yep

▶ 14:41 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you thank you very much president Cron Alderman MacMaster my goal is thank

▶ 14:45 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: you yeah I think this is great it's exciting I'm also think it's great that it's going to be visible you know to foot traffic and people on the on the street I was going to ask about that if it is it contributing to our green communities level that we've been aiming for in any way no the green communities

▶ 15:06 Speaker 1: commitment is a reduction in usage so this doesn't impact our usage so much um mostly because it's not behind the meter it's going out on to the grid but and it's also as a um it's a pretty pretty small portion of the overall city energy right usage but it will um

▶ 15:29 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: offset the cost of the the utility cost utility cost at that building yes and um that building is relatively new so you don't have the roof is new so it's great you don't have any concerns

▶ 15:43 Speaker 1: about the roof yeah which is why this this project has come forward you know a lot of our school rooftops are just too old to consider a 20-year even the Lincoln is really too old now okay consider a 20-year solar array well I'm

▶ 15:59 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: I'm happy to support this thank you thank you very much alderman MacMaster

▶ 16:07 Speaker 3: Margolis alderman Medeiros please thank you thank you thank you very much yes I

▶ 16:11 Monica C. Medeiros: i just wanted to ask is you know we're involved with the community aggregation of electricity which includes the purchase of some you know local massachusetts renewable sources is this possible that this could end up being one of those sources that provide not directly

▶ 16:31 Speaker 1: but not not this project however we have a small 50 kilowatt system on the high school middle school that the city actually owns um and we are selling the class one wrecks that that system produces and it's in the cities then buying those class one wrecks it's very very small very very small amount of money but yes we're doing it on that system but because this is net metered and going out into the grid it's harder to claim yeah those credits thank you very

▶ 17:14 Peter D. Mortimer: much thank you alderman Medeiros motion recommend second we have a motion to recommend by alderman mcatea margolis duly seconded by alderman inferna on discussion alderman boyce l please

▶ 17:23 Robert A. Boisselle: in the development of the solar panels and hookups and so forth has there been any pushback by the utilities for payment to hook into their system well in this instance and sandra can talk about

▶ 17:40 Speaker 1: it the one thing that we have we will have to do or the developer will have to do is is install a transformer yeah presently the location is served from a

▶ 17:50 Speaker 3: pole mounted 45 kVA transformer that's directly outside if I'm not mistaken please please don't take me it's on the diagram you can exact numbers but um we need to upgrade that to I want to say 75 kVA for the system to move forward It has about a $6,000 cost that's associated with it based on an estimate or a worst-case scenario estimate that we've received from National Grid. So these aren't really costs that we would anticipate being outside of the realm of what is normal. So I would say, no, we haven't really received any pushback, but we do have interconnection costs that are associated with installing the system.

▶ 18:31 Speaker 1: So, National Grid is passing the cost of that new transformer onto the developer, which then eventually, you know, gets...

▶ 18:39 Robert A. Boisselle: We're not paying for it, except through the process. Okay. Also, the second aspect of that, besides just the transformer you were referring to, utilities have been pushing back on solar generators in other states, and Hawaii and I think Georgia and some of the southern states, and they're actually charging the individuals for the putting the electricity into the grid system to pay for the grid system. Now there's, depending on which state you're in, it's either a charge for it or a lower cost in the purchase of electricity. So you haven't heard anything in Massachusetts about this, or have you been approached by the utilities?

▶ 19:20 Speaker 3: There is a variety of efforts that are being discussed presently because the current solar incentive programs are slowly being phased out. We're anticipating them being phased out over the next few months, and a next generation solar incentive program being put in place. There's a large discussion about what will that program look like, and it's ongoing. being facilitated by the massachusetts department of energy resources presently there was also recently an act on solar energy that did include a potential provision for a minimum monthly contribution in the case of your system that minimum monthly contribution would be targeted directly at the the owner of the meter which would be the financial partner wouldn't be the city so you guys would not or the city of melrose would not be um okay that's that's what i was hoping

▶ 20:20 Speaker 3: thank you very much directly responsible for that yeah thank you thank you mr chairman thank you

▶ 20:26 Peter D. Mortimer: alderman boy cell seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard a motion to recommend this order for passage has been made by alderman makatia margolis and duly seconded by alderman inferna all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended for passage at our full board meeting tonight you need not stay for that meeting we've heard all the information we need at this time and thank you very much for your excellent presentation thank you thank you have a wonderful evening motion to adjourn mr president excuse me