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Board of Selectmen 8/3/26

Video

[clears throat]
>> Good afternoon everybody. I'm going to
call the uh
3rd of August meeting to order for the
selectmen.
Um we have a full board here tonight. We
have Jenny Angel,
we have Speed Felton,
Steve Heath,
Ann Barney,
and I'm Andy Fitch. And we also have Ron
Beard at the
at the table. He is our town manager.
Ann is going to lead us in the pledge of
allegiance.
>> I pledge allegiance
>> to the flag
>> of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.
>> Good job, Ann.
So, the first item on the agenda tonight
is a public hearing on the electric rate
study.
>> Is this Matthew?
>> Yes.
>> You're up.
>> Okay. Thank you.
Where do I plug in?
>> Um we don't have a screen tonight. You
can plug in.
So, I can print it off. Do you want one?
>> Yeah, I do.
>> Um I'll bring it to you.
>> Who said we had a problem?
>> That would be me.
>> It's all yours, sir.
>> Thank you. My name is Matthew Condon.
I'm employed by Power Line Models, P&M,
and
uh
I'm a world master chief. Sorry, I've
been traveling for the last 5 years.
Uh um
I have been over for 40 years designing
retail electric rates for public power
systems in New England. I have probably
designed retail electric rates for more
than half of the public power utilities
in New England over that period of time.
I also helped uh helped those utilities
manage their wholesale power purchase
agreements. Uh I've done that work for
Granite Co-op and also for the
uh for Wolfeboro uh across the lake.
And
so uh I'm I'm going to walk you through
this presentation, which is a really an
overview
of how we go about designing retail
electric rates uh sort of from the
bottom up.
Uh
the uh I'm going to talk about what the
objectives are in rate design. I'm going
to talk about cost allocation, which is
really the the engine that drives rate
design. And then we
talk about the rate design process.
So, we're on to slide three. Uh
I like to identify these. There are
probably other objectives, but uh I like
to say that the five objectives are
adequacy, fairness,
competitiveness,
stability,
and clarity.
Adequacy
means that our rate and the and any
other revenues
should cover the utility's operating
expenses and fund the renewal and
expansion of the plant in order to
continue to provide reliable service.
We measure adequacy of rates by the
overall rate of return.
Uh and and that is
uh a revenue minus expenses, net income.
And as a percentage of your plant
investment, so think of it as a return
on your investment. You invested so many
millions of dollars in your plant and
you'd like to be able to earn a return
on that in order to
fund the continued maintenance and
renewal of your plant.
We also and for fairness, and that means
that the rate paid by each class of
customer should reflect as accurately as
possible
the cost of providing service to that
class of customer. It costs you more to
provide service to a a residential
customer than it does to provide a large
industrial customer.
Having to do with
economies of scale,
also the time of use that the customer
is using the electricity. Electricity
costs more during on-peak periods, costs
a lot more during a peak hour each
month. And so we like to measure not
only overall rate of return but each
individual customer class rate of
return.
We also like to look at competitors. You
you want the cost of energy
to each customer to be competitive with
the cost of energy that's paid by
comparable customers to other energy
providers in your immediate vicinity. So
we do typical bill comparisons. We look
at and how your residential
typical residential customer's bill
compares to the co-op bill or to
uh or to
EverSource, I guess they call them. So
let's just say that.
so we look at that.
We also want your rates to be stable.
You don't want them to fluctuate
excessively from month to month or year
to year. Customers notice that.
Uh if you have if you have
a rate that goes
up and down every month, the customer
doesn't see it go down, customer sees it
go up. So, you you really you want it to
be steady and predictable.
And so, we look at the at the
month-to-month changes. And And then
also design the rate so that it doesn't
have to change over time. Ideally, you'd
love to be able to put a rate in place
set it and forget it for five years if
your
costs allow you to do that.
And finally, you want clarity. You want
the rate and components to be easily
understood by a customer. And you'd like
the customer to be able to actually
calculate the bill on their own without
having to use a computer. And so, uh
clarity is
is is one of those things that you know
when you see it. Uh you look at an
Eversource bill, you're not seeing it.
you look at uh you look at a National
Grid bill, you've got a nice clear bill.
Customers know what what they're
getting.
So, I'm going to talk a little bit about
cost allocation.
The cost allocation process is uh
basically assigning
revenue requirements, your your expenses
to each customer class on the basis of
how they contribute to your
uh your incurring that expense.
And to do that, we divide the expenses,
classify them into three general classes
of expenses. There's customer-related
classes, there's demand-related costs,
and then there are energy-related costs.
I'll talk about each of those
individually.
customer expenses are are costs that are
related just to the number of customers,
not not the amount of energy that those
customers use. So, those are
uh your metering and billing expenses,
your customer accounting expenses, and
the cost of those
meter services that
everything that is dedicated all of your
plant and equipment that's
dedicated to serving one particular
customer.
Uh,
demand is a it is is a cost that's
related to the the maximum rate that the
customer is using energy. Uh, and that's
because the the facilities that you
build to serve your customers have to be
sized to supply that maximum demand
regardless of when it occurs. If you
have if you have a large customer at the
end of a long feeder, then they they
will peak at 11:00 at night,
uh, you need still need to supply that
uh, that peak and you're going to size
the service, you're going to size the
feeders, and the transformers to meet
that maximum demand. So,
uh, for a large customer in particular,
you want to know what that maximum
demand is, which is why you bill the
those customers a demand charge each
month. And uh, and that's a a way of
directly
attributing those costs to customer.
And there also the there's
also uh, on the demand side you have uh,
on your purchase power,
uh, you pay a lot for capacity and you
pay more for transmission.
And you bill for those two things on the
basis of what your
system demand is during the hour each
month when when that peak demand occurs
uh, on the Eversource transmission
system. So, you want to try to
measure how much each customer is
contributing to that monthly peak uh,
demand because then you're sure that
you're going to recover of transmission
costs from each customer.
And finally there's energy costs and
then
some of the energy costs are you know
they they do vary somewhat by time and
we try to take that into account.
On-peak energy is that you purchase is
more expensive than off-peak energy.
And and it's it's about half of your of
your total bill is the energy cost that
you pay to your supplier. So, that's
that's another important thing that you
have to take into account when you're
designing rates.
So, you know
basically what you do is you you you try
to
add up all the costs of serving your
residential customers for instance and
divide that by the number of kilowatt
hours that you're selling to the
residential customer.
And that's what you need to be at the at
a minimum recovering from that group of
customers.
To begin with we start by looking at a
historic test year what we call it a
historic test year cost of service study
and we'll go over that more.
We then look at at a pro forma future
test year cost of service study and
that's what we design the rates around.
And and then you develop those rates.
In in the historic test year cost of
service we take a full year's historic
data.
Here we had the luxury of two years of
historic data from 2024
2025
we take all those expenses, we allocate
them across the customer
classes and then we compare those
expenses to what you actually collected
from the customers in in that test year.
And you you then
calculate from from that how much you
were earning from each class of
customer. And so, we look at the at the
the chart this this table here which
says rate of return by customer class
2025.
And so the first line there is the total
annual revenue. And that's the revenue
that you collected from each of the six
customer classes that you consider. So
while you have you might have a couple
others that aren't represented here that
are sort of small but but there's
natural your general service
three-phase, your space heat customers,
your general service single phase,
industrial primary, and then municipal
street lighting. So those are actual
revenues
from 2025.
The next line are the allocated expenses
for each of those who proves them.
Customers
which gives you the net income or
return. Now for the system as a whole
you lost
about $95,000
in 2025.
but when you look at the at the customer
classes you you you lost quite a bit
more on the residential sale but you
made you know reasonable profit actually
on the on the non-residential the the
general service and industrial and space
heat. Those all made a pretty decent
return. So
at the end of the day you were only you
only had about a negative 2% return on
on on your investment.
And now obviously that's not enough.
You want to be able to have
be able to put money in keep your cash
reserves healthy,
uh have money available to to
invest in uh
projects etc. So
uh that
it indicates that you
that there's a a need for an increase.
I think that next slide I I covered that
the negative rate of return is 1.8%.
1995 thousand
Uh the individual rates of return vary
pretty widely. Uh it's a minus
12.6% on residential and and all the way
up to almost 22% on the on the
single-phase general service class.
It it's not unusual to see a wide range
of rates of return, especially with
municipal utilities. Because
municipal utilities tend to favor the
residents who are the you know, the
owners of the utility, if you will.
Uh and so, municipal utilities don't try
to make profit off their residential
customers, but you have to kind of
fine-tune it so that you're not
losing too much. And so, you're actually
have
the other customers subsidizing the
residential. You don't mind if the
residential class breaks even or even
loses a little bit, but
we usually try to design it to break
even.
And I I like to see maybe a 20% swing
between the the highest and the lowest
rate of return. Then you're you're a
little above that. You're a little over
30%, so
good good
bring things back together in in a
little bit closer.
the next step is going to be to develop
some rate designs, and that that will
produce right adequate revenue, and to
send the right price signals to the
customer, and hopefully
reduce some of that subsidization. You
can see on slide 19 that that that for
the last 2 years there's been a
uh negative net income. I mean, that's
that that's actually a pretty small, uh,
negative. So, you you're not losing huge
amounts of money, but you would like to
to to actually earn, uh, something
rather than depleting
depleting your cash reserve for nothing
else. Uh,
and the main thing that's going on here
is that there are are increases in the
cost of purchase power. Your own
operating costs in running the utility
are are are quite manageable and and
they're actually been been
trending downward, but uh,
cost beyond your control, the the the
power market is is what the power market
is and and right now the
power market is is unstable and and
pretty high.
So,
when we look forward, we're going to
have to look at which one of the what
the what the budgeted power cost is for
the rest of this year and next year and
and then the rest of your budget
expenses. And where does that where does
that leave you in terms of meeting
meeting enough revenue to meet your
budget, which
So, the the objectives that we've talked
about, uh,
with the town are to increase the net
income to about
215,000
target that that we're going
not to worry about getting to.
we also have some uh,
i- ideas
that that I would recommend to simplify
the rate structure. Uh,
most of your rates have have a number of
different block rates,
uh,
or that that
tend to decrease with higher usage, uh,
that essentially are uh,
one, they're not justified by economics
because it doesn't cost you less to
provide more energy. Uh, they don't
really cost you more, but uh, it it it
it's better to have that just just be
flat. You could you can go to time of
use cuz on-peak energy is more expensive
than off-peak, but that's a
that's a really difficult thing to
implement cuz you've got metering and
billing problems in doing that and and
it's probably not worth the effort.
The the electric heat rate is that's
another that's another rate structure
that's sort of antique.
I've been
I've been eliminating electric heating
rates
in the municipal utility that I've
worked for for the last 30 years.
They've been hanging around and
it's it's a little tricky to do.
Luckily,
New Berlin is not a huge discount
for the the the the
the large use of electricity, so
bringing that eliminating that block
isn't going to be much of an impact on
the customers. And it'll help simplify
the billing process where we won't have
a single
a single rate and it'll be all one one
cost.
And and then also we were back in the
creating a rate for large municipal
customers as there's really the water
and sewer department.
A lot of a lot of municipal utilities
will have a essentially a
a break-even rate for town
users of electricity because they can't
it's you know, it's
sort of a hidden tax if you will you're
charging the town
or
trying to earn profit from town for
their use of electricity.
And then finally, of course, which we
already talked about, reduce and maybe
that can be done over a period of time
over a number of years reduce that
amount of subsidy to the residential
rate.
So, those those are the rate design
objectives talked about. And then
that's the end of my direct
presentation. Happy to answer the
questions that I would like to ask.
>> I've got a couple questions.
>> Go ahead.
>> Um
So, right now
the water and sewer department charges
go into which rate structure?
there are
those are I believe all of those
customers are on the general service
three phase.
>> Okay.
>> Uh there's a demand charge kind of and
that's the
really large customers
uh are on that.
>> Uh yeah. And so, you're recommending
an increase in net income to $215,000
and right now this past year we made
95,000.
So, basically we've got to make up
at what whatever time we can do that,
$300,000.
>> That's right.
>> And of that $300,000
if capital improvements were not out of
the previous year that would be
additional cost that we would have to
build in. Is that accurate?
>> Uh well,
the the
capital improvements are uh
I mean they they you fund those
out of your your reserve
or you fund them with
debt. Uh
so uh
>> But, wouldn't you
just a question, wouldn't you want to
try
to build in some amount that if you if
you know you're going to have to spend
name a number a million dollars
something at point or something in 10
years.
>> Right.
>> Wouldn't you want to start saving for
that and build that into the structure?
>> Yes,
in fact we have we have built
a five-year forecast
revenues and expenses and and and that
model will show cash reserves changing
over time, hopefully you can you can do
that. When I was talking earlier about
you wanted you don't want to have to
keep increasing your rates. The idea
being you'd like to be able to put rates
into effect now that you can keep in
place for 5 years
and meet your expected capital program.
>> [clears throat]
>> Plus
we have years left on the power
purchase.
4 years. That's recent.
>> Really happened yeah. So
we were visiting all that again.
What was that contract time?
>> Yep.
>> Right. [clears throat] And you don't
there's there's no way to know today
what that or what the successor rate is
going to be in the next power contract.
>> And we just and we just did get a um
almost 10% increase on the wheeling fees
from Eversource.
So [clears throat]
we haven't done any adjustments for that
yet. That's why
you know, we're working at it working
that into the plan also.
>> Yeah. And there's a there's there's a a
bond repayment
that's starting uh the next year and
that also had to be built into the rate.
So that's
we'll we'll be looking at that and
that's that's a challenge.
But there are there are also some
forecast increase and decreases in in um
costs operating costs.
>> Expenses, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, and just as if you could just
educate me a little bit because I see
where uh our standard residential
um
they're not covering their costs. Then
we go to the space heat.
Now, it used to be and I don't know what
they are now, but it used to be when
electric heat you had a separate meter
for electric heat. Are these people
electric or how do
how do we know they have electric heat
and are they paying a lesser rate
because they use more electricity or how
does that work?
>> Yeah, I
it it it is
a rate The the first
500 kilowatt hours is the same as the
base residential rate and then there's
the
small decrease in the value of the
for anything over 500 kilowatt hours. So
it is a single meter. It's not it's not
two meters and I don't know what you
what kind of verification you have for
that but but essentially if you
eliminate that rate then it's it becomes
>> So so why then though is a space heater
we're covering our costs even though
they might be paying slightly less
per kilowatt hour
>> than the residential. Why not Is it
because of the amount of all the other
expenses I notice are properly accounted
for?
>> It it has to do with
when
the the time the the times when the
electricity is being used.
Uh a typical
space heating customer uses a lot a lot
of its
a lot of its usage large percentage
usage is off-peak. It is
>> At night. This is the
>> At night. Yeah. And and then so it's not
that customer is not contributing nearly
as much to your transmission and
capacity peaks. Your capacity peak also
which is a
big piece is in the summer and the
electric heat customers are not
contributing anything more than a
regular residential customer during that
summer peak. So it actually costs you
less to serve
an electric heat customer.
>> Okay. So when you figured out this
percentage you're not just looking at
what they use and what the rate you're
making these other adjustments.
>> Yeah. We look at we look at
fair amount of detail as to what the
what the shape of a
electric heat and the customer load is
compared to a base residential customer.
>> So do you know do do we know who has
electric heat or not?
>> Mhm.
>> How do we know that?
>> When they sign up for the account, they
check off what they
if they have electric heat or if they're
oil heat, they'll be a state regular
residential.
>> Okay, then they got the same rate but
they check it off and that's how we
know.
>> So, those are the people who who check
that off get a discount after so many
kilowatts or something.
>> It's within the blocks, yeah. The more
you use, the less it gets.
>> But you have to have a definite have to
get So, so my my question was the
electric car charging which I know
nothing about, but they they don't get
the discounts cuz they don't have the
electric
>> We don't We don't have a category for
>> They just So, they just pay the the the
>> And that's perhaps in the future.
>> Well, I would imagine so.
>> Well, it it's an incentive base for if
you have electric baseboard heat
you have to see a lesser rate. Yeah, I
got electric heat cuz
I'm going to use a lot more power and we
know
monthly who's got electric heat and
who's not. And we know
>> Yeah, that's very Yeah. Okay.
>> Yeah, you can really you can forecast it
just just by heating your cooling your
residence
>> Right. Okay. Okay. Good. Thanks.
>> And the model
that it he came up with is
pretty cumbersome and pretty detailed,
so it's pretty awesome.
Thanks.
>> Cumbersome, I like that. It about is.
There's a lot a lot of input there.
>> But with simplicity sometimes it's best
cuz we do need our constituents We have
to understand it. Right. So, they you
>> Well, we're not looking to ship to like
a big electric company, you know, that
can't read the bill.
You know,
less is
>> Yeah, and and and that's really they
aren't doing it. It's just taking taking
all that data and every time every time
you do this there's more data available
to you and and making it understandable
to to the customers and to you.
>> It makes
>> So, you know, Marsha and I are working
on the electric budget. I mean, get with
Craig and
So.
Yeah. Get them to massage that budget so
we know exactly what we're going to be
looking at for 2027 folks.
For the 2027 budget, then we can work
out the finer details of where we need
to go with
the rate. We pretty much know what we're
going to be paying for the substation.
It's just that moving target is the
budget. You know, that's going to be our
expenditures.
>> Well, this was a much needed exercise.
Thank you.
>> Yeah, it's not simple math.
>> No, but it really is. It's a project we
needed to do.
>> And
sometime, you know, maybe sometime I can
show you the reports that we get from uh
where we buy the power.
And the detail and by the hour, the peak
and off-peak and
it's
>> It's pretty consistent.
>> it's interesting. You know, once you get
it figured out what you're reading.
And uh you know,
people can really think about conserving
if you can lower your on-demand.
You know, but in some cases it's not
possible. You
businesses want to operate those hours.
>> More efficient with your appliances,
same thing with like water department.
You know, efficiency with
water and plumbing, you know.
>> Well, it it it relates to how we talk a
lot about uh price signals. The price
signal that you're sending to the
customer
uh because you want
uh you want customer to be able to
respond to to the price signal in an
appropriate way. You want them to to pay
more when the when the cost is high and
you want them you want them to uh
pay less when the when the cost is less.
And and a lot of what we've had to do in
the past is to just average everything
together. So, the
we don't have the customers not getting
any message that they should use less
electricity in the late afternoon on the
hottest day of the summer. There's no
They might hear an alert
on the radio, but
we're we're working on on technology
that will help get that information to
the customer or even better
to a computer that's running in the
customer the customer's
home that allows the customer to respond
to a price signal and use less when when
the cost is high.
As it is now, the the rates you're
charging is kind of a blunt instrument
electric rate that you're charging the
>> Do our Can our meters do any of this?
>> They could.
>> Oh, we can monitor the meter?
>> I mean, the the the meter
like if if people use electricity in the
evening and it it's it's sent through
the meters, can we tell when they're
using more electricity?
>> If If we bought that one time when we
bought the meters, we didn't buy that
plan.
>> Oh, we can add it?
>> We bought that plan with Eaton. You
could monitor your peak usage and start
your dishwasher at at 1:00 at night and
you'd be able to see it, but we didn't
buy that. But they our meters do have
that capability.
>> That that's that's the customer
interface monitor.
>> interface.
>> So, it
>> We didn't buy it. That's possible.
>> But it could be added. I mean, for a
cost, obviously. You give it to
>> We don't know if
>> We didn't know if we had the money to do
it. And
and then you
Like he said, you teach [clears throat]
people how to
>> um not run their appliances at 6:00 at
night right after they clean up.
>> Then the town would be better on power.
If you all if we all used our power and
all the
>> Oh, more for sure.
>> Cuz you see the report that runs through
this, but the peak power load is like
from what, 6:00 oh, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00
p.m. and it drops.
And if they could get our power of air
and buy it there, then that's better for
us.
But people don't know because you'd be
able to walk in and see where your power
was if we bought that trailer.
>> And we're not offering that.
>> We don't We don't buy that external.
>> External.
>> And that that that technology is is
really expensive and uh and and it's
it's about a lot of
>> Let me stop you there.
>> It's kind of like you're drinking out of
a fire hose.
>> [laughter]
>> Huge amount of data there. You're going
to be able to do something with it.
>> Uh yeah, you got to simplify it.
>> You have the data. I I mean I I I I had
access to it and and you know, the
individual each individual customer
their their usage every hour for a whole
for a whole year. The massive amount of
data. But there's really nothing you can
do with it other than other than say,
"Okay, this is how you're This is This
is what you're costing us because of the
way
uh the way your load is shaped."
>> But generally speaking,
the more power you can use
incur me if I'm wrong on this
after 10:00
as opposed to doing it earlier than
that, the better off we are.
>> Yeah, absolutely. And you know, pretty
much anytime outside of that you
mentioned that period, basically, you
know, 5:00 between 5:00 and 9:00 is is
is really the Yeah. The the window and
and it's really only like four or five
days a month that
uh served, but you know, how do you get
that information
in a in a form that customers can
actually use to take action? It's It's
that's that's where the problem is.
>> Frank, you had a question?
>> Yeah, I I really looked at the you know,
the budget committee looked at our
usages as a town was staying somewhat
flat. It wasn't going up that much.
And uh
we have this older Vermont Power
contract that we're talking about and
micro services
is what we're charged as a town for
extra cost. Do we get charged if we have
4 more years
to do?
And And is there a way we could look at
maybe
uh different couple different scenarios
of rate structure of the
that it's renewable, so we're not paying
this year we have had it. So, there's
your cost just because of the power that
was coming that was
the the electric budget there.
Uh uh
Well, that's That's my thought.
>> Excuse me, yeah.
>> So, you can get
you can get some of them now and then 2
years from now we're
we're ready for it.
We're all set.
>> Yeah, I think we're pretty much locked
in at that rate. The The risk we have is
we're acquiring more, there's penalty.
You pay You pay more if we go over the
anticipated monthly purchases.
>> Is this more charges?
>> Um so, spurring conservation will keep
us in line.
Unfortunately, the way I look at it, I'm
not an engineer or anything, but the
more efficient we get, it means less we
consume.
And the clause in the contract is you're
they're expected to sell you X amount of
megawatts a month.
If you go [snorts] under that, they'll
put it back out into the grid to get
bought up by someone else.
My thought is is there's such a shortage
of energy now where we're not at risk of
penalties for having to give back for
conservation.
We're at risk of not conserving and
going over the projected allotment, and
then we pay the penalties and the extra
wheeling fees. So,
I think we just
need to get more efficient with what we
do. I think we need to really truly need
this rate structure.
And for them to do PLM to do us this
deep dive M
getting into the weeds
because doing simple math and then
throwing out this is what we need to
charge you,
I think history's shown that that
doesn't work so well.
Um the last rating freeze covered the
cost of the power,
but it did not fix the subsidies that
you've been dealing with
the inadequacies of the rate structure.
You know, the different
You know, you you kind of want to get to
a a goose egg or as close as you can
within 3 to 5%.
Um
this loss on the residential,
but then you absorb everything through
the other classes and try to spread it
out so no
one is hit getting hit harder than the
other cuz we're trying to attract more
business.
We don't want to make the energy cost
unaffordable.
So, we've got to got to walk that
balance being being there and try to
spread it out. And that's what these
folks are going to help us with.
>> And and I know we talked about this and
a number of people have asked this I've
seen this is
our rates as they are now are
correctly significantly less than our
>> You want me to read off the research I
did today?
>> Sure
maybe a couple key points.
>> So, as of today um and I had
Mr. Felton
call me up and he said, "So, what's
everybody else getting these days? You
know, what's everybody else charging?"
I looked at EverSource and currently
for Now, this is based on 500 kW,
um EverSource with all of taxes and fees
we're looking at 150 a month.
Um the Inter-County Co-op and I'm a
co-op customer where I live.
I didn't realize it went up in February.
My wife pays the bill, but um
So, in February, they did a costing
freeze, and so a 500 kW bill
is $139.27,
and then they just did another increase
August 1st.
And this is all on their website, so I'm
not, you know, doing anything but simple
math here. It's what they published.
Um they just went up to $152.57
on the same 500 kW.
As of today, I had uh the utility office
plug in a residential rate
at 500 kW, and all-in it would be $114.
35 cents.
>> You're you're you're well well within
that.
>> Great.
And and you know, one concern obviously
you're losing you're losing
money on those residential customers,
and and they're
much more competitive than they were.
>> And I think the old mansion and
businesses, you can't make that up
with the if you're losing on on every
kilowatt, you can't make that up in
volume. You can't even increase sales
expect to expect to make it back.
>> I guess the point is
if we're that much less now,
we don't need to close that gap. We're
still going to be in good shape compared
other utilities.
>> All all the examples that we've gone so
far show that these rates have remained
very competitive.
with all in all in all the rate
brackets.
>> And in I think in some of the cases,
we're still $30 cheaper
with what the other utilities, Unitil,
Eversource, everybody's forecasting for
increases, we're
still competitive. Um
You know, Morris and I are working, like
I said, still working on the budget cuz
that's kind of you need to have a good
idea of what your budget's going be for
27.
Then we get a factor that into the model
and then come up with
you know, thinking probably a two-step,
a two-tier not all out of the gate once.
Maybe do one and then 6 months later or
whatever, we'll do the second phase of
it. I We're not in a place where we can
put those numbers out there yet cuz
we're still working through things. But
I thought it was very important for the
which more people hear about. I think a
lot of people probably watch the videos
later.
It's very important to get educated on
how this all works and the amount of
math
and all these different charts and peaks
and off-peaks and
wheeling fees. It's not
We're paying $29 or whatever it is, $72
a megawatt then you need to divide by
1,000 and here's your cost and I've got
to allocate it to 2,000 customers.
There's a lot more that goes into this.
And we pay, you know, peak fees and
everything else, too. So.
>> And then we have a lot of people who
live on pretty tight budgets. Yeah. And
so
we really would have to I would like to
say that we have a
information campaign to get it out so
people are expecting it so they're not
Oh my god, not expecting
>> they get a plan for it. Yeah.
>> Yeah, plan for it and because it's hard.
There's I mean
and and if you brought it against the
solar residential up to where they
probably should be then they're going to
be going up on rating percentage maybe,
I don't know, but it Everything's gone
up.
But you know, so it it just it just it
just makes it hard. We have to do it,
but
>> That's
>> Try to
>> And people still need to realize it's an
enterprise fund. It's a business. It's
not part of municipality
where we're using tax dollars and all
this stuff.
It's a standalone and it's going to stay
violent.
>> Yes, it
>> We've got to have We've got to keep
money in the bank cuz when that power
purchase comes through, we just got one
the other day for $135,000.
And then we've got
all $6,000 of wheeling fees.
That's You got to make sure you've got
it all covered.
>> I'm just just thinking of how we can
avoid surprising people you know you
You have some people who are going to
mistake completely what's going on, but
whatever we can do. So
>> No, we're going to do it gently. We're
going to Yeah.
>> So they can plan.
>> You just can't do it.
>> What you're allowed to distribute.
>> That's why we scheduled this hearing to
give the presentation and hopefully
people will watch the video and
>> People do.
>> And come come all come see me.
>> They don't.
>> And the door's open.
And Frank Frank knows where it is.
And before we change the rates, we have
to have another public hearing.
>> Thank you.
>> You don't have any questions, Ian?
I'm not putting you on the spot or
nothing.
>> No.
>> Hey, can we have any more discussion on
the subject?
>> I think this is a good process
to give everybody today.
Okay.
Awesome.
>> Thank you, sir.
>> Thank you for hearing me.
>> Appreciate you making the trip up.
>> Oh, except for
>> the downfall
>> I don't think it's very nice of her.
>> We've had a one or two of those.
>> Just a couple.
>> Three? Can we put this online?
>> Yeah, put it on the the
>> I don't know what it is in California.
I'll put it on the website.
>> Yeah, make sure.
>> Yeah, put it under the electric part.
>> Um It just somewhere so that when they
go to the town website, they know how to
find it easily.
>> All right, but both prices are going to
>> Yeah, it won't hurt to do it in both.
Put it right at the very beginning.
>> I think it was worthwhile investment.
>> 100%
Much it was much needed.
Next item on the agenda is the town
manager's report.
>> I thought this is going to go longer so
I didn't
town manager's report but I don't know.
Fire department in July responded to 40
medical calls,
23 fire rescue and seven motor vehicle
accidents.
Um work is progressing with the new
asset management software.
Uh they just had another meeting today.
I think you're on that too, weren't you
Greg?
>> Yes, sir.
>> What's that?
>> Pretty easy.
>> Yeah, it's all for all departments.
>> All departments.
What's the Is there any kind of a
timeline?
>> End of the year.
>> End of the year, I think. Hopefully it
will. There's a lot of assets in public
Yeah.
And the electric department's going to
be pretty cumbersome with all their
stuff.
It's cumbersome and all that. Um
>> And that will include maintenance as
well?
>> So you're tagging all these things?
>> Yeah, actually Greg I think Greg's
looking forward to the maintenance part
of
>> No, it's going to be good. Everything's
paper and it's hard to find stuff but
they'll be able to find stuff a lot
easier.
>> And you can
>> It's going to be all going to be all
digital.
>> And you're going to have have these
history as we go forward and have the
history maintenance history and all that
stuff on things.
>> Yeah, I think we have Well, everything's
paper now but we could scan all these
papers and
>> No, no. I'm I'm talking about going
forward once once once it's implemented.
>> The old the old stuff will be archived.
>> When I fix something I can scan the
invoice right into the system.
>> Then I'll know what I did in
you know, 2026
for that specific vehicle or whatever it
is. It's just going to be good.
>> It'll be good.
>> And I believe the work's going to start
possibly next week on the substation.
>> Uh
>> Unless something changed that I'm not
aware of.
>> Well, I don't think they're going to
change it. I don't think they were
coming with that equipment for some
reason but
I didn't talk to them but we we're
supposed to
We got to cut some trees down.
>> And prepare a trench for that two
service.
>> Uh so they can run the pipe.
>> Yeah, so what's going to happen is um I
see reads going to do all the
groundwork, slabs and everything within
the bounds of the substation area. Then
Craig and his team are going to do all
the digging and trenching and
>> our crew will set the poles so the
circuits leaving the substation they go
underground to the transmission poles
>> up by the Collins stream.
>> Yeah, I'm not sure if you guys I met
with Eversource too about the property
lines and
as long as we pull it over 3 ft they're
okay with it
being right on the property line but
we'll be on our lot property. I walked
in with the Eversource guy and I said we
move it 3 ft towards our shop and the
building will be going to be done by
then. Yeah, he's going to cut down those
two old trees cuz they're
al- almost straight on the roof system
so Yeah, they're going to work on that
change on vacation the rest of the week.
No hurry and they'll
work a little bit at a time and we'll
get it out of the way. We'll get it out
of the way by then.
>> We'll start getting those trees down and
next week we can trench.
>> And what's the anticipated
timeline of when do you think it'll
actually be up and operational?
>> Uh all the prep work will be done
what? By
October?
>> Yeah, and then they got to wait for the
rest of the
>> Wait for it to come in which is probably
after Thanksgiving, probably.
>> Yeah. I mean you stop all winter.
Is there any time on the equipment
switch gear or like weeks?
>> Yeah, well, they shortened it up cuz
they sent a bunch of documentation about
the need and everything and the
emergency.
>> So, that the factory is speeding up the
lead time.
So, everything's going to be prepped for
two
slab on grade, the platforms, that
everything's going to be done. They're
just going to When the equipment shows
up, they'll put it in place, hook it up,
and then they're going to cut it over.
And they said there's going to be no
interruption.
So, they're going to have both switch
gears live.
And then they're just going to
discontinue the old switch gear and
everybody's going to be carried on the
new one.
And then we'll eventually get the old
switch gear out of that building.
We're going to repurpose that, put a
garage door in, and that'll be dry
storage for wire or whatever.
>> You know, and
uh better protect the spare parts and
transformers and all that stuff.
>> And then once that's up and operational,
sometime after that we could technically
do net metering.
>> Yeah. Yeah, well, you got to work it out
with Eversource.
>> That kind of plays into what you was
talking about, you know, if once we have
that circuit available,
then we can start allowing the solar to
be installed,
a lot of your
problems are the on-peak.
Well, when do you generate solar energy?
>> On-peak.
>> Obviously, you don't pay market rate for
solar energy. It'll be a lesser rate.
Anybody that has solar knows that you
don't get market rate.
But if we're able to
utilize a lot of solar in the town
during the daytime to offset our peak
our peaks in the in the uh
our spikes in the demand rate,
>> that could benefit actual electric
because we're not being So, how it works
is they take they take your usage during
that hour and the peak
your peak demand and that's the
multiplier.
So, if you can lower your peak demand by
substituting
>> other internal
>> other
power internally
>> Yeah. It lowers
>> It kind of lowers the multiplier for
your overall power purchase.
It's not that simple, but you know,
in layman's terms, if you generate when
you generate solar is during the
daylight hours. That's during the peak
demand and while you peak demand is
during the daylight hours
the more solar we have in town in the
future, hopefully
the less it's going to cost us for the
redistribution of power that we bring in
from an outside source.
out of state
>> So, that's a
kind of a good objective
naturally.
And now, you know, with the two switch
gears and having that extra circuit to
be able to wheel power
is huge, especially if these hydros get
up and going and they're going to
generate 24/7. So, in the off demand,
they they're going to need a place for
that power to go.
>> And if we can
>> There's a lot of moving parts to it.
>> Yeah, but some good direction.
>> Yeah, it's
This This is good.
Hopefully, we can get that done in a
year or so.
>> Very good.
That's good.
>> That's pretty much
All right, good.
How we Funny how we morphed out of our
power again, right?
>> So, do we have any old business tonight?
>> I don't know what I put in.
>> Any selectman's items?
>> Hey, I have one.
we need to come up with rules and
procedure.
with the AARA
>> They have suggested that we meet two on
two come up with the rules of procedure.
And then on the 10th we're going to have
the meeting
and we'll all we'll sit there, we'll
approve the rules of procedure and then
we'll proceed through how we're going to
do things. How we
perceive things are going to happen.
So we need um sometime between now and
then we need a couple of people to meet
with
I believe it's Craig and KB
[clears throat] that are going to
represent the AARA.
>> I'd like to do that.
>> Okay. Um
Anybody else want to volunteer?
>> I'll volunteer.
>> Okay. The two Steves will meet with them
and Ron will also be meeting with you.
>> When is that again? And what time?
We'll have to work out a a time with
>> we want to have that all done before the
10th meeting on the 10th.
>> Yeah. But it shouldn't take a long time.
I mean it's
>> No, as long as
>> There's a lot of moving parts but it's
fairly simple. I mean you just got to
get from point A to point C.
>> Yep. As long as we know the guidelines
of what we
>> Exactly.
>> All right.
So
do we have anything else?
Do we have any public comment?
>> Did you Did you guys make a decision on
paving it out?
>> Uh we still need to talk to legal.
>> Oh, paving?
>> Oh, well I assuming
assuming that road you're discussing but
other than that you just want to We've
got to table it till again from actually
>> Yeah, we're going to table it until
we've got
till we've got through with legal.
Right?
>> Are you aware of any update on the
proposal for the law Mr. Lash on
general court
of appeals?
>> Uh no, last time I spoke with him uh
state of New Hampshire, the legislature
had put a moratorium on issuing new
charitable gaming licenses.
He is trying to work with some other um
entities and I
um but that's that's the latest. I mean,
it's kind of stalled right now.
Obviously, you don't want to spend a lot
of money until you're sure you're going
to get a license.
>> You know.
>> I was going to talk with you too that
that moratorium on congregation but
>> Yeah. And
yeah.
But I think there's there's a new one
going up in Littleton. They had gotten
their license prior to that moratorium.
Um there's another one I think there's
another one that may not open again so
that license
I think prior to that moratorium is
they're not going to
move any established licenses from one
location to another. I think Mr. Lash
might be trying to um
work on that, you know, and see if
he can overcome that hurdle cuz it's
kind of silly to have an issued license
so it's not being exercised.
And then obviously his plan was but
I think his plan was
look pretty good. I mean, he's got a
facility there that could support it so
but we'll see. But you know, it's kind
of in his court, you know. I'd volunteer
out if there was anything
>> I can help him with something.
>> Help him with or whatever.
I haven't heard anything. So
>> Anything else?
>> Can we have a non-public tonight, sir?
>> I've got more of them here.
>> Can we do a non-public cuz I kind
like to know what the legal about the
road is. This is the first I'm hearing
of it,
and if that's
>> Um let's see. Cuz
we don't have to be in non-public for
>> I just thought if it had something to do
with legal, it had to be non-public.
They're going to be going to be legal
here.
>> We just we just need to dot our eyes and
cross our tees on
We've got a public
We've been plowing the road we probably
shouldn't.
Figure out how we're going to stop doing
it.
I know what you mean now.
>> Anything else, folks?
I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
>> I motion.
>> I'll second
Have a motion and a second.
Any further discussion?
Have a good night.