PO Box 167, 119 Park Avenue, Lyndonville 05851
TRUSTEE BOARD MEETING
MEETING MINUTES: 07/17/17
Attendance: Sue Mills, Doug Conly, Heather Bollman, Chris Hunter, Clay Bailey and Bill Humphrey.
- Meeting called to order at 6:03pm
- Approval of Meeting Agenda: The agenda was altered to accommodate the late arrival of Chris. Motion to approve agenda was made by Sue, second by Heather, passed 3-0.
- Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: Motion for approval of prior meeting minutes of 06/19/17 with corrections was made by Chris, second by Heather, approved 3-0, Doug abstained
- Dam Safety and Surveillance Monitoring Plan (DSSMP): Bill explained to the Board that as a result of the recent dam failure at Oroville, California, FERC is requiring all dams, regardless of hazard category to annually sub their DSSMP. In the past LED has not been required to do so as its dams are categorized as low hazard. FERC sternly explained that ALL dams are required to do so. Bill informed the Board that he received a letter last week from FERC stating that our DSSMP for both hydro stations passed muster and were accepted by FERC.
- Great Falls Roof Update: Palmieri has completed the installation of the new roof at Great Falls Hydro Station. Final cost was $600 over estimated cost, a 1.3% variance, due to additional work required on the roof deck that was out of the scope of the estimate.
- Web Site Update: Web site is up and going. Statistics will be looked at in a couple of weeks to evaluate traffic. Next step is to tie the Outage Manage software into the site to display outage information and possible collect outage data from customers.
- Question Session with Clay Bailey: Clay informed the board that he had been in contact with Michael Goldberg at Burke Mountain and payment for money owed we be received by the end of August. A discussion ensued regarding Net Metering, Bill explain that all utilities in VT are feeling the pain of Net Metering and that it is slowly eroding the financial health of utilities and something will have to change at the state level. The Public Service Commission (PSC) has realized that and has altered the rule governing Net Metering in 2017. Clay was questioned about the energy market and its volatility; Clay answered that the nature of the market is volatile however, presently and for the foreseeable future purchase power cost should remain low, “but” Clay added, “it’s not a given that is will stay that way.” Clay stated the Department is in good shape in regards to the budget and the drop in sales experienced in April has reversed.
- NE Hydros PSA: Bill and Clay explained to the Board, that in their opinion, entering into the Power Sales Agreements offered by VPPS for KEI (Maine) Power Management I & II and Blackstone Hydro, Inc projects. As explained: the pros for entering into the agreements would reduce LED’s exposure to a volatile energy market being that the term of each contact is for 20 years; the contracts are shaped in such a manner that more power will be delivered in the winter, benefitting LED as the Department is a winter peaking utility; in the year 2022 LED will have 105% of its energy needs purchased, which is the target percentage; beginning in 2023 LED is predicted not to have enough energy purchased to meet its energy need however, these contacts will fill a portion of that need. The cons are: the contracts are for the delivery of energy and capacity only and no Renewable Energy Attributes (REC) are included; until the year 2022 LED will be a bit heavy on the purchase of energy resources than is forecasted. The motion to “Direct the General Manager to sign the KEI (Maine) Power Management I & II and Blackstone Hydro, Inc, Power Purchase Agreements offered by VPPSA” was made by Sue, second by Chris. The motion passed 4-0.
- Adjournment: by consensus at 6:32pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bill Humphrey
General Manager