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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLight Comm. 04/29/2020Mansfield Municipal Electric Department Minutes of Light Commissioners Meeting C April 29, 2020 Present: Chair Neil Rhein, Vice Chair Frank Delvecchio, Clerk Steve Schoonveld, Commissioner Michael Trowbridge, Commissioner Jess Aptowitz, Light Department Manager Joseph Sollecito, MMED Accountant Joseph Pereira, Mayhew Seavey of PLM and Resident Greg Penesis The meeting was held remotely due to the pandemic and called to order at 6:00 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Chair Rhein stated that it was not necessary to reread the provision about the Governor's orders as it was already read at the Select Board meeting which was held prior to the Light Commissioners meeting. The following was read at the Select Board meeting: Whereas both the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have advised residents to take extra measures to put distance between themselves and other people to further reduce the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, Governor Baker has issued an order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law, Massachusetts General Law C. 30A, §20. In order to satisfy the Open Meeting Law requirements, today's Town of Mansfield Select Board meeting will available to the public via GoToWebinar and Mansfield Cable. The instructions for joining via GoToWebinar are in the Meeting Notice on the Town's Website at www.mansfieldma.com and then clicking on today's date on the calendar. A complete copy of the Board packet containing all documents that are referenced in the minutes is on file at the Mansfield Municipal Electric Department office. Citizens Comments- none Motion: To approve the minutes from the January 22, 2020 Light Commissioners meeting (Schoonveld/Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye Net Income offsets — Manager Sollecito stated that the memo given to the Board regarding net income offsets is in answer to a question that came up at a previous meeting. The memo was written by MMED Accountant Joe Pereira. Joe Pereira explained that MMED's lower net income is due to the write-off of the over/under generation charge receivable. Power Supply Budget (FY21) — Mayhew Seavey of PLM presented the FY21 power supply budget to the Board. He said that MMED is budgeting a reduction of $1,000,000 from the FY20 budget. ISO New England is decreasing the forward capacity price from $7 to $5.30 in June 2020. Energy costs are 3% lower than last year's budget and transmission costs are decreasing 6% from the FY20 budget. He said that the total energy load is forecasted to be 210 million kWh of sales. He explained that fluctuations in the energy load are due to both the weather and large customers coming and going in Mansfield. In regards to energy prices, Mr. Seavey told the Board that two new contracts have been added, EDF and Macquarie. He also said that the average price of energy is up $25.47 MWh. In regards to capacity prices, MMED should be looking at forward capacity prices continuing to fall. Mr. Seavey said that MMED's distributive generator will reduce capacity costs by $230 thousand. He also noted that transmission rates will increase by 5% in June. Clerk Schoonveld commented that MMED is heavily dependent on Millstone and Seabrook and wondered if they should be concerned about that. Mr. Seavey thinks there is a lot of incentive to keep these generators running and thinks MMED is good for at least the next ten years. He did advise to continue to look at more cost effective options. Both Vice Chair Delvecchio and Commissioner Trowbridge had questions about the licensing for Millstone and Seabrook. Manager Sollecito noted that Seabrook was recently approved until 2050 and Mr. Seavey answered that Millstone initiated a 40 year extension which was being negotiated but he is not certain how that was left. MMED Proposed Rates (FY21) — Mayhew Seavey also presented MMED's proposed rates for FY21. He explained that MMED needs to recover all costs of owning, operating and maintaining the electric system. He said that MMED also wants to reduce the over -collection of purchased power costs by decreasing purchased power charges in the rates. The projection with the existing rates shows that purchased power costs would be over collected by $3.4 million. Mr. Seavey said that the distribution rates will be left unchanged. He also said that they are revising the current revenue credits by keeping a 0.4 cent credit for residential customers as the NYPA hydropower credit. Commissioner Aptowitz stated that MMED now has the Yd best rates in the state and wondered where they would be if the Board goes with these proposed rates. He noted that MMED's rates are a real asset and need to be protected. Mr. Seavey said that other utilities are also looking at the same things so MMED would probably end up in the same position. Clerk Schoonveld wondered if MMED should not lower the rates so much because of the loss they will have for the beginning of this year. He commented that you don't want to lower them then have to raise them. Manager Sollecito answered that they did consider that but they have money to give back to the customers anyway. He said they just don't know what the impact of the pandemic will be yet. Mr. Seavey commented that this is a conservative approach. Commissioner Trowbridge said that in these times they need to help the ratepayers and MMED does have reserves to fall back on. Motion: To approve the proposed rates for MMED for FY21 (Aptowitz/Schoonveld) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye MMED Proposed Operating Budget (FY21) — MMED Accountant Joe Pereira presented MMED's proposed operating budget for FY21. He noted that it was very helpful that the Board had just approved the new rates. He stated that $1.2 million is the proposed budget 2 amount for FY21 with a $465,000 increase to surplus and a 1.96% rate of return. He pointed out that 88.7% of MMED's customers are residential while only 38.2% of the revenue comes from them. Accountant Pereira said that power and transmission costs make up 70% of the budget. While 18% are related to non- power related expenses, 12% of that are employee related benefits such as salary and benefits. Overall labor costs are increasing by 9.7% due to contractual items and non -labor costs are increasing by 3.6%. Accountant Pereira also told the Board that MMED budgeted approximately $699,000 for the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes). Vice Chair Delvecchio thanked Accountant Pereira for the presentation. Commissioner Aptowitz commented that they have to discuss an issue with salaries in executive session and said he would leave it at that. Chair Rhein commented that a 9.7% increase in labor costs is rather large. He said that MMED is in good shape but it is still a big increase. MMED Proposed Capital Budget (FY21) — Manager Sollecito presented the capital budget. He stated that MMED's goals are to keep the system reliable and to keep rates affordable. He explained that there are projects remaining from FY20 such as the AMR project, the office vehicle and the pole yard storage building that need to be completed. He then reviewed those for FY21 such as transformer projects and a switch installation project. He told the Board that putting in more switches enables MMED to isolate things better making the system more reliable. Manager Sollecito spoke about the possibility of an electronic message board for the town. He also said that the following vehicles are being replaced, a bucket truck; line supervisor's truck and a car used by the linemen. Commissioner Aptowitz questioned the maintenance of the poles. Manager Sollecito explained that MMED owns the poles jointly with Verizon but MMED maintains half of them while Verizon maintains the other half. Chair Rhein asked if the Board had voted on the pole yard storage building. Manager Sollecito said they had not because the Board wanted more detail. He said he had a meeting scheduled with the designer for the following day. Chair Rhein questioned what happens to the truck MMED is replacing. Manager Sollecito said that it will most likely be brought to auction. Chair Rhein also asked about the office renovations in the budget as he thought MMED was a tenant. Manager Sollecito clarified that MMED owns the units in a business condominium that they occupy. Motion: To approve the proposed MMED FY21 Operating and Capital Budgets (Trowbridge/Schoonveld) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye Old Colony Way Bike Path Project — Manager Sollecito said that MMED has been working with the Town on extending the bike path. He said that MMED's cost to move forward with this project is $67,739.61 for which most of the cost is for undergrounding and fixtures. Motion: To approve MMED's cost of $67,739.61 to extend the bike path for the Town (Trowbridge/Schoonveld) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye Municipal Parking Lot Revise Estimate — Manager Sollecito presented a revised estimate for the previously approved project at public parking on North Main Street. He explained there are now costs for going underground that were not included in the first estimate. Motion: To approve MMED's revised estimate of $59,227.17 for the Municipal Parking Lot project (Trowbridge/Delvecchio) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye MMWEC HELPS/Connected Homes — Manager Sollecito presented to the Board an initiative from MMWEC called Connected Homes. It is a program which will control resident's energy costs when they agree to turn over control of their devices such as their thermostat. It is similar to how MMED's distributive generator works. The customer would have an app on their phone and would receive notices letting them know the date and time of the peak. They would have a choice and could override the request if they wanted. If they chose to participate, they would have avoided energy costs as well as an incentive. Manager Sollecito hopes to get 10-20 customers to participate. He was requesting approval for participation in this program as well as signatures on the documents that he gave to the Board. Commissioner Trowbridge had concerns about controlling someone's thermostat. He said he was worried about the liability. Manager Sollecito said that the customer can control it with their app and will receive a $10 credit if they allow it to happen. They also agree to keep their thermostat at a reasonable setting. Chair Rhein questioned whether it was just the customer saving or if MMED saw a savings too. Manager Sollecito said there is a cost to MMED to participate in the program as MMED will pay for minimal MMWEC administrative costs and the incentives achieved by the control of customer devices. Manager Sollecito stated that this program is primarily a pilot development program to see if this concept can work on a large scale. Clerk Schoonveld questioned whether Manager Sollecito had read through all of the paperwork they were about to sign as he commented that there is a lot of it. Manager Sollecito said that he had and that these contracts are necessary for MMED to belong to MMWEC Helps program and for only incurring costs for the `Connected Homes' program.. 10 Motion: To authorize MMED's participation in MMWEC's Connected Homes program and to allow Manager Sollecito to sign the necessary documents (Schoonveld/Delvecchio) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye Comments from Commissioners — Vice Chair Delvecchio sent good wishes to the MMED staff, saying their work is appreciated. Commissioner Trowbridge commented how lucky they are compared to those who have National Grid and thanked everyone at MMED. Clerk Schoonveld said that the team at MMED has responded well which says a lot about their character. Commissioner Aptowitz said that during the last storm, MMED crew was great. Chair Rhein questioned how MMED gets information out to the customers. Manager Sollecito said that they put a message on the phone system and on the web page. Chair Rhein asked for green community certification and Manager Sollecito's annual review to be placed on a future agenda. At 8:01 PM a motion was made by Clerk Schoonveld to enter into executive session. Motion: To enter into Executive Session for the following reasons and to return to open session for vote to approve job descriptions: 1) Pursuant to M.G.L. Ch. 164, Section 47D and M.G.L. Ch. 30 A, Section 21, Exemption 3, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares. 2) To review and vote to approve minutes of January 22, 2020 Executive Session 3) Vote to return to open session (Schoonveld/ Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 Roll Call Vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye At 8:26 PM the Board returned to open session for the following vote: Motion: To approve the job descriptions of the Office Administrator and Business & Finance Manager per the appropriate salary schedule template with the Office Administrator FY20 salary at $67,040 and the Business & Finance Manager FY20 salary at $93,239 (Schoonveld/ Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 Roll Call Vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye 5 Motion: To adjourn at 8:29 PM (Trowbridge/Aptowitz) Passes 5/0 Roll call vote: Delvecchio-aye; Trowbridge -aye; Schoonveld-aye; Aptowitz-aye and Rhein -aye Respectfully submitted: Jacqueline Lee ignature of C erk 141&- Date of Approval C