The Board meets on the first and third Monday of each month. Meetings begin at 1:00 p.m. and are held in the department conference room at 65 Lafayette Ave, Littleton. Board meetings are open to the public and time is allotted for public comments at each meeting.
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The regularly scheduled business meeting of the Littleton Water and Light (LWL) Board of Commissioners (BOC) began at 1:00 p.m. on Monday,
March 15, 2021 in the LWL conference room. Present were Commissioner Schuyler Sweet, Commissioner Ralph Ross, and Superintendent Thomas Considine.
MINUTES REVIEW:
The minutes of the March 1, 2021 regularly scheduled Commissioner’s meeting were reviewed. Commissioner Ross made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, seconded by Commissioner Sweet.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-0
CUSTOMER & PUBLIC CONCERNS:
Bruce Hadlock was in attendance and had a general discussion with the BOC about the following topics. 1) Town of Littleton/DRA lawsuit against LWL, he stated that this matter is being handled incorrectly by both parties and that incurring legal fees for both the town and LWL is ridiculous. 2) He then asked if LWL had cyber-insurance coverage in the event of an on-line security breach. Mr. Considine explained that LWL billing system are the most exposed. Several fire walls are in place that customers can only access a copy of their data. LWLs cyber security system is probed annually in compliance with PCI business standards by a third party working for our billing software vender. The electric equipment system is manually controlled and not interconnected to any network. The water system is more automated only regarding alarm alerts and notifications. Some of the equipment can be manipulated via the web IP interface although a potential hacker/sabotage would only be able to cause minimal damage to critical process such as water quality as they are not fully automated.
SUPERINTENDENT/ GENERAL MANAGERS REPORT:
1. We expect that the wholesale power supply expenses for February’s will come in over budget. This is primarily due to the cold weather over the weekend hours during the month. This colder than normal weather drove the spot market over the $60/ Mwh carried in the 2021 budget. LWL hedge contract did not cover the actual load incurred which was also higher during this period.
2. No trouble calls (electric outages) were reported over this past weekend though the wind gusted heavily throughout the day on Sunday. This can be mostly attributed to the effectiveness of LWL aggressive tree trimming and clearing programs on both the distribution and transmission overhead circuits that have improved system reliability.
GENERAL/OTHER BUSINESS:
1. A power point presentation was provided to the BOC that reviewed the updated Water Emergency Response Plan (ERP). Every five (5) years the NHDES requires LWL to review its emergency preparedness and response to protect the integrity of the water systems and insure safe drinking water. When approved by the BOC the plan will be signed and submitted to the DES. Following the presentation Commissioner Ross made a motion to accept the 2021 ERP as presented, seconded by Commissioner Sweet.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-0.
2. Mr. Considine asked Mrs. Kenney (office manager) to attend this portion of the meeting as the discussion switched to how LWL has historically classified its electric rate customers. There has been some discussion recently as to why and how LWL classifies it’s commercial customers and what metric is used. Historically customers are classified by how they plan to utilize a certain space and not by volume or quantity of use.
The LWL residential (R-1) rate “is available to customers for residential lighting and appliance service in private dwellings, individual residences, single family homes, and apartments. All energy shall be measured through a single meter/account in the owner/ renter’s name”.
Generally any space that is used for a commercial purpose and the account remains in the owner’s name even though the load and energy consumption are generated by residential use is classified as a commercial account. It is expected that the commercial property owners’ will be able to recoup these expenses and may potentially pass them on to the tenant/ renter as it is unlikely the owner is not benefitting/profiting in some way by the renting of their property.
Following some additional discussion, the BOC agreed with the approach and discernment criterion utilized by LWL staff to establish the user rate classification of its customers.
MEETING ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business to come before the board Commissioner Ross made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Sweet.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-0.
Meeting adjourned at 2:10 p.m.
The regularly scheduled Commissioner’s meeting is held twice monthly on the first and third Monday, at 1:00 p.m., in the Department’s conference room.