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 Tuesday, November 22, 2022 in the LWL conference room. Present were Commissioner Peter Cooper, Commissioner Ralph Ross, Commissioner Linda MacNeil, Director of Finance Lori Hogan, Line Supervisor Justen Elliott, and Superintendent Thomas Considine.
MINUTES REVIEW:
The minutes of the November 7, 2022 regularly scheduled Commissioners meeting were reviewed. Commissioner Ross made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, seconded by Commissioner MacNeil.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0
CUSTOMER & PUBLIC CONCERNS:
1. For the past week LWL have been supporting the local community with hanging Christmas decoration around town. Today the Christmas lights are being strung on the tree in front of the public library. There have been many people that have stopped and have thanked LWL employees for their efforts.
2. Mr. Elliot stated that LWL has substantially completed the upgrading to the street light circuit at Parking Lot D as requested by the Town of Littleton (ToL). Over the past two (2) years LWL has been involved with the project and the scope of the project has changed several times driving up costs. Considering the LWL and ToL current relationship status about the “favors” being somewhat controversial he is not sure how to proceed with closing the project. He asked the BOC how they would like to proceed as LWL has incurred a total of $11,232 in expenses to support this project.
Mr. Considine stated that LWL favors, or community support were a point of discussion between LWL and the NH Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) . They claim (DRA) that the ToL selectmen were not aware, nor did they authorize any monetary value associated with the so called favors and would not recognize LWL efforts regarding these matters.
The BOC agreed that in-light of the previous discussions between all parties that LWL should invoice the ToL for the full cost of the project. If the selectmen request some financial forgiveness or an abatement, they could submit a written request to LWL for consideration. In this way the ToL selectmen would be made aware of costs incurred by LWL and any forgiveness granted.
DIRECTOR of FINANCE and HUMAN RESOURCES REPORT:
Mrs. Hogan advised the BOC that a new employee is starting on Monday, November 28th in the front office. As this is the end of the year and LWL policy dictated that employees can only roll forward 40 hours of vacation. Some employees have requested that their unused leave be paid out due to training and staffing issues around this time of year, this would be an exception to existing policy.
Following some discussion by the BOC it was decided not to grant an exception to policy though the employees would not be expected to lose their time off. They authorized that due to the extenuating circumstances regarding the training needs of a new employee any unused leave more than the normal 40 vacations hours could be rolled over. Those hours, more than the normal 40 hours, would not need to be utilized by the end of the 1st quarter.
SUPERINTENDENT/ GENERAL MANAGERS REPORT:
1. LWL employees have been hanging Christmas decoration throughout town in support of our community over the past few days. This week Christmas lights will be placed on the tree at the public library.
2. Requests for proposals were distributed to all LWL power supply counterparties to hedge energy resources between January and March 2023 (winter months) which typically are the most volatile. All but Emera Energy that bid $257.30/ MW chose not to participate in the transaction. The decision was made not to except the bid proposed as future market prices are not reflecting how the day ahead and real time markets are trending.
GENERAL/OTHER BUSINESS:
1. The BOC reviewed the revised term sheet (Memorandum of Understanding) between LWL and Green Street Power Partner to study the feasibility of signing a purchase power agreement (PPA). The proposed agreement, if approved would be for LWL to purchase all the energy output of a proposed 5 MW solar array at the old Town of Littleton (ToL) landfill.
Mr. Considine stated that without LWL’s involvement or at least open to the possibility of purchasing the power through a PPA and associated interconnection that the project would most likely not happen as they need a system interconnection. Any deal between Green Street and the ToL should not affect LWL ability to enter a favorable PPA unless the energy costs change significantly due to their arrangement with the ToL to lease the property.
Commissioner Ross asked about the infrastructure improvements needed along the Industrial Park Road circuit to accommodate the project. Mr. Considine stated that Green Street stated at a previous meeting that these costs should be eligible under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently passed in November 2021 by US Congress. LWL will calculate the cost to upgrade and extend the circuit towards Riverside Drive. Energy output from the array would be interconnected at distribution voltage of 12,470.
Following some discussions about the agreement being non-binding, and that Green Street needs to discuss the lease of the property directly with the ToL, Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to have Superintendent Considine execute the agreement so that a more detail analysis could begin. Seconded by Commissioner Ross.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0
2. The 2023 Operating and Maintenance (O&M) budget was presented to the BOC for both the water and electric divisions. A high-level review was conducted by Mrs. Logan and Mr. Considine. Once the BOC has had time to review a more detailed analysis is scheduled for the December 5, 2022 BOC meeting. As the electric market is still fluctuating due to price volatility LWL is still in the process of requesting quotes to hedge power supply resource for 2023, it is likely that the associated budget line items will change.
MEETING ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business to come before the board Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Ross.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0.
Meeting adjourned at 2:25 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.