WILTON — The Wilton Select Board considered an agreement for solar net energy billing at the Tuesday, June 7, meeting.
The town has been presented an agreement from ReVision Energy that would offer the town a 15.5% energy credit from a proposed solar farm.
Other towns and school districts have entered into similar contracts with ReVision. Regional School Units 9 and 73 have entered into 20-year “purchase power agreements with ReVision Energy’s solar farm on the Harold Souther property.”
ReVision’s offer to the Town of Wilton would be similar, a 20-year agreement for the town to receive a 15.5% credit off of the Maine Public Energy Commission’s standard-offer rate for Central Maine Power. That rate was set at $0.12 for kilowatts per hour for 2022.
Town Manager Rhonda Irish told the board she believes the agreement, credit program would begin at the end of the year.
The energy credits will come from a solar farm in Waldoboro if the Select Board approves the agreement before space in that farm’s program fills up, according to ReVision Energy Commercial Solar Consultant Tina Meserve.
Meserve said that the Town of Wilton would not need to put any money into the solar farm in order to receive the credits. She likened the program to purchasing a $100 gift card for $85.
She added that RSU 9 Superintendent Chris Elkington told her the district has “saved $44,000 in the first few months of this year because of the solar array.”
Meserve said the mission of the company, as well as the organizations that enter into these agreements, is to reduce the cost of electricity bills and “transition companies and organizations off of fossil fuels to possibly impact the environment, reduce our carbon footprint.”
During the Select Board’s meeting, concerns were raised about entering into a contract with a solar farm that has not yet been built.
“I think they’re worth doing, but you want to make sure if there’s a way out if the proposed solar farm doesn’t end up being built,” Select Board Chair David Leavitt said. “What history is showing is towns and other municipalities, schools and stuff, is that they sell this as the sales pitch at 15.5% percent but then they start building, now costs are going up so there needs to be some offsets.”
“As long as you have the ability when they ask for more, you say ‘no thank you’ and you walk away from the contract,” Leavitt said.
Selectperson Tom Saviello agreed, likening that concern to issues with Central Maine Power’s engineering of “initial connections” that has required the company to “come back to some of the projects that were proposed and increase the cost of those projects by millions of dollars.”
We need to make sure the town isn’t impacted by extra costs, that the farm is completed before we enter into the agreement, Saviello said.
The board agreed to have Wilton’s legal counsel look into whether terms in the contract allow the town to walk away from the project.
A motion was then raised by Saviello, passed unanimously for the Board to “sign [the contract] assuming that we do have good on/off ramps on the project.”
In other business
Irish announced that a cookout will be held at Academy Hill School prior to Wilton’s annual Town Meeting, to be held Monday, June 20, at 6 p.m.
The town is planning to serve food at 5 p.m., hot dogs will be served, Irish said.
The board also heard an update on reconstruction of the town’s water transmission line.
Irish informed the board that Dirigo Engineering has upped the cost of engineering fees by $272,000. This brings the cost of the engineering fees to $691,000.
The additional costs are due to project changes that will increase “the overall length of the pipeline,” according to an amendment document from Dirigo Engineering Project Manager Jim Lord.
The additions to the project include “a new intake in Varnum Pond, a new booster pump station at the water treatment plant to be automated, a new control valve station at Doak Street, and the finish water transmission main is now being relocated to mostly follow along roads to reduce wetland impacts and provide for better access,” according to the amendment document.
Dirigo Engineering was awarded a contract to oversee replacement of the pipelines for the town’s water transmission line in April 2021.
Lord told the board in March that since they first conducted cost estimates in 2021, material prices have significantly increased and availability to purchase them has decreased.
At the March meeting, Lord estimated the project to cost $9 million dollars. He believes it will increase to $9.7 million if the town does not go out to bid for the project for another year.
During the Tuesday meeting, Irish said she asked Lord if grants could be applied for to cover those costs.
The board chose not to act on the proposed amendment. They are opting to wait until Lord and Heinz Grossman, the town’s water and wastewater superintendent, can come before the board and explain the changing costs further.
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