Updates from the Plymouth Energy Commission
After overwhelming town support at the 2023 Town Meeting, the Plymouth Energy Commission (PEC) has been busy moving the proposed solar array project forward. It has been an interesting and eye-opening endeavor. Here are some highlights:
Our first task was to secure the Community Development Finance Authority 3% loan and then to sign a contract with Barrington Power (BP) who will install the array. Completion of these two tasks was imperative before moving on to the actual planning at the proposed Quincy Road location. It did take a bit of time to jump through these hoops and some attorney back and forth but we did secure the loan and signed the contract with BP.
By late July, we moved on with setting up a process with the NH Electrical Cooperative’s Construction Department to initiate an interconnect study. This study is completed through the NHEC and will reveal how much power the array can add to the grid at the Quincy Road location. Unfortunately, the work to get the NHEC necessary paperwork took quite a bit of back and forth: most of July, all of August and the first week of September zoomed by before this work was completed. The Town Manager and Finance Director were incredibly responsive, helpful and patient with the process and we finally entered the interconnect study process around September 9th. Now comes the wait period.
While tackling these solar array tasks, we teamed with the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative and a few other neighboring municipalities to explore engaging in a joint effort to pursue a grant through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Competitive Block Grant Program. We had the support of the Plymouth Selectboard but unfortunately, it was difficult to find a municipality that could act as fiscal agent for this grant. For this reason, we were unable to move forward as a team towards this Grant.
More recently, the PEC engaged in a facilitated strategic planning process which will continue through 2023. This process is to identify measurable PEC goals that are in alignment with the Purpose Statement in our By Law’s and to develop initiatives in keeping with the identified goals.
Although we have a great PEC team, we are always looking to expand our membership so be sure to get in touch if you want to join us!