In attendance: Laura Ryder; acting chair, Kathleen Bigford, Jenny Locke-Howley, Susan Moss, Marlene Freyler, Rett Weber
- Review and approval of February Minutes
- Community Power Update: Town voted overwhelmingly to join the CPC at Town Meeting on March 13. The PUC has approved our aggregation plan. Our town counsel is reviewing the agreement now, and the Select Board is set to sign it on Monday March 25th. This puts us in line to launch the program in June. Ahead of the launch, the CPC will send out a mailing in May to every resident/Eversource customer and a public info session will be held.
A few additional pieces of info about the CPC: The CPC will have member meetings that are virtual that we can attend. The reserves: The CPC has 120 days of funds in reserve and will keep building until they have 180 days. This allows them to cushion any sudden rate changes. CPC is now the 2nd most populous supplier in the state after Eversource. The CPC also offers customers the option of individually choosing higher levels of cleanly produced energy, all the way up to 100%.
Question raised about Eversource’s progress to upgrade the grid to handle the distribution of solar generated power. This is needed for solar array projects in our locale to proceed. We do not know the answer.
- Town Hall Renovation Project – See Bradford Bridge for updates.
- Municipal Weatherization Status
- Fire Station Update. Shakes to Shingles has subcontracted the weatherstripping around one garage door. Still waiting on the garage door contractor to perform the work. Rebate from NH Saves of $11,871.50 has been received.
- Solar Energy – No updates.
- Heat Pumps – Just Passed at town meeting: three heat pumps for the fire dept to allow for heating and cooling of the specific areas in use. Coupled with recent weatherization, this should result in great savings on energy use.
- Kearsarge Climate Action – Met on February 21, 2024.
- Question of continuing to work on KCA outreach/publicity goals and to determine the future of KCA given lack of participation of the members. Some members expressed an interest in continuing the group and discussed areas that they might like to work on. Sandra stated that she would not be participating in future meetings due to other commitments.
- Business Generated Food Waste – no new information.
- Window Dressers – no new information.
- New Hampshire Network Update https://www.newhampshirenetwork.org/
Laura went to first meeting for town energy groups. Categories of concern: Energy efficiency, grid resilience, green energy production, energy justice, energy independence. The purpose of the group is to collaborate and share information. We can all contribute to their efforts by signing up for their news alerts. The NHN also encourages local Energy Committees to present letters to their Select Boards for signed support for legislative action on energy matters.
- Legislative Updates
- A good place to stay on top of NH legislative updates is through the https://www.newhampshirenetwork.org/NH-bills
- There has been a lot of activity. Sign up to get email alerts on legislative action.
- BEC Public Outreach
- The March issue of the Bradford Bridge contained an article entitled “What is Bradford Community Power and Article 6” which requested approval of the voters to adopt the Bradford Community Power Aggregation Plan.
- Proposed articles for April Bridge? Article on passing Bradford’s energy plan with CPC Show the new logo. Jenny will write.
- May Bridge? Hopefully announce the info session for CPC.
- Conclude: Next meeting will take place on April 16 at 5 – 6pm at the BACC.