In attendance: Sandra Bravo, Kathleen Bigford, Marlene Freyler, Susan Moss, Laura Ryder, Henry Herndon and Andrew Hatch, Consultants to Community Power Coalition of NH (CPCNH or Coalition).
July Minutes Approved
- Community Power
Presentation by Henry Herndon and Andrew Hatch regarding the process and opportunities for the Town of Bradford to join the CPCNH.
The CPCNH is a non-profit serving the State of New Hampshire. (www.CPCNH.org / www.CommunityPowerNH.gov
Currently, 39 cities and towns in NH have become members of the Coalition. Of these, 12 have completed the process of town and state approval of their plans and are buying their power from the Coalition. The other 27 towns are slated to launch in 2024 at which point the Coalition will be providing 25% of the electric supply for NH. The greater the number of towns being served, the greater the purchasing power of the Coalition becomes.
Each town chooses the supply default rate to offer their residents. Current rates offered by the Coalition are: 10.9 cents/kwh with 23.4% from renewable sources (the same percentage as the Eversource Standard Offer), or 11.3 cents /kwh for 33% from renewable sources (Standard Power offers a rate of 11.47 cents/kwh for their 33% renewable sources). Customers can also choose to use a higher level of renewable energy, all the way up to 100% at 15.2 cents/ kwh.
The Coalition also builds a reserve fund with their profits to guard against future price spikes and to develop more clean energy production in the state.
The Energy Committee believes that the Coalition is the best match for Bradford’s electrical supply needs and will ask the Select Board to initiate this application process at their meeting on August 28. There is no cost or obligation to submit a CPCNH Joint Powers Agreement. Public Hearings would be scheduled for town residents, and we are hoping to have our first presentation for the Board and residents on September 18. Public hearings and voting at the March ’24 Town Meeting as well as approval of our plan by the Public Utilities Commission would all be required. Residents could opt out of the plan at any time (and opt back in again at any time) with no charges.
The bottom line is this: Switching to Community Power is going to save every resident and business in town money on their monthly bills and build resiliency for future rates without individuals needing to do a thing. PLUS: individuals could choose to pay a little more to support the use of electricity from clean sources of production (solar, wind, etc.) if they desired.
- Town Hall Renovation Project – See Bradford Bridge for updates.
- Municipal Weatherization Status
- Highway Garage Update – on August 2, Rich Burns of Shakes to Shingles, Steve Hall, Karen Hambleton, Michael Bruss and Sandra Bravo met for the final blower door air tightness test and to close out the weatherization project. Karen will submit the completed paperwork to NHSaves in order to receive the incentive payment. Weatherstripping of the doors had been contracted out and because the results were less than desirable Shakes to Shingles took $1,000 off the cost of the job to compensate. The original blower door # was 8058 @-30.9 Pa. The final number is 5078@-50 Pa. This equates to 2.5 ACH50 and is well within the guidelines for a building of this type of 3.0 ACH50 per the 2018 energy code.
- Fire Station – Rich Burns from Shakes to Shingles, Karen Hambleton and Sandra Bravo toured the Fire Station on August 2 and discussed what actions were necessary for Station personnel to preform prior to start of weatherization work in September. Sandra then met with the Chief and Nate on August 7 and relayed the information.
- Solar Energy – No updates.
- Heat Pumps – No updates.
- Kearsarge Climate Action Mission Statement- Increase community awareness of the climate crisis and identify opportunities for regional collaboration to effect change.
- https://www.centerforecotechnology.org There will be a zoom meeting on Sept 20th for more information on an initiative from Center for Eco-technology (to reduce food waste from businesses through regional composting.
- A good place to stay on top of NH legislative updates is through the https://www.newhampshirenetwork.org/NH-bills
- BEC Public Outreach
- BEC ran an Energy Quiz in the August Bradford Bridge
- Proposed articles for September Bridge – Article on the Community Power Coalition by Kathleen and Jenny.
- Conclude at 6:30pm. Next meeting will be September 19, 5-6pm at BACC.