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Date: 12/7/2022
CHESTER — Deryck Savoy, chair of the Chester Municipal Electric Light Department (CMELD), came to the Select Board meeting on Dec. 5 to express some concerns about the report the Energy Committee presented at a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 28, and to ask in which direction the committee was headed.
“I was a little disappointed to find out the report was prepared and shown to the town,” Savoy said, and that CMELD wasn’t shown the report in advance. He said he was hoping for more collaboration with the Energy Committee, and would like going forward to be given more professional courtesy before steps are taken.
“We’re very sensitive to disinformation,” Savoy added.
Select Board Chair John Baldasaro said the board had not given the Energy Committee any direction.
“This was the first report. We also want collaboration with CMELD. I thought CMELD was going to be there,” he said.
Andrew Myers, who presented the report and chairs the Energy Committee along with Nick Chiusano, Dob Daley, Rich Holzman and Ed Sourdiffe, said they would also welcome participation by CMELD.
“I came to the last commission meeting,” he told Savoy, who wasn’t present at the meeting.
Savoy said when the independent Energy Committee was formed at the Annual Town Meeting, he had been asked to serve as chair, but he didn’t think it would be proper. He said he would have liked his department to have been given the report to review before the meeting.
“We’d be happy to sit down with you,” Myers said, adding later that he told CMELD at the meeting he attended about the presentation, which wasn’t finished at that point. “They knew it was coming, and what it was about,” he said, adding, “It’s good that this is getting some conversation started.”
Savoy said members of the committee spent the last week answering questions raised by residents, instead of being able to do their work. “No one wants to repeat themselves and dispel misinformation. They spent several days clarifying information.”
Selectman Jason Forgue said he had agreed with Savoy’s original decision not to be on the committee, and also agreed that the report should have been presented to CMELD ahead of time. He said the report showed some of what the committee had learned, and gave different options on how to move forward.
At the Nov. 28 meeting, Myers said the town had three options: seek grants to make the 100-year-old town-owned utility more competitive, sell it to Eversource, or do nothing. At the meeting, Myers said the committee did not recommend doing nothing, but was looking for direction.
Forgue asked what misinformation was in the report.
“People think there’s a moratorium on solar. We’re still trying to get people in Chester to understand, yes, you can get solar in Chester,” Savoy said.
Forgue said most people don’t pay for solar installation but lease it, an arrangement which is difficult to get in Chester because the reimbursement rates are lower. He repeated that there are less than 10 percent of applications in Chester compared to surrounding towns.
“Part of that is the rate people are compensated for solar,” he said.
Baldasaro said solar owners on an Eversource line get 29 cents per kilowatt-hour, “four to five times what we’re paying,” he said.
Savoy said he himself has solar, and there are installers that will do it if you pay to have it installed. He said CMELD is talking with their consultants all the time, and trying to increase their competitiveness.
He also said Eversource customers can expect to pay 30 to 60 percent more a month on their bills after Jan. 1.
Another point of misinformation is that they could sell CMELD to Eversource. Savoy said in the last discussion they had with the utility, “there was no sell, there was surrender.”
Baldasaro said he agreed the town would not get a dime for Chester Electric. “The key to this is more involvement. The [Energy Committee] asked which way do you want to go. All of this is information gathering at this point. There were more questions raised than answers given,” he said, adding, “We want to do this as a cooperative effort.”
“I’m trying to do the job that they elected me to do in the best interests of the town. I’m also a ratepayer,” Savoy said, adding that if the day comes that he believes it is in Chester’s interests to leave CMELD, he would say so. “That day is not now,” he said.
Baldasaro assured them that the Energy Committee is a neutral party that is trying to get as much clear, concise data it can. He said in the first 15 minutes of the Nov. 28 meeting, they talked about everything CMELD does for the town.
Myers said the Energy Committee is also working on bringing grants into town. “One thing we’re looking at, apart from CMELD, is at bringing green dollars into Chester,” he said.