2024 uh we call the meeting of the armd Board of Commissioners uh to order and I'll read our code of conduct you want to call that order okay yeah I call the c meeting yeah okay uh the meeting is being audio recorded held remotely on zoom and live streamed on RT rctv uh armold the Board of Commissioners recognizes the importance of appearing public comment at the discretion of the chair on items on the agenda once recognized all persons addressing the shall State their name and address prior to speaking it's the role of the chair to maintain order in all public comment and discussion um is are anybody participating remotely is is Bob on or not Bob is not on yet okay uh do we have any members of the public here okay so should we get on with the agenda do you want to I think it's up it's now have you minutes have we called our meeting order yet yes okay okay so uh I guess everyone's read the minutes yes no no comments I can read the motion if no comments so move that the rmld citizens Advisory Board approve the March 21st 2024 open session meeting minutes as presented on the recommendation of the general manager and the board secretary second okay thank you I hi um now do we have a we don't have minutes to approve right no okay then uh we have Finance update next is that Ben yes it is okay so good afternoon good evening everyone uh once again my name is Ben lenal I'm the director of Finance here at rmld and I'm here to uh provide you a quarterly Finance update um currently we are um in preparation of the calendar year 2025 budget I'm working with staff to assemble the both the operating and the capital budgets moving forward we have selected as you recalled um as you recall a few months back um we were talking about implementing an AP software uh package within our our group we've selected some software which I'll talk about uh shortly thereafter also a few other highlights both the above the line payments and below the line payments have to all four corresponding towns and below the line payment the town of reading and I'm pleased to report that we have been awarded our first grant which I'll talk about momentarily moving on this is our current cash balances as of 6:30 2024 please note that this is a preliminary cash balance as we continue to do our reconciliations for for the ends of the month just want to note that our cash balances continue to grow um it was pointed out earlier that this cash balance is ahead of where we were at the beginning of the year or the end of last year around 59 million starting in January and now we were up to approximately $62 million as of June 30th moving on to the next slide uh here is our preliminary budget or I should say operating budget totals versus our actuals our May financials have been provided to the board and you'll find that at the end of your packet trending continues as projected with our operating budget basically being at $8 million a month if we project out to the end of the year you'll find that we come to um well under the budget of uh $17 million and we should be somewhere around $95 million when all is set done for the year end unless there are some you know extraordinary expenses during the course of the next six months I don't see you know that changing moving on to the capital budget you'll find that we have uh spent approximately 6.5 or 6.6 million as the month of May it should be noted that we had a significant Milestone payment as part of our preliminary investigative charges or our cons construction work in progress charges for presentation purposes I'm putting that all together as capital uh expenditures because once um in particular this Milestone payment for the Wilmington substation once it comes online uh this will be considered a a capital charge if we uh project our spending out to be approximately $1.6 million a month give or take uh that Target put us in the Target spend range of $17.8 million but again each and every month we will go back and review and adjust our projections based off of our uh cash flows moving on if there are any questions well the differential between the um this spend in the budget that's pretty substantial What What In terms of the differential between the spend and the budgeted amounts so when we program out the capital program we program out the entire project I'm basing the spend off of what we've spent the last uh several months in averaging it out I want to make sure that I'm conservative in my projections than trying to say that we're going to spend more than we really are so it gets carried over till the project is finished okay and and there's been a tradition in the and part of the reason for the tradition is that in order for us to do any bids which of these larger projects have we have to have the money in the budget for it so yeah and they typically go over several years so but there's they'll be rare that we ever hit them correct so the budget spent is not so broken down by month so much you carried full project costs early in yeah so we have to have the full the full budget project cost will be spread across a couple years but we won't always like well we might have something budgeted in 2024 in order to send the bid out we have to have it in the budget but we wouldn't award it or wouldn't spend it until potentially 2025 or in some cases the second part of it 2026 so there's always going to be that lag particularly given the longer term deliveries follow yeah good we 140 million at that time and that was over yeah five years yeah well the original yeah six yeah moving on um I'm going to highlight some uh outside Services first we're going to be looking at Legal Services should be noted that um through June 30th we have spent approximately $162,000 in legal services compared to last year we're actually uh spending less last year we were at $261,000 or a difference of $99,000 in terms of legal costs and as you can see up on the board there here are the breakdown here is the breakdown of those particular legal costs any questions I will move on quick question on that um I assume that the substation or uh incurs its own set of yes so when we go back a slide and I mentioned the uh preliminary investigative charges or the construction work and progress charges those are held separately from what's identified there because it's eventually going to be um expensed as a capital budget item as opposed to an operating budget item but until the provisioning of that station goes online it kind of sits in that kind of you know holding spot just just a quick followup is I know in in past years I've asked kind of generally you know how can we keep legal expenses down and I I it's I know this is a six month snapshot is there a way to look at if we have year-over-year and including our in-house plus outside of all all buckets how it looks on a year-over-year is it possible to do that and not now but you know the next meeting I can certainly prepare a document identifying our legal costs both tied to construction work in progress what hits our Professional Services uh bucket which this is and then uh third part you mentioned the in-house well oh because we didn't always have an in-house Council okay so just I'm curious what that when you added all of it up and how how has it changed over the years because yeah it's just one of the I know there's always a lot of legal expenses that we need do in curve but just looking at it year over year over a longer period of time would be nice if it's to do we'll give you this kind of split out too because one of the major variables is material management we use a lot of it for procurement last year was a particularly there was a lot of material stuff we did last year I know and you can't so that and that confounds the analysis a little bit we give you the split it'll help yeah yeah so how does the uh year to date compared to the budget so the budget uh legal costs are spread out throughout the different areas so we have approximately from area 50 all the way down to area 80 within our uh budgeting software within each area there is kind of a catch Basin for budgeted legal expenses I don't have that number off the top of my head but I can provide you what's been budgeted for legal expenses this year and what we've spent against it both with construction work and progress included yeah it might be helpful to always as I'm just looking at the prior slides are person's budget we just either always do versus budget or always do versus last year or maybe always both both both gonna be helpful because yeah dep on with the category yes perfect moving on um outside Services again these are Professional Services that we contract out um looking at some of the breakdown here you'll notice that there's $441,000 in outside accounting services for example that's for our annual audit that we do each and every year uh in order to ensure that you know we meet our fiduciary responsibility of reporting out the health and well-being of our financials um other costs include are like PLM for engineering culture fit for HR and then Mis um the renewal of our contract with Canon Beacon Telecom by is and so on comparison will be helpful yeah yeah that's totally totally reasonable next slide is an interesting slide um in the past I know that this body here has asked uh what are we spending our money on in terms of the Board of Commissioners and also the C so I've gone ahead and prepared a slide showing what the budget is for both the boc and the cab what we've expended through this uh through June in the balance moving forward one of the things that I did want to bring to attention and highlight is the brand new ey pads that you have in front of you this evening uh that that is a $5,000 proxim investment within this board here so as we move forward in looking at our costs incurred you'll also notice that we had also spent uh or you folks have also spent approximately 8 $100 in travel reimbursements so I know in the past um Phil you've asked what are we spending this money on and I wanted to come back and present to you in detail what those expenses are yeah because I've always had an issue with the fact we have budget of 15,000 we're not spending 15,000 that's always been my issue we we come out looking great we're understanding in the meantime that goes into the rates and we're charging the customers for that well it rolls over every year so not really but Grand but includes I mean were we not doing NEPA meetings this is just June right so that so this is June just June so um every year um a portion of the Board of Commissioners along with the cab traveled for the NEPA meetings this year I'm pleased to say that I believe each and every single member of Board of Commissioners is attending the NEPA meeting this year along with two members of the cab so those costs that are incurred for that travel would hit these two buckets here and this is not just for June this is through June this is through June yeah here there no further questions the next slide so this particular slide I'm extremely excited about when I was last year presenting in front of you folks we were talking about ways that we can create more efficiencies within uh the accounting department pleased to report that since we've met that we have selected a vendor by the name of paper Save which will be providing us a product called parasoft parasoft is a AP system for Automation and essentially as I mentioned earlier the process that we have in place is an eight-step process where there's a lot of manual back and forth between the person who does AP to the people who review and sign off on the documents there is you know a higher preponderance of Errors human errors that could take place in a manual process um beginning next month um at the beginning of August we are now starting to implement this new AP systems kicking off with working with our it Department to ensure that everything is properly um aligned the goal is to have the system up and running you know sometime in the middle of the Fall so that means all sorts of documentation which can be both digital or paper will actually be saved on a Cloud Server and accessible at any time without having to worry about losing documentation during the course of uh you know the process so I'm very excited about seeing this um new software and this new procedure in place which will then free up resources and provide us valuable information like dashboard support and seeing you know which vendors I point I was asked you know who are our top vendors that we pay out um what's our accounts payable period you know which vendors do we struggle with in terms of making sure that uh our bills are going out in that third year that 45 based off the terms of the contract so this was a uh a huge success this will be a huge success I'm very pleased to say that we're beginning the implementation process then for the um implementation this what kind of uh implementations support besides just installing the software but like process mapping change management training so so there is support that will be provided by um papersoft um papers saved excuse me um that they will be going through and providing a a very robust training program to ensure that everybody is up to speed on it and there will be documentation and manuals in terms of that change process showing what the original uh procedure was and how it's been streamlined are you familiar with this product PRI so we actually went out to viid essentially and we solicited um uh input from I want to say five different vendors based off the presentation of those vendors and reaching out to other municipalities that have used software we found this one best fits our needs within U within rmld is your purchasing integrated with this or that system so there will be integration eventually with purchasing right now purchasing is done um our requisition are through a different system the goal is that that should be able to integrate smoothly with this one and the two should be able to talk together right now our system is is literally um scanning things in in PDF and manually entering in documentation into spreadsheets this will now uh essentially create an enterprise resource system if you want to call it that for AP which will then be able to more efficiently track our our spending well the folks who have to approve AP have any change in process like well we need to log into a system to approve no um your the folks who approve the warrants there should be no change in that this is more for our own edification and provide us a more streamlined process on that any further questions moving on I am pleased to announce that we've been awarded through the Executive Office of Public Safety a $35,000 grant for cyber security work we have just signed the contract with the Commonwealth as of today and that's gone back to um the folks over at um eops I'm also very pleased to report that the Federal Highway Administration has reported back favorably a 5 $1 million grant that we applied for for level two and level three Chargers I have reached out to our Congressional Delegation to further emphasize the support of of this program which as I said will install level two and three uh fast level two DC fast charges throughout our territory in terms of um the ramp up towards electrification and the phasing out of internal combustion engines as per you know uh the legislature's guidance it is my hope that we'll hear back soon in terms of what a final award will be from Federal Highway this was a competitive Grant meaning that it is discretionary funds and not only are we competing with other cities and towns here in Massachusetts but we're competing against uh all 50 states and territories out there so this is a uh a really great story so I hope the next time I come back and uh present in front of you folks I can say that we have been awarded you know x amount of dollars from the Federal Highway Administration the Department of Transportation when is the fund that's pure a pure Grant I it's a it's not a match not matching funds it it is matching funds I believe it's an 820 match if I recall correctly um most of the Federal Highway grants are I should say the Department of Transportation grants are 8020 and when would the award be announced I do not have a timeline on that I literally just heard from um alaon over from Senator Mary's office that they have sent out another letter of support from the delegation meeing Senator Warren Mary and um Congressman Molton to uh secretary Budaj J's office to to say hey look you know we would like like the the funding awarded to us so once I hear back and once I know I'll let you folks know that's great do we have a plan already for yes fund would correct detail what we so in order to apply for these grants you have to have a scope schedule and budget you have to show uh essentially where um the charging stations uh most likely will go um it there was a comprehensive grants uh application that was submitted as at this side the state was also doing some thing right the nevi or something it's called neev yes so that separate this is separate so the state had submitted a Grant application for the section 410d program I think it is 4010 or 5010 I can't remember off the top of my head which is for grid resiliency funds they are applying to the Department of energy similar to how we applied to doe for the grip program uh in order to bring in money uh to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and then disperse that money out to you know various um municipalities and and Municipal Light departments the Commonwealth was awarded I want to say $9 million I I don't quite recall the actual uh amount I do have the slide deck in my emails uh that they sent out yesterday and they have opened up up um an RFP essentially for munis to apply for that funding we have already identified a program within our Capital uh Rance program or utility rep utility pole replacement program to which we will be applying funds for the funding that is available right now as I said is for resiliency to address uh you know the impacts of uh climate events and ensuring that we Harden our system uh as we get you know more of these Super Storms and we will be submitting funding for that for our utility C program that's not what I was asking I was asking you about charging because the state has programs along 93 and route to 128 right which would be part of our territory it's our territory and this funding I believe is the same funding that we applied for separately so when when we submitted the application for the US do which is you know not Mast doot but the Mast do program that she's speaking of it's for along the alternative fuels Corridor which is I95 and i93 or I95 root 128 that funding there had specific requirements that charging stations had to be within a mile of the highway and everything else so that's similar funding but I don't think that we would be eligible for it if we're awarded this funding here because it would be dup duplicative um in terms of the PLS of funding that the the money comes from but you still can apply for both at you no if if we're awarded this funding here from uh USD we have to make sure that there's not a duplication of effort in the work that we're doing and a duplication of the money being used so I would need to check on that a little bit more clearly I do know that mot does have other funds available but usually those are earmarked for cities and towns as part Highway projects but I would need to do a little bit more digging on my end to see whether or not number one we're eligible and number two by having uh potentially awarded this grant whether that disqualifies us from going in for funding like that presumably the federal government has also noticed that we have the busiest interchange in state in our territory which is the 9593 so that's that's a mass Highway issue I I can speak from prior experience that I know that there is um oh God there's like a focus 40 plan um similar to MBTA one where they they lay out um the capital projects for the next 20 to 30 to 40 years I can do a little research if you're pretty curious about that but I don't know if that meets uh the scope of the Mandate of the work here any further questions we like grants we're trying to as many as we can so great thank you and that's my presentation thank you wait but you still have one more right oh yeah just just real sorry quick highlights quick highlights sorry about don't get out of here that quick key points key tiys y all right one slide last month I was in San Diego to attend the National Conference for apaa during the conference uh I spent three days in several different seminars focused on finance legislative updates and advocacy throughout the Public Power Universe some of the key points that came back um the biggest key point that came back is that cash is King in an Ever Chang ing landscape of Public Power and as we saw in the previous slide there are opportunities for federal funding through our federal Partners some of the key takeaways that you know from this uh particular conference was I spent an entire day the first of three days going over finances and and you know Financial measures and and financial barometers the biggest one that I saw was really quite a simple measure of how well we're doing as a utility and it's called basically how many days of cash do we have on hand based off of our current financials from our audited uh 2023 uh financial report we have approximately 90 days worth of cash on hand utilities should have anywhere between 90 and0 120 days to be considered healthy in terms of where we are going back several years back to about 2020 we've kind of hovered anywhere between as high as 95 days as low as 75 but we've continued to Trend back up uh to the 90day threshold which is good to see so the work that we're doing and the the the work that we continue to do here in ensuring and protecting the rate payers funds is is showing to be fruitful um as I indicated earlier there are plenty of federal opportunities out there uh for competitive grants the thing that they stressed and emphasized was tell a winning story why is rmld the perfect place to to provide those Grant dollars whether it's for charging programs whether it's for uh key Security Programs us doing the right thing and being successful in administering grants like our first grant that we' just received will build upon that success and it will usually what happens is when you get Federal funding or when you get State funding if you do a good enough job in managing over those funds being good stewards over those funds additional funding opens up success beget success so I'm hopeful that with the first you know trunch of money that we've we've received once we expend that money and we will do so very quickly uh on multiactor identification and some training that $335,000 that the level two in DC fast Chargers you know once we get determination of how much an award will be we'll be able to you know scale the program up or down based off of the award and then move forward on the installation of those Chargers in a reasonable amount of time and then again the focus elsewhere was on infrastructure reliability uh the electrification of automobiles I sat in on another seminar about how Municipal Light plants can partner with the automotive industry in order to to really get over that 20% ad adoption hump uh for EVS and I'm proud to say that my wife and I both own EVS yes question going back to the grant talking about grants $5 million plus within 8020 match how many Chargers are we talking about how many Chargers is that equivalent to I mean there's a plan like you submitt a plan for so many charges right correct and what is that number I don't have that number off we we had we had laid out a schedule between now and 2028 of 78 additional charges in our Network so just under 100 78 was the number mix between l2s and DC fast thank you that answer any further questions and I will say that San Diego was not sunny in 70 it was over entire week I was out there they call it the June so when I was join the meeting when I was out in s about three years years ago I had a terrible time with the time change you know three hours I had staff calling me at five o'clock in the morning out there yeah I was answering emails at 5 am in the morning watching the news but again thank you very much and I appreciate the time this evening and uh if there are no further questions thank you thank you thank you um Ben can you grab your name right underneath right it's just right underneath y there he is I'm not sure how to do this she'll she'll get started first she's not ready I think there's only good evening um I'm want to uh provide an update on a hydro contract extension it's a small one but just to provide a context uh I think you've probably seen the version of this chart many times so this is just the uh to show the kind of the our power supply portfolio and you can see the blue is hydro it is a pretty significant portion right now and you know it's going to go down you know in the 2030s 40s but right now I think whenever we have the opportunity to to continue the contracts we do and also I think Greg mentioned that we might consider consolidating some contracts but that's down the road so for today the update is really about this pretty small uh contract it's about 10,000 megawatt hour per year output uh we actually got 15 thou over 15,000 megawatt hours last year so just depends on the weather if they they produce more we just buy more um this is the third extension starting from 2022 and this covers from the beginning of 2024 to the end of 20 24 25 25 um and what is the other piece I think U I think the the reason we're doing annual renewal is just because the facility is still under the F license renewal so it's still kind of Uncertain how long they can last so we we we try to do this every year and also because we do it every year so the price escalation is a little uh kind of it changes it's it's a little little more than the the original contract we that we had uh so that's pretty much the kind of the terms of this extension I don't know if you have any question yeah uh so you said it's only a year because we don't know how long the facility will last that if they don't get the license renewal then we won't be able to oh okay it's a just just add a little bit more color on this one so this is the this is a contract that U goes back to actually 2012 um and then it went to a different ownership change in 2016 um couple two years back so we uh back in 2021 we made a concered effort to secure select Hydro facilities because there will be no additional Hydro facilities built in our region it's important part of the portfolio this particular one um we decided not to do a long-term contract on it um not so much because it was under license renewal but at that um 18 months ago 24 months ago the price that they were looking what they had the price that they would need to charge us was significantly High because of some of the um improvements that they need that they would need to make to the facility um so we chose not to do that at that point in time but we agreed to to as they kind of figure out what that is we're basically keeping this is basically keeping our option open so the the facility will will probably continue to run so the next 25 30 years um the question is going to be become what's the cost structure what's the net price for us so we passed on the first time but went into this agreement of um extensions just to keep our first rer refusal for for lack of a better word um how does the how does the price for this contract compared to it it's slightly above the um our average so so one of the things that we do in these meetings we have a very detailed spreadsheet in terms of analysis Etc but because we do um confidential pricing so we can Proby share with individually with all of you guys the numbers this one's slightly above um the average that we have and there's no certificates tied to it either and that certificate it um it has not had certificates as long as we've been using that we typically well not typically well no we typically um our goal and our strategy is always to buy certificates with power starting in 2030 um any certificates that we want to retire need to be purchased with the power we call them associate certificates so you know this thing will be resolved in the next two or three years at the latest we might decide we'll decide again next year if we want to extend it or not we're keeping on our portfolio for options right now and it's the other things that we think about there are three main watersheds that go through the East the western part of our territory um and so this is in one of the most eastern ones so it's also good from balancing what we try not to do is have too many dams along any one watershed area because if it happens to be dry then whatever Downstream is it's the same water flow so we Hydro is particularly fascinating this past two years um this has been particularly wet and so as as Megan mentioned this is normally a 10,000 megawatt hour year project but last year it ran actually 15,000 highly unusual so Greg who gets the we don't get the certificates who's getting there's no certificates for U I've gotta go back and look at it we have not ever bought the certificates from this one um so I'm not sure I believe they sell them to somebody else um which is right for them to so they've already sold the certificates I'm pretty sure on this particular I have to go back and look at the certificates but we've never bought certificates for this one if we were to do a long-term one we would have to and that would be part of the agreement by 2030 you're required to buy certificates with the energy we so we are we are indirectly required um so in today's market this is not something that we do we only retire certificates that are purchased with Associated power but um other MLPs or other utilities can buy Power and then buy certificates and then take those certificates and retire them the two be separate um for MLPs that option ends in 20130 so when we think about like this is a year extension but when we think about longer term contracts we're very careful about making sure that we what we always have and we always will and we need to but make sure that we buy the certificates with the power and it usually economically a better deal as well um certificates now there's a lot of things that so there's a bunch of factors that happening relative to the power Market um but certificates are becoming increasingly valuable and right now class ones are $39 and the the cap is $40 the cap is tied to the altern alternative compliance payment which is $40 so they're right to the top there's increasing shortage of certificates so we want to manage us very carefully but this one doesn't have any simple simple one- year extension it's just kind of a keep the option open nothing special about this one so this is a one-year contract and you one year extension but and you mentioned something about right of first refusal does this give us somehow an edge over anybody else for S years is that in the contract that we have some first uh opportunity at some preset price beyond the one year no no there's no preset price it's just a year and it ends and at the end of the year we're so this is we have several project this is with gravity we have several projects with gravity um they prefer to work with us we we continues to go forward the re so um there's not a formal written into this one-year extension um first wrer refusal but they tend to come to us first in fact that's what they did on this particular one somebody else asked about it and okay but the contract doesn't have anything that gives us any more of a right at the end of the year than anybody else sense is also more like a relationship the the kind of the providers I've talked to they they seem to say okay you know because we like you guys you're very reliable you pay your bills then they will often come back at the end of the get that but you can't get that into the that that that likeability factor to translate into some contract clause that actually gives you the right sure we can put it in you can make a condition on on putting that first right refusal in this particular one they um was we'll put it in there that's a good recommendation this is probably not a contract that we'll do a long-term deal on because because it won't have credits because the real the real the real reason is in order for this to get properly licensed it's going to become very expensive right it'll it'll be more expensive than we want to pay in our portfolio that's that ultimately that's what's going to happen so this basically just fill you this we're just okay so there's not there's not a play after a year anyway well we might you know there's a potential we might do it 2020 we'll look and see where we are in 2026 because we have some contracts that are coming off Hydro contracts and so we're going to rethink how we do those larger ones so your your conclusion is right it's not um this is a sure is the Strategic Hydro contract smaller so then I guess the question comes down to how how is the pricing here different than the open market pricing at the moment the pricing that we we be we'd be paying here how does it different from what you pay in the open market for car the open market is more volatile so it's if you have you have to look at long term to compare that but I think I heard one quote same tile it was uh uh $30 more than what we're paying for this contract this is this just less than open market less than open market okay okay I mean just looking at our projected Hydro in the future after 2031 it drops stays flat until about 2040 and then almost disappear so I guess that's the life of that station unless they go and upgrade or things that's not so much the life of it so we have a we have a broad mix so we every once a while we go back and look at the very details of the um we haven't done that in a little while but on the hydro contracts um most of the hydro facilities are going to continue I mean most of these have been around since the early 1900s and they'll probably be around 100 years from now the nature of that is what we have contracted and so one of the you know one of the things that we're looking at right now I I didn't bring it to this presentation but we're looking at the normal shape of hydro output versus R normal shape Hydro tends to be a spring um primarily it's highest in Spring then falls off to minimal in August um so what what we originally had planned on is having Hydro be 20 to 23 24% of our total total portfolio but given that it's been very wet um it's up to 30% um we we're trying to basically say so maybe we got we got to tailor back and let some of these contracts expire um and not renew them this is probably again this one is probably not a strategic one given our size we tend to look at projects that are 20 to 30 to 40,000 40,000 megawatt hours a year this one's it's it's nice it's it's a it's a placeold there's not a it it's a convenience for us right now given that it's only for a year why would they why would they give us a contract at less than open market when they could turn around the same day and get more money well I think especially for smaller facilities they want the certain day of payment like some of them don't don't want to deal with you know the [Music] volatility need your approval on the Motions okay any more discussion any more from us I don't think so okay two steps thank we have a motion yeah we do okay uh move that the rml citizens Advisory Board vote to accept the general manager recommendation to execute a one-year contract extension for energy from Gravity aspinook wire Wind hro Facility second okay who would like to read uh move that the Aral Board of Commissioners on the recommendation of the citizens Advisory Board vote to accept the general manager's recommendation to execute a one-year contract direct extension for energy from Gravity Aspen wire wind Hydro all in favor quick we have a 40 vote five vote thank you okay I think I'm next y um so just wanted to provide the group with an update on the uh strategic power supply and load management committee um proceedings so uh we've been as you all know we've been meeting uh almost weekly about the topic specifically focused on the carbon Capal fuel cell um long story short uh in our last meeting we voted to recommend that we pause um the work on the carbon capture fuel cell for now um there were a few reasons for that um which were really specific to the timeline and some of the um uh relian that we need on the timeline and um how that connects to the financials so um a coup I'll just kind of highlight a couple of key ones from my perspective and then other committee members can jump in with other Concepts as well if they'd like um you know the general consensus was we we agreed with the kind of uh the concept and the idea of pursuing these types of things we given especially that it is a NetZero um opportunity uh moving towards that um non-carbon opportunity um but land and permit um approvals you know timeline Associated not being certain um the tax credit was a huge factor in u the financials being favorable and and making sense for um for arml to pursue that um you know appeared to potentially be uncertain especially if there was and is an Administration change in Washington um and you know that was $40 million or so program y um and that would work and the the timeline would require us to take out pretty significant amount of debt on the Reliance of receiving that ITC credit um and you know we felt uncomfortable given the other elements of uncertainty um repenting that we continue to throw as many resources as we have been towards uh the initiative um the last piece just being kind of the procurement timeline we had a lot of different moving pieces that needed to happen uh in terms of you know hiring the the owner's engineer and then processing the um the RFP and um not having certainty around land and there were just a lot of complicating factors that uh we felt like we needed to really land some of those uh definitive elements of the program before we could really um continue to pursue it uh in full so um the the recommendation from the sub committee therefore was to recommend to the broader cab and Board of Commissioners just to pause it doesn't mean it's totally dead there's certainly could be other things that come up perhaps the program gets extended into 2025 um we land we figure out the land we get permitting Etc um but for now uh pursuing it as kind of the highest strategic priority should be on pause and as an additional note ourd is still pursuing land absolutely yeah that so I think the mission has been pretty clearly communicated to me keep getting on or we have plenty of purposes for it but we are chasing land aggressively the purposes we use it for is going to be flexible depend where it is and when we can get it and all those kind of things but yeah land is high priority any comments no I Greg also did provide some additional uh analysis what the impact of not getting the it the 40% credit and I the impact was a little less than I would have guessed yeah too that's I I ran it he asked me too so but uh but still I think with all the moving pieces on this program I think it's still a prudent course to to pause yeah and I think that there's a big element that there was a I guess I don't know this is public for we can talk about a number um probably no no no Financial numbers but you can talk about it conceptually yeah okay because there would have been a number associated with there's a risk both Pam talked about the debt aspect of it but there was also a payment aspect that you would be on the hook prior to you know the ITC actually getting approved and so so there was that risk of that number and then the debt aspect so requirement to beet that Safe Harbor so so the Safe Harbor number was so to The Prudent decision and um if there was more time would have been different decision or if we on the land right line things up the way that ideally they would be so that you have kind of those uh those answers to the questions that are nely going to be asked um you know and not having all of those and having the number of Uncertain elements was really a big p yeah the I think the only other thing was that when we were looking at it is the way we looked at it was something that we would own right it was a project we would own that's that was the current yeah that was the the working assumption correct and and since then I think Greg shared with us a PPA scenario but and and I think I just want to mention it because it just makes the discussion complete he shared it with us and the question is rather than be owning it the third party third party would own it and we would just be buying their services it's you know it's not as attractive but the risk goes down significantly and the only question is that you know they may not be able to do it in the time frame that's needed for the ITC so that that I think it's someone else would have to take the risk Y and I don't know if that's something you want anyone to discuss or we just close it here uh so I think what I I just want to make sure because it's something that you did send to us and I want to make sure it's covered as part of this discussion so I think the I think closing it um so pausing it as I think we wrote in the motion as an rmld on asset is the right thing to do right now um there's some analysis that's being done in the background by Third parties um if the comes back looking interesting from a PPA perspective and I'll bring it back to the subcommittee and then we can we can talk about it at a meeting as it required um it's not taking any of our resources I mean I did obviously I did some analysis but um you know we'll take a look at that if it looks if it merits some additional stuff I'll bring it to you I'll share whatever that comes back with you guys and then if you want to take it further great but I think the only Avenue right now given the the interest in managing and minimizing risk is the PPA option is probably the only only one that would work short term um and again as you guys mentioned the risk would all be taken by whoever the developer would be it would not be us um and then as you guys mentioned um you know there's you know depending upon what happens um at the end of the year and early next year um if uh carbon capture fuel cells fuel cells in particular it's not the carbon capture equipment if the fuel cells have a different kind of an ITC um as a grant um then we'd be interested in looking at that as well at that point in time so I think as you guys said um we haven't killed the project we're going to basically pause we've got a lot of analysis that we did we've done more analysis on this particular project which is good than on anything that I've been involved with uh during my four years here um so I think it's been very helpful to to walk through all that details but pause on the asset and then if the asset ownership um and if the PPA looks interesting I'll report back to you guys if it doesn't then we'll leave it till next year okay good are we also hoping that the carbon capture fuel sell at a Municipal capacity would be mature as a technology that there would be more I think as we looked at these capture element we saw it on boilers but we didn't really see it paired directly with f Sal so that's a good that's a good point um so we've actually since we did our visit down to New York they've continued to move forward on a whole bunch of different dimensions um they actually gave me an update today on some of the other different projects there might be an opportunity for us to look at them using that carbon capture technology um which is more developed than what we saw a lot more installations on other generation assets potentially that it would not be as expensive necessarily from a capital expense perspective um and then the other element is we met with another fuel cell company that has a very different approach it's all integrated it's a it's a fundamentally different same net result um similar process you know um uh but we might again let's see how the ITC plays out we might dust that one off too um so there there are options um you know big and we'll talk about this in the next section big picture the need for us to do something Still Remains and so we'll walk through what we're going to do near term I'll bring you guys up to speed um but we're going to continue we have to we have to be creative in terms of figuring out a longer term solution Because unless something funly changes with the state the challenge that's in front of us Still Remains just have to figure out a different way to do it is which is you know part of the interest just for completeness that is is the concern over the technology and the maturity of that wasn't part of our decision- making or dialogue with the recommendation um but certainly you know yeah the more we know yeah better the the other thing I just want to note is we we will continue to meet as a committee probably not weekly but um we will we're going to uh regroup at some point uh to discuss what our focus should be in terms of supporting additional opportunities that may come up um as well as uh maybe refocusing a bit towards load management as well yeah there's been um you know the team's worked pretty hard behind the scenes to to make all this happen a lot of work um so I think a different pace will be good um think we've been we've been up to speed on all the minutes and all the analysis Etc so it's been good but yeah different pace will be good yeah definitely thank you to you and your team um and everybody who participated and committed all the time thank you very much thank you thank you ER is is Bob online can we get his comments also please yes Bob any comments can you hear us I thought he dropped off he's meeting oh there he is yeah can we get your comments not a good no com no comment on the committee stuff is that how you said okay thank you about the committee Bob did you hear it yeah yes I did no no comments at all good job summarizing okay thank you Bob okay right um move at The rld ciem Advisory Board advise rmld to pause continued work on the carbon captur fuel cell project on the recommendation of the arml Strategic power supply and load management committee second Hi I hi my turn sure move that the rmld Board of Commissioners advis rmld to pause the continued work on the carbon capture fuel cell project on the recommendation of the rmld Strategic power supply and load management committee second all in favor Bob you voting yeah that's a five vot thank you very much everybody good job okay uh Greg yeah management and Inter territory asset update so she gets the slides up so um as you guys know we had we have that carbon capture fuel cell was one of many projects that we're working on um one of the ones that we're working on in parallel not one of them but one category um is energy storage um and just you know big picture just to remind us right storage systems are not generators um you know they are fundamentally time shift and the reason why we put them in place is primarily economic and then secondarily reliability and resiliency and that lower left-hand chart is a that's our actual data from actually probably two years ago now but the idea from an economic perspective is actually to discharge ahead of time and then to charge ahead of time and then discharge during the peak hours um and so you can see that blue chart there um is or the chart in lower left hand corner that purple line is our actual load and then underneath it um there's the blue and the um yellow those are basically the battery and the generator running during those peak hours to do load reduction so um the technology Works um it's a proven system um we're also looking at it so from an economic perspective it's a peak shaver um and it's a good thing we're also looking at it from the perspective of reliability and you as we've talked several times before as kind of an introduction in terms of the context for why we look in territory assets um the regional the the regional network is becoming more fragile that's not to say that it's broken it's just becoming more challenging so we anticipate and we came across this in the past two Winters um ISO New England came very close to doing a mandatory load reduction for us a mandatory load reduction um would mean actually turning customers off and remember our mission is reliable low cost noncarbon we never ever to the best of our ability want to do that so the idea of adding additional storage to our network is both from the economic perspective in terms of peak shaving but also from our reliability perspective so that's kind of the big picture background it's an important Point uh portion of it so these are in process systems so you guys know we have the existing five megawatt at station three sorry I interrupt you um Dave we have I think a member of the public in the waiting room can them in sure lower yeah sure I mean we're past public comment but they're certainly welcome to come in are they asking to make a comment didn't say anything she just we love having a a member of the public here yten we have no members of the public welcome oh actually Le's not okay oh good good good right so um so the next Pro the new mobile project um it's a 500 it's a half a megawatt system that it go into station two um that'll proa that will be in before the end of the year work's being done on that right now this is a project that we approved last year it's the caterpillar mobile system um the next one um is a new 10 megawatt um this is known as we call it internally the castar project um yeah we approved it a year and a half ago we contracted it last year um this is the one that is having a hard time finding a location in Wilmington um they basically River Park is a location in North Reading um so uh that'll basically go at the back end or the southwest corner of the River Park um industrial complex um so that's in process the next one down the fourth one on it list that's another 10 megawatt system they're actually two five megawatt systems but 10 megawatt um that is a citizen system that's almost contracted that's one we approved a year ago um that will go at station three um our goal is to get that in place by um June of 2025 that's a tenative schedule right now and then is the last two um there's the um 100 uh our system um known as form um that would be a 2026 project um that one is a little bit different than these other ones and then the all of these with the exception of that 100 hour system would be um Energy savings agreement shared savings module so we're not taking the technology risk we're not taking the economic risk we're giving up some of the value but we basically positioned these with the exception of that form system I'll walk you through in a second why we've done it that way um as as shared savings models and you've also got the Linfield project that's I forget yeah I'm sorry you're right y the Linfield should be on here that's exactly right you're exactly right okay I'll make sure I have that say what what was capacity of the storage um that's tends to be the plan is to make that five megawatts but the reason it could be a two and a half megawatt system but the goal is five and that's reason being is that the solar array is two and a half and it's and it's limited by size um and so that project I didn't put that on this list that project this in process um right now we're working on on article 97 we have to make sure all the the permit stuff relative to the land before we do any asset stuff but the reason I wanted to mention that 100 the 100 hour system is that one has an ITC that does not expire at the end of the year um we'll walk very carefully at itc's and the new is prob the reasons that we've discussed in the subcommittee group um but the Commonwealth uh is also we'd also the way we have uh looked at the economics is that it would be um dependent upon a grant from the state as well a $15 million Grant from the state uh of Massachusetts the Commonwealth um we are um five days away from the end of legislative session um part of that legislative session is to earmark about $200 million um and it should go through but again it's not done till it's done um so that's going to be an important uh and out of the $200 million would be where the $15 million would come there're still application process that we would have to do if it does get if it does get through um if it does get pass the Senate and the house which it probably will and then it is approved by the governor which would be an August event we would need to um have a Grant application ready um by mid-september and we would do that in conjunction with Forum again so there's some prerequisites that are going to happen before we do a lot of design work on that project but that one's going to be a little bit different and we'll update you guys more the other key thing it's a 100h hour system it has like all of these Battery Systems they all have um uh pros and cons in terms of how they work so we have not made a formal commitment to form but we're we continue to meet on a regular basis to get everything ready but the Grant application on that one is going to be a prerequisite the what we had done back in the March meeting was to approve a budget number um but if you guys remember that motion um no money you know no contracts would be done until we came back you for approval on any contracts so and that obviously needs a home too for land so going back to the land stuff one of those several properties I won't spend a lot of time on land tonight I'll probably give you guys an update in two weeks via our between meeting updates um but a lot of progress on land as well so anyways the point being of this slide is um while we still need to figure out an territory generation option um and I'll walk through that in just a second storage is still a critical piece and we have a lot of good progress on these so and that's all Outsource stuff and it's it's working well the um the second piece as we talked about this before you know kind of updated this in territory generation so that was storage this is Generation and as you know those first two blocks um you know there's the existing roughly 10 megawatts that's in our territory right now it's primarily PPA and then some resi um and then that next box uh the 30 megawatts um the Lindfield project again is in that little box um the maple metals project is in that box um there's potentially there's there's a couple other 5 megawatt systems in that box the goal is by the end of this decade to have all those projects in place and each one of them is going to have its own own timeline but from a strategy perspective we want to have that in place and as we talked about why that's great we'll end up with 40 megawatts of solar 40 megawatts of solar works out to be about 60,000 um megawatt hours a year which is 8% of our current load as our load grows that'll follow down to 5% so absolutely want to do it from all the economic Reasons from from it being in territory it makes sense and we're going to maximize that to the extent we can and it is land limited that blue blocks in the middle is it'll be you know we'll explore additional Alternatives um we continue to feed the you know continue to explore um but that would be a 20 megawatt block and remember our goal big picture and we use this actually Ken and I we use this at the presentation that we did for the Lindfield presentation but to have basically three 20 megawatt blocks spread of Base load spread around our Territory between now and the end of 2040 and the goal behind that is again tied to resiliency as well as all the economic things um we've talked before there's nothing for us to do right now except continue to follow the market and research but that low temperature geothermal is another part of that 20 megawatt and potentially as we get you know further out toward 2040 hydrogen could be the other 20 megawatts those top two boxes are future things um you know no major actions but again as you as we think about our generation strategy um and and matching load you know you know we're looking at 10 years 15 years 20 years so those are all pieces of it so so that's just a a quick snapshot carbon capture Fuel Cell from an asset owned perspective um you know obviously for all the reasons we've mentioned before um we pull that off the table for now it could depending upon what happens next year it could re resurface um so any I just want to make sure you guys understood that while we took that one off um we still have a fundamental need to keep exploring and we are and we're doing stuff so questions on inter territory assets I have a question on kind of the load management more generally yep I'm gonna talk about that in general manag up there's a lot on that one oh there is okay I thought that was part of what this was gonna yeah I I saw the title um it should have yeah I put it so I'll talk about it in a few minutes or we can ask questions now okay what's that get to let's get item n okay procurement so oh yeah oh yep yep okay you want to um move on to item nine yeah somebody want motion oh um move that ifb 2024 21 for duck Bank excavation Services be awarded to Tim zelli Excavating LLC for 2249 00 pursuant to ma Law chapter 30 section 39 M as the lowest responsible and eligible bidder on the recommendation of the general manager second okay great so just uh quick update on this one so this particular project um when we talk about duck Bank this is basically excavation of work and underground conduits combination of conduit and uh concrete work this is specific to two projects one is gazebo Circle um for those of you guys who are part of the reading town meeting this was the project that we had to do the presentation for the easement which was obviously passed um this is part of a new water pumping station for the town um but it also um this particular this particular project here is an extension of that duck Bank to allow us to do underground work to the Gazebo circle area and then the second one is also um work at the Johnson Woods basically to provide a second uh uh second line basically to feed the Johnson woods so those are the two projects um the bid went out the bid went out to 30 just lives there we is joking yeah oh Johnson W yeah yeah okay good so so yeah so re anyways um 31 uh bids went out or went out to 31 companies um this was back in June time frame um four biders came back um at the end of the day and they're in the table there um we've worked with uh we do we do so Tim zelli ended up being the lowest um uh you know the bidder in terms of uh responsible and eligible um the numbers were were we do a lot of work with zelli and with the other ones for that matter um everybody looks at their different bid projects um individually so again this is a formal bid process um our recommendation is to take the one that in this particular case happens to be the lowest dollar figure as well so I can answer more questions on it pretty straightforward for biders good pricing Pro we need to do in the budget no turn on I just have a question what does alternate mean so there's location and then alternate are both of those things actually happening yeah we're doing both both locations yeah that's the intention do both locations good and the budg 260 yeah yeah that the alternate fe uh not regards to this smra but is that reimburse construction to ourd joh Johnson Woods is not know what they started and what they finished with a completely different yeah um I'll check in Bob yeah that's a good question yeah reimbursable that definitely should be reimbursable feed to rmld because it's just the grow that that that location has had from the density is is amazing from when it first started to where it is now so I can't imagine you know what they what initially projected to what it is now so I would I would think that that growth should be you know we'll think about it that's that's a good reminder um the question behind it is this um addition specific to an individual site or individual customer and typically what we do if it's tied to a particular customer particular particular customer specific to them and not and not valuable to the rest of the or portion of the rest of the um Network then we actually um build the company build whoever the customer directly pretty standard stuff so I think what Bill what Bob's men let's go back and take a look at that which I will do any further discussion ready for a vote all in favor okay all right we got four Bob you got a vote y I'm in favor thank motion carries 5 thank you very much Greg everybody good team it's a team up on y lot of work on procurement too and the engineering team procurement who is not here but all of those who worked on this we thank you yeah thank you Ben that's Team all right uh so we a couple just again try and use these to there's a lot of things percolating trying to do as much as you know keep you guys informed of all the things that are happening a lot of activity um first so sorry U leadership stuff so uh marketing manager starts in early August two weeks um which would be great um let hit the ground running we got a very experienced individual I'm looking forward to uh to her being part of our team um uh you know we've been searching for a uh director of engineering so uh we have an internal candidate um that'll end up taking that role in mid August um that individual um is part of the rmld team and uh just finishing off some some combination of a week of vacation but also finishing off some of the projects that that he's been working on um so on the 12th he'll transition over which would be great and then uh working on um so I've been spending some time with Megan in terms of uh how we are going to how we're looking at the organization of the ird group and then what candidates we'll put in there as well so that's a working process um the external marketing um yeah goad yeah it says assistant director engineering STS and I thought you said director engineer uh when I wrote this I my apologies yeah so the initial position is an assistant director role so I so I'm filling an assistant director of engineering role um my intention is not to fill the director of engineering role until next year and um the intention is I'm confident that this candidate that's taking the assistant director engineering role will uh will be able to perform at a level to take the director role but the arrangement I have right now is step at a time okay follow yeah which would be great so I'm I'm pleased with how this work I'm confident that work out very well so I'm I'm pleased with that external marketing uh couple just real you sorry go ahead but would you have had two two positions would you have had a director and an assistant director now you're just having one person there uh my intention is not to have in the engineering my intention is to have only one role either an assistant or or assistant director or director role okay that a change for D just what sorry that was that change to the or structure or is that how the or uh that's how uh I have to go back so I I basically budgeted one senior level person okay I have to go back look at how I did the work chart but I'm pretty sure I but from a budget perspective I intend to have one um external market so real quick external marketing the outage map um you guys have seen some email traffic we're really working pretty diligently to make sure that that works and we're trying to be very careful that we maintain our you know you guys know we are highly sensitive to cyber security so that's one key piece where we we're making sure that we've got it locked down um but once we get that up and running um that'll be very valuable for our customers and we'll do what we're not we'll do a major announcement but it'll be very helpful for customers we'll tie it into outbound communication through text there's a whole bunch of stuff tied to it um it's taken some time to work through it um but it'll be really good um annual report will be ready for approval in August um pretty straight forward and obviously we'll resume our newsletters in August as well with the additional marketing manager when do you think that outage map will go live uh well it's um formally live probably September prob yeah it's that close would we get a demo of it or oh yeah okay well the demo of it will be go to rmld d.com but not yet yeah I mean it literally is it will literally be on the website we had it running we went through a couple snags so we took it off and then we're going to restart it again that's why we have me two public but it's it's you you can see it and it actually was pretty helpful at one of the outages we had storms 2 two weeks ago um it'll be it's it's it's good it that we're excited physical plant um 218 the Operation Center um that building as you guys know um is you know it it is had suffered from lack of maintenance for quite some time so we're we're keeping it alive um we had to do some roof work obviously want to keep rain out of the you know water out of the building the HV HVAC system needed some repair so we did that um as you guys walk down in a few minutes you'll see that some of the internal construction is getting close to end in terms of this building Trying to minimize all that investment um substation six as Ben mentioned earlier um you know there'll be some on-site construction starting this fall we're expecting the actual Transformers to arrive realistically January of next year that'll be important the security system Replacements in process that'll probably start in September that extends to substations as well there's a lot of video stuff tied to it so um that's been a long process uh in the works um but we want to get that done because well set on that um You probably noticed when you came in there's some uh uh plywood covering uh in the corner there um there's a sewer line repair that uh uh we're in the process of um unfortunately it was more involved than we originally planned um it had improper pitch it had a kink in it as they started uncovering it so we ended up having to do an emergency pair we got approval to do that there's a process that we have to go through um with the IG office so we went through that process um it's obviously a pretty basic element in this in this building we have two sewer lines um but this one is the main one um Transformer replacement program is kind of hidden under there but uh we're very so we have we've got quite a few Transformers that got delivered this year um so far this year um so our Transformer replacement program which is real critical for maintaining our reliability it's a program that's been in place for a couple years now we we had to slow down the past two years and we're picking it back up again um that's in process so that's good um Ami Ami vendor you'll get a little more details on this but we are almost finished with the process we selected our top two we prioritized the top one that is a very important prerequisite to time of use work uh load manage at work etc um so big milestone this past week uh now we have to do and we'll come to you with final approval type stuff but in the budget um and a pretty significant it's a significant project and is significantly important um as you guys remember we talked earlier this year about uh Outsourcing versus uh bringing in the tree contractor uh went out for a competitive bid um we approved that it was less expensive in terms of the the two options that were presented uh the new contractor uh is off to a very strong start um they they're Staffing a little bit differently than the previous one did um very responsive um and they're actually not only earning our respect but they're earning the town's respect so um that's that's off to a great start so can you say the talk about the town tree Ward reading tree Ward that one in particular but all the three wardens but yes the yes in particular that tree War yes which is important because that's our that is historically been our our uh tension Point um as you guys know um you know trees are are our primary cause of outages um and uh unfortunately our reading lines are are still overgrown so it's going to take a couple years for us to get caught up to a point um so but again it's all about reliability yeah I I understand from our point perspective it's reliability I get all of that reading is known as the tree City and there's a lot of initiatives to have more trees and totally read climate committee is looking to try to expand tree protection um in more formal ways so there's a lot of discussion about but yeah but no I understand you and we and we actually part of our our budget is actually plant trees as well so so you know again we like trees just not on the lines right just Red Buds are very good from the need lines they don't go very tall perfect we like it all right it load management um so um you know we talked the original plan was to have an update for you guys in June um but megga and I are working through bringing this with speed so we'll have more details shortly but couple of key meetings so uh we met with MWI connected hones um they they walked us through a program it's a residential program um there's some interesting elements of it we talked about some things that we probably tailor specifically to us um we would be their we would be the largest plat by far the largest system on that platform um we'll finalize what we end up doing after we hear a little more program details from E&E there they have a program that includes cni if you guys remember our top 50 customers represent half of our load are all Industrials so that's going to be important part of how we make the whole thing work we want to do something um and we're going to try and do these pieces even though we don't have all of our time review stuff in place that mov back to the Ami um realistically the time schedule on that project would be um uh installation probably at the end of 2026 just so you get just kind of big picture so we're going to try and do as much as we can between now and then these will be some key pieces the other element in there is we also had a chance to meet uh with the reading Cooperative Bank I think you guys remembered that VIN Ruchi was here um uh the May meeting and he walked through a state program which was a u a loan program tied to uh larger installations weatherization and air source heat pumps in particular um so we had a good meeting with them earlier this week they're Runing Cooperative Bank um uh we've got a followup meeting schedule but the goal is to try and get a program place by January we'll walk through more details on that one but um Our intention would be to take some of our um incentive dollars and um have them pay part of the interest on the on the notes so that's we'll walk through more details on the structure but that's the intention behind it Our intention is not to be a bank Our intention is not to hold a note Our intention is is to basically um make it you know have somebody that's good in terms of managing that and work going on electricity side um electrification conservation so the e um project so last time we did an update was in February um yeah we are we are looking at increasing the air source heat pump incentives um right now it's $1,000 a ton with a $6,000 maximum we're looking at changing both of those um the EV charging program the charger rebate program um it served its purpose at the time but it's um most of the new EVS now come with a charger or Provisions for the uh manufacturer to install the charger so we're going to redo that one um the art tool program um we there was a time when that was actually very useful um but remember the idea behind incentives to encourage people to do something they wouldn't normally do um remember the days of of lighting which is where the big program was you could buy incandescent at one point in time and complex for Essence and maybe some LEDs um but now we stopped the program when basically all you can really buy are LEDs so the same thing true of battery yard tools um snow blowers are a little bit different but most of the other yard tools are all battery powered so we're probably going to streamline that which will provide some additional um uh simplification in terms of how we how we make that happen inside organization so that's that's coming down the road Greg one quick question you said increasing is uh the air source heat pump incentives just talk a little bit about when you say increase well the idea behind it so um you know we uh the program works pretty smoothly right now uh we're doing just th bucks you said it's a th so the average so it's $1,000 dollar a ton the average system the average rebate is about $3,300 per rebate we do about 300 just under 300 a year but we've been kind of stable at roughly 300 a year for the past um three years um there's about so big numbers there's about 1,200 uh furnaces that get replaced each year so at 300 we're roughly a quarter of them we think that that's we we are confident that air source heat pumps are advantageous to the customers that install them when they're in a position where they need to replace a furnace obviously works for air conditioning too so that's another Catalyst but furnace of the keep driver um and it's also advantageous for all the other rate payers so all of our rate payers win as those airport air source pumps get installed our thought process to take that ,000 a ton and maybe increase that to1 00 or $1,250 a done and then also to take the $6,000 limit and move that that limit up to maybe $110,000 so those are the two primary things that we're looking at analysis on our goal is to try and see if we can't get to four or 500 um air source heat pumps installations on an annual basis in two or three years that's what we're trying to do so that's that's the idea behind there's no money from the state helping on that this is this is all this is all so this is this is all part of our eec program that's the half that we collected um per kilowatt hour um and nothing tied to the green communities or none of that stuff this is just it's it's our standard program um the other thing that's not on yeah go ahead can you can we tell if someone's replacing a pump like like the like is in in that application right it should be it should be a replacement of of oil or gas versus someone just up rating and you know how you determining that is that that's part that's a good question Bob so part of the criteria so we that's the other thing we'll look at we do allow um over a 10-year period two air source heat pump rebates to minimize that and the reason we have two and not just one is historically people have looked at because everybody's kind of getting well several years ago air source heat pumps were a little more novel they're a little more commonplace now people are more comfortable with them but they idea is that people used to do air source heat pumps in uh an addition um in a Bas conversion in an atct so they would just do one portion of it so um that's why we allowed for two so we're going to go back and look at that element um we do ask as part of our as part of the application are they replacing oil or natural gas is it is it whole house or not whole house at $3,300 you know these are these are three ton systems they're not whole housee systems typically we we actually want to encourage Hulk house where we can which is what the state wants us to do as well so to answer your question there is a limitation on it that's built into it we'll probably look at that as well in terms of making some changes does that help yes thank you so would it it didn't sound like we were looking at um whole house that's like a separate unique incentive though maybe but it's not that we're not looking at no so um the state is really trying to promote whole house yeah um and so and we think it's again we think it's a good thing for all of our customers um in terms in terms part this update where you're saying you're finalizing an update to the program as part of this update it'll be it'll include hous okay would you align it more with the Mass Save program they've got a different whole house yeah they have a different yeah so we're looking yeah so we're we're trying to take lessons from not only Mass Save but you guys remember um uh there was some suggestion to look at uh um efficiency main so efficiency main has a pretty aggressive program as well so trying to learn from both of them in terms of what works um so yeah trying to learn um that's but the fundamental piece is that the air source heat pump right now is the key driver I shouldn't say it's the it's a key piece of our eec program um and it is it already applies right now to commercials as well most of the Industrials really don't follow it but remember a third of our load is commercial 40% is residential and then the other third the last 30% roughly so it's 40% 3030 the Industrials is the last piece so we're really trying the other thing I want try and do is get more of the commercials engaged in the program as well again trying to just expand it out I mean converting a forced hot air gas or oil furnace with a heat pump is pretty straightforward it is it's the hard part is when you're dealing with Forest hot water correct and and that because you moving the air that would come from a heat pump um is difficult if you have forced hot water preheating but you have a central air conditioning unit actually that can be uh fairly easily done although the the duck size could be an issue for sound and other risk constraints but at least that's that's an option um it's just hard enough to crack and how yeah and how much you you require a complete home conversion when that's that's the base heating system um is a difficult thing clearly and so we estimate there's about, 1500 air source heat pumps that we've actually um run through our rebate program and there's roughly there's a roughly about 24,000 single family homes and then another 35 maybe 3,800 apartment um so from the residential side so we kind of think about that in terms of the structure the other element is a year and a half ago uh Mass Save for those customers that have natural gas they can do the Mass Save program as well which is and that's what I took advantage of yes that's what I took advantage of M yeah it was more it was a richer program what's that it's a richer it's a it's a it's a richer program if you're doing a whole house um which yeah which I didn't do I left my boiler as backup yeah well there's a there's a again that's there's a whole bunch of Mass Save is putting different conditions on it but remember you know the Mass Save program is a richer program but they're charging 3.3 three and a half cents um for there other customers right the electric customers to fund that program ours is a half a cent so ours is intentionally not quite as rich I mean it's it's not intent we don't Our intention is not to increase the eec rate is to figure out how we use the dollars we have more efficiently and in my case I went through my was not eligible for the rmld program it Mass Save only because I was a Gas customer yeah so well yeah I mean you could do either I mean do we have some customers that have gas that want to do the rld program for whatever reason which is fine okay yeah yeah whatever reason I thought I could only do the M you need to do one or the other we don't we don't yeah so and you chose well I sent a second application yeah I think the other thing that that is part of the air source heat from program is the weatherization program and you guys know we have a weatherization program that's tied it's it's a subset of the air source heat pump and so we're also looking at that to that's worked well um we have some limits on that as well so that'll be part of this this air source heat pump revisit so there's a lot of moving pieces to it and then back to your point um is that that you know we work through some external Partners um that help that that are expert in the space and so again we want to be very careful that rmld is not recommending systems but we're pro we're providing services and we you know we're we're providing Services third party Services um that can that can help customers make good decisions so it's a good overall it's a good program but we need to make it better so that's that's a and that goes you know the big picture of load management um the the the residential again is 40% of the load um and we're going to extend that into the commercials the Industrials is a harder enough to crack as well from a different set of perspectives because um you know they're they're looking for most of our customers with with one exception energy is a very small part of their cost structure and so they're much more focused on making sure production runs as opposed to hey you know so it's not zero but there's a there's an element there we have a so I I think we talked a lot about more electrification right now yeah and I think the spirit of what David was also asking was around load management and could you give us a sense I think that's the because I think what there been like historically been pushing is how do we reduce the load through Behavior right that's something that we want to think about not thinking about it those are the first two bullets right no so so help us think about what is the magnitude one could get in terms of load reduction I mean like so just just like what are weing we're talk we're talking so in terms of load management like when you talk about airs soce seat pumps you know you you can talk specific numbers like 300 you know units or something like that in terms of load management what is the potential for load production single digits percentages in in terms of customer Behavior now remember and we talked about before um you know our our Battery Systems and our our um resip two and half resip engine those are pretty straightforward in terms of load reductions and they work those are those are the big pieces what we have not been very successful on is the Shred the peak and so what the connected homes program and the en program were looking at would be residential in particular um and then we actually we want to do commercial and the question is how do we do industrial but that's those will be additional programs um that we would release that we would introduce that we've never had before that go to load Management on the on the customer side not just things that we would do I have a more very small picture but it could be important are we not uh I haven't seen any of the emails go out on had a string of very hot days in the last few weeks uh you did two weeks ago there was an email I don't think I've seen any yeah so so we did activate um so the June one we didn't make but the July ones we did hit we did we did do the communication out so so we uh we did that and then with the new marketing person coming in Our intention is to make those emails and all the communication even better but we did so the mass email went out I I'm 99% sure the mass email went out and the get it okay I'm on the list I will double check but I I know we did the I know we did the Social Media stuff I know we did the Tweet stuff um I will double check on the on the well anyways just so you guys know we're all on the list yeah I used to get them did you get any this year I don't you have you have like six board members saying that they're on the list and they didn't get it okay great um I'm just saying I mean it's it's it's just such a basic thing and it's a uh you know it's a thing that we've had in place for for years um that is with some you know effort an email list has been developed of people who seek to get the warnings yeah or the the prompts these are the same people who are the most likely to then act on the prompts people like myself and I think some of the others on the DS and all the others when I get those I act I turn my AC up I do other things um and I think a lot of people are the same so to say oh it's only a percent I mean I don't know that we have we can't necessarily measure it but we've had this program and it seems to have not nothing's happened so far this sumwhere on the mass email part and it's just it doesn't take that long to like send out the email yeah so so I just wondering why that's not happened well I think I explained to that in June that that I didn't have the proper staff in place to do it I thought that I had taken care of it in July apparently I I did everything except the email last no I'm just you want the answer I'm giving you the answer right so if you remember in the previous slide I replace the marketing person that's their primary responsibility so going forward we'll make sure that it happens totally good feedback but it's not like a full-time job to like load up the email four times a year not a fulltime job totally totally agree I think the issue too is through the constant contact we our it yeah Megan Our IT staff is doing something behind the scenes with the constant contact and it has to do with security so that there's an issue that we can't use it right now I don't know the details but yeah well we'll we engage so uh feedback well accepted um but I think you know the bigger picture um you know you want to we want to do as much as we can on load management and the reason why we want to do it is we've talked about this you know it's about working on Peak shaving for capacity and transmission and in 2025 already we know that the transmission cost is going to the transmission rate that we need to pay is going to be 20% higher than it was in 2024 so all the Battery Systems and this work on load management we need to start now don't get me wrong but we're you know there's nothing but upward pressure so our goal is to do everything we can to reduce it so um it's a focus I like Greg come up with the right answer but a possible answer is if they aren't using Constant Contact or whatever their mail email mess mailing list is based on your email could see it as spam anything that comes in a master L serve will be pulled out as spam so you have to have a proper way of Distributing that or you it'll get blocked in your spam right mass emails can get can get blocked that's true but I think you know the point's well taken everybody has a little different view in terms of how they get information so you know we want to be multiple channels to the extent we can't um and you guys know two years ago we got back into social which we we never were in before uh and we do the website stuff which now really looks at so anyway there's more stuff to do agreed we actually you know we have been collecting um uh when we sign up new customers um so we have to get permission to be able to text but do you want to be communicated via text as well so while emails we don't do there special rules tied to text so we we want to put that into the program as well in addition to um tweets Etc I know we've talked about it before about the town reverse 911 or whatever they call the code I've seen that done a couple times yeah yeah um I know that we don't have 100% of all the towns so maybe it's it's a little tricky but um another yeah yeah I mean we don't want it constant but once or twice a year they do on the there was a they send on the reverse 911 they sent out the the where the cooling centers were we could have we could have piggybacked on that yeah yeah that's a great Point yeah so but but just that that point I mean when were we likely to have hit the peak for this year the capacity Peak is it in July two weeks ago two weeks ago so we our number was roughly 143 megawatts which is a good number dark typically we're 159 159 megawatts and our Peaks 165 so we're okay but that's capacity and so so yeah so that's highly likely that that that was the peak for the year pretty high for the region and then of course you know every month on transmission so so again load management again again you guys know right you're beating the drum on transmission capacity this is the key piece of it so we're you know again we've taken action since since the last time we met in terms of of getting programs in place if you could just send us a note on what because first you said the emails did go out and then you wen't sure and then to talk about maybe went to spam if you could just give us the answer send us a note there you go there's the answer bottom line it didn't go outage oh okay there you go yeah than thank you okay uh that's that's that's got to any questions um anything else we want to the only other kind of topics not on here is just um kind of looking back we had goals that remember we you had a presentation on goals in January yeah that we and at some point we would we were talking about a review or a six-month review of those goals and a check-in and just wanted to see if we wanted to get something on the books for the next meeting or sure check in on the goals it said something about the six month 3 the review I don't know if that meant you know you reviewing department heads or us reviewing you but uh it seems like might be a good time to do a checkin great the maybe the next meeting what do you all think right time to do it um not on the schedule but um the killum school y has had some feedback from their Engineers what their heating system options are and they are narrowed it down to air source heat pumps ground Source heat pumps or a combination of both and it's pretty much rolled out U gas engines or any of the more conventional heating cooling systems um they will do a bring a drill rig in and do a test B hole to figure out what the heat connectivity to the ground is so they can have a better estimate of the grun source great heat system that will then allow them to design uh how many Wells they need how deep they need to be and and whatever and that will lead to how big a footprint that's requires and that will then determine whether it's a hybrid or or something else in terms of the that system forget now that that's the source of heat I forget how the heat being delivered to the building there are a couple of avenues there and we don't remember how that was doing um and I guess there's still some options about the solar um panels whether it's a PPA or or ownership thing and that's still under discussion I guess is that's totally tell me and I spoke um back in May on that very topic and then one of our ird individuals is part of the it's attending the meetings and representing rmld the killum school stuff yeah so we so we can stay involved in that so it will happen it's just what Financial structure so so so I think the bottom line for us is they will be elected we will be riding electric to the school um it and that some of that will be supplied from solar panels locally whether we own it and therefore we manage the power from it or whether they own it and they give any Excess power back to us I mean there's benefits to each side depending on how that's configured um if we were to own it then we could put in excess capacity because we could then use that excess capacity to the grid it'd be essentially pre powerered to us if they own it they would probably design it only for the capacity they need to the school since like build more than you need and and therefore they would it would only be well probably uh would deliver power in the summer probably not deliver power in the winter to the grid to us because they would they would use most of the winter power and um so that's that would be different if there's a hybrid of that then in which then it would be some other configuration is there some determination from the town or or the school board about solar on Parker or kill is there any has there been a vote or a determination or an opinion that's come down from the town on it no V we did a presentation back in May yeah um there were some internal discussions Rel that uh the department had had um they are asking so I'm when Matt gets back or when the town manager gets back I'll meet with him and the school board um not school board but the school president Tom and figure out what they want to do we're we're flexible either way at the end of the day um Parker is a relatively small system um we're happy to put it in if they want it um if they don't want it that's okay too uh we have been working through some issues in terms of how we would have to bid it that's a different topic but that they don't have to worry about that that's our issue not their issue so uh but it's all laid out it's all designed prices are there where do those where did those come from I'm sorry guys I'm haven't been that involved just curious I'll s the presentation happy pres presentation we had a third party look at a variety of different schools um and do a proposal in terms of power options okay it's a state anyways um third party did a series of proposals kilum is one of them North gr's another one um there are six schools but those are those are actually in a list of stuff that we talked about back in the uh the main meeting but I'll I'll share I'll send to the whole group The the kill just so not the killing school but the Parker School update just so you guys all have it in case somebody asks you okay yeah but there's a um you know there's you know one thing one of the things that we that we did as part of the um uh subcommittee is just funds flow so it' be important for people to understand funds flow um uh everybody involved so I'll probably add that to the present I'll send you what we we shared back in May and then I'll probably add that as well because I'll need that to walk them through what it really means if rlb owns it versus what they own it so the two options it doesn't it's um the real and in fact I met one of the select board members today happen to be in paying their bill but we talked about that project as well um at the end of the day these smaller projects um are good from an educational perspective they're good from a PR perspective they don't they don't move the needle significantly um in terms of economics but they're good things for us to do and we're more than willing to do them if if the individual building owner wants us to do them in the case of of the schools or well Park pick as a small system um you guys remember we made a we made a serious run at uh at the Burbank Ice Arena for a whole bunch of different intering options that would have been kind of a test bed but um again we want we're we're there to serve an offer and if it if somebody wants us to do it great if not it's okay we'll do our best we'll offer I should say so I'll get that to you have we to the end of the regular session great are we good with the schedule y so are we are we going to go back to separate meetings in September or we think do you guys want to stick with the joint meeting yeah stick with the joint great so so so the next meeting August 22nd are you guys going to be here available I'm not I know I'm not going to be here so that be so we got yeah trying to September yeah the I know the 19th does not work for me um in September the 26th I won't be here but I knowon will be here if she was here she could come have a wedding well all right that's right the alternative could be the 18th to 25th hey Bob so I know there was oh no uh I think Tim and Dennis has problems on Wednesday nights Thursdays are the best nights right yeah Wednesday is bad yeah Thursday's bad for me in the fall I can't I can't do Thursdays in the fall starting September starting September yeah going almost all the way to March I I can't to Thursday might not work you want to try Tuesday night only thing with Tuesday I just have to make sure they're not same days board meetings right well we could do that do you want to try some joint meetings on Tuesdays is that I mean look you guys schedule will be here support it I have no constraints on Tuesdays Bob Tuesday yeah okay great 17th 17th yeah sound good for everybody do do the 17th okay and that's a s board meeting so you could do any other Tuesday besides the 17th 24th I may not be to do that you want to join yeah do join I have no problem with that or or Monday's user for people Mondays aren't conflict me something that would work you know if we could kind of figure out something that works pretty consistently for everybody I don't think I don't know if we've ever even looked at Monday nights but I'd prefer not but to okay but Tuesday can work Wednesday can work I mean Thursdays work okay so the 17th well so if the 17th of conflict with the select board does that prevent us from doing it unless somebody wants to go to the select board and reading it's more like unless want to select board the okay uh we not 24 24 yeah was not great for well you want do I'm G miss the 22nd of August that I have to miss because onac oh then yeah we shouldn't do two back to back yeah I don't want to miss two back to back you don't so one who couldn't do the 19th so you guys want to stick with the 19th our worst case scenario in September we could do two meetings I mean I don't mind doing two meetings sep may we have to do two meetings in September uh what do we do budget presentations in September anyway October Bud oob October that be okay October I don't want to miss okay Mee you do two meetings in September if could you do the cab on the 19th and the uh the board on the 25th 19s work for you yeah cab 19 works for me no no sorry it didn't work no I'm sorry okay he's working two jobs to pay for that duck Bank okay so you want to do how about if we do the cab on the 17th yeah because there's no conflict there yeah and then we do and then we do um the boc on 20 well not well 24th okay that's fine 17th cab September 24th is that good for everybody yeah thank you sounds good appreciate it since that was challenging you want to try and do October October is gonna be two steps just remember we do the board we do the budget and we have a that's a twostep we can do it all together if you want but technically the cab has a right to look at it ahead of time we have we've been emailing the budget to them prior and then we've been doing the presentation joint just can do they have to visit Town that's correct no we did that last year yeah think I think it's gonna be Wilmington yeah because we did lynfield the year previous year um do you guys want to do the budget it's fine with me it matter me sure okay so October oh here we go same deal um 15th or the 22nd what's what's the U select board in October 15th is definitely out okay 22nd how's the 22 look for you guys that's wiing fine assuming I'm still alive that's tues it's a Tuesday and that's a budget meeting your meeting yeahi so you most likely it's going to be in Wilmington but we'll confirm that okay you said the 22nd 22nd of October does that work yeah going once going twice 22nd oober 22nd go forward okay so we'll book that'll be a joint meeting you guys want to try and do November while we're all together can't be November 19th uh how about and which when's the next 28th is Thanksgiving do you want to try and do the 26th or do you want to do the 12th sorry 29 sorry 28 so we should probably not do that 28 is Thanksgiving what about the 21st I'll be away the week of the 21st I mean Bob can't do Thursdays so oh that's I'm sorry that's right so how about is the 19th select board yeah okay so that makes 12 is really do we have I mean we don't meet as I don't is there a problem with us meeting on the same side as the select board I gen always told me it was an issue but I don't know if it's like actually an issue it might be fine all right let's let's let's live on the and make it the 19th I won't be here the 19 oh I'm sorry okay so the 12 well I can do the 26th I could do we could do the 26 do the 26 work for everybody here I mean we got you guys know your plans that's the Tuesday of Thanksgiving is it okay Bob uh yeah put it in we'll figure it out go to agree gotta pick dat long as we get long as we get three okay let's just put a placeholder we can change it 26th of November okay great that's good discuss it further on yep we can change it at least we got a placehold good ready to roll right um You gotour yeah no that's what I'm saying we're ready to move right um move that deis advis board regular session second can we'll try I okay thank you okay thank you thank you great move at the rml Board of Commissioners executive session pursu to massachusett General chapter 154 section 47d exempt from public records and open meeting requirements in certain instances to discuss the reputation character physical condition or mental health rather or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of or complaints or charges brought against a public officer employee staff member or individual in the approval of meeting minutes and return to regular session for the sole purpose of a journey second favor hi look like a 5 thank you very much we bring these in