Marblehead Municipal Light Commission
Dec. 19
League of Women Voters Observer: Maggie Smist
Members in attendance: Jean Jacques Yarmoff, Michael Hull, Simon Frechette, Adam Smith, and Lisa Wolf (chair). Joe Kowalik, General Manager, and Colin Coleman, Technical Operations Manager
1. Call to order. Approve Nov. 21 minutes and public comment. Meeting called to order at 4:08 p.m. Land acknowledgment read, and minutes were passed. Hull asked not to use acronyms in minutes. Hull reported a pole down on Damon’s Way yesterday, and a homeowner from this neighborhood wrote a note of thank you to the MMLD.
2. Outstanding items and requests from previous meetings: 1) Retain recruiter for critical hires 2) Duracell Battery proposal status There is an outstanding question on dual meters. Public filing will be in the local papers this week. There is also a question on analog meters – Kowalik is drafting a letter on this topic to the public – this was discussed at the November meeting.
Status on retaining a recruiter – Kowalik signed a contract with recruiter, and there are two positions to be filled. Lisa recommended Simon join Kowalik to be on the interview committee. Kowalik has to make the final decision on hiring, but Simon will give questions to Kowalik to ask. Kowalik is also working with the town administrator on a position that has been posted for a year. Lisa asked if job description has changed – Kowalik said it has not changed.
Duracell property proposal status – Kowalik hasn’t done anything on it yet. Mike has not heard back about training in this area.
3. Engineering manager update: Wind (60 mph plus) knocked down trees in the storm the day before per Kowalik. There were some other outages in town. Feedback is that tree-trimming program has been advantageous to Marblehead during this storm. Kowalik received six mutual aid requests from other towns late on Monday due to the storm. Maine requested 20 line operators to go to Maine. Marblehead has sent a crew.
Coleman, the engineering manager, gave updates on his work on checking on substations, transformer testing, power plant, meters, billing, heating system in the office building etc. Kowalik and the commission asked him questions on processes and timing. Kowalik praised Coleman’s management of the group with authority and clarity.
Some of the topics discussed by Coleman also included: Coleman is looking for different sites for batteries.
He discussed one distribution line and its age from Village substation. Line is on Village and goes out to West Shore Drive.
He is dealing with the Water and Sewer departments with alarms going off in pumping station due to the rain. Sewer Department is critical customer per Kowalik.
Coleman is working on solutions to the meter infrastructure system. He discussed equipment has come in and installation of the equipment. He updated the commission on a condo project on Lime Street.
ISO approached Coleman about buy-backs from Atlantic Street substation. Compliance inspection completed.
Inventory energy program will be participated in by Marblehead – offered by ISO. It is to assist during cold spells.
Discussed various audits done throughout the year. Wolf asked commissioners to follow up with Coleman on any questions they may have,
4. ISO updates on winter projections
Kowalik said ISO is predicting slightly higher temperatures this winter but also higher precipitation.
ISO has slightly elevated concerns about higher electric use. Kowalik feels concerns are due to supply and delivery of natural gas. ISO will continue to monitor natural gas availability.
5. 2024 budget discussion
$21.69 million budget for 2024 but they are waiting for more information from MEMIC. Kowalik does not expect much change after receiving information from MEMIC. There was a discussion about “hedging” and Kowalik will meet with the marketing team this week. Kowalik is trying to work more with Hydro-Quebec. Kowalik worked through budget items at a macro level with the commission. It was decided to wait for final numbers before making final vote on budget.
6. Jackie Lemmerhirt, advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) and meter data management (MDM) consultant. Overview of background and Mass/NE Muni experience. Ratify contract She. was not available – she will meet in January with group. Service agreement has been signed with her. Lemmerhirt has worked with automated meters and integrating the meters into the system that Marblehead is looking to use. Kowalik has reviewed her references and thinks she can be helpful.
7. Write-outs on inactive accounts
Motion made to write off on inactive accounts for November 2021 – October 2022 for $73,436.84. Moved and approved.
8. Proposal to MIT Sloane School
Marblehead will host a team and calendar is laid out for 2024. Work would happen between first and second quarter 2024. Idea is to have the MIT team work on a project proposed by the commission. Possible ideas are time of use, storage, resilience, or microgrid. Yarmoff asked for other possible project ideas. Discussion followed about last year’s project and how to improve this year’s experience. Yarmoff is meeting with Sloan this week and encouraged others from the gathered group to join him. He is looking at the time of use project for MIT Sloan, but it will be decided after the meeting.
9. MMLD fiber optic communications system – Maintenance contract with vendor Upnine, Norwell – discussion and VOTE contract has been received. Options are for a contract for 1, 3, or 5 years. Kowalik also discussed the idea of 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. communication system monitoring, and if there is great value then Marblehead will move to 24 hours. Kowalik is proposing a three–year contract and 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. monitoring option. Motion moved and voted to approve to cover the cost of Kowalik’s proposal.
10.Village 13 update – Tioga Way site update. Kowalik gave an update of where sewer and electric lines are laying. The proposed design was reviewed with S. Essex sewer district, an engineering firm and the water and sewer department. The project is more complicated than they originally thought – there has been a proposal to tweak the design.
There was a discussion about the possible change in design and possible concerns. Kowalik wants to bring in a site developer to discuss grading of property and getting easements needs to be handled first. Yarmoff asked for a timeline to be presented at the next meeting. Project cost is about $200,000.
11. EV school bus discussion
Discussion is beginning at the commission level since there is an EPA rebate program being offered as a lottery. It would be worth $200,000. Application process is easier and the deadline is Jan. 31, 2024. The commission has to sign an affirmation with the project, but it is a non-binding program. School Committee has to ok it as well as the MMLD.
MMLD will need to find a depot to charge the bus. Discussion around whether town is ready to jump into this lottery. Motion was passed to sign the affirmation.
Meeting adjourned at 6:52 p.m.