ELECTRIC-CITY
Woonsocket officials explore wind turbines, solar farms as ways to save on energy costs
WOONSOCKET – After a series of energy efficiency improvements at public buildings, the city has cut its energy consumption by nearly 20 percent since 2015, Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt says.
“Energy is a place we’ve been saving money,” the mayor said. “We’ve been extremely focused on it and we’re going to stay focused on it.”
The mayor and the City Council were supposed to have a meeting tonight to consider switching electricity providers to save $200,000 over 20 months, effective April 1. Apparently due to the likelihood of inclement weather, however, that session was canceled and the pro- posed contract with Champion Energy Services will be taken up at another meeting, Baldelli-Hunt said.
The mayor’s comments come just a week after the City Council’s Subcommittee on Renewable Energy unanimously approved a resolution to issue an open request for proposals for “green” energy projects, including wind turbines and solar farms.
Council Vice President Jon Brien, chairman of the three-member subcommittee, says the vote means the panel will ask the full council to consider a measure to move forward with the request for energy proposals. Brien serves on the subcommittee with Councilman Christopher Beauchamp and Councilman James Cournoyer.
Brien said the idea is to explore the possibility of forming partnerships with green energy entrepreneurs. The city, he said, could serve as a catalyst for such projects by leasing city-owned land to developers of various projects.
The subcommittee has an open mind about what kinds of projects it might consider, according to Brien.
The RFP process is a way of casting a wide net to sam-
ple the level of interest, with an eye toward opening up a dialogue with possible developers.
“Let’s see what’s out there,” said Brien. “We’ll
drop a line in the water and see if there’s anything to catch.”
Brien said the subcommittee was formed after Invenergy Thermal Development, the Chicago company that wants to build a 1,000 megawatt, fossil fuel-powered cogeneration plant in Burrillville tried to buy water from the city in 2016. The council rejected the $18 million, 20-year contract for the Clear River Energy Center, but Brien said the discussion piqued his interest in alternative energy development and prompted the council to form a renewable energy subcommittee.
Apprised of the subcommittee’s vote last week, Baldelli-Hunt said her administration is already doing some of the very work that the council subcommit-
tee proposes.
Baldelli-Hunt said her administration is already talking to the state Department of Environmental Management about the city’s eligibility for a brownfields grant to clean up a mill site for a possible solar farm. She continues exploring the feasibility of bringing a solar farm to “multiple sites” in the city.
The mayor said she’s also considering creating a “solar garden” – sort of the utility equivalent of a community vegetable garden. Such a facility would establish a fixed number of solar panels at a city-owned location, but individual panels or small groups of them would be owned by residents. The setup would allow homeowners who want to reap the benefits of solar power
without necessarily having to erect the panels on their own property or rooftops.
“We have been working in this area for quite some time, so it would be prudent for the chairman to set up a meeting to review what we’ve accomplished here,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
As for the savings in electricity costs since 2015, Baldelli-Hunt says they resulted largely from a series of improvements at Woonsocket Harris Public Library, the Woonsocket Senior Center and City Hall that have taken place during the last several years.
After conducting an energy audit to determine where the city could achieve the most efficiencies, she said the city upgraded boilers, heating and ventilation systems, and switched out lighting fixtures to energy-stingy LED fixtures, including some at River Island Park.
As a result, the city’s energy consumption dropped from approximately 14.6 million KwH to 11.7 million KwH during over roughly three years. That translates to a decline of about 19.8 percent in overall energy consumption, according to the mayor.
Baldelli-Hunt says the
city now proposes to cut the city’s power bill even more with a change in providers, switching from Direct Energy to Champion Energy Services.
The city got into a contract with Direct Energy at a time when the city’s creditworthiness was in question because it was under the control of a state-appointed Budget Commission. Disbanded in March 2015, the commission was seated in order to prevent the city from lapsing into insolvency.
“Nobody wanted to sell us energy,” Baldelli-Hunt recalled.
Finally, with help from the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, the city was able to make deal with Direct Energy. The city currently pays the companyb .0884 cents per KwH for power.
The city has a tentative agreement to enter a 20-month contract with Champion Energy Services, which would provide power for .07071 cents per HWH, a reduction that would save the city a projected $200,000 over the life of the pact.