After a second subcommittee meeting on the issue, the City Council voted to move forward with a municipal microgrid project at Monday night’s meeting.
The project seeks to provide emergency power to ensure continuity of public services, while promoting energy resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through new energy (battery) storage facilities at City Hall and the police station, coupled with solar panels on the DPW City Yard, according to City Manager Ned Keefe.
Keefe requested that the council approve an energy services agreement (ESA) with Ameresco, Inc. in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws and authorize a lease purchase finance agreement for the borrowing of funds in the amount of $3,615,699 for the first phase of the microgrid project.
During the initial subcommittee meeting on the requests, several councilors raised concerns about the safety of the lithium batteries, as well as the financial feasibility of the project ultimately paying for itself.
Monday night, several councilors stated they were comfortable with the safety of the project, and that it would be a potential benefit for the city, approving Keefe’s requests by a 9-0 vote.
“I have enjoyed the process of learning more about this,” said Councilor-at-Large Brian Hatleberg. “I initially took this as a cost savings proposal. I was very cautious trying to understand what went into it, and I am grateful to staff for the work that went into this.”
Hatleberg said the microgrid project is an opportunity for the city to begin the process of trying to build a more stable energy grid.
During the public speaking portion of Monday’s council meeting, Planning Board member Sarah Neville read a letter from her mother-in-law, who lives in Puerto Rico, about the major power grid issues the island had following Hurricane Maria in 2017.
“I don’t believe this project in and of itself is going to revolutionize the grid, but everything starts somewhere,” said Hatleberg. “I believe this is a very important first step in making sure that we can build a more resilient grid here. It also has the particularly nice feature of looking like something that will be strongly financially positive for us.”
District 1 Councilor Todd Taylor said he initially had some concerns about the safety and financing of the project. After meeting with Fire Chief Leonard Albanese and the project vendor, Taylor said many of his questions about safety were answered to his satisfaction.
“The safety portion aside, I think that the financial risk in whether these batteries operate as advertised is a real question,” said Taylor. However, Taylor noted the minimal financial risk to the city was worth it to see how the project works.
“If it doesn’t operate as advertised, I’ll be the first one to try to put the kibosh on the rest of it,” said Taylor.
District 7 Councilor Tanairi Garcia said she lived through Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and lost electricity for 10 months, adding that improving the power grid in Chelsea could help if the city ever faces a natural disaster.