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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Net Metering


                                                             Net Metering
   The question about Net METERING is a question that is asked a lot lately.
I’ve heard it over and over when I go around door to door having a petition or two signed and it has brought me to focus on the answers I find and will share with the people who are interested! As I do with any answer I give I research and gather info get the opposition side which I already had on net metering from the light department general manager. He wants nothing to do with it and many other things from what I gather. Sterling light dept general manager Sean Hamilton has a negative attitude with their net metering setup. They do net metering and have for some time. But now that the natural gas electric is priced so low it’s hard to pay the price for the net metering and have your books look good, and they don’t want to continue at the rates they were paying. It doesn’t work out for them to look as good as they want to look! My question would be how about how good the wind turbine cost looks after we dove into the water knowing it was an unknown gamble and could have done much better with a solar town wide infrastructure for us all to be proud of.”Fact”We are told to be 20% Green renewable energy by the year 2020.”Fact”Wind is our all in energy,highest cost , most unreliable as we can see.
   The facts are there to see when it cost to not make energy and it costs to pay on loans to not make energy there comes a time to change the way the decisions get made. I can tell you it’s all about the money and it’s more than meets the eye. Templeton has bought a machine that has poor design and a very high cost to maintain. It seems it was a looser from the start. It broke when they started it and has nothing but problems like the others similar to it. “Enough” about the mistakes. What about the future of our power source. We need to be 20 Green renewable by 2020 that fact won’t go away. So if the people that desire Net Metering want it why shouldn’t we get it? I check with a solar energy firm about getting free solar panels, with lease to own and they looked at my houses from the sky and said that it would work well as the trees pose little problems and would love to help me. When I told them who my electric provider was.
Templeton Municipal Light and Water Plant , owe he said well we don’t do work in your area and if we expand into your area we’ll let you know. The other power companies want them but TMLWP can’t make any Renewable energy credits off the solar setups like that, So you guessed it! Driscoll won’t do it
As I said it’s all about the money,your money. If you keep it TMLWP won’t have it to spend. On wind farms and solar farms,pay raises who knows what? With net metering you keep it and that’s a problem for them. Their control of funds starts to cloud then the control of power for COOP and MMWEC and the corporations they form to sell the power back to us they produce for us to use. How many times is it not for profit power and the cost is higher than the grid!   ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Your TAX rebates and other benefits you won’t get are your money and not for them to control. The only solar that pays off for us now is hot water solar. I know my inlaws have  had it for 35 years and only 1 time needed repair’s 1,000.00 for a new tank. It still works well and can last for a lot longer.Their system has paid for itself 10+ times over.
If Templeton wants NET METERING we can get it. If we put solar into 25% of the houses in town it would bring us into the 20% green energy by 2020 and we would own it in a short time. With the road were on at TMLWP we will need to pay over and over for turbine repairs and when 2020 gets here who knows what it will bring us. A cost to decommission the turbine would be big bucks and only a guess now. We still don’t know what it cost us without the audit complete. Our town gets a pilot from the TMLWP and based only on the total sales when the name payment in leu of taxes implies based on a tax. Why were they so quick to ok a payment of 150k. It has something to do with the Renewable energy credits they take from the coop and that’s our Money. The real money they don’t pay tax on investments were in. The money could have been invested in a very different way but that wouldn’t work out for them,it would work out for us however. The Amount of the payment money/interest and cost of maintaining the turbine could purchase a lot of solar panels and would have a small cost to maintain. We would own one hell of a lot solar power in Templeton For Templeton now!
                Why do we have such a negative General manager and Light commission?
                                                   IT”S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!
                                                              “OUR MONEY”
                                                      Your correct jerry skelton 
                                                        “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”
                       Changes are needed at the TMLWP Vote for change  April 30 – 2013
                                             Dave Smart for Light  Commissioner!
                                                                Please Vote!
                                                    Thank you Templeton voters!

3 comments:

  1. David, you have spent a lot f time looking into the problems ant TML&W. I know you have scratched the surface. I found it interesting that Section 164-56 of the Ma.General Laws, under Management of Plant says, "All monies payable to or recieved by the city town, Manager or municipal light board in connection with the operation of the plant, for the sale of gas or electricity, or otherwise shall be paid to the city or town treasurer." Now, I think we have been missing something along the way!! Where are the payments to the town the Light Company should have made to the town??? Where have the "Energy credits" gone?? Guess the light Commissioners need someone like you Dave, to watch over this bunch. Like they say, the more you dig, the worse it looks. Shades of GS all over the place. My opinion, Bev.

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  2. So, if I bought land in Templeton, built a house that was completely off the grid (well water, solar panels) and wanted to tie in my solar panels to the light co. in order to sell back surplus power I didn't need, I couldn't do that because the light co. does not want to be involved with that type of transaction? I'm just trying to understand. Thank you.

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  3. The average home wouldn't produce enough for them to be bothered with,unless you produce at least a 1 megawatt thats 1 million watts and a fairly large amount of panels. The price they will pay may not be worth the investment even for a 1 or 2 mw farm and their limit is 2 mw for all future combined purchases.They made sure their locked in to control their power purchase porfolio.In 2009 TMLWP started their/our 6.84 kw solar unit at bridge street. Thats only 6,840.watts. Problem i see with it is we had to go through MMWEC to do that project also. No idea about the price we paid for it and the payback period For financing and other reasons i wonder about. Our former TMLWP General manager is one of the MMWEC directors and would seem like a conflict of interest to me,to be a general manager and a board member where the power is purchased from. Even the COOP with princeton has a bit of twine holding it together.
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    Dave Smart

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