9.11.2012 As
Templeton turns…Light Dept. Meeting
After
the water meeting concluded, the Light department meeting began. The first
agenda item was “Wind Turbine Generator Maintenance”. The wind turbine was out
of service for 45 days. The cost to repair the turbine was $30,000. A loss of
115,000 kilowatt hours and an overall wind generation loss of $11,800 in
addition to the cost of repairs. Both bearings were gone and had to be
replaced.
AAER
is the company from which TMLWP purchased the wind turbine. AAER is bankrupt.
It not longer exists. AAER went bankrupt after receiving bailouts from the
Canadian government. At the meeting Mr. Driscoll stated “ that ours is the only
turbine from AAER that is still working”.
The
wind turbine will need babysitting to keep it operational. The useful life of
this turbine is estimated to be between 20-25 years. $25,000/year is budgeted
for routine maintenance. Currently, no money is set aside for non-routine
maintenance… for blade inspection, gearbox issues, to torque the bolts.
The
audit of the wind turbine construction financials should be available on or
about October 31, 2012. Happy Halloween!
Wind
turbine maintenance bids came up for discussion later in the meeting. These
bids are for routine maintenance of the wind turbine. TMLWP went out to bid
even though they are NOT subject to
bidding laws. The bids included prevailing wage figures and were very high. The
cost of these bids would have added 3 cents/kilowatt hour to energy generated
from the wind turbine. Routine scheduled maintenance will performed by TMLWP.
The
Berkshire Wind Recloser –
TMLWP
is part of the Berkshire Wind Coop. 10% of our energy portfolio is from wind
generation. Berkshire was down for 12 days in August (8/11-8/23) with a loss of
$150,000 for the 12 days. The reason for the outage was a damaged
recloser….possibly a lightning strike. This recloser controls the entire wind
farm. There were no spare parts on hand to get the wind farm up and running.
King
Phillip Trail Recloser-
On
August 6th there was power interruption. Crews were sent out to
isolate the problem. When the crew went to the King Phillip recloser, it
exploded. We are fortunate there were no injuries. This type of recloser is
only 6 years old and there is one more of the same type on Baldwinville Rd.
Stay safe out there!
My
opinions…supported by FACTS ! !
Julie
Farrell
Julie - what do you propose we do about this? Are the costs greater than the benefits?
ReplyDeleteWind power is not ecomical, per the federal government's website, in our area. Is it time to cut our losses and abandon this boondoggle?
Well, Last I heard, it was going to cost $33,000. just to have a guy come from Austria to look at the thing! It is about time, the people on that board start treating the money they spend, like it was their own. I must say poor planning is the norm, for too many of the boards in this town. No excuse, considering the money someone like Mr.Driscoll is being paid. If he went to a big company board of directors and gave a report like this, he would be on the out side looking in! Dana, kick these guys in the ass. You would not have bought something like this, and then not made provisions for up keep. Where is the money coming from? Me, my neighbors, this is not ok. This light company was in good shape until GS and company started paying people like they were royality. Even the best of boards will not stay solvent, spending money like a drunk sailor. Well, the only good thing that I could see that came out of this meeting is, the guys now know how dangerous it can be to work on the recloser. Forewarned, is better than not knowing at all. I am also very happy that they could find someone to fix the thing, without flying the guy here from Austria! I still think we could sell advertising on the blades. We will get some of our money back, somehow. Bev.
DeleteHi Mark,Hi Jeff , Hi Bev!!
DeleteMark,
I think the audit of the wind turbine will give some good data to analyze whether or not the turbine should be kept operational "at all cost". I forgot to mention that Mr. Driscoll stated that if the gearbox(big bucks) were to fail it would fail within the first 1 - 5 years.
I do think at this point the audit will show the costs are greater than the benefits. I think a dollar figure needs to be determined for the cutoff point where no more money will be put into the turbine. I hope I'm wrong....don't think I am.
There was another water main break on Patriots Rd.
Gotta run!
once again, there seems to be no common sense at tmlwp. Not sure why, but perhaps it is the culture over there, as in everything has to cost big bucks, maybe time to look at who is up for reelection next go round. Again, time to run the light dept like a business and not like a financial windfall for some with no thought to costs or rate payers, the rate payers do not have unlimited deep pockets and again, time for taxpayers and ratepayers to put pressure on the light commissioners and find out about the 4% of net revenue they should be using for the basis of payment in lieu of taxes, check out the public power website for a complete explanation, remember Templeton, it is YOUR light co. go to the meetings and act like stock holders, you ARE entitled to the reports and information and remind john driscoll who he actually works for. Might also ask hime why sean hamilton had to be ther for that political walk through, seems like an engineer should have been able to explain things. My opinion as usual and most people know where I stand...with them, the taxpayers
ReplyDeleteThe Light Dept. seems to be able to fly under the radar and do what they want. It is time we told the Light Dept. that "we" Templeton taxpayers are the owners of this Dept. and we want accountability. Will Spring is trying to bring this about. jeff, thanks for keeping abreast of the situation at the Light Dept.
DeleteThere was a time, that the light department ran with the main goal to provide electricity, at a reasonable cost to tax payers. Some how all those good intentions went by the wayside. Now, I am beginning to wonder if they know what they are doing! On the way to giving this town the basic service it deserves, a few side trips have been taken, to make more than one person very, very well paid. On Saturday, I got a chance to talk to our Rep. John Oliver. He has done alot to help our town when we asked. He is going to retire, and will be missed. He asked me about the wind mill. You know, I did not have the heart, to tell him what a lemon we had bought. Bev.
Deletewhere were you all?
ReplyDeleteI can't ask all the questions!
Only 7 showed up for water meeting.
Only 3.5 stayed for the light meeting!
We need more people to go to get changes made.
Oh crap, I did not know there was a meeting. This old girl needs a reminder. Bev
Delete