My name is Jake Vaillancourt and I am one of your elected commissioners on the Hull Municipal Light Board. I want to inform the ratepayers of Hull about their municipal utility (also known as a Municipal Light Plant, or MLP) and specifically talk about our investment in Project 2015A – an $85-million, brand-new fossil-fuel peaking power plant.
Hull’s municipal light plant is a department of the town. It does not receive any monies from the town’s general budget, which is funded through taxes. The MLP’s budget comes from ratepayers through their monthly electric bills. Hull’s MLP board is tasked by Massachusetts state law with setting electrical rates and advising the manager on policies.
The MLP in Hull owns, operates, and maintains the electrical wires and distribution infrastructure throughout town. Hull’s ratepayers enjoy a much lower cost per unit of electricity than our neighbors who are served by privately-owned, for-profit utility companies. Hull’s MLP does not have a goal to generate a profit.
The MLP also owns and maintains contracts to purchase electricity to then resell to the ratepayers of Hull. Hull’s MLP is one of 20 other MLPs that pays the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) for a variety of services.
MMWEC is essentially an aggregator and project developer. It largely develops, buys, and manages electrical contracts and generating assets that member MLPs own. One of these assets that is planned to be built in 2022 is Project 2015A, an oil and gas fueled “peaker” plant, meaning that it operates when energy demand is high.
The project was conceived nearly seven years ago with the intention of providing capacity to its participating MLPs. Back in 2015, because of constraints in the grid, this was an area of significant focus in Massachusetts. However, due to many changes over the course of the last seven years, there is much less of a need for more capacity resources like 2015A.
Hull is one of 14 MLPs that signed a contract in 2017 to own 1.28 MW (2.13%) of the project’s 55 MW overall capacity. As part of this, we are required to pay nearly $2 million of our ratepayers’ money for this brand-new piece of fossil fuel infrastructure.
This project is not only a step backward in our town’s effort to combat climate change, it is also not financially responsible. Recently, I learned that if Hull were to sell its share of this project, we could realize savings of between $4 and $8 per year for the average ratepayer. I know that $4 to $8 does not sound significant, but that amount of money could have a substantial and positive impact if it were invested in things like energy efficiency programs or clean energy projects.
Selling our shares in the project and instead investing in clean energy would also contribute to meeting Hull’s goal of becoming 100% carbon free by 2030, which has been established as a town goal through a Town Meeting vote that created a committee specifically focused on this objective. If Hull stays in project 2015A, it will be impossible to achieve this clean energy goal.
There is no upside for Hull or its ratepayers to remain in Project 2015A. It is clear to me that, while MMWEC as a project developer is committed to moving forward because it does not want to risk its reputation, this is not the right project for our town and our community. For Hull, the costs and the impact to the environment do not outweigh any potential benefits.
I encourage Hull residents and ratepayers to attend our next light plant board meeting, which will be held on April 21 at 6:30 p.m. At this meeting, we will be taking public input on this matter, and it is anticipated that the board will vote on whether to sell our share of this project or remain committed to this expensive, polluting facility.
I encourage you to voice your opinion before the light board makes a final decision on this topic.
Jake Vaillancourt is an elected member of the Hull Municipal Light Board. The views expressed here are his own.
Op/Ed by Jake Vaillancourt
