CMLP reports: time‑of‑day billing rollouts, broadband migration and Walden Street solar expansion

At its April 8 meeting the Concord Municipal Light Board received several operational updates from staff, including a schedule for time‑of‑day billing, broadband migration plans, and large‑scale solar projects.

Jason, a CMLP staff member, said the utility will migrate customers to a new time‑of‑day rate over the next bill cycles (10th, 20th and month‑end), with migrated customers’ bills expected to go out May 10. Staff have prepared targeted communications for specific customer groups and will run post‑go‑live messaging with vendor Questline. Jason also reported that data quality is strong overall, with roughly 10 residential meters out of more than 6,500 showing lower‑than‑ideal reporting and that staff will investigate and replace meters as needed.

Broadband staff described an XGS‑PON migration scheduled during an overnight maintenance window (midnight–6 a.m.) to move about 900–950 customers onto new hardware; the migration window runs through April with April 30 as the target completion date. Staff praised recent vendor training and certifications completed by network personnel.

On generation projects, CMLP described plans to expand the Walden Street landfill solar array from 1.5 MW AC to 4 MW AC and to add a battery described in meeting remarks as a "5 by 20" unit; the developer Kearsarge has applied for a special permit and submitted MassDEP materials, and staff said planning‑board review was expected in April. Jason also updated the board on SCADA equipment deliveries and long‑range transmission discussions with Eversource about adding feeders to improve resilience.

Procedurally, the board approved minutes from March 4 and March 11 and later moved into executive session to discuss two confidential power‑supply contracts under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law exemption for competitively sensitive information.