CMLP director reports new bus chargers installed, landfill solar-plus-storage progress, broadband upgrades and staffing needs

Director Jason gave a multi-part operational briefing that covered recent installations, ongoing projects, staffing and audit progress.

On charging infrastructure, Jason said two level-3 chargers at the bus depot have been installed under a school grant and can provide up to about 60 kW (two ports). He said the school has one newer bus capable of fast charging and discharging and is considering adding two more electric buses and one additional charger. He noted that a vehicle-to-grid rate approved by the board is a prerequisite for full V2G operation.

On the landfill solar-plus-storage project, Jason reported the proposed expansion would increase output from roughly 1.5 MW AC to about 4 MW AC and add energy storage. He said filings with the state are still pending, a planning-board special permit process is continuing, and the town has held cross-department meetings (assessor, CFO, council) to discuss pilot arrangements and potential town impacts.

Jason also described two recent outages — one caused by a squirrel and another by a fallen branch that affected two phases — and said crews and protection devices worked as designed. He noted a related broadband impact at substation 479 but said mitigation and battery backups restored services.

On broadband, Jason said senior network engineer Ahmed Balazid will leave next week; CMLP has strengthened redundancy with another engineer on staff and is recruiting. The network core was upgraded from 10Gb to 100Gb-capable routers to address rapid bandwidth growth and improve load balancing across ISPs. The board also heard updates on plans to pilot fiber access in multi-dwelling units (MDUs) and to add Wi-Fi access in town facilities.

Jason said auditors are working toward timely completion of the annual financial statements (target two to four weeks) and praised the value of using an auditor experienced with municipal light plants to help resolve rate-base and accounting questions.

Public commenters raised privacy concerns about AMI and large-building reporting. Fran Cummings (Climate Action Committee) urged the town to consider voluntarily providing aggregated large-building energy reporting for planning purposes; Gail Hire (fiber petitioner) supported MDU work but urged privacy-by-default for individual AMI data and asked that new broadband conduit include spare capacity for future expansion or competitors. Jason and staff said they are tracking DOER discussions and have verification practices for customer inquiries; the board agreed to consider reporting and confidentiality issues in future meetings.

Staff and board members acknowledged recruitment challenges for specialized utility trades and said hiring efforts are underway to fill upcoming retirements and skill gaps.