At the May 1, 2024 Lynnfield Center Water District’s Board Meeting, LCWD’s Board of Water Commissioners voted to include a Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) land lease proposal as part of the Warrant for the May 23, 2024 Annual District Meeting. The proposal is requesting a lease of certain sections of the Glen Drive Water Treatment facility parcels for the purpose of constructing non-carbon energy sources through solar panels and battery cell farms. Execution of the lease is contingent on acceptance of the lease by District members and successful permitting with all local and state regulatory agencies.
RMLD has a specific target to provide energy to all customers from non-carbon sources net-zero by 2050 and is looking to partner with the LCWD to lease land at Glen Drive for solar and battery storage. “This Lynnfield Solar Battery project is another component of RMLD’s investment in maintaining high reliability, low-cost, and increasingly non-carbon energy for all its customers,” said Greg Phipps, RMLD General Manager. “In addition, this Lynnfield Solar Battery project can provide backup power to the new LCWD station and provide additional funds to help LCWD keep its rates low.”
If passage of the lease is successful, RMLD will begin a lengthy permitting process which will include review by State agencies and local board and commissions. Once permitted, the RMLD project will coincide with the construction of the new Glen Drive Treatment Plant with an anticipated completion date in 2025-2026.
“This board has taken a lot of time discussing current and future water rates. We are also beginning to pay off debt for our own capital projects. We have to do everything possible to raise revenue to support the operating budget and capital projects. Partnering with RMLD makes the most sense from a revenue perspective. Additionally, RMLD will provide the district backup power to the Glen Drive Treatment Plant. In the event of a power outage, there will be no disruption of service to our customers.” said Commissioner Steven Walsh. The RMLD project will create back-up electrical service for the entire grid both in times of outages and during summer peak demand situations. The rise of electric vehicles, electrical heating systems, etc. has put a new demand on the RMLD grid and this is an environmentally friendly approach to creating additional power to meet these ever-growing demands.
The project will coincide with the construction of the new Glen Drive Treatment Plant with an anticipated completion date in 2025-2026. Director John Scenna feels that he and his project management team can efficiently coordinate both projects. He also applauded RMLD for minimizing impacts on the site by utilizing areas being disturbed already by the Glen Drive LCWD Treatment Plant project. The RMLD project site will not be in the vicinity of the wells or the zone of influence of said wells nor will it be on wetlands. The building is already being constructed to support the panels with direct piping available to bring the power into the electrical room of the facility. Scenna stated that “The efficiencies created by partnering with other municipalities and municipal utilities are needed in our working environment. Their needs are ultimately the needs of our customer base as well. Overall, I feel this is a win for the Lynnfield Community as a whole and it also helps us manage financial impacts forthcoming, caused from running the new, much larger, treatment plant.” Members of the District are invited to attend the May 23, 2024 Annual District Meeting and vote on this article.
To view the video and presentation from the May 1st meeting, please go to the LCWD site here. The Annual District Meeting will be held at 6:00 PM on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at the Merritt Center, 600 Market Street. The Warrant for the Annual District Meeting can be found here.
