Massena Electric Department

Approved by the MEUB June 26, 2023 Page |1 `MASSENA ELECTRIC UTILITY BOARD MINUTES of Thursday, May 18, 2023 Town of Massena Electric Department – 71 East Hatfield Street Present: James Shaw Andrew McMahon, Superintendent Charles Raiti Margo Rochefort, Deputy Treasurer Richard Maginn Matt Gray, Deputy Superintendent John Bogosian Debra Willer, Town Liaison Rene Hart Patrick Facteau, Town Liaison Eric Gustafson, Attorney Michael Hewey, Intern Chairman Shaw opened the meeting at 1:01 p.m. 1) APPROVAL OF MINUTES: RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby approves the minutes of the regular meeting of April 20, 2023 as presented. Moved by Rene Hart - Seconded by Richard Maginn - All in Favor 2) OPERATIONS UPDATE: by Matt Gray, Deputy Superintendent A. Safety: MED has not had a lost time injury since June 8th. The number of consecutive days without a lost time accident now stands at 326 days. There were no reportable injuries in April. This brings the number of days without a reportable injury to 689 days. Lou Gabrielle with NEPPA was on-site to present a refresher course on proper Lock-Out & Tag- Out procedures. Also, all MED staff attended a CPR/AED recertification course presented by the Red Cross. B. Customer Impact Chart: MED experienced a large amount of Customer Impact Minutes throughout the month of April with 43,387 minutes recorded. An ice storm that occurred at the beginning of the month was responsible for over half of the total CIM. With this months’ elevated amount of Customer Impact Minutes, the 12-month average has increased to a 13-month high of 36,431. C. Reliability: The ice event that occurred on April 5th that brought ice loading and wind was responsible for 25,405 Customer Impact Minutes. Overall, MED Crews responded to over thirty- five calls in a 12-hour period. The majority of the calls were of little to no Customer Impact however, there were sustained outages on County Route 40, Kinglsey Road and Horton Road. The other large CIM contributors in April were a tree contact on Cr 37 that affected 120 Customers for 25 minutes and two separate goose contacts on SH 131 that affected 158 Customers for 57 minutes and then 332 Customers for 18 minutes. MED Customers also experienced three momentary outages in April. One on Circuit 2301 that occurred during the ice event and then two momentary outages on Circuit 3306 as the result of bird contacts on Haverstock Road.  Approved by the MEUB June 26, 2023 Page |2 D. Work Schedule: Crews have completed follow-up work associated with the winter storms that affected the district throughout the winter. Crews have begun to address make-ready adjustments and maintenance adjustments in support of a SLIC fiber installation project. 3) FINANCIAL REPORTS: by Margo Rochefort, Deputy Treasurer A. Write-Offs: RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby authorizes the write-off of bad debt totaling $10,483.87 as audited by Mr. Rene Hart. Moved by Rene Hart - Seconded by John Bogosian - All in Favor B. Power Comparison Graph: Power cost were over $375,000, down from April 2022 and last month. Supplemental power costs were just $66,000. 4,000 MWh of incremental energy purchased during April 2023 down by 900 MWh from 2022. Zone D Average Energy rate was $16.75/MWh, very similar to March. Impact to customers – PPAC for May (only single PPAC charged for May) of 0.29¢/kWh. MWh purchased, over 15,600. Overall temperatures were moderate, resulting in lower usage than expected April. Typically purchase between 16,000- 18,000 MWh in April. Peak demand for April was 31,600 kW, very similar to previous years. C. Cash Flow: The Operating Fund increased by $261,850. The Operating Fund at month end was $6.5 MM. April receipts were $1.32 MM. Customer payments remain steady as customers continue to pay down their winter heating bills. Still receiving L1-HEAP payments. Program extended to tomorrow, 5/19, 2nd extension of the program. Interest revenue remains up, do to increases to the Federal Fund Rate. March Expenditures totaled over $1.06 MM, this is $401,000 less than budgeted. D. Approval of Bills: RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby approves the bills as audited by Mr. Rene Hart totaling $759,976.74 Moved by Rene Hart – Seconded by John Bogosian - All in Favor 4) COMMITTEE REPORTS: by Andrew McMahon, Superintendent A. Personnel 1. Staff Update: One employee still off on medical leave. He is expected back in the beginning of July. 2. Security Update: Mr. Dobbins has scheduled the tabletop exercise with the village police department for the beginning of June. 3. Summer Help: One student has been brought on to assist with various activities. He will be making a presentation to the engineering committee and we'll have other responsibilities which will add value. Approved by the MEUB June 26, 2023 Page |3 B. Finance & Economic Development 1. Energy Efficiency Programs: There were no new requests for funding for either commercial or residential projects. The finance committee will be meeting with Jeff Loomis of Energy Answers in the coming weeks. 2. Payments: Ms. Rochefort discussed the Payments by Type reports for 2023 and compared to the same time period in 2018. The reports show that the type of payments being processed by MED has evolved from mail, cash & check to ACH, EFT, & Invoice Cloud. The volume of payments processed by the cashiers has decreased by 16% in the last 5 years. More customers are using electronic options to pay. There was discussion of the increase fee for customers using Invoice Cloud to pay. Invoice Cloud charges the customers a convenience fee. C. Engineering & Energy 1. Cybersecurity: MED continues to work with NYPA to implement Dragos which is a network protection system. We are also continuing to work with Adirondack Tech to do important IT support work. 2. EAB extra work: We have resumed work on removing the most dangerous trees to MEDs distribution system. 3. NYSERDA Submittals: Both projects are starting to move forward. They are in administrative phase rather than engineering but it seems progress is finally starting to occur. 4. Grant Funding CAC/IIJA/IRA: There are multiple sources of funding at the state and federal level as part of the IIJA, IRA and NYSERDA initiatives. Unfortunately, none of the funding released so far would impact Massena. We continue to monitor for programs that we expect will help our mission. 5. Transformer Purchase: As part of one of the EV projects we had to purchase transformers. At the previous meeting we had discussed purchasing a refurbished transformer. Fortunately, were able to get a new transformer ordered for less than we thought we were going to have to pay for the refurbished unit. 6. Potential Vehicle Purchase: Our original capital budget had included two passenger vehicles (pickup trucks) at state contract pricing. Unfortunately, no vendors are participating in state contract presently and our likelihood of needing to invest in old vehicles repairs continues to rise. Mr. Bogosian asked if we would be looking for any special options on a vehicle. Mr. Gray stated that we were looking for a basic fleet vehicle. Mr. Raiti stated that if we were buying from a vendor that was not state contract, the vendor would likely increase the cost by loading the vehicle up with options that we do not particularly need. He continued that given our need to keep the fleet in reliable working order that we might get stuck having to get whatever vehicle the vendor has in stock which may have more options than we need or want. RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby authorizes the purchase of 1 Chevy 2500 (or equivalent) and 1 Chevy 1500 (or equivalent) not to exceed $105,000. Moved by Charles Raiti – Seconded by Rene Hart - All in Favor  Approved by the MEUB June 26, 2023 Page |4 5) LEGAL ISSUES: by Eric Gustafson, Attorney: Mr. Gustafson had no remarks for open session. 6) UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 7) NEW BUSINESS: RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby authorizes Chairman Shaw, Superintendent McMahon and Board member Raiti to attend the APPA National Conference in Seattle, Washington June 17-22, 2023. Moved by Rene Hart – Seconded by Richard Maginn – All in Favor 8) ARTICLES OF INTEREST: 9) SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Next regular meeting scheduled for June 15, 2023 10) PUBLIC COMMENT: 11) EXECUTIVE SESSION: Motion to move into executive session at 1:56 p.m. Moved by Charles Raiti– Seconded by Richard Maginn- All in Favor Motion to move out of executive session at 2:37 p.m. Moved by Richard Maginn– Seconded by John Bogosian -All in Favor Motion to adjourn at 2:37 p.m. Moved by John Bogosian – Seconded by Rene Hart- All in Favor