Massena Electric Department

Approved by the MEUB 5/17/2024 Page 1 MASSENA ELECTRIC UTILITY BOARD MINUTES of Friday, April 19, 2024 Town of Massena Electric Department – 71 East Hatfield Street Present: James Shaw Andrew McMahon, Superintendent Richard Maginn Jeffrey Dobbins, Treasurer - excused John Bogosian Matt Gray, Deputy Superintendent Charles Raiti Margo Rochefort, Deputy Treasurer Rene Hart Patrick Facteau, Town Liaison Eric Gustafson, Attorney Raymond Lancto, Town Liaison Chairman Shaw opened the meeting at 1:05 p.m. 1) APPROVAL OF MINUTES: RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby approves the minutes of the regular meeting of March 21, 2024 as presented. Moved by Charles Raiti - 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, 2022. The number of consecutive days without a lost time accident now stands at 662 days. There were no reportable injuries in March. This brings the number of days without a reportable injury to 1,025 days. All Operations Employees completed a NY Dig Safe Re-Certification program and are now Certified Excavators. This certification is good until 2028, although continuing education credits are required annually. B. Customer Impact Chart: MED Customers experienced 10,565 minutes of disruption throughout the month of March. With this continued low level of monthly CIMs, the 12-month average has increased only slightly and is now at 17,304. This average is well below what we have recorded in the past 13-months and is less than half the top quartile average. C. Reliability: MED Crews responded to only five calls throughout the month of March. Of the calls received, one call affected no Customers, one call affected only one Customer and three calls affected more than one Customer. The largest Customer impact was due to a motor vehicle accident on County Route 39 in the Town of Louisville. The accident caused minimal damage to the pole however it did cause two primary phases to contact one another. This incident caused a sixty-one-minute outage for one hundred ten Customers, as well as a momentary outage for the four hundred and seven Customers downstream of the 01M recloser. The second largest outage was due to a failed transformer on State Highway 56. The fault cascaded to the nearest fuse at the corner of County Route 40 and State Highway 56 resulting in a forty-seven-minute outage for sixty-two Customers. The remainder of the calls in March were routine in nature and of short duration.  Approved by the MEUB 5/17/2024 Page 2 D. Crews are preparing to begin the following projects this summer: o E Hatfield and SH 420 intersection reconfigure  This scope of work calls for the MED owned facilities to raise ten feet over the intersection. The entire job involves the replacement of 13 poles o Center St culvert replacement  This project calls for the relocation of one pole and the removal of down guys at our river crossing structure. There will be push braces installed at the river structure to provide access to the culvert site. o Massena Air Products  Installation of a 3-phase primary underground line extension to serve the project lay down area. o Fregoe Rd Reconfigure Phase II  This is a continuation of the Fregoe Road reconfiguration in support of the NYPA smart path project. This phase of the project will address the line segment between the Grasse River and Fregoe Road. o Single-phase underground line extension Laramay Cabins  This project includes the installation of a single-phase line extension to serve the Laramay Cabins off Tucker Terrace. 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 $6,660.69 as audited by Mr. Rene Hart. Moved by Rene Hart - Seconded by John Bogosian - All in Favor B. Power Comparison Graph: Power Costs were $605,600 for the month, $75,000 more than 2023. Supplemental Power costs were over $197,000 for March, 8,000 MWh of incremental energy purchased. Zone D Average Energy rate was $24.65/MWh, $2.00/MW lower than February. Transmission related expenditures totaled $187,900, down from January and February. UCAP (Unforced Capacity) was $30,000 less than previous months. Other Transmission charges were slightly higher for March and totaled $149,000. Impact to Customers - Base PPAC for April is less than 1.0¢/ kWh, Supplemental PPAC of 1.4¢/ kWh, each are down from previous months. Peak Demand was 38,100 kW, overall a mild month. MWh purchased, 20,900, in the range of what is expected for March. C. Cash Flow: The Operating Fund increased by $384,170. Increase was more than projected, expenditures in March were lower than expected. The Operating Fund at month end was $7.5 MM. March receipts were over $1.5 MM, $433,000 less than budgeted. Sales were lower than expected due to mild temperatures in Feb and Mar. Interest revenue remained higher than budgeted for the month. March expenditures totaled roughly $1.12 MM, this was $639,400 less than budgeted.  Approved by the MEUB 5/17/2024 Page 3 RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby approves the bills as audited by Mr. Rene Hart totaling $979,594.77. Moved by Rene Hart – Seconded by John Bogosian - All in Favor 4) COMMITTEE REPORTS: by Andrew McMahon, Superintendent A. Personnel 1. Staff Update: Mr. McMahon advised the board that there were no notable updates with the staff. We're still working to identify summer help. B. Finance & Economic Development 1. Energy Efficiency Programs: There were no updates on any of the energy efficiency programs. 2. S&S software upgrade (Cloud servicing etc.): Deputy Treasurer Rochefort noted that the documents to move forward with the upgrade and transition to a cloud hosting were signed. The initial payment of the agreement was included in the abstract. A project kickoff meeting is expected for some time in late May or June. 3. KeyBank Credit Card Change: The KeyBank credit card change has not been finalized yet. Mr. Dobbins, Mr. Gustafson and Mr. McMahon will need to get together to finalize. C. Engineering & Energy 1. Cybersecurity: Mr. McMahon stated that there were no significant changes, but we continue to stay vigilant on the subject. 2. EAB extra work: As noted in the bills, Mr. Putney did a fair amount of work on this front in the past month. Mr. McMahon reminded the board that we have applied for a grant through New York State to address Ash trees in the Eastern part of our service territory. This grant is for $231,000 and we hope to hear on this grant in May. Mr. McMahon reached out to our federal legislators (Stefanik, Schumer and Gillibrand) for support to address the Western part of our service territory. It is unclear when we will hear on this request. 3. NYSERDA projects: Mr. McMahon reported that the work being done by SUNY Canton has slowed down significantly. It is his expectation that he will have to work with the Dean of Engineering and PSE to complete the project. The system study project is still on hold as NYSERDA has not selected a vendor. 4. Grant funding CAC/IIJA/IRA: Mr. McMahon told the board that he had participated in a call with NYSERDA, which is the first step towards releasing money from the IRA. In this tranche of money, there is up to $200,000 per system set aside for studies to be done in advance of major projects. 5. Transformer purchase update: Transformer purchase is still on hold.  Approved by the MEUB 5/17/2024 Page 4 6. Vehicle purchase update: Mr. Gray received a call from the vendor who bid on the vehicles we requested last spring. The vendor informed us that they would not be able to fulfill our requested vehicles. Under this request we had sought two pick-up trucks. Mr. McMahon reminded the board that last month we had ordered three vehicles under a “mini- bid” program. One of those vehicles has already arrived and the other two vehicles we believe are being delivered to the vendor and we will have them by our board meeting next month. With that in mind, Mr. McMahon suggested that we order the two vehicles that were just canceled under the mini bid process. He suggested a do not exceed number for the two vehicles of $125,000. Mr. Raiti asked if it was a problem that we would have four or five vehicles coming due at once in a few years. Mr. McMahon and Mr. Gray responded that it was not desirable to have so many of the fleet vehicles coming due at once, but this is a function of the Covid related supply chain issues. We will have to address this and stagger vehicle purchases next time through. RESOLUTION: The Massena Electric Utility Board hereby authorizes the purchase of two vehicles through the mini bid process as requested by the Superintendent at a cost not to exceed $125,000. Moved by Rene Hart– Seconded by Charles Raiti – All in Favor 7. QEI SCADA software upgrade: Mr. McMahon pointed out that this was approved at last month’s board meeting and was in this month’s bills. 8. Trailer purchase: Trailer purchase is still looking towards July. 9. AMI procurement schedule: Mr. McMahon said that at least five bids were received. PSE is evaluating the bids and will be helping us through the evaluation process. Mr. Raiti asked for clarification on the selection of the successful bidder and whether low bid was the sole determinant. Mr. Gustafson explained that given the nuances of the systems that it would be at our discretion who we would choose as a successful bidder. Mr. McMahon explained that we issued a RFP to repair the Trougher drain in the garage. We have tried to get this work done a number of different ways. However, we have not found a bidder who could do the work on a T&M basis. We sent out the RFP, hoping to find a way to get a construction crew in to do the work. However, the bid came in at approximately twice what we expected. We are going to work with Mr. Gustafson and go back to local construction crews to try to identify someone who will do the work on a time and material basis. 5) LEGAL ISSUES: by Eric Gustafson, Attorney: Mr. Gustafson had no remarks for open session. 6) UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Mr. McMahon provided a written summary to the board for their review of the NYAPP meeting that he just attended with Mr. Shaw and Mr. Raiti.  Approved by the MEUB 5/17/2024 Page 5 7) NEW BUSINESS: Mr. McMahon said he attended a local open house on a potential solar project near 37C and Roosevelt town Road. This project would be 180 MW with the intent of interconnecting with National Grid. This would have no direct impact on MED as it stands presently. There is another solar project that was underdevelopment off of SH420. Mr. McMahon believes this project is being revisited after being shut down by the DEC due to wetland issues. Mr. McMahon also noted that there have been a few small solar developers, reaching out with as yet unspecified request. There have also been a number of Crypto developers who have been calling now that the price of bitcoin is up to $64,000 after being below $20,000 in recent months. 8) ARTICLES OF INTEREST: 9) SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Next regular meeting scheduled May 16, 2024 at 1:00 pm 10) PUBLIC COMMENT: 11) EXECUTIVE SESSION: Motion to move into executive session at 2:03 p.m. Moved by Charles Raiti – Seconded by Rene Hart- All in Favor Motion to move out of executive session at 2:15 p.m. Moved by Charles Raiti – Seconded by Richard Maginn -All in Favor Motion to adjourn at 2:15 p.m. Moved by John Bogosian – Seconded by Rene Hart - All in Favor