recording in progress. We will go ahead and uh it being 60 I have 605 here. Um call this meeting of the RMLD board of commissioners to order. >> Call the citizens advisory board to order.
>> Um this meeting is being audio recorded held remotely on Zoom and live streamed on RCTV. We the RMLD board of commissioners recognizes the importance of hearing public comment at the discretion of the chair on items on the official agenda. Once recognized by the chair, all persons addressing the board shall state
their name and address prior to speaking. It is the role of the chair to maintain order in all public comment or ensuing discussion. Um, if we have any members of the public participating remotely, please state your name um before speaking. Do we have anybody
who has public comment? We have a leazison. >> Oh, okay. Uh, did we let them in? >> Well, hi, Joe. We're going to allow you to talk if you'd like to say something.
Looks like Joe is still muted. >> All right. Oh, no. Thank you. I'm I'm all set. Thank you. I'm just listening in. So, >> okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay. So, no liaison. Um, all right. So,
our next topic is reorganization of the board of commissioners. So, we have a few positions that we need to nominate and elect. We have the chair, the vice chair, secretary,
um, and then the audit committee as well as the sub audit committee. Uh, two individuals each. So, um, do we have any nominations for chair? >> You want to do the announcement? Well, I
can do it. >> You can do it. >> I'd like to nominate Pam to repeat as the chair in an unprecedented move with the RMLD because of the stellar job that you did. I I think it was a full full agreement by well myself and I hope
everybody else that did an excellent job and uh like you continue as the chair. >> Well, thank you for that vote of confidence. I appreciate that. >> Second. >> Uh was that a motion or discussion? >> I just seconded it. I don't know what it is, but I second the concept.
>> I and I I very wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. It's been a great uh you've done a great job and so if nobody objects I think that would be a very nice continuation. >> It should be easier. We've already have a commissioner now.
>> So then >> So does anyone else have other nominations before we just >> I think you vote on the first and then you go to the set the next. >> Okay. I wasn't if anybody else wanted to also I'm just giving people options
>> for the Okay. >> All right. Um go ahead and take a vote. >> Sure. >> So, um I'll make up a motion. All those in favor of electing >> Oh, is there one right? >> It's right there. >> Right there. >> Move that the RMLD board of commissions
elect Pam Desasquez as chair of the RMLD board of commissioners effective immediately after the vote. Second that. Okay. All those in favor? >> Ray Porter. >> I pas. All right. Well, thank you very much.
>> Um, the vice chair nomination. >> Um, would you be interested? >> I'll accept the vice chair nomination then. If you would if you will accept it, I will then nominate you. that for everybody. >> I agree. >> Absolutely.
>> Okay. So, um then let me do that. >> Move that RMD board of commissioners elect Ray Porter as vice chair of the Rald Board of Commissioners effective immediately after the vote. >> Second. You have a second. >> I second a motion. >> All those in favor?
>> It's a roll call vote, right? >> Call vote. Yep. >> Ray Porter. I would I >> that's right. >> Okay. Uh we uh then need to appoint a secretary. Have any nominations for secretary?
>> You and me. I can do it >> either way. I've been doing it. I uh I I enjoy it. It's fine. But >> if you want to keep going, I'll do the audit then. >> Okay. >> Okay. All right. So, I >> nominate Dave Talbat as the uh continue
on as the secretary. Second. All those in favor >> or I would I >> that's okay. And then you said audit audit committee. >> Bobby, you would be >> I'll nominate myself. >> I can nominate Bob.
>> Thank you. >> Second. >> So you have to read it out. >> Repeat the backup. Hi. >> Really? >> Rich back. >> Nominate Rich. >> I nominate Rich as the backup. >> Can we nominate someone who who is not
here? >> Sure. >> Sure. >> He's gonna have to take it. >> All right. >> So, do you want me to read out the full motion then or does somebody else already did it? Yes, please.
>> Uh move that the Armorald League board commission board of commissioners appoint Bob Falter as a Armorald Board of Commissioners uh member and um Rich Swanson as the backup to the town of Bing audit committee. >> Second.
All those in favor >> reporter I >> ask I and then we need to appoint subcommittee >> and this can be just the same two people. >> Okay. >> Can we do the same two people?
>> Sure. So why don't I read it out? >> Move that Armald board of commissioners appoint Bob Coulter and uh Rich Swanson as Armald sub audit committee members. >> Second. All that's in favor for >> I pass the act.
>> Excellent. Our officially reorganized. >> Great. >> Do you get a multicolored gabble for doing it too? >> Sure. >> Why not? Any I'll take any swag you want to provide. >> There's some stripes. >> Go with the hat. Go with the hat.
>> Um, okay. Excellent. We'll move along. Susan and men here, please give us an HR update. Welcome. Great. I'm Susan Imman. I'm the director of human resources and um I just met one of our newer members tonight. So good to be with you all
again this year. Um just want to start this presentation. Um just we're going to analyze, you know, we're going to show you we analyze our employee data to kind of better understand our workforce and our HR needs. Um I'm going to present some
highlights regarding uh actions we took in 2025 including successful succession planning summer learning program uh recap our hiring and including our GM search and our contract settlements and
RMLD's response to some requests from employees during that time and also present some highlights on HR actions and expected efforts in 2026. six promotions, plans for co-op spring, summer, and fall, and summer learning
program, new hire efforts, um employee engagement survey, which is a to be to be organized, and um and the future signing of the rest of the union contracts. And I include this slide every year just to
kind of show you how our makeup is going by workforce of gen workforce by generation. And one of the important things I just think to note is when you see the next slide that's coming, you'll note that we have about 52 um employees that are under five years
with RMLD. And I want to show you that they're not all in the same age group. So we're hiring seasoned people. We're hiring people with skills and we're trying to, you know, hire the best best there is whatever age group they fall
in. But it's not all brand new um right out of school people. So, we value our employees. The statistics show that people have stayed with us for quite a long time. We do have a lot of tenure here and long-term employees. Um,
and we are, you know, with the uptick in the new employees. We're um just kind of trying to reestablish our our protocols, our guidelines, our institutional knowledge and kind of dive down to
reconstruct and update anything that we have going on that you know prescribes how we do our jobs and how we move forward in this organization. So, we're working hard on that. And some of the things we're doing also lend to doubling
down on critical skills, things like payroll. We want to have more than one person being able to do that and you know spreading that knowledge working together as teams to kind of do better proofreading to do better you know um
organizational tasks that are of high priority to getting it right in HR. We also um support education and training and we participate in many educational training opportunities both
internally and externally. We offer an extensive online catalog of training options through a program called Litmos. So we can prescribe when someone comes on online like eight eight little classes that they can take. Some are related to policies we have, others are
just introductions to certain things at RMLD. We are big proponents of tuition reimbursement and have utilized it to help our employees to grow to levels where they can apply to growth opportunities within our organization.
And this benefit has allowed us to, you know, have people pursue specified educational opportunities that are of value to RNLD. Um, I would highlight, you know, some of the ones that you're going to see below in the certificate retention. Many of us I know there's
always the question are we educating are we doing this some of us have to do certain things every year because we have certain certifications and we have to keep those up they require whatever you want to call them professional credits or CES or you know there's different names for them PDC's
and that's evident in HR IT and procurement particularly I'm sure there are some also with engineering teams and different things like that but just to highlight these are particular ones that we do over and over again every three years. Our procurement team has for
years been very well-versed in all of the Massachusetts regulations doing their MCPO certifications. And to highlight one of the great points this year, um, not that we will really miss her, but we had a long-term
employee that was our purchasing manager retire, and she had trained her staff, two people underneath her so well, we didn't miss a beat. She was here for a very long time, and they were so lucky to work with her and get her expertise the whole time that she was here. And um
we we just she rode off into her sunny retirement on the beach and we um were able to just pick up right where she left off and have that have that work out very seamlessly which was great. Um I've added some things here that just
show you the educational and training opportunities that we are participating in annually, seasonally. Um some are some are times that we're presenting at um a
engineering you know a trade show or or a NEPA type of thing and we do we do do some presentation as well as attendance and we're certainly doing a lot of things on it and cyber security that sort of stuff because just that that's
just imminent that they have to do that in order to keep us protected And um so kind of catch up with myself here. We have some mandatory training too that we've been we've been working through um
some sexual harassment and um that that sort of stuff that we do every single year or every couple of years because we're mandatory it we're mandated to do that by the law. And so we do we just had one recently. we have it in person and then sometimes we
follow up with everybody who can't attend to we put them on the online basis for that one and okay so our education and you can see our NEPA electricity energy connect many
PR boot camps mean um deed grant workshop all skills that our employees are getting and um utilizing here at RMLD. We have highlighted some actions from 2025.
We at that time we were rounding down on filling all the openings that we had and we hired about seven employees. Two were promoted to growth positions within our um purchasing department at as I just mentioned before and one IRD energy
program specialist was promoted up to a specialist who had been here for a few years and had some leaderships opportunities with some of the newer people in in our organization. So we invited uh four students to work here for our summer learning program and that
was tremendous. We had a great summer learning group last year. they not only not only contributed to the team but they were just fantastic. They had skills. Um I think we gave as much as we got in that scenario and lots of times we go into that knowing it's a giving
thing and um we really um we really had a great time with them and benefited from them being here. So they left with that and some we just uh interviewed new candidates for our summer learning program this year. It's going to be a little bit paired down because we have a
couple of new people in key positions that are really getting training before we'll have a summer intern come into those areas. So, we're doing customer service and marketing this year. And um some of the interns, which was a nice thing, came in on recommendation of our former interns, which was good to see
that they had a good experience here and felt like they walked away with something productive. >> I just >> Yeah. Do they do we look within the territory first or or not? How do we do that? >> I really I've always said we hire the
best people, but we definitely advertise and shoot out to our our area. And really most of what we get back is in our area as far as application. That's always tough >> uh for the for the summer learning program particularly the co-ops not so
much because we're picking from you know we're usually going to schools like Northeastern Wetworth you know we might be doing specific majors data analytics or science majors and in those cases no but and and just to give you an example last year when we had the four um I
think we had two or three that were from reading or Wilmington or Lynfield and we had a third that was just a stellar candidate and we hired him and he was not from our four towns. But we do we do make the
effort to kind of see all of our kids in our territories. Um but we don't make you know a sounding rule that it is from home. >> All of these interns are college students. they are college students or sometimes I think there was one last year that was just right out of college
and he was somebody who was teaching here in reading and we >> we don't take any uh like high schools from the I know there's >> no we haven't done that >> and I think that would be a different program because I have had some calls for that and I have asked internally to
see if somebody would >> well specifically curious about I know Reading Memorial High School has the clean energy pathways program where students are learning about um energy as part of like their their focus area. Be interesting to
>> I wouldn't be surprised if we could have an opportunity to do that here. I mean, you know, we we have had some recruiting going on here in the last couple years. Pretty significant amount of people that were hired. And even just in my time here, I would say with interns, I've
probably hired over 30 people. And that's quite a bit in a you know um but with if you take away the interns it's less you know so but now we're slowing down on that but we've kind of we have one opening right now and maybe maybe
another that you know we always consider when something opens up we look at that see what our need is see where that's going. So we have another position that's in that wheelhouse too. So, we're kind of trying to decide what to do on that. But, we're actively looking for a systems engineer right now. And that was
just due to our retirement. So, that's good news. You know, our openings are from retirement. And so, that's that's really good news for us. And so make sure I'm um and I wanted to just mention you know
that the union contracts when we settled those there was some really great you know requests from employees that turned into some really good things for our culture and our people a little more moved to a family-friendly use of sick time during FMLA and some clarification
of other elements that were important to them. So um I felt like that was very successful and we were able to close those contracts. You will be seeing we have given out two well one draft now to second one going out tomorrow of the
final for them to approve and then get it to you to sign and the third will be going out shortly after that. So we will be circling back with you. So, and then for 26, um, we promoted this
this year in 2026, two employees to to growth positions, one to a more senior title in the accounting division, one to a new position in the accounting division, which is why we didn't take on an accounting summer learning program because we actually had somebody brand
new in there. And um, again, we're in the process of hiring an engineer. And then we have invited two co-ops. We've taken last year we had taken a little time on that and this year we got Northeastern back into the you know the
swing of things. Happened to be Nor Eastern. I actually interviewed a lot of people. We had 700 applicants for our co-op positions. >> What >> 700 applicants >> and I gotta hand it to Megan because she went through every single Yeah. So we we
did end up with one in the spring summer time right now. Um and we have another one coming in August. They'll pass over each other couple of weeks and that that'll be that. So we'll have two two this year. And
for um we'll be starting our we're we're we have looked into now um getting some firm to talk to some firms um for the employee engagement survey in the fall
and we will be pushing to get that complete completed and we're going to put out an RFP for that and um interview some some organizations that people are familiar with that do this kind of work. So, we're going to start that and we're
hoping again that will happen in the fall and we're going to re revisit the performance evaluation process. um the performance evaluation process. I think I think the biggest sort of challenge with that is isn't really
when we look at training, one thing that's left out of here, just so you know, um Erin does a great job of tracking all the training of the line department, but when the jobs are specifically loaded with steps to actually train up to like a a first
class lineman is an example. Um all of that training takes place in the first five, six years, whatever that they're here and that just happens through we have career development plans and they move along their career development plan and we put them up to the top
eventually. Um so there's always that training going on, but um that doesn't happen in every single role here because they don't all have steps. So we have some people in our IBW group for example that have ranges not steps and I think
the challenge for us is to get the performance evaluation system right where they can still experience some growth outside of a cola in a prescribed way that's equitable for all the people and not just people that might be
primarily visible to the decision makers you know so I think that's what our work has cut out for us on the performance evaluation And I know that wasn't the very top priority goal, but I think that's something that we we're going to have to look at this year. >> Are there other uh MLPS who do that
really well that you've connected with to kind of learn some best practice? >> I haven't really tried to connect with anyone. I've done and I I I've seen the performance evaluation thing from a couple other communities that I have worked in on the town side and sometimes
it can feel it can feel laborious when there's a lot of detail to it and there isn't money attached to it. So a lot of times it has seemed to me that the employees sometimes receive it like you guess gave me more goals on top of the job that I had but it's not tied to
anything particular. So, I think that makes it a little more challenging, you know what I mean? And um so I that's my experience with it. I haven't really looked I I can honestly say I really haven't looked at other people's performance evaluation things, but yeah, certainly we could do that. Um right now
I think where we are, we redid our forms last year. I don't think our forms and our process are terrible. I think it's just more the equity and how we decide how to move people and how we base those decisions and what we base them on, how
we get that data and how we keep it really equitable for the group. from municipal light plan as far as it like um let's say an engineering role that would be like in this group um most of them are non-union so there wouldn't
be steps and there would be a performance type of evaluation that we could probably lean on a little bit and tie it back into some union type stuff but typically um if they are union there's typically steps >> so um it's just it's kind of a hybrid
and trying to like figure that out We can lean on like plants that >> not union but find a way to make it work in a union environment >> and I know some use peer evaluations to advance because there has to be a high level of confidence in the advancement
right that's it's you're dealing with power it's dangerous and I don't I don't know if that's a factor in your decision- making but some that's a very effective program sometimes it can be a tough program but it's a very effective program And
>> yeah, >> it works. >> Uh, when you advertise the co-op, was that just like the simp like a simple board? You got 700? I don't think we got 700 applicants for anything ever.
>> Yeah. I you know, really we have a few connections with schools, so we do put that out. We did attend a job fair this year and that was actually after that. So that didn't even it was really just putting it out there. Putting it out there particularly I think Northeastern
had a lot of people reply to us. They were right in that zone at the time. >> Yes. Okay. Yeah. Something came out. I was gonna say whatever you did do it again. >> Yeah. >> Maybe not. Maybe not. >> Maybe not. Maybe not. >> See you over there. I would have I would
have chimed in. Megan did the bulk of the work in looking through all of those and there were a lot and she was very diligent in saying I want a cover letter. I want them to speak in the cover letter to what their qualifications are and she very diligently went through those to choose
who to interview and and I think we ended up with someone really great. So I think it it it was worth the the time and effort. But I will say it did change us a little for the second round when we went for the summer learning group because we could not do that again.
>> We were it was just too much, you know. We were just like we we need a you know a good crowd that we have some variety here but not you know 700 applicants. It was >> whatever if there's 700 and if it's like if you use some kind of platform of board don't do it again.
>> Yeah. Well, we did we had put it out on our HR Jazz which does put it out to job boards, but then we also connected with posting it at schools and what I said to Megan and I think we talked about it after was saying maybe just making that contact with the school and having them
select some people and send them to us would have been the better route than putting it on their job board because >> it was an appealing job. >> Sure. can I say they like us and I think we've had success there before. So I think that you know it was it was good.
So it's not a I'm not going to complain about that problem but but it does present its challenges nonetheless. So that's my if any questions I'd be happy to take but that's sort of my you know what's been happening since 25.
So just on on that performance evaluation process sounds like a lot of kind of analysis and the scenarios need to be reviewed. Is the thinking that that would get revisited or refined for this year or you're developing the plan >> the stretch goal >> this year and then Okay.
>> Yeah. The stretch goal was for for me was that and I and I intentionally make every effort to try to do that. Um, and then I will the last thing I will say I think that what's really important about this presentation that made me feel really good after doing it because you don't kind of see the whole thing till
you're done is that we've really moved away from filling openings to developing people who are here and focusing on our employees and doing some really good things with that. promotions, you know, teaching,
gathering groups to collaborate on key practices like payroll, you know, we have two people working together now and we've support fully supported that with another person going into that department. All things that were kind of lined up for success there. And we noticed it really a lot when we had a
very good summer intern last year in that department that gave us a little bit of breathing room to kind of do some other things there. and and so it was it's it was a really good plan. So I like the succession planning success. I like the success of developing our
employees and knowing that you see the how people feel about that and even the other people around. I've had a lot of comments about I I see you promoting from within. I see you reaching you know our other employees and saying you know come apply for this job or trying to
sometimes get creative and figure out ways to grow positions that are key that don't have a natural pathway already built for them but trying to say okay where where do we want that to go because that person is really great at what they're doing and I think it's been a very collaborative effort to be able
to do that and I'm I'm happy about that so feel good about it. >> Sounds good. any additional sessions. >> Do a good presentation. >> Yeah. >> Oh, thank you. >> Thank you. And and well done with the number of people that you've hired in
the past. >> It's exciting to see that you know that they're wonderful people who hopefully will stay a long time and grow their careers and contribute to them. And the small point if you're wondering I didn't hide it that the couple of people that
have not stayed the for reasons that were just their own um one was moving to a more high-techy environment with a little more freedoms and in LA I I don't think they liked the space of the you know the the so much security and they
liked the Oracle kind of space better. um that was one and another left on his own to do a different job that he wanted to do and one didn't like the particular job he chose, you know, being in a control room all day. And so the reasons we lost people that left on their own
were really totally things that I could I could expect and deal with and amicable and not problematic. So thank you. Thank you. Okay.
Update. >> How you doing tonight? >> How are you? Right. Peter Price here, director of engineering operations. You got the six. There we go. All right. I'm giving you an update. It's all right.
So, first slide here we have some engineering and operations uh 2026 goals. Uh majority of them are station six. The first one is station six, the duck bank and pole line construction. Um
we'll be going out to bid this year for the duck bank. Um we'll be building the pole line to uh for all the feeder getaways. We just petitioned the town of Wilmington uh for 28 poles and about a half a mile of conduit and duck bank which they approved. They have some
conditions that we're working through. Uh so that we will be putting the bid package together for the duck bank and cable and hopefully it'll be ready for approval at the July board meeting. The new feeder construction that has to do with the poles and the overhead
construction that the line crews will be working on. Uh we hope to do that as well this year. That's one of our goals to get the poles in and get the overhead construction, get everything prepped between the rise of poles, the switches, um, all tie points, the spacer cable,
and all that's mostly taking place on Bell Street. Also, one of our goals is to get the 115 KB yard uh, construction completed. The uh, contractor has finished all the foundations. Um has the
steel is scheduled for delivery on Thursday and Friday. The H frames, the large steel structures for dead ending. The uh 115 uh cables coming over from the National Grid right away. The 115 KV breakers uh ready should be ready the
second week of May for witness testing and delivery shortly after the witness testing. Another goal is the AMI project. We're shooting to get 40% complete by the end of the year. Um me department's working
very well on that. They're they're getting about 2,000 meters a month done. It's probably slow down this summer with vacations and all that, but uh they've been very ambitious and they've been scheduling outages. Uh been doing a lot of apartment buildings. Um so that's
moving forward uh pretty well. The rolling stock, as you know, we have a lot of trucks on order. We're hoping to get the two from FY uh CY 24 delivered this year. There was lead times of 60 to 80 weeks. So, we're hoping to have those uh two
bucket trucks this year. We are also doing a radio system upgrade. The system we have now is over 10 years old. We've had some issues with communication with the radio. They have a next generation system. We're working on getting that scheduled. Uh we've had
a little trouble from industrial communications and their scheduling department. So we're still working on that. Facilities is also working on the Armald campus, the buildings, the renovations and upgrades. We have an architect
involved with the covered parking we're putting out next to the garage for all these extra vehicles we're going to have as well as the uh the renovations to the cafeteria, uh the lobby, and the kitchenets. So he has a uh an architect
involved and we also have a outside contractor Alan and Major is working helping us with the uh plans for the yard and the uh structure for the uh the parking structure. They're working with us on the layout and they'll have to be more involved with the footings and things like that.
>> Question Peter. Um on the AMI projects um is that you that's 40% of the meters out there that you're putting. So, we've got of the meters you want to put out, we're about 40% of those. >> That's what our plan is. We want to get 40% of it done this year. That includes
building out the communication systems. >> Well, that was where it's going and the meters. So, as we build out the communications, then we we work to get the meters to fill in so that once they're out there, they can see that they're communicating. And >> yeah, that that was what I was asking is that we're getting data back. Yeah. But you're you're still putting meters out.
>> They are getting data back as they go along. Okay. They test it as it uh as it as they deploy it. >> Good. Okay. Peter, how has your reject rate been going? Basically, the AMIs like you get out there and it's all rusted out. You know,
>> we haven't had many problems. The some of the problems I've had is the uh you know, meters have the remote disconnect. Sometimes they came in already in the open position. So, they had a few of those and now they have to continuity test every meter before they put out to make sure that the breakers actually closed. >> So, that caught him by surprise on a
couple of things. >> Yeah. >> They've had some that have not communicated. So, they've had a few of those, too. I don't know if he has a rate just yet so early in the project, but he's he's keeping track of those and putting those aside. >> Yeah. Yeah. Not that you're expecting
it, but there's always there's always something that comes up. You >> There's always something was made on a Friday, you know. >> But it's it's a challenge, you know. I I just I 40%'s awesome. If you can get that, that would be fantastic.
That's the goals. I have a next slide is the summary of what's going on, what's happening at uh station six. So, as I said, the uh we've got some milestones here. They've finished the concrete footings for the structures and equipment. They have all the bases ready
to go. Um just waiting on the steel structures, the breakers. They have we've received the switches, PT, CTS. Uh there's other equipment that we have received. We have insulators, cable. So uh things are moving right along. Uh
they just finished the transformer oil containment system. Uh they're back filling that. That's that's complete. Uh as you know, the 15 KB switch gear was delivered. It was delivered in five sections. So when they build it at the factory, it's all it's all connected,
tested, then they separate things into five sections. They have it delivered. Now it has to be reassembled. So, the building itself is uh reassembled, which you see there on the picture is just an an aisle of the uh the switch gear there. But they're working on all the wiring connections, the bus connections.
Um this morning, they were putting the batteries in two battery systems for the uh primary and secondary. Uh that's going along. Like I said, the steel structures uh scheduled for the H frame steel structures are scheduled for delivery Thursday and Friday of this week. Then
they'll be out there the following weeks. setting structures. Um, as I mentioned, the poll and duck bank petition has been approved by the town of Wilmington. We have some conditions. We got to work through a couple of uh just a wetland issue. Just getting something flagged and showing where the poles are on a plan. So, work with Allen and Major on that. Keep the
con happy. Uh, the duck bank. So, we anticipate that the duck bank will get in this year. The cabling may not be till next year. this lead time on the underground cable um that's been sized and looking at uh the quantity and the size of it is probably going to be I don't know if
it's a uh eightmonth lead time on cable but we'll find out when it goes out to bid uh RMLD line crews will be continuing work up there they'll be doing the poles the over construction we already replaced a number of poles on Bale Street in anticipation of the project so
our crews will be working up there continually through the summer into the All in National Grid, we did have a meeting with them. They are proceeding with the takeoff structures. They have some uh six structures they have to build on the T146 line. U
so they said they were going to be starting that this summer and these structures are needed so that they can um deadend the T146 line uh bring the circuit over to our substation yard. And they still have some other things they're working on. Um
there's a protection scheme they're working on and how they have to bring the fiber cables into the substation. They want separate uh they they got to have some redundancy and some separation of the two systems. So I think they're still working on that because we we haven't got a clear answer yet of how
it's coming into our substation yard. So they still have a lot of things on the plate that they're working on. That's Uh I have a bunch of uh if you want to hear any summary of any of the engineering projects >> probably about seven more minutes for
the the topic. So whatever you want to just highlight as >> keys would be fine. We don't have to go through everything on question. >> All right. Uh fire engineering we have a lot of building going on. We have a bunch of apartment buildings. You can see the number of units coming into our system there. We're working on two schools the killum in the north
intermediate school in Wilmington. They got the recal uh some mass dot projects that we're going to be spending a lot of time on. Um in Charles River Labs, we're going to redevelop their site. So there may be some more uh uh some more construction next summer
>> in the school projects. Uh Kllum and then Recal uh Kellum uh North Intermediate School in Wilmington and Recal. Uh, and this might be a question more for Megan that the you're obviously supporting power
infrastructure and connectivity as has that included solar and and the integration of solar in that is that >> solar's on their end. They're going to have to do their own solar installation, but the service is okay. >> Uh, that's been designed for that through their electrical contract design engineer.
>> Okay. Uh L P is working on a number of projects that were in the uh capital budget. Uh working val street projects, age transformer replacement, conversion areas, uh area upgrades,
grid assets, uh working on the AMI project, and that's about the 4,000 m 2,000 a month. Uh they've been working on some substation relay upgrades, uh doing their substation inspection. the guides, their infrared inspections, uh, meter testing, and they've been
doing some maintenance on the generator up to station three. I skipped facilities and there's the project facilities, the covered parking structure. So, how we're working with Alo Major, we did the survey building. We've met with the building inspector. Now, we're working with the architect for the design and
the bid documents, lobby and cafeteria upgrades. They're working with the architect on that, the rolling stock. We have seven trucks on order. Hopefully get two of them this year. Radio upgrades and uh working on the new uh decals on the vehicles, the logos on the side of the vehicles.
I try to keep down to seven minutes. >> Good too. >> All right. Thank you. Any uh questions on anything in particular? >> So, a light year for you. >> Yeah. Yeah. say if you I mean I think AMA AMI is
probably a big uh focus obviously but um and it's a once in a decade type of thing but um just overall volume of projects versus prior years are we >> we have a lot on the plate this year >> with the AMI and station
>> you have what you need to get >> yes we brought the contractors back the contract line crew so uh we got behind on the uh rejected poll list we have the polls inspected % every year. So, the poles were starting to back up. So, uh talking to Jason, we brought the uh contractors back. So, they're out there
uh setting poles, replacing poles, and we have a crew coming in right behind me to do an upgrade, a transformer replacement, whatever else is needed. So, trying to get all these poles in and brace to keep everything safe and stay ahead of. >> Well, thank you for all that you do and all your team is doing this year.
>> Yeah, they do a great job. Yeah, seeing the crews up there, Franklin Street and Mara and that good good job up there. A lot of new fresh bowls. Nice. >> Excellent. Thank you so much.
>> Very good. Thank you. >> Okay, next topic is executive session minute release review date. Yeah, just that there's been a lot of great work done and we had another batch. Are we voting on them tonight or are we just updating? >> Yep, we're voting tonight. Updating just
regular. >> Okay. Right. Okay. As as with last time, we're just updating. But then in executive session, we actually approve the release of minutes. Yeah. >> Um Okay. So, we do need to go to executive session for um review of some
of the power supply. um agreement negotiations. Do you would you the cab? Yes, >> I I don't think there's any conflict, but I'm going to recuse myself on the uh power supply just to be absolutely certain. >> That makes sense. Thank you. Appreciate
that. Yeah. >> Um would you like to move to go to executive? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Sorry to pause you. We actually do have a couple slides that can be done in a regular >> Oh, okay. Goodness. >> I forgot to forgot I did want to mention one thing. I don't know if anybody saw
the news about the Taton municipal light employee that broke what literally took a bucket truck. There was a fire in a house. I don't know if you seen the video of it. >> And he went up and he tried to see if anybody was there and put the bucket up next to the farmer's porch and jumped
into a burning house. >> Wow. >> Yeah. Pretty pretty wild. Was few two few days ago. Listen, if it's AI, it's fantastic. Um, but it was uh about six days ago and it was um >> was anyone in the building? >> Uh there there was no one in the
building that was hurt that says uh 47y old son man Jeffrey P was charged but um it was a a pretty pretty cool video of of that. I can't of course I can't pull it up right now. won't pull it up, but they showed I showed a lineman literally
going in seeing and going into a burning building burning over there and he went in on this side to see if some anybody was in any way could say anything. It was pretty pretty awesome to see. So, we need fireproof buckets. >> Well, I'm not sure that our folks are trained on fire, so maybe we don't
encourage jumping into building burning buildings, but >> rodeo event flaming flaming building rescue. >> Bring Peter back. >> Certainly, Certainly a courageous thing. Yes. >> Um, okay. I'm sorry to jump right into executive. So, Megan, you can go right
ahead if we've got some pages to review first. >> I mean, you're welcome to stay if you want to just not >> I just want to say >> Yeah. All right. So this is the only one that I think we have two slides that are
public I guess on this one is just to provide the context for the discussion on the PPAs. Um um E and E contacted us about two two to three weeks ago about three opportunities. So we looked at our
um position again and you know clean up you know we had some changes in contracts earlier this year and look at the position again. So this is where we are right now. Um by 2030 we're still good. We're still like about 80% like
you know hedged and our hedged uh contracts are mostly non-carbon. But then so we're really looking beyond 2030 2035 you know then when we look into 2050 we're definitely not there. We're about half. Um but also I want to kind of a
this is my uh um interpretation of the scenario in 25 years right um supposedly while we are trying to get non-carbon the state is also trying to get non-carbon because the state has the goal of net zero by 2050 as well so that
kind of blue purple on the top is our open position that's where what we buy from the wholesale market and supposed by 2050 the non-carbon component of that piece is also higher. So I'm not saying I I do I just do feel it's not feasible
to think that just by ourselves we can really buy all non-carbon just through PPAs. >> However, I think we we probably should try to make an effort to purchase as much as we can. So when these opportunities came up um so I'm going to
the second slide. um three uh potential PPAs. We're recommending two. One is offshore wind which is you know has never been done before. It might be the only opportunity in the next five years. And the other one uh hydro is a good um
it's a rare um kind of a profile production profile that I can discuss at the executive session. So we would want to recommend that as well. The last one we are not recommending and I'll explain the reasons as well in the executive session. >> What what's the what type of energy
supply is the last one? >> The nuclear >> nuclear. >> Yes. >> Is there are there any like like general insights that we can that you can share in terms of like these recommendations or
non-recommendations? >> Okay. be before we go into like because I think we can't talk about specific pricing or negotiations. >> I will talk about yes I'll talk about the third one the nuclear the main reason is um but I'll go back to this chart if you look look at 2050 or even
before that the bottom section that's the blue the lighter blue that's all nuclear and by 2050 the majority of our non-carbon will be from nuclear and it will also be from a single supplier. So the more you rely on one single supplier
the more risk you're taking. So that that's one of the biggest reasons that we're all of that is zebra. >> Yes. >> Also millstone supposedly will continue but millstone is not that big. >> We're getting >> the majority of it.
>> Yeah. When you >> is the sorry is the opportunity that we're declining just an extension of the same or is it a new facility? new. It's the same facility but a new portion of it that they're selling. >> Okay. >> Yeah, it's the same facility.
>> There is no other nuclear options really in the wing. >> It's a it's >> but there was and it was closed unfortunately, but I don't I don't I don't think it's >> there maybe. >> It's not proprietary information. There's only one and they have this only game in town and they're going to price
it at a a price point, but it's the only >> we're going to continue with non-carbon. It's your it's your only option. So just saying that. >> Yeah. So >> and oh >> I have a question you say say that's the only option but with vineyard offshore wind that's the only option there too.
So it's basically the same >> scenario right 40% of our portfolio. >> So if Seabbrook has to take an outage >> right >> then we're now left on we could be left in the open market if it's an unplanned outage right. So
>> the unpl unplanned outage at a nuclear power plant sounds a lot more disastrous. >> Well, it doesn't. And there's a lot of reasons other than why a plant might be taken offline, you know, not planned and if we had 40% of
our eggs in one basket and it's peak se like if it's in the middle of winter when the market's really high now, we're exposed, right? So we we're just trying to hedge that we're not we're hedging in a couple different ways, right? So if if we're just looking at maybe not having
>> even more risk >> more risk in one one specific location >> and I will tell you pricing is another very big reason we're not recommending it. I >> I mean open energy pricing in 20 next year could be outrageous and we
have a 10% portfolio exposure never mind a 50% portfolio exposure. I everything's a risk >> and nuclear has been phenomenal for RMLD >> if we how much incremental would the
Cbrook >> um we don't have that much of a say in how much we can get um because other MLPS are also trying to get so you will kind of coordinate the proportions they they will have to balance like okay how
many are interested and how much they can get collectively and then to allocate So what we are recommending right now is what they feel very reasonable to get to to like not to guarantee but that it's it's >> on the first two is what you think yes
we can get but I I guess I meant on the Seabbrook option >> uh that >> we don't want to over extend yeah is it 40% is our cap or are you saying >> so they generally generally advises our MRPs not to go over 30 to 35% of the
portfolio Uh maybe I can talk a little bit about hydro. Um the one reason is a production profile where most hydro actually produces um less in the winter because of the weather. But this one because
it's close um they they at least in the historical data show that their production in the winter is really good. That's really beneficial economically because in the winter the pricing is really high. So we get a lot more benefit that can offset you know if
there's a over production in the spring that's that's more than offsetting um uh yeah the price the cost where located
right oh 20 minutes away just >> they just put in a they put in a bladder and a Lowhead production. Lowhead dam. >> There's a dam right there. There's a dam right right on
>> I went to school in LOL. So I dam right right across from the north campus. >> Yeah. >> They put in a nice uh base up plywood holding back river plywood. Now they put in a >> air bladderlywood and now you have power spring timing.
Pull one out. >> But yeah, but it's pretty funny. I >> that's that's all I think for public. >> Okay, >> great. >> Yeah, you don't I don't know why you would have to recuse yourself. I mean, you're the >> Well, I mean, I just uh
>> you're the power supply guy that helped us turn this energy in New England, but that what there's not a conflict. I mean, it's >> I don't think there's a conflict. >> No, it's just >> I just I didn't want anyone to >> Sure. >> feel like I was overemphasizing anything or >> No. Is there anything you want to add to
what Megan said or >> uh I I would just say that um if you look at your first slide Megan >> Y >> um let me can I speak generally about
nuclear? It's uh as we all probably know, nuclear is making a huge comeback, right? And uh so plants that were being closed that were closed coming back online. And even though
it's 40, it could be 35 to 40% of your portfolio. And that's concentration risk because they are so well managed and they're under such a microscope
that if there were one unit or one type of unit you would want to go above your typical concentration risk. I think it would be Sebrook unit and the Seabbrook is the sixth youngest uh nuclear power plant to come online in
the US. It was came online in 1990, so it's relatively new for a for a nuclear unit. And uh as some some of you were saying, it's a there's not going to be any
Yeah, uh there's probably not going to be any major issues with that unit because of the of the care they take of it. And if it does go down, even overall kind of the whole pool's in
trouble from a price perspective because now everybody's going to be searching for for power and would have to like they'd have to put emergency uh you know mechanisms in place to to replace that. So
if you if you look at the curve like we're 20 35 you're you go down again on your nuclear. So you have a do you have a contract? >> Yeah. >> So >> so I was going to say um between 2030
and 35 we have new two new nuclear contracts coming online with Cbrook. So that's a bump. then some of the prior contracts are uh dropping off by 2035. >> Yes. The only thing I would say is if
you do have something dropping off, you may want to consider >> Well, we we have a bump first. >> Yeah, you have a bump, but yeah, >> keep that bump going up. That That's the only thing I would consider. And uh there's the the reason why this came up
in the first place is because there's a multi-state RFP being run by the state of Connecticut that um other states can participate in. We suspect there'll be strong participation by the states to ask to force the IUS to
buy the remaining portion of Seabbrook in Milstone. So that you will not get another chance to buy nuclear energy between now and 2050. >> Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic in Connecticut because last year they
lowered the renewable energy level requirement for the state and now this year they are doing RFP for nuclear. So it's a a little bit shift in their state policy. that there's going to have to be some kind of I mean legislatively in Massachusetts it's doubtful but something's going to have to shift you
know the end of the end of the winter you know when you see dramatic dramat zero basically zero renewables used in energy production over the course of the winter it this is a I hate to say it it's it's it's unachievable on a bright
sunny summer day great but in the uh winter time completely different game but it's energy source So it's it's >> what's going on with the pilgrim site? >> Nothing. >> Basically a uh nuclear waste
>> storage. But literally there's nothing planned for the all the transmission that's there. >> We're talking about uh SMRs >> which Megan may talk about. I don't want no Okay. So there's a small module
modular nuclear reactors and uh the the there'll be a time when I suspect they try to put them in >> at Seab Brook and possibly other locations and but the cost of those are going to be extremely high because it's
new technology >> and and that this just the everything's not in place to put it together yet, >> right? But Ducksbury Town meeting will probably be strongly supportive of >> you're not going to open up another nuclear power
>> maybe. >> So our plan is to go into executives to talk about I see from pricing etc. So okay well why don't we go do that and then we can come back and recap where we are and what votes we're going to take. >> Well do you want to just can we do
minutes now and close everything out? Just do it at the end. So we just do everything else. The >> reason why I have it the way it is and we don't have to keep it like this is so that way you if you were going to vote on the contracts tonight that you would discuss it, make your decision, come in public and do your vote publicly.
>> I can do it. >> Thank in doubt, trust Eric. >> I had to say trust me. >> Okay. U would you like to vote to go to executive? Move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory
Board go into executive session pursuant to MGL164 section 47D exemption from public records and open meeting requirements in certain instances under purpose number 10 to discuss trade secrets confidential or
proprietary information regarding activities and information provided by municipal aggregator or energy cooperative and return to open session for the continuation of regular session. All in favor? I >> um
moved that the uh RMLD board of commissioners go into executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general law chapter 164 section 47D exempt from public records and open meeting requirements of certain instances under the purpose number 10 to discuss trade secrets confidential or
proprietary information regarding activities and information provided by a municipal aggregator or energy cooperative as well as for the approval and release of executive session minutes and return to open session for the continuation of regular session. >> Second.
>> All those in favor. >> Okay. go to executive and then we will come back. All right. Thank you all for your patience and appreciate uh everyone's time. So um good discussions. We are going to go
ahead with some slightly adjusted um motions on uh the boot hydro and vineyard offshore wind motions. Um and just to note, we are also uh asking uh
the RMLD team to continue to uh evaluate the opportunity at uh Cabbrook uh instead of just um passing on that right away. So, we'll start with the cab. Uh, and if
you could just maybe bring up the updated um motions just so we read that correctly. Okay, I'm going to have the motion up. The first one is going to be instead of 15, it's going to be 30. >> No, first one's fine. >> Oh, sorry. First one's fine and then
second one will be 30. So, this one on the screen right now is going to stay as is. >> Okay. >> Move that the RMLD citizens advisory board recommend that the RMLD board of commissions vote to accept the general manager's recommendation to execute a
contract with boot hydro for energy including associated certificates with delivery starting as early as July 2026 such that the contract size does not exceed 15,000 megahertz per year >> megawatt hours sorry
>> me hours >> vote Okay. >> Hi. >> Thank you. >> Would like to read. >> I'll do it. >> Thank you. >> Um move that the Armald Board of Commissioners uh on the recommendation of the Armald Citizens Advisory Board vote to accept the general manager's
recommendation um to execute a contract with food hydro for energy including associated certificates delivery starting as early as July 2026 such that contract size does not exceed 15,000 megawatt hours per year. >> Second. Okay. All those in favor?
>> I. >> Motion carries 4 Z. Okay. So then the offshore wind. >> This one's going to be 30,000 megawatt hours per year. >> Sure. move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory Board recommend that the RMLD Board of
Commissioners vote to accept the general manager's recommendation to execute a contract with Vineyard Offshore Wind for Energy, including associates certificates with delivery starting as early as July 2026 such that the contract does not exceed 30,000
megawatt hours per year. >> Second vote. I >> I >> I >> uh move that the Armald Board of Commissioners on the recommendation of the Armald Citizen Advisory Board vote to accept the general manager's recommendation to execute a contract
with Vineyard Offshore Wind for Energy including associated certificates with delivery starting as early as July 2026 such that the contract size does not exceed 30,000 megawatt hours per year. >> Second. All in >> favor. How about I
Okay, excellent. Thanks all. So, we will move to approval of meeting minutes. Any discussion on meeting minutes before we Okay. >> Move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory Board approved the following 2026 open
session meeting minutes as presented on the recommendation of the general manager and the board secretary, March 24th. Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> I roll.
>> Okay. Um I will follow up with that by saying that move that the RLD board of commissioners approve the following 2026 open session meeting minutes as presented on the recommendation of the general manager and myself the March 24th meeting.
>> Second. All those in >> favor. Option carries four zero. Okay. Uh GM update basically. >> Um first up on the update uh just to give you an update of where the cost of
service study um sits today. We have signed a proposal with a consultant uh utility financial services UFS um to perform the study for us. Um and we have a kickoff meeting scheduled with our team and their team for this Thursday to
get that ball rolling. So, we're making progress in that. Um, per their proposal, they're anticipating somewhere around the 12 weeks to to perform the study to get us some information. So, we're on track to have it hopefully right around the budget time.
And then, um, the other was, um, last month, well, end of March, beginning of April, I attended the, uh, APA's ENO conference down in Alabama. Um I attended the RP3 annual uh business meeting um for the panel that I'm on. That went well. And then of all the
different options of um sessions I could sit in on, I sat in on u one on the culture of safety and commitment, another one on AI and grid optimization. Uh I did some lessons in distributed energy resource management. Uh monitoring distribution systems and
operational benefits of AMI and economics of grid modernization. And that last one, um, the main presenter was actually the president of UFS. So that was actually very interesting to sit on and get some information from there. Um, I can make these slides available to to the boards if you'd
like. I have copies. Um, but overall was um a lot of stuff in there in these sessions. is some stuff that we're currently doing um with uh maybe different tweaks to it and a couple of the presentations maybe went the next step beyond but we're we're kind of
situated pretty well into what everybody's kind of doing what they're presenting on this I appreciate you guys allowing me to go and um it was very good I think it'd be interesting to have access to the slides if you can do that
>> very brief Copy. Any other questions? >> All right, let's move to scheduling. So, we have our meeting schedule through the end of 2026 defined. Any issues, concerns with that? Okay,
I think that's it. Any updates on board schedule? Anybody knows their jobs? No. And before we adjourn, just uh we do have a policy committee meeting tomorrow at noon, right? Yes. >> Just to let you know that's that's we haven't we had some good meetings uh in
the last couple weeks. So we'll uh meet virtually at noon tomorrow with Bob leading the discussion. Right, Bob? >> I just dropped the four letter expl. >> So any just wanted to mention it's it's one of the upcoming >> cool it was cool. thought it would be.
>> Um, the warrant schedule doesn't look right to me. I think Pam and I switched. >> We We did, but then >> Sorry, this I don't know what happens, but I keep adding that. It's not. >> So, which one am I picking?
>> So, you were um you were going to pick up October for me for the AP. >> Yeah. >> Which you did. So, so you're back to back there. >> Yeah. But then I was supposed to pick up something for you and I get I'm pushed way down to December. I thought I was
>> You want to take payroll? >> Well, I I thought the changes were down below, but I I don't know. Is that Is that right, Eric? I thought >> Let me double check. Let me not let me send out our advis because right now I have
payroll twice to the end of the year and nothing on AP. >> No, you have many. >> Well, May. >> So, you have three jobs. I have five jobs. The question is, do you want to take one at night? >> I thought that was the plan. >> That you have three and I have five.
>> No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That we that I think >> I think you might have been November per >> Yeah, I think I think that was what I was going to pick up. >> Oh, I remember asking are you sure you're okay to do per? So, let me then have Ray November payroll.
>> Yeah, I think I think that's the change that we had agreed on. >> Great. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks for catching that. Okay. I think we're ready to adjourn. I would like to start. >> Move that the RMLD Citizens Advisory
Board adjourn regular sessions. Roll call. Vote required. Kim Woods I >> Papavis I >> Bob Castle I >> name the Armald Board of Commissioners session
>> second roll call >> order I >> that's thank you >> thank you double chair