As it was expected to do, the East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously last Thursday to adopt measures aimed at moving the town closer to its goal of deriving 100 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources.
The town’s energy sustainability and resiliency committee recommended adoption of the four measures at a May 7 meeting of the board. Lauren Steinberg of the town’s Natural Resources Department presented them again, in a refined form, on June 18.
The board voted to hold public hearings to consider a resolution that would enable establishment of a community choice aggregation energy program, or C.C.A., a municipal model for procuring energy that replaces the utility as the default monopolistic supplier of electricity or natural gas within a municipality. In the C.C.A. model, communities pool demand to negotiate a fixed rate, potentially lowering prices with private suppliers. Communities can also choose cleaner energy and develop distributed energy resources including local renewable energy projects and shared renewables such as community solar, energy efficiency, microgrid products, and demand response, the latter a voluntary rationing system in which a utility’s customers adjust their energy consumption during peak demand times to relieve stress on the electrical grid.
The board further agreed to explore, in those hearings, the opportunity for increasing its competitive buying power for electricity and natural gas by combining its efforts with the Town of Southampton, which has already adopted enabling legislation, and with other East End municipalities.
In another measure, the board will identify town facilities most suitable for battery energy storage systems and issue a request for information and proposals for installation and maintenance of such systems, provided that any cost could be offset by revenue derived from a contract with the South Fork Peak Savers load relief program, which the board is considering. Under that program, the town would commit to operate existing standby generators at the direction of Applied Energy Group, a consultancy under contract to PSEG Long Island, which manages the electrical grid, during anticipated peak-demand periods.
An incentive program offered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority could also offset the cost of battery storage systems, as could savings from reduced electricity charges on accounts with demand response meters.
Also included in the measures are a commitment to consider adoption of legislation and regulations to facilitate the deployment of battery systems and other energy storage systems yet to be invented.
Lastly, the board agreed to begin the process of convening technical experts and consultants to craft an energy policy to guide the town toward meeting its goal of using 100-percent renewable electricity by 2020 and 100-percent equivalent renewable energy in electricity, transportation, and heating fuels by 2030. The town has acknowledged that it will not meet the former goal, but that 2022, when the proposed South Fork Wind Farm is projected to begin operation, is achievable. The latter goal will be more challenging, rendering the hiring of consultants necessary, the board had earlier agreed.
Lynn Arthur, a member of Southampton’s sustainability advisory committee, attended the meeting and before the vote applauded the board, the Natural Resources Department, and East Hampton’s Energy sustainability and resiliency committee. “When I saw what was on the agenda tonight, you couldn’t keep me home,” said Ms. Arthur, who was speaking on her own behalf. “I had to come over and say what a fantastic job has been done by the committee . . . under the leadership of Linda James,” its chairwoman.
Ms. Arthur said that Southampton’s sustainability committee will present its annual report to that town board on July 11, and include a recommendation that the town follow East Hampton in considering adoption of building code changes to facilitate battery energy storage systems. “It is absolutely critical to our 100-percent renewable goals,” she said of that measure, “and it underpins many things, which I know you know about.”
She proposed collaboration among the towns to further their respective energy goals, “but it would be really great if all the municipalities in the five towns and all the incorporated villages all adopted the same code,” she said. “Imagine that: We would make it more attractive for developers to come here to build projects, which we obviously need.”