DALTON, MASS. — The Green Committee is working to obtain information from Eversource to inform the possibility of developing solar polar photovoltaic arrays in town. 

 

The committee approved using $250 during its meeting last week for a pre-application to Eversource. This application will provide data that will inform how to develop a solar PV array in town.

 

The efforts to develop PV arrays is supported by the state Department of Energy Resources' Green Communities initiative and has been part of the town's master plan since 2016. 

 

One of the master plan's goals in the infrastructure section is to improve the town's energy efficiency. 

 

To minimize the tax impact of this goal, one of the objectives is to "support the development of solar farms on town property to reduce the cost of electricity for the town."

 

Upon submitting a pre-application, Eversource is required to send back a range of data within 10 business days otherwise it's free.   

 

The town needs to determine how much it can load the two circuits available. There are two lines that come into Dalton — 18C BERKSHIRE and 19A DOREEN.  

 

According to a Eversource representative, the company cannot provide that information without submitting the pre-application. 

 

Eversource's DC Hosting Capacity map does not have all the information needed to inform future projects and is inaccurate because it represents people who submitted applications but may not have a live PV array, Green Committee member Todd Logan said later. 

 

The Green Committee will use the Senior Center as a mock location for a 375-kilowatt solar array in its pre-application because the two circuits border the center. The 18C BERKSHIRE circuit is located on High Street and 19A DOREEN on Glennon Avenue. Dalton would have to determine which circuit to connect to. 

 

Since the Green Committee is not proposing building a solar array on the land in front of the Senior Center, this gives the town "the opportunity to figure out which circuit would be best suited for an income generating and power generating PV array," Logan said. 

 

The pre-application will provide data, including the substation transformer rating, the substation's circuit voltage and name, the phase available near the site, and the distance from the phase service if it's a single phase. 

 

It also includes standards for the interconnection of distributed generation, including information on aggregate connected facilities that have not yet been interconnected, the interconnecting customer's network types and nearby feeders, and potential system constraints that may impact the proposed facility, among other things.