MEMBER OF
American Public Power Association
Northeast Public Power Association
Municipal Electric Association Of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company
The one hundred and fourth annual report of the Belmont Municipal Light Department is hereby submitted. Kilowatt hour (kwh) sales during the year 2002 totaled 120,180,725 kwh, a decrease of 5,315,915 kwh from 2001 sales. The system peak demand of 30,320 KW occurred at 9:00 pm on Wednesday, August 14, 2002.
The following chart illustrates the trend of the Municipal Light Department’s business over the past ten years:
KWH Peak Gross No. of
Year Purchased Kilowatts Sales Customers
1993 113,867,520 23,875 10,048,221 10,614
1994 115,860,480 24,728 10,077,694 10.601
1995 115,784,640 26,222 10,321,153 10,640
1996 113,782,082 23,561 10,260,912 10,636
1997 114,647,040 24,305 10,826,376 10,638
1998 115,819,200 24,012 10,876,616 10,629
1999 112,255,040 27,287 10,465,660 10,707
2000 123,506,880 25,074 11,266,974 10,789
2001 127,496,640 29,287 11,795,533 10,722
2002 128,435,580 30,320 12,044,965
In December 2002 the Municipal Light Department transferred $550,000.00 to the Town’s General Revenue Fund as an In Lieu of Tax payment.
The Municipal Light Department continues to furnish “other services” to the Town including electrical inspection, data processing systems management and maintenance, electrical maintenance, relamping of buildings with hard to reach lighting such as the Skating Rink and the Wenner Field House, etc. The Department also maintains the Town’s traffic signals and the fire alarm call box system.
Power Supply
Belmont continues to receive the bulk (90%) of its power supply from Cambridge Electric Light (CELCo). Belmont also gets 2.34 megawatts of low cost hydropower from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) as our share of preference power allocated to the forty Massachusetts municipal light plants. Savings realized from the purchase of NYPA power are credited to our residential customers monthly.
During our 1999 power supply contract renegotiations with CELCo, Belmont insisted on fixed prices for energy through the end (March 2003) of the contract. That strategy has spared us from the effects of increased fuel prices currently being seen by customers of neighboring utilities.
In the spring of 2002 we issued an RFP for a new power supply to replace the expiring CELCo contract. In September 2002, after a very competitive bid process and careful analysis of responses to our RFP, we selected Dominion Energy Marketing, Inc. of Richmond, VA. as our new power supplier. Our agreement with Dominion runs from April 1, 2003 through December 31, 2007 and provides fixed energy prices that should allow us to maintain our rates at or below BMLD’s current rates.
The new contract permits BMLD to purchase up to 5% of our energy from other sources. We are currently searching the market for “green” or renewable resources to fill that gap in our power supply portfolio.
Rates
On July 1, 2002 BMLD increased all rates by $.004 (4 mils) per kwh to reflect increases in our purchased power costs. We will review our rates after our new power supply contract takes effect on April 1, 2003.
In spite of our rate increase, in 2002 a Belmont Municipal Light Department residential customer using 500 kwh / month paid $52.52/ month while a Cambridge Electric Light Co. customer paid $55.61 and a Boston Edison / N-Star customer (residents of Arlington, Lexington, Waltham and Watertown) paid $65.11 for the same 500 kwh.
New Operations Center Building
The construction contract for our new facility was closed out in September 2002 and all of our employees are enjoying working together from one new building. We also welcomed the Highway Dept. office staff to share our new facilities while the Town Hall / Town Hall Annex renovations are underway.
Other Projects
1. Work continues on the installation of a new 15 KV feeder around the Belmont Hill section. This project will be completed this year and will provide increased capacity and reliability in the area.
2. The Department continues to investigate the feasibility of deploying a fiber optic network in order to provide various broadband communications services to residents and businesses in the town. We have retained a consultant to assist us on this project and we present the consultant’s work product to the Municipal Light Board as the project progresses. The Town’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) has also assisted the Department in evaluating this project.
3. Direct debit as a payment option was introduced during the past year and has been well received by our customers. The billing software upgrades we purchased in order to provide direct debit could also be used by other Town departments if they were to decide to offer this payment option.
General
The guidance and co-operation of the Municipal Light Board and the devotion to duty and good work of our employees is gratefully acknowledged.
The co-operation extended by other Town Departments is very much appreciated.
Attached are a Balance Sheet and a Comparative Income Statement for the Municipal Light Department for the Year ended December 31, 2002.
Respectfully submitted,
Timothy L. McCarthy, General Manager
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