Reduce stress on the grid
In answer to a question about how badly needed infrastructure improvements, such as upgrades to transmission lines, would be funded, Belsito said by allowing more customers to install renewable and other resources, demand would be reduced and the need to transmit electricity over long distances, which results in much waste, would be avoided.
Regarding CCAs, the PSC is considering a number of models, he noted. They range from simply obtaining a contract with a supplier to developing community-owned resources, like solar gardens. “We’re excited about the idea of CCA,” he said. “If consumers had a choice, they could regulate the market with their pocketbooks in a much more fine-tuned way than the PSC does.”
He added that everywhere in the state “there’s tremendous interest by communities in taking control of their energy use and increasing renewables. This is a big challenge and opportunity. The Hudson Valley will be a hotbed of distributed energy and local power.”
Another issue the PSC is looking at is how to get customers with photovoltaic systems to sell more power to the grid. Right now, the compensation customers get for providing power through their net meter is the same, whether it’s sending power to the grid during a peak demand period or not. “We need to find those values and the appropriate compensation,” in which incentives would encourage a customer to tilt his solar panels at the optimum angle, he said.
Several speakers were critical of the state’s cut in subsidies for renewables. Belsito explained the decline was related to the reduced cost of solar. He said that “with REV, we’re looking at the possibility of leveraging a much higher level of funding” and expect REV “well lead to the marshaling of private investment as well as public funding.” The PSC is currently establishing the funding targets and overall framework, he noted.
At the public hearing, Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner (D-Clinton/Rhinebeck) said there was no time to lose. “We’re hoping the proposed CCA happens sooner rather than later.” Three members of the Dutchess legislature had signed a resolution in support of the initiative, he said. Tyner cited a study by a Stanford University professor stating that the state could meet all its electricity needs with renewables by 2030. Currently 23 percent of the state’s power is from renewables, he said, and “it’s ridiculous for us not to be fighting for that.”
Unleash the potential
In his letter in support of CCA, which was read by Gregg Swanzey, Kingston’s director of economic development and strategic partnerships, Mayor Shayne Gallo said it would “enable towns and cities to unleash their potential to expand investment in local renewable energy, energy efficiency and demand management … CCAs can be an important tool for meeting New York State’s energy goals at the same time as they contribute to economic development.” The letter also noted that getting data from the utilities on their customers’ usage was essential. The PSC should ensure that municipalities would get the data “before the CCA program is created,” in order to allow for comprehensive planning.
Citizens for Local Power member Jessica Barry advocated for an advanced version of CCA — the group is calling it “CCA 2.0,” after the model formulated by Paul Fenn —which would allow for community ownership and “radically lower carbon pollution.” She cited the example of Sonoma County, California, which has adopted a CCA that’s establishing six or seven locations for electricity generation over a six-year period.
Fellow Citizens for Local Power member Amy Trompetter noted that “CCA creates entry-level jobs and funnels profits back into communities.” The PSC should not allow utilities to provide clean energy, she added. If the utility is allowed to run the Distributed System Platform, “it’ll privilege its own generation source, which works against balance and distribution of energy resources.”
Benjamin Young, a NYPIRG intern at SUNY New Paltz, said his group supports the REV and is calling for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. “Many state groups are united in calling for these reductions,” he said. The REV “must be overseen by a robust regulatory structure” but so far it is unclear how it will be accountable, he added.
Smart meters
At least half a dozen speakers addressed a different matter — their issues with the “smart” digital meters Central Hudson installed on their homes and the lack of response to their complaints from either the utility or the PSC. The utility has required the digital meters, which use radiofrequencies similar to cell phones and WiFi, according to the speakers, for customers with solar installations.
After such a meter was installed in her home in the summer of 2014, “within a month I became severely ill and had to cut electricity to my home because the utility wouldn’t remove the meter,” said Toby Stover. Stover claimed the meter was never tested and the PSC “has done nothing about this.” Woodstock resident Chris Finley said that after he and his family moved into an apartment with a digital meter he suffered from asthma and chest cramps. He said research reveals the meters qualify as a Class 2B carcinogenic (as is the case with all wireless technology).
Steve Romine of Woodstock seconded that opinion and said that after he had one installed in his house, his partner got ill. He contacted Central Hudson but nothing was done. After two months, in which she had several strokes, “I took it off the house and two weeks later had none of the ill effects” he’d suffered from, such as heart palpitations, cramps in his leg and severe neck pain.
In California they have two-way smart meters, and there have been thousands of complaints about the health impacts, according to Romine. “The first objective of the REV sounds like a description of a two-way smart meter. Do not bring them into New York.”
