Weston waits for answers on fuel cell study from CL&P
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
A town proposal to install a fuel cell that would power Weston schools is in a holding pattern while officials work out some details with Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P).
Weston First Selectman Woody Bliss said earlier this week he is still waiting for some satisfactory answers from CL&P about the necessity of combining electric meters at the high school and middle school. CL&P has told the town the meters must be combined before a fuel cell can be installed.
Earlier this month, the boards of selectmen and finance approved spending $9,052 for a study to determine the costs of combining the meters. The approval was made contingent on the need for making the change.
Mr. Bliss said he met with representatives from CL&P and was told the town needs to have a single meter in part because that’s the way the power company has always done it in the past.
“They can only do what their regulations allow them to do,” Mr. Bliss said. The town is arguing, however, that a joint meter is not specifically allowed nor prohibited in the regulations, he said.
Combining the two meters might be trickier in Weston’s case than in some other instances. When the schools were originally built, the decision was made to have the high school and the middle school powered by two different substations.
This is a good thing, Mr. Bliss said, because it means if there is a problem at one substation, both schools would not necessarily be without power at the same time.
“The problem is it creates more of an expense if you’re talking about putting the two schools on a single meter,” Mr. Bliss said.
Work on the study to determine the cost of combining the meters has been put on hold “until we get a few more answers to our questions,” Mr. Bliss said. “From my viewpoint, they have not given us a compelling answer as to why [a joint meter] is needed.”
