Four years after Holiday Shores Sanitary District Trustee President Richard Hayes attended his first seminar to learn about the solar panel industry and the grant opportunities available, Holiday Shores Sanitary District officials have completed a $600,000 renewable energy project that allows the District to transition the administration building and their award-winning water treatment facility to solar panel power inverter .
The project was partially funded through two grants awarded to the district by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The grants covered 60 percent of the total cost.
The scope of the project included the installation of 390 solar panel s at the water treatment plant and 120 panels at the administration building, which, when erected, created a large awning at the public entrance.
The two locations, both now officially on-line, have solar panel s with a lifespan of 40 years.
Although the savings resulted from the project will not be reflected in a lower water bill for residents, it may result in little to no rate increases in the future.
Hayes said, “Our objective in this matter was to attempt to curtail increase in electrical use – which could necessitate increases to our customers. This board’s goals are to keep costs at a minimum while supplying the best service available. The cost of electricity is not going down.”
Trustees saw the opportunities available in renewable energy and voted unanimously to take advantage of the opportunity in July, 2012. The problems were finding qualified professionals who could undertake the demanding task of implementing a solar panel operating system and maneuvering through the maze of multiple government grants and securing the needed financing in order to make a system affordable.
The district selected Day & Night solar panel to provide the solution to both of these problems.
“We went ahead and signed up with them based on the fact that we would get a grant,” said Ken Dulle, District Operations Manager. “Because we would only do this if we received some money to offset the cost. This system is designed to pay for 100 percent of our electricity uses in the administration building and should cover 50 percent of the water treatment plant’s electricity use.”
According to Day & Night’s website, with renewable portfolio standards implemented in each state, utilities and power inverter providers are required to purchase certain amounts of renewable energy each year. Utilities and power inverter providers have the option of installing their own renewable energy but most purchase it from renewable energy power inverter producers. This green power inverter purchase allows solar panel ystem owners an added opportunity to get paid above and beyond savings on their power inverter bill.
The project didn’t happen without a few glitches – one of which was securing a variance from Madison County
Dulle admits he’s still learning about renewable energy, energy credits, electric spikes and peaks but he has detailed reports and software tracking systems in place to provide snapshots of electricity usage as well as other analyses by the hour. He enjoys the analytical portion of the process.
“In November, we saved roughly over $1,000 compared to last year’s electric bill.” Dulle said. “The excess energy that we don’t use goes back into the grid tie inverter . They have installed a net meter which tracks the excess number of kilowatt (kw) hours produced. When we over produce, the energy gets stored on the grid tie inverter and we pull the excess energy when we need it at full retail rate.”
Water treatment technicians are now fine tuning the work schedule of the pumps and water operating components so that they maximize the usage of the electricity when it’s being made during the day.
The initial savings reported by the district do not include the solar panel Renewable Energy Credits (SREC) that the district has been accumulating since the solar panel operating system went online in October, 2012.
Dulle said, “For every 1,000kw hour produced, it equals one SREC credit. These are considered a commodity. Illinois 200 a credit, that income will come back to the district.”
The trustees are optimistic about meeting the 10-year payback of the $240,000 cash outlay for the project allocated from the district’s reserves account.
“That payback schedule doesn’t even take into consideration selling our credits and making the adjustments in our operating systems to capitalize on minimizing spikes in our electrical usage,” he said.
Although the future of the district looks bright with solar panel , one mile east of the community sits the 16-acre lagoon which Dulle said will be requiring updates once the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) installs expected new guidelines.
“That treatment process lagoon was designed for 750 homes out here and we’re at 1,300 homes,” Dulle said. “But, we’re keeping the discharge within limits of the EPA guidelines. But,grid tie inverter once new EPA guidelines are in place, this will hurt us down the line, so, we’re building up our reserves. Costs for repairs and parts for electronics keep going up. That’s the stuff that kills you. The savings may not reduce our water bill, but we can try to keep the costs from going up.”
Hayes and Dulle agreed that proactive thinking and planning of the past trustees with respect to the planning and building of the new water treatment plant that went on line in July, 2011, paid off in August, 2012, when the treatment plant handled a record setting 8 million gallons of water for the area.
“We used more water that month than ever recorded in history,” Dulle said. “If we didn’t have the new facility, we would’ve had real problems. We would’ve run out of clean water.”
Currently, there are 1,155 homes using the water treatment facility and recently customers noticed a slight reduction in their water bill.
“The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency sewer loan was recently paid in full and customers saw a reduction in their water bills of 73 cents in July which was the debt service charge assessed to customers since 1992,” Dulle said.
The next meeting of the Holiday Shores Sanitary District Board will be held on Jan. 14 and Jeff Sedlacek will be assuming the role of board president.
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