Article submitted by Jamie Fleury, The Pilot News Staff Writer
PLYMOUTH — Utilities Superintendent Donnie Davidson updated the Plymouth Board of Public Works that there were timing issues interfering with the completion of the Solar Project at the Wastewater Treatment Facility at full scale.
Davidson said, “My recommendation to the board would be scaling the project down to half and still meet the deadline as required.”
The project construction completion deadline is December of 2022. Davidson was also recently informed that an impact study would need conducted by NIPSCO at a cost of $5,000. NIPSCO estimated up to four months to complete the study.
Upon completion of the study, an interconnection agreement with NIPSCO would need completed along with costs of up to $125,000 for the upgrades that would need to be made by NIPSCO.
NIPSCO estimated up to one year to complete improvements on their end pushing the potential completion date out as late as October 2023.
Davidson recommended a reduction to half of the size of the project which eliminated the requirement for a $5,000 impact study along with the interconnection agreement with costs of $125,000.
Project costs are increasing across the country. Supply chain demands and delays have also impacted productivity.
Reducing the project by half the size to a 500 Kilowatt installation can be made by the deadline of December 2022 with the potential for future progress. The basic infrastructure will be in place for future upgrades if desired and drops the cost of the project down to approximately $1M.
According to Davidson, the expected life of the project warranty is 25 years. The City of Plymouth will save over $1.7M in energy costs at the current pricing; Davidson noted energy costs are increasing rather than decreasing which will only result in increased savings.
The Board of Public Works approved Davidson’s request to reduce the scope of the project as recommended.
