Schoharie School Solar Project Should Come On-Line in April

SCHOHARIE - The lines for the Schoharie Central School solar project should be installed later this month.

Superintendent David Blanchard told school  board members at their March 19 meeting that National Grid workers are expected to install the lines on April 17 and 18. It may be necessary to use an unused snow day to close school on April 17 to allow the work to be done.

It had been hoped that the lines would be installed during the April break but the new target dates are a week later, he added.

The final dates have still not been finalized.

The dates, Mr. Blanchard said, are still "very much up in the air."

He said he wants the project completed soon. "We want to be supplying power back into the grid and school soon."

He hopes that by the April board meeting that he can report "that it's over and done."

Mr. Blanchard noted that the weather has slowed National Grid from completing the work.

It was hoped that the solar project was going to come on-line in February, but delays pushed that completion date to April.

The delay, Mr. Blanchard said in February, is apparently in the National Grid engineering reviewing and finalizing the connection plans. The review should be complete by March 6 and then work crews will get ready to complete the cut outs a month later. Those reviews are taking longer than expected.

National Grid, the Superintendent added in February, is "not adept at working with schools" which have different timelines than companies or industries. The cut outs can only be done when school is not in session.

The project needs to be completed by July 1.

Superintendent Blanchard said in November that  the solar project had been scheduled to be connected in early January. The final connection will be made once National Grid runs power lines from Route 30 up the side of the school property to the location of the power poles installed by Aris, the contractor in charge of the project.

The system is 749 KW and the district expects the savings to be around $180,000 per year when it is online, he added  

The solar panels have been in for some time and the transformer is in place, but the district was still waiting for a key piece, the switchgear. The long lead time on the solar project was due to delays getting the switchgear. Much of the project was completed by the beginning of the year. The road to the project in the "lower 40" had been installed and significant work by mid-December was done.

The solar field was built on one acre behind the track in the "lower 40."  The total cost of the EPC was $2,750,000.

The project is part of the district's $25.9 million building project that was approved by voters in May 2022. The district looked at either putting more solar panels on building roofs or on the back property before making a decision.

National Grid has also provided 90 percent of the cost for the building of the electric vehicles stations, which were also part of the project. Any revenue would go to the district. Each station will have two chargers each. The stations were installed last summer and operational by the time school started. Two of the stations were built by the construction area and the rest near the bus garage.

The project does not require any new local taxpayer funds as state aid and the current building reserve will cover the costs.