SCS Solar Project Should Come On-Line in April

SCHOHARIE - It was hoped that the Schoharie Central School solar project was going to come on-line in February, but delays have pushed that completion date to mid-April.

Superintendent David Blanchard told school board members Tuesday night that the final connections by National Grid will not be done until the April break. It had been hoped that the final connections were going to be done during the February break next week.

The delay, Mr. Blanchard said, 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, 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 district asked their architects to push National Grid but it did not help.

The project needs to be completed by July 1.

"I'm optimistic and hope for the April break," he told board members.

He will keep the board posted on project progress.

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 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.