PMLD is a non-profit public
service corporation, whose primary goal is to provide reliable and low cost
electric service to the residents and businesses of the Town of Princeton. PMLD is a Town asset, working as a separate
governmental unit, with its own Board of Light Commissioners, policies, and
budget serving the needs and providing value to our ratepayers.
Throughout 2005 PMLD upgraded our
electrical distribution system, installed new electric services, developed and
permitted the wind farm project, and operated under tight financial
constraints.
PMLD thanks all of its customers
for their continuing support of public power.
Electric Customer and Rates
By the end of 2005, PMLD provided service to 1,391
residential, 5 Farm, 99 commercial, and 15 municipal customers. 87% of the town’s energy use is due to
residential customers. PMLD customers
consumed approximately 16 million kWh of energy in 2005, and the average home
used approximately 800 kWh per month.
PMLD continues to provide cost
effective electric service as compared to Investor Owned Utilities (IOU). The average home in Princeton spends
approximately $112.00 per month on electricity. If you lived outside our electric service territory, you could
have paid more for the same amount of electricity.
PMLD has had only seven rate increases over the past 21
years. This represents an average rate
increase of only 2.7% per year, less than the average annual rate of inflation! PMLD’s number one priority is to maintain
the lowest possible rates, while providing the most reliable electric service
possible.
Wind Farm
Project
The
Wind Farm Project continues to utilize much of our time and resources. PMLD is committed to successfully completing
this community project as soon as possible.
PMLD finished the permitting process and actually received a second
building permit in 2005. The building permit
was rescinded due to legal challenges based on the Site Plan Review process. PMLD is confident these legal challenges
will be dismissed shortly. The wind
farm project demonstrates our commitment to renewable energy, reduces our
dependency on the fossil fuels that cause pollution, reduces our Town’s energy
costs, and most importantly, balances the environmental and community
impacts. Please continue to support
this very important project.
Besides providing low cost and reliable energy, PMLD
performed many other services for the Town and our customers in 2005.
·
Discounted the cost of Town owned streetlights 17% or $1,500
·
Installed holiday decorations, Town Common lights, and other
banners and signs
·
Included Town related mailings in monthly bills to save
postage and handling costs
·
Sponsored electrical safety classes for our children at the
Thomas Prince School
·
Provided storage and meeting space for the Princeton
baseball league, Friends of the Library, Princeton girl scouts cookies, and
Town Selectmen
·
Offered cost effective and energy efficient electric hot
water heaters
·
Offered rebates for energy efficient refrigerators and
dishwashers
·
Acted as Town wide battery collection and disposal site
·
Volunteer for Wachusett Earth-day household waste pick-up
and collection day
Reliability
Delivering and maintaining reliable energy to every customer
in Princeton is one of our main goals.
PMLD continued to trim and remove trees that could damage our electric
distribution system or cause outages.
PMLD completed many upgrade projects to the electric distribution system
such as installing new utility poles and fiberglass insulators on Mountain
Road. The total number of town wide
outages has decreased significantly as compared to previous years. PMLD will continue to improve the
reliability of our electric system.
PMLD’s
commitment to protecting the environment and purchasing renewable energy
continued through FY2005. Generating
and purchasing renewable energy makes a difference in our community. In FY2005
PMLD purchased approximately 23% of its energy from various hydroelectric power
plants in the region. This renewable
energy is purchased at very favorable costs compared to market and contract
power costs.
Our existing Wind Farm did not
generate any renewable energy for the Town in FY2005. The existing wind farm is
21 years old and has reached the end of its useful life. It is too expensive to maintain and operate
the old units. PMLD will remove these
units once the upgrade project begins.
PMLD will
continue to upgrade and maintain its electrical distribution system and explore
new services, such as high speed Internet access and cable television in
2005. Please come by the Light
Department and let us know how we are doing.
Thank you again for continuing to support PMLD.
Respectfully Submitted,
Board of Light Commissioners; Bradford Hubbard, Scott
Bigelow, and Don Steadman