There’s been a lot of news coming out of the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative offices in the past month or so.
A Community Solar Garden is about to be constructed on Highway 12 in Hatteras village. You might see construction underway next week. And, believe it or not, CHEC says it takes only one week to complete it with 180 solar panels.
Beginning next year, CHEC has announced it will switch the outdoor security lights it provides to customers who want them from high-pressure sodium bulbs to the more dark-sky friendly LED lighting.
Also in the spring, the cooperative will start selling smart thermostats to its customers who want them to help conserve energy.
But, right now, at CHEC’s offices, all eyes are on the weather and the upcoming seven days that Hatteras and Ocracoke islands will need to be on generator power to finish moving its transmission lines, so the Bonner Bridge replacement can get underway, as planned, in March 2016.
For an expected seven days, both islands will be on generator power while cables that must be severed in the process of moving the lines can be spliced back together. CHEC expects those seven days will be Dec. 16-22.
The islands have been on generator power for that long only one other time — for eight days after Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Sometime soon, perhaps as soon as Monday, Dec. 14, CHEC managers must make a critical “go” or “no go” decision on the project. They must decide if the weather appears favorable enough to handle all of its Hatteras Island customers and Tideland EMC’s Ocracoke customers on the existing generators and three others that have been brought to the island for the project.
Once the cables are cut, there is no going back. We will have to rely on the generators for seven days.
CHEC executive vice-president and general manager Susan Flythe sat in her office one sunny, mild day earlier this week to talk about the different initiatives going on at the cooperative, but you could tell her mind was focused on the project of moving the lines and switching to generators for so many days.
All of the managers and directors of the cooperative are focused on weather forecasts and graphs and load capacity. To keep all of us on generators for seven days, the weather can’t be so cold that we all have to be running our heat non-stop, but, of course, it can’t be so warm that we all need air conditioning.
Of course, the latter is unlikely to happen in December. But it can get cold in December.
CHEC leadership is convinced they are prepared, and the weather forecast looks favorable, but then you just never know, especially when it comes to the weather.
“Believe me,” Flythe said, “we’re not trying to make everyone’s Christmas miserable,” she said.
“But,” she adds, “we want to see the new bridge built as much as anyone else.”
And this is a first step that must be completed before construction of the replacement of the aging Bonner Bridge can begin.
The pressure is on CHEC from the N.C. Department of Transportation and its contractors and everyone else who wants construction to start to get those lines moved.
“We told them (DOT) we would try,” Flythe says, and everyone at the cooperative is focused on making it happen.
However, the project is very weather dependent, and if it looks like the weather won’t cooperate, CHEC will not proceed with the switch to generators.
The cooperative, she says, will not put its members at risk.
On the other hand, if the project does go forward, she says, “It will be vital to have community support.”
No one wants to see the aging bridge replaced more than the folks who live in the Hatteras and Ocracoke island communities.
So for seven days between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22, if the project goes forward, we can make a contribution, however small, to getting the new bridge underway.
CHEC will not ask the community to conserve power unless it must, but we can still do our share to help our power providers get the job done on time.
First, a little background. The power lines travel across the Bonner Bridge and then underground to a structure on the south side of the bridge, which is called a “riser.” It is a structure where underground lines transition to overhead lines.
The current riser must be moved out of the way to make room for the new construction. And a new temporary riser must be built until the bridge is finished and a new permanent riser constructed.
The current — or “old” — riser is on the west side of Highway 12, just south of the bridge, and the new temporary structure is about 350 feet to the south.
To make the transition from the current riser to the new one, the lines must be cut and spliced back together, a job that the contractor and CHEC expect to take about seven days.
The contractor on the job is New River Construction, which attached the new 115kV line to the bridge in 1995.
Flythe says ideally, the project would have been done in a month such as October, where the weather would be more favorable.
However, a lawsuit that has been holding up the bridge construction for several years was just settled this summer. An announcement of the settlement was made in June and it all became legal in mid-August.
Starting the project in October wasn’t possible, Flythe said, because the job had to be coordinated with the contractor and the delivery of materials, some of which had to come from Europe, where the original transmission line was manufactured.
To prepare to do the job in mid-December, CHEC managers looked at power loads for past Decembers. The seven days that would be needed looked good.
The load has seldom exceeded 20 megawatts, and Flythe said that a good cushion is required to make it all work.
The two islands can provide 18 megawatts — 15 MW from generators at its Buxton plant and 3 MW from the Ocracoke generator. Three 2 MW generators have been brought in for a total of 24 megawatts to handle the projected power load and have a cushion.
So far, the weather forecast looks favorable.
According to meteorologist Bel Melendez at the National Weather Service office in Newport/Morehead City, N.C., the long-range forecast is for normal to above normal temperatures for northeastern North Carolina for the next couple weeks.
The average mean temperature in December is 49, she says. The average low for the month is 43 and the average high is 56. So chances are we will have normal or above temps, which looks good to CHEC managers.
Melendez does add that the long-range forecast includes rain for the area late next week, but Flythe says light rainfall will not hold up the work of the contractor.
Forecasts, Melendez notes, can change, but right now, all is looking good.
Hatteras and Ocracoke islanders can expect an announcement, maybe on Monday, whether the project will proceed or not.
While the islands are on generator power — expected from Wednesday, Dec. 16, until Tuesday, Dec. 22 — you can follow the progress in real time on Facebook and/or Twitter, where regular updates will be posted.
CHEC will not ask its members to conserve energy unless it is absolutely necessary.
However, many of us will be interested in what we can do as community members who are eager for a new bridge to make this project go as smoothly as possible.
Here are a few tips on energy conservation from CHEC:
- Lower the thermostat: If you have your heat on, consider lowering the temperature by as much as 10 degrees. We recommend a setting of 68 or lower.
- Consider cold water settings when washing your laundry.
- Turn off the pre-rinse and heat-dry settings on your dishwasher.
- Take advantage of blinds and curtains: Open them during the day, especially on windows that face south. Let the sunshine in and warm your home. Close them at night to help insulate.
- Keep ceiling fans off. Although you may think that you are blowing down warm air, people also feel a chill from the flow of air.
- Conserving power can be as simple as unplugging chargers for phones and tablets, which draw energy when they aren?t in use.
I think it’s safe to say that we all want to see the aging Bonner Bridge replaced as soon as possible. Now, we can all do what we can to support CHEC through the challenging seven days on generators.
OTHER CHEC PROJECTS
Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative expects that we will see activity at the site of the Community Solar Garden next week. It is located on a 1.3-acre site next to the Hatteras Island Ocean Center in Hatteras village.
Hannah Solar, the contractor, expects to start work soon and says the project can be finished in a week — concrete footers and 180 panels, which will provide approximately 50 kilowatts of energy.
The panels will be sold to CHEC members for $685 each, beginning Jan. 1. Members who purchase the panels will get a credit on their monthly power bills over the next 20 years that will vary according to the project’s output, but will probably be in the range of $2 to $3.
“Community solar is an attractive option for our members who rent their homes, for members who do not have a south-facing roof, or for those who may not want to penetrate their roof in our coastal environment,? said Susan Flythe, CHEC general manager and executive director. ?Community solar makes solar accessible to all of our members.?
CHEC isn’t expecting to sell out of the solar panels immediately. The cost of solar energy has decreased significantly, but it is still expensive, says CHEC general manager Susan Flythe, and not as cost effective as natural gas or nuclear energy.
The price for CHEC panels was set according to financial modeling done by the National Renewable Cooperative Organization (NRCO), a group that CHEC and other North Carolina cooperatives are working with to do their projects. Four in North Carolina were completed in 2014, and nine are to be completed by the end of the year, all under the auspices of the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and NRCO.
Purchasing the panels, she says, will appeal most to environmentally conscious members, and she notes that CHEC has seen a lot of interest already from its members in the solar project.
We plan to write more about the Community Solar Garden before the end of the year.
If you have questions, please send them to me at editor@islandfreepress.org or post them in the comments on the blog. We’ll get the answers — we hope!
Also, at its November meeting, the CHEC Board of Directors voted to replace its high-pressure sodium (HPS) security lights with LED lights. The LED lighting is more night-sky friendly, reducing light pollution with shades that direct the light downward.
The switch will also save energy. Flythe said the LED lights use about half the energy of the HPS lights. Furthermore, she said, it will help CHEC comply with the requirements of state Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (REPS) law.
CHEC will replace 957 of its current security lights with LED lighting.
Members will not have to ask to have them replaced. CHEC will begin replacing 957 of its current security lights with LED lighting after the first of the year. Flythe says all of them should be replaced by the end of the year.
CHEC installs the security lights at the request of its members for a monthly rate of $9.60 for 100 watt HPS lights and $17.60 for 250 watt lights. The LED lights will cost the same amount.
In March, CHEC will begin selling Ecobee smart thermostats at a discounted rate to members, who, in exchange, must agree to let CHEC control the settings in order to manage the load.
More information on this project will also be available soon.
