A planned solar array project at Centralia High School appears to be back on track, as school officials are now pursuing an agreement with a new solar company.
Last month, it was reported that NelNet wished to back out of its agreement with the school to build arrays near the high school building and the school annex. However, Ross Calliott of Affordable Gas and Electric told the CHS Board of Education on Monday that another company, Pennsylvania-based Keystone Power Holdings, has expressed interest in moving forward with the project.
Keystone offered an electric price rate of 4.75 cents per kilowatt hour for an array with a pollinator garden beneath it, or 5.15 cents per kilowatt hour for an array with a gravel surface. The school will be able to choose either a 25-year or 30-year agreement.
The board of education approved a letter of intent with Keystone Power Holdings to pursue the project. The board also voted to authorize Superintendent Chuck Lane to enter into a power purchase agreement with Keystone at a rate not to exceed 5.15 cents per kilowatt hour.
Calliott told the board that an interconnection agreement with Ameren must be signed by April 23 and Keystone needs to pay Ameren $182,000 within 15 business days after that date to maintain the project’s timeline.
Keystone is reportedly ready to construct the array in 2024. However, Lane says the timing for the array to become fully operational will depend on Ameren’s timeline.
“It could be that the arrays are here, they’re ready to go, but we’re waiting on Ameren. Now, it could be that Ameren, they get the equipment quickly and they get going on it right away. They are busy too, you know, and it’s not easy stuff we’re talking about, so … hopefully things go smoothly, we get that agreed upon, Ameren can get on it and it kind of simultaneously comes together. If not, it could be that the solar arrays are here, they’re installed and we’re just waiting on that last part.”
Lane says school officials were happy to hear that Keystone was interested in picking up the project after the prior agreement with NelNet fell through.
“When you hear that your first deal fell through, you get a little discouraged, but then knowing that there were other people were interested and that the price didn’t go up to 7 or 8 cents per kilowatt (hour) was encouraging. Once we heard from Keystone how excited they were about it — again, they contacted us saying we could do this — once they took a look at all the other agreements and stuff, all the engineering that NelNet had done, and by the way, NelNet did share all that with us, which they didn’t have to do, so that was good, in an act of good faith they did that. And then, we are all stressing the fact that we’ve got to get that agreement signed and we can’t lose our place in line with Ameren. So right now, it looks like it’s coming together, so that’s a good thing.”
In other action on Monday, the board held a public hearing regarding the school’s intent to issue $1.45 million in alternate revenue bonds to fund a new synthetic turf surface for Evers Field. There was no feedback from the public. The turf project is expected to take place this summer.
The board also accepted a letter of retirement from facilities manager Randy Redfeairn effective April 12, a letter of resignation from wrestling head coach Tristan Penrod effective March 7, a letter of resignation from annex aide Ryan Hargis effective April 2, and a letter of resignation from Spanish teacher Mauricio Flores effective at the end of the 2023-24 school year.
