Easton Utilities plans sustainability complex

EASTON — A greener Easton is planned for the future.

Easton Utilities is in the planning and permitting stage to build a facility that aims to reduce the town’s dependency on purchasing electricity from the power grid.

The rough plans were presented to the Easton Town Council on Monday, May 4, in what Easton Utilities’ Vice President of Operations Geoff Oxnam said is a “very early introduction.”

It is named the Easton Sustainability Complex, a renewable energy micro-grid that is planned for construction at the Easton wastewater treatment facility off Barkers Landing Road.

The facility is going to combine innovative energy technology with Easton’s state-of-the-art wastewater treatment technology, Oxnam said.

“We have already the state’s most environmentally friendly wastewater treatment facility that does a fantastic job keeping pollution out of the Chesapeake Bay,” Oxnam said. “We are planning to bolt onto that a series of renewable energy generation strategies that will help offset the power that we have to buy from the grid and the needs of that facility.”

The first element of the facility will be landfill gas generation, he said. The wastewater treatment facility is located next to the Mid-shore Regional Landfill, which creates methane gas that can be used to make electricity.

“Currently, it’s just being flared into the atmosphere. We’re going to take that gas and make some of the electricity that the wastewater treatment facility needs to run,” Oxnam said.

He said Easton Utilities is also looking add a solar energy array on about 4 acres to help offset some of the facility’s needs.

There are other technologies Easton Utilities could potentially add, though nothing is definite as of yet as it depends on the ongoing analysis of how all these technologies will fit together, Oxnam said. Those other sustainable technologies being considered include battery storage technology — “the size of a shipping container,” Oxnam said — and possibly wind energy.

The benefits of the Easton Sustainability Complex to Easton Utilities customers, as well as the Easton community and the environment are significant, Oxnam said.

There would be a reduction in pollution. Over half the electricity that comes across the grid is generated from coal plants in the region, Oxnam said.

“Anything that we can generate local using renewables means that we don’t have to buy off the grid,” he said. “This has the potential to save our customers money. Instead of buying grid energy when it’s at a high price, we can generate some of our own.”

The Easton Sustainability Complex would also increase Easton’s resilience in the event of a power outage, he said.

It could also support education, Oxnam said, “most specifically to train the workforce of the future in the operation, maintenance, installation of these green energy facilities.”

In Maryland, electric utility companies are required to provide a percentage of their overall energy portfolio from renewable energy sources. If they don’t have those sources, then the companies have to buy renewable energy credits.

Oxnam said the number of renewable energy credits increases each year, and it’s a significant cost to purchase those credits.

“So if we’re generating renewable energy credits ourselves, we offset a portion of that cost, also saving our customers money,” he said.

Oxnam stressed that Easton Utilities is only in the permitting and design stages of the project, but added that it plans to pursue the landfill gas component first — possibly “up, constructed and ready to operate early in 2016” — “and then we’ll follow that with the solar as we look at the others,” although it depends on the permitting process and construction times.

The landfill gas and solar ideas go back a couple years, Oxnam said. The two technologies were previously considered for construction in Easton by the utility company, but it wasn’t economically feasible at the time, he said.

But, the price of materials for solar arrays has been considerably reduced, Oxnam said.

Easton Utilities is pursuing grant funding to help pay for the project.

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Easton Utilities plans sustainability complex