The Tamaqua Area School Board’s finance committee recommended canceling virtual net metering for the middle and high schools at Tuesday night’s workshop committee meeting.

The district began using solar power in fall 2020, but will now use it to power just two of its four school buildings.

Doug Neidich, CEO of GreenWorks Development, said the PPL transmission cost increased 74% from last year to this year. Additionally, PPL reclassified or essentially categorized the district under a different pay rate than it was originally, before the use of solar energy.

“We, as a school district, are promoting renewable energy,” said Ray Kinder, Tamaqua superintendent.

“We’re a nonprofit obviously, trying to help save taxpayer money over the long haul. For there to be a reclassification occurring, was not predicted on our end.”

However, there is a net benefit for the district, despite the change in plans.

“What PPL had done, as a result of us doing solar, was a re-rate of the building,” explained Larry Wittig, board president.

“That gets them more money on the usage side. But the flip side of that is, when we get paid for usage that we generate, we get paid more, too. That’s how we actually wound up getting a better deal. These things are so fluid - this is the first I heard of this kind of thing going on. … It worked out better for us than before, but it was a sneaky kind of thing (on PPL’s end).”

Both district elementary schools will remain solar powered.

As the middle and high schools go back on the grid (standard electric use), the solar power previously planned to be allocated to those buildings, will ironically instead be sold to PPL. At current conditions, the district is able to sell that “extra” energy and still come out ahead.

“If we didn’t do the solar, we would be at the mercy of whatever they charge,” Wittig said. “We’re still ahead of the game no matter what.”

The finance committee also recommended a minimum Solar Renewable Energy Certificate selling point of $50 moving forward.

The selling of these “certificates” which are produced by TASD’S solar panels, can be sold on the market - much like stocks are. The value of an SREC changes frequently based on numerous circumstances - especially supply and demand.

SolarUnitedNeighbors.org says to “think of them like a “voucher” that proves that the electricity from your solar panels is renewable. You earn one SREC for every 1,000 kWh (or 1 MWh) of electricity produced by a solar system. These SREC “vouchers” are valuable because many utilities must buy a certain number of them each year to meet sustainability requirements set by the renewable portfolio standard in each state.”

Business Manager Connie Ligenza said through March, the district sold 171 SRECs at $27 each and 675 at $30 each.

No tax increase

The finance committee recommended no tax increase for its final 2021-22 budget, with ending fund balance of $570,811. It will officially be put in front of the board next week.

“It’s pretty tough to justify tax increase when the state is throwing a lot of money at you in regard to the COVID stuff,” Wittig said.

“Having said that, that’s all-taxpayer money too, so it goes from one pocket and goes to the other. But it’s pockets outside the district, I figured it would be prudent for us not to hold the line on this, this year.”