“What we have here is a failure to communicate.” — A line featured in the 1966 film “Cool Hand Luke.”
Martin Public Schools was one of the first educational educational institutions in Michigan to switch to solar power for its facilities, and for the most part the experiment has been a success.
However, according to Sun FundEd representatives Kelly Hipskid and Patrick Poer, somehow information about the school district’s move wasn’t properly reported to Consumers Energy. The result was the use of power was not authorized by the energy company.
Hipkskid and Poer said Sun FundEd has performed an assessment of the situation and learned though the 2018 installation by Verde Solutions at a cost of $400,000 was solid, but there have been gaps in service since and the Consumers Energy situation needs to be resolved.
Hipskid said Martin “is not getting credits in metering,” so the benefits have been limited. He added about $30,000 worth of credits have not been realized over the past five years.
He recommended the schools move to get the service properly permitted, which may result in a temporary shutdown followed by a restart.
Poer said Consumers has been willing to work with the school system to get issues resolved.
“He said Martin “does not have authorization to operate on their (Consumers) grid… We can the system back on track and realize the benefits.”
He estimated the additional cost at between $20,000 and $25,000, but said he is confident the district in the long run will come out ahead by about $200,000 by going solar.
Hipskid and Poer, who are co-founders of the Indiana-based troubleshooting company, insisted Martin can get back into a proper position because solar power costs had decreased significantly over the past 45 years.
Board Vice President Vince Tuinstra said, “We’ve benefitted (from the switch) over the past five years, we just didn’t get all of the benefits.”
Martin, under the leadership of then-Supt. David Harnish, took the giant step forward to switch to solar power for its buildings during a reconstruction project approved by voters in a bond election.
Hipskid and Poer said their company currently is working on solar power projects for Calvin University and Alma College, and they plan to visit this area again early next month, when they will meet with Martin Supt. Samantha Ball.
