Power of Planning

Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant

Infrastructure Updates
and Advances in Energy Delivery


Route 138

A state project lasting one year and cost approximately $1.5 million. Relocated 85 poles, installed 8,600 ft of Hendrix and Triplex cable and re-roofed six manholes. Route 44 Dean Street: Ran 9200ft of Hendrix cable for a new feed for station #2. Myles Standish Industrial Park: Finished installing 500ft of URD (which stands for underground ….) and 6000 ft of URD cable which was a replacement of direct burial cables installed in the 70s.

Conversions from 4160 volts to 13.8kV included Barnum St., Cohannet St, Harrison to Brook; Mill St./King Philip St.; Harrison Ave; Orchard St.; White St., Crocker St., Clinton St.

Phone System

TMLP’s support of the community was exemplified by its work in 2009 with the Taunton school district in designing, installing and managing a new telephone system (PBX) for the Taunton High and Parker Schools. This networked phone system, which is designed for completion in 2011, provides the ability to move phone services to virtually any office or place in the schools with little or no additional cost and provides additional functionality within the system. The investment in the Taunton School District will pay for itself in short order as a result of the avoided local, long-distance and system service charges.

 

SAP

$3.9 million and ten months to upgrade. TMLP had the original version of its SAP system installed nine years ago so it was necessary to upgrade to a newer platform, making future system improvements relatively seamless. Several improvements were made to the accounting functionality.

West Water Street (WWS):

2009 saw the beginning of the final clean-up of the WWS boiler hall facility. The project, which is estimated to run $3.13 million, is aimed at removing asbestos containing and any other hazardous materials which may have been left behind after the plant’s shutdown in the late 1970’s. Barring unforeseen complications, the facility should be remediated and ready for other potential uses by mid to late 2011.

NPDES Cleary Roof Drain Project for the EPA

The EPA’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) regulations required TMLP to install a new roof drain system separating the roof’s storm water run-off from that of the plant process discharge back to the river. Work on the $195,000 system refit took most of the year and was successfully completed in October 2009. This will allow for better monitoring of plant discharges to ensure we are within regulatory guidelines.

Infrastructure upgrades:

Total spent
during 2009 for improvements
= $11.86 million
in capital improvements.