ASHBURNHAM — The Municipal Light Department will pay solar company tenK Energy 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity.

The negotiated price was confidential until several days ago.

Stan Herriott, manager of the Ashburnham Municipal Light Department, said officials from tenK Energy had requested that the price be kept private, but Herriott told them that as a municipal company, it is required to reveal the contract details to anyone who makes a written public-records request, which the Sentinel & Enterprise did Tuesday.

Construction is expected to begin later this month on the solar array off Murray Road. The 3-megawatt-hour solar array is expected to be completed by the end of December and to produce an estimated 4 million kilowatts a year, which is about 10 percent of the town’s electricity.

The 4.9-cent-per-kilowatt-hour rate will stay the same for the duration of the contract, which is 20 years. Herriott said it’s a fair wholesale price for electricity.

Because the electricity is produced in town, electricity customers will not have to pay a “transmission fee” to get it to Ashburnham through cables owned by other entities.

Herriott said he expects the cost of fossil fuels to make other forms of electricity more expensive, and the contract with tenK Energy locks in the current price.

Contracts for the deal were signed by tenK Energy officials last Tuesday. Herriott said he then sent copies of the contract to the town clerk and town counsel.

Residents currently pay 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Herriott said that figure assumes ratepayers are paying their bills through the prompt payment option, which lowers rates.

While the town’s utility company is paying tenK Energy for the electricity, tenK Energy will be making payments to the town in the place of property taxes. The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement is $60,000 annually for the next 20 years, and was approved by Town Meeting in May.

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