Somerset selectmen to meet with energy experts regarding Brayton Point

SOMERSET – Unnamed experts in the energy field will meet with the Board of Selectmen in executive session Friday afternoon to discuss the Brayton Point Power Station property, Chairman Scott Lebeau said.

“Potentially it could be (for) using Brayton Point after the fact,” Lebeau said in reference to its owners announcing the scheduled closure of the 1,530-megawatt power plant on May 31, 2017.

“We don’t know what they’re proposing,” Lebeau said. “There’s nothing concrete.”

Lebeau said Dynegy Inc., the new ownership is not involved.

Dynegy purchased Brayton Point with its 300-acres on Mount Hope Bay in August as part of a much larger, 10-plant $3.45 billion purchase from Energy Capital Partners. The sale was completed and approved a few months ago, and Dynegy re-stated ECP’s position to close the mostly gas-fired plant.

Lebeau as selectmen chairman authorized this meeting be held in executive session under one of the 10 criteria listed under the Open Meeting Law that allows the meeting to be closed to the public.

The posting on Wednesday says: “To consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property whereas an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the town’s negotiating position – Brayton Point property.”

It also said selectmen could confer with legal counsel regarding this topic.

Lebeau said he responded to the unidentified party’s request for an executive session after discussing it with Town Administrator Richard Brown and Town Attorney Clement Brown under the Open Meeting Law regulations.

Brown said he had no information besides the posting to give, while a phone message left at Brown’s Fall River law office was not immediately returned.

When asked what standing a non-owner of Brayton Point would have under the criteria cited for the closed meeting, Lebeau said, “I think it does cover the executive session.”

He declined to discuss for publication any other details, but indicated he would know more after the meeting. It is scheduled at 2 p.m. at Town Hall.

State Rep. Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, said she learned about the meeting reading it in Thursday’s Herald News and said she knew nothing about the selectmen’s meeting.

“I believe the owners would have contacted me if they were going to meet with selectmen,” Haddad added.

The potential reuse of Brayton Point was the subject of a third workshop on the topic last week in town through a $100,000 state grant administered by the Clean Energy Center and its hired consultants led by Ninigret Energy Partners of Providence.

Representatives of Dynegy and the former owners have attended those workshop sessions designed to identify potential uses, zoning and alternatives for reusing both Brayton Point and the former Montaup power plant property closed down five years ago.

Both are privately owned.