WELLS — All three schools in the Wells Ogunquit Consolidated School District will soon be running on natural gas, in a move that administrators say will save the district money in the long run.
Superintendent Jim Daley, who was promoted from Interim Superintendent in July, said that the School Committee had been pondering the switch for several months, and that amidst the construction going on at Wells High School, it was the right moment to make the change.
“We were talking about it years ago: it was time to replace the boilers in Wells Junior High, and then we just had the new construction, and other energy options, and with everything going on, it was time to make the conversion,” Daley said.
Daley estimated that the project will pay for itself over 10 years, and that the savings will accrue from that point onward. The construction will be done by Unitil, a natural gas utility and electricity company that serves Northern New England. In January, the School Committee approved a $132,000 contract with Until to convert the schools to natural gas.
“We’ve seen tremendous interest over the past few years (for) converting from oil,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said. “The reason for that being savings … we’ve seen customers halve (their bill). Expectations are that this winter folks could see as much as a 20 percent savings.”
The necessary construction will include over a mile of new natural gas pipeline, with the new gas boilers in Wells Junior High, as well as converting the kitchen appliances in each facility to work with natural gas, according to a press release issued by Unitil, which said the work will be completed in August. Currently, crews are constructing part of the pipeline on the dirt access road between the high school and the elementary school. Unitil will provide the distribution infrastructure, and the district will pick a third party to supply the natural gas.
Daly said that the process is going smoothly, singling out Honeywell for their assistance in converting all of the school district’s equipment to run on natural gas.
“Honeywell is tremendous throughout the process,” Daley said. “They are looking out for (our) best interests.”
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