Welcome and updates · 10 minHow the plan comes together · 10 minPriorities raised so far · 15 minWorking discussion · 40 minNext steps · 10 min
Follow along at carpenterhillpower.com/meetings/cac-2
An illustrated aerial view of the site on Carpenter Hill Road.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
How Tonight Works
We are recording: The recording and the notes get published on this page afterward, the same way we published everything from July 8.
Who is here: The Citizen Advisory Committee is the working group tonight. Residents, neighbors, and town staff are all welcome, and we are glad you came.
Committee members: Speak by voice. Use raise hand in Zoom and we will call on you in turn.
Everyone else: The chat is your floor. Type at any point. We read out as many comments as the time allows, and every one of them is captured whether or not we get to it aloud.
Anything we cannot answer live: Gets a written answer, the same way every question from July 8 did.
These slides stay at carpenterhillpower.com/meetings/cac-2 before, during, and after tonight. Need translation, interpretation, or another accommodation? Email jsantiago@esa-solar.com or call 407-232-7440 ext. 251.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
Introductions
With a room this size we are not going around one by one. Here is how we do introductions instead.
Our team, briefly: The people presenting tonight introduce themselves, so you know who is speaking and who to contact afterward.
Everyone else, in the chat: Type your name and your connection to Charlton whenever you like. That doubles as the attendance record we file with the state.
About committee membership: We are putting the roster together now. If you are on the committee, or want to be, say so in the chat or email Jonathan. We will publish it before the September 9 meeting, and in the next steps section tonight we show the membership model that goes with it.
Nobody is put on the spot tonight. You can take part entirely through the chat if that is easier.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
The Project Location
The parcel at 131 Carpenter Hill Road. The dashed red line marks one mile from the project boundary, and the colored dots are verified nearby landmarks.
Boundaries shown are approximate. Exact survey data will be available with the EFSB filing.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
What We Are Proposing
A one-slide summary for anyone joining us for the first time tonight.
The project: A battery energy storage system at 131 Carpenter Hill Road, next to the existing electrical substation. It stores electricity when the grid has extra and sends it back when the grid runs short.
The size: 150 MW / 600 MWh. The current design uses 136 Tesla Megapack 3 units, low-profile containers under 10 feet tall.
Where it stands: We have not filed a permit application yet. We are in the engagement period that comes before applying to the state Energy Facilities Siting Board.
Safety, sound, design, and everything else lives at carpenterhillpower.com, and questions tonight are welcome in the chat.
A rendering of the current site design. Design work continues with community input.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
Why Charlton?
A question we hear at every meeting. The answer is the substation, and the substation's location was settled decades before this project existed.
What the lights show: In this night view from space, the bright areas are the places using the most electricity: Springfield to the west, Worcester to the east.
A crossroads since 1967: The 345 kV line into Carpenter Hill was built in 1967. The substation has connected eastern and western Massachusetts for almost sixty years.
Where the wires already meet: The 345 kV backbone and the region's 115 kV lines converge at the Carpenter Hill Substation, between those two population centers.
Why that matters for a battery: A battery does the most good where strong transmission already runs between places that use a lot of power. Building next to the substation means the project connects to lines that are already there.
National Grid has proposed a major rebuild of the 1967 line, announced in 2026. Exactly how the project ties into the substation gets settled in the interconnection study.
1 · Welcome and updates · 10 min
Since We Met in June
June 3 and 4: We presented to the Planning Board the same evening as our first committee meeting, then met with Town Administrator Andrew Golas the next day.
July 8 and 17: We held the first public community meeting at the Charlton Public Library, then published written answers to every question raised, with the full recording and summary.
July 20: We held a follow-up consultation with the state Office of Environmental Justice and Equity.
Design: We reduced the proposed layout from 156 units to 136 and moved to the newer Megapack 3 equipment. Design work continues with community input.
New on the website: An interactive project location map, a siting rules tracker, the July 8 meeting materials, and four other towns' battery agreements with summaries.
The July 8 public meeting at the Charlton Public Library.
The fire safety webinar runs twice on Wednesday, August 19, at 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Everything else lives at carpenterhillpower.com, including the engagement log and the commitments register.
2 · How the plan comes together · 10 min
What the Community Benefits Plan Is
A written plan of specific benefits for Charlton, shaped during this pre-filing period.
Massachusetts siting rules require us to pursue a community benefits plan with the host community.
We write the plan with this committee, not for it, and every commitment we make lands on the public Commitment Tracker.
The draft gets published on this site before the state filing.
The state groups benefits into four categories: environmental justice and equity, economic development and workforce, infrastructure and community support, and environmental and public health protection.
2 · How the plan comes together · 10 min
From Tonight to a Finished Plan
Tonight
Working discussion. How a priority becomes a commitment, and building the first one together.
September 9
Committee meeting 3. Virtual, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
September 30
Community public forum. Dexter Hall, three sessions. Proposed. A conflict has come up with the 23rd, so we are asking you about the 30th tonight.
October
Draft plan published for public comment. We respond to every comment and show how feedback shaped the final plan.
Early November
Public meeting on the plan. We present the plan before preparing the state filing.
Kitchen table talks with Carpenter Hill Road neighbors and our Old Home Day booth happen in early September.
Updated after the meeting
The forum is set for Wednesday, September 30 at Dexter Hall. It runs two sessions instead of three, 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM and 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. The morning session was dropped. Committee meeting 3 also moved: it is now Thursday, September 10, not Wednesday, September 9 as shown above. Same time, 7:00 to 8:30 PM.
2 · How the plan comes together · 10 min
Your Role
Three things we are asking this committee to do.
Guide how we engage: We have gotten parts of this wrong already. We are asking for practical guidance on how to reach people in Charlton, and we will change what we do based on what you tell us.
Say what matters, and what belongs in the plan: You know this town better than we do. The committee reviews, challenges, and shapes what goes into the draft, and the published draft shows how that input changed it.
Hold your town officials accountable: The town negotiates any agreement with us, not this committee. In June you said you want commitments that are signed and binding. Holding your own officials to what went into the plan is the part only you can do.
The committee's first meeting, June 3 at the Charlton Public Library.
Whether items from the plan move into a signed agreement gets decided by the town and the project together, with review by the Select Board and the Town Administrator, and every town board invited to weigh in, especially the Planning Board. Permit conditions, agreement terms, and the decommissioning bond run with the project, so whoever buys it inherits all of them.
3 · Priorities raised so far · 15 min
What We Have Heard From You
Six themes have come up repeatedly since April. These are inputs, not commitments. The specifics get decided in the Community Benefits Plan.
Senior Center support
Raised at the June committee meeting
Fire equipment and training
Raised at the June Planning Board meeting
Payment terms to the town
Raised at the June Planning Board meeting
Tree replanting and conservation
Raised at the July 8 public meeting
Local hiring
Raised at the June committee meeting
Vocational education partnerships
Raised in recent conversations
The register also tracks road bonding, a structured post-construction review, and protections for close neighbors.
3 · Priorities raised so far · 15 min
What Other Towns Wrote Down
Four Massachusetts communities have negotiated agreements for battery projects. We published their agreements and authorizing records in our Document Library. Here is the kind of thing those documents contain.
Fire department funding
Yearly money for training, equipment, and materials, and training delivered to the department by the battery supplier.
Property value protection
A radius around the site, a cap per property, a funded reserve, and a window for filing a claim. Four dials that get negotiated.
Independent town review
Funding so the town can hire its own technical and financial reviewers instead of relying on the applicant's.
Decommissioning security
A bond that names the town as the beneficiary, so removal is funded no matter who owns the project by then.
Public reporting
Reports to the Select Board on a set schedule, in public, for the life of the agreement.
Workforce and hiring
Job training funding, and hiring terms written into the text rather than said out loud.
One warning from reading these. In one city, the labor and school commitments people remembered from the news were never in the signed agreement. If it matters, it has to be in the document.
Project sizes and permitting rules differ, so the amounts in these agreements do not carry over to Charlton. The structure does. All of them are in our Document Library under Other Towns' Agreements.
4 · Working discussion · 40 min
What Makes a Commitment Real
We promised a plan and a scorecard, first to the Select Board in April and again to this committee in June. The scorecard is the Commitment Tracker already published on our website: every public promise, its status, and its proof. A priority becomes a commitment when someone outside this meeting can check whether it happened, and these five questions are what its row has to answer.
1
What changes, and for whom
The outcome in plain terms, not the name of the category.
2
How anyone checks
The measure, the evidence, and who verifies it.
3
When, and for how long
Once, every year, or for the operating life of the project.
4
Who decides how it is used
Who is at the table when the work or the funding gets directed.
5
What happens if it slips
What the town and this committee can do about it.
Questions one to four are how we apply the SMARTIE standard we committed to: specific, measurable, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable. Relevant is settled before we start, because we only build a card for a priority this committee raised. Achievable is ours to confirm, not yours. Question five is not part of SMARTIE. It is here because this committee has asked for it since June.
4 · Working discussion · 40 min
Let Us Build One Together
Pick one priority and we answer the five questions live. What we write becomes its row on the Commitment Tracker and the template for the rest.
The priority we are building
Senior Center support, fire equipment and training, payment terms, tree replanting, local hiring, vocational education
What changes, and for whom
The outcome in plain terms, not the name of the category.
How anyone checks
The measure, the evidence, and who verifies it.
When, and for how long
Once, every year, or for the operating life of the project.
Who decides how it is used
Who is at the table when the work or the funding gets directed.
What happens if it slips
What the town and this committee can do about it.
This is a working draft written live with the committee. Nothing here is a commitment until it is drafted, opened for public comment, and included in the plan.
Everything typed in the chat is captured, whether or not we get to it out loud. We work as many comments into the card as the time allows, and anything we miss gets a written answer.
4 · Working discussion · 40 min
What Are We Missing?
The state groups community benefits into four categories. Here is where the six priorities we have heard so far land.
Environmental Justice and Equity
Nothing framed here yet
Economic Development and Workforce
Payment terms to the town
Local hiring
Vocational education partnerships
Infrastructure and Community Support
Senior Center support
Fire equipment and training
Environmental and Public Health Protection
Tree replanting and conservation
Nothing is framed for the first category yet. Does something belong there, or do we write down why it does not apply?
The other open question is timing. Which of these has to be settled before we file this fall, which applies during construction, and which continues every year the project runs?
5 · Next steps · 10 min
Meeting Schedule Through the Fall
August 19
Fire safety webinar. Online. Two sessions, 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM.
September 5
Kitchen table talks. Sit-down conversations with Carpenter Hill Road neighbors.
September 6
Old Home Day booth. Town Common. Stop by and share your thoughts.
September 9
Committee meeting 3. Virtual, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
September 30
Community public forum. Dexter Hall. Morning, midday, and evening sessions. This was on the 23rd. A conflict has come up, so we are proposing the 30th.
October
Public comment period on the draft plan. We respond to every comment.
Early November
Public meeting on the plan. Date and location will be posted on the site.
The public forum date in gold is the one we need your read on. Does September 30 work better than the 23rd, and does either one clash with something happening in town that we do not know about? Say so tonight or email Jonathan. RSVP for any of these through the Participate section at carpenterhillpower.com.
Updated after the meeting
The forum is set for Wednesday, September 30 at Dexter Hall, and it runs two sessions instead of three. Session 1 is 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM and Session 2 is 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. The morning session was dropped. Committee meeting 3 also moved: it is now Thursday, September 10, not Wednesday, September 9 as shown above. Same time, 7:00 to 8:30 PM. RSVP for either one through the Participate section at carpenterhillpower.com.
5 · Next steps · 10 min
How Committee Membership Will Work
The roster goes up before September 9. This is the membership model we propose to publish with it, as a short public charter. If you would change it, say so now or by email.
Every meeting stays open to everyone: Anyone can attend, speak, and see the materials, member or not. Membership never controls who gets heard.
Membership is a set of responsibilities: A member agrees to attend regularly, review the materials beforehand, bring their neighbors' concerns in, and be listed on the public roster.
Joining stays open: Say so at any meeting or email Jonathan. Anyone who accepts the responsibilities is added. There is no cap, no application, and no approval step.
The committee advises: Meeting notes record the range of views, including disagreement. Committee input feeds the draft plan, and the published draft shows how.
We publish a name only with that person's permission. A member who prefers not to be named is counted on the roster without their name shown. The full draft charter goes up with the roster before September 9.
5 · Next steps · 10 min
What Happens With Tonight's Input
We publish notes from the discussion on this page and in the engagement log.
Tonight's input feeds the draft Community Benefits Plan.
Questions we cannot answer live get written answers, the same way we handled July 8.
These slides stay online atcarpenterhillpower.com/meetings/cac-2
Slide 1 of 18: Building the Community Benefits Plan Together
Use arrow keys (← / →), swipe on touchscreens, or click Present for full-screen projector view. Click any full-bleed picture to open it full screen. Press L or click Library to find any slide.
Turn on to drag the maps into position yourself.
About This Meeting
This meeting took place on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. The slides above are exactly what the room saw, and the notes to the right were added afterward.
Need translation, interpretation, or another accommodation for a future meeting? Email jsantiago@esa-solar.com or call 407-232-7440 ext. 251 and we will arrange it.
What We Heard, and What We Did
About 20 residents joined by Zoom, along with a member of the Charlton Planning Board, for a full-group discussion followed by two breakout groups. Full minutes are posted in the Document Library and the Engagement Log.
Residents asked how much real influence this process gives the public. We pointed to the reduction from 156 to 136 units as a direct result of earlier feedback, and confirmed this committee and the extra public meetings are voluntary, beyond what state rules require.
We acknowledged the late mailer for the July 8 meeting, took responsibility for it, and committed to mailing notice at least one month ahead of the next public meeting, through multiple channels.
Residents asked for private well testing and how groundwater and soil will be protected. We disclosed that parts of the parcel have groundwater close to the surface, described planned containment measures, and set a MassDEP meeting for the end of August on groundwater, well locations, stormwater, and erosion control, with a written report to follow.
On fire readiness, we confirmed the Emergency Action Plan is being built with Charlton Fire, with an independent reviewer the town selects and we pay for, and held the fire safety webinar on August 19.
Residents asked for long-term financial protections and a signed agreement rather than a plan alone. We explained that whether Community Benefits Plan items move into a signed agreement is a decision for the town and the project, and that permit conditions, agreement terms, and the decommissioning bond carry to any future owner.
We added the Town of Carver's PILOT agreement for a comparably sized battery project to the Document Library, alongside the Medway, Tewksbury, Revere, and Chelsea agreements already posted there.
We built one commitment card together for fire equipment and training, then split into breakout groups to build cards for other priorities using the same five questions.
We confirmed that every item in the draft Community Benefits Plan will state its funding source and enforcement method, with the draft published this fall for public comment.
