2nd Citizen Advisory Committee Meeting

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

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 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

Kitchen table talks with Carpenter Hill Road neighbors and our Old Home Day booth happen in early September.

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.

Whether items from the plan move into a signed agreement gets decided by the town and the project together, with review by the Town Administrator and town counsel. 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.

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.

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. 1

   What changes, and for whom

   The outcome in plain terms, not the name of the category.

2. 2

   How anyone checks

   The measure, the evidence, and who verifies it.

3. 3

   When, and for how long

   Once, every year, or for the operating life of the project.

4. 4

   Who decides how it is used

   Who is at the table when the work or the funding gets directed.

5. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.