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ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ohio Farm Bureau Director of Energy, Utility & Local Government Policy Dale Arnold discussed the importance of township trustees understanding the needs of the community as he spoke about energy development, local electricity and utility scale projects at the Belmont County Township Trustees Association’s annual meeting.

Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer began the meeting with opening remarks and introduced county Engineer Terry Lively, who talked about the importance of the meeting.

“This is a great meeting to get together and compare the challenges that we all face, exchange information and try to solve some problems,” Lively said. “That’s one thing I’ve always been impressed by, this group. We’ve got good people here in Belmont County, not only elected officials, but the workers themselves and you can see it out on the roads.”

Lively encouraged everyone at the meeting to watch a training video about commercial driver’s licenses, which he said he’d send out in a link. The video covers a lot of questions regarding CDLs, such as medical certificates and more, he said.

“The reason that caught my eye is, of course, being here along the (Ohio) river, we occasionally have to cross the river (for) supplies or tools or whatever,” Lively said. “And that kicks in a whole other level of regulations with CDLs, if you’re not aware. So it’s something you need to look into. It’s an hour that’s well worth your time.”

Shaffer then introduced multiple elected officials, such as Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann and Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan who had brief comments of their own before moving on to the guest speaker of the night, which was Arnold.

Arnold used a slideshow presentation for his talking points, including utility scale projects, on-site projects, “community” projects, local power siting considerations and agrivoltaics.

He discussed local electricity with the PJM interconnection network, which is a 14-state network that Ohio is part of, noting that every electric system – investor-owned, cooperative or municipal – is part of that particular system from the Carolinas to Chicago.

“Your electricity is sourced from a number of different sources within that system. It’s interesting, because a number of decisions are going to be made at several levels all at once,” he said. “This is the highest level when you are going to be asked to take a look at power siting and power generation for Belmont County.”

Utility scale projects are governed by the Ohio Power Siting Board, which provides a statewide, adjudicatory system of rules and regulations applicable to siting public and private power generation and transportation facilities under its authority, according to Arnold.

On-site projects are governed by Local Utility Interconnection Procedures, in which the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved tariffs and procedures that provide parameters for technical design approval, safety, emergency shut-off, operations and generation credits.

“Community” projects, including “Community Scale Solar,” is a proposal to create projects in urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods as well as incentives for projects in “distressed” and Appalachian areas, according to Arnold.

He discussed local power siting considerations, with the need to address issues beyond Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, North American Electric Reliability Corp. and PJM permits.

He ended his speech with planning and involvement that included discussion, outreach and action. He discussed coordinated efforts involving the developer, government and regulatory agencies at the township, county, state, economic development and regional development authorities and community groups.

He talked about the creation and development of projects that address environmental and safety concerns, consider aesthetic needs and provide economic benefits.

“Power siting is not always about putting a generation facility in the middle of the fields of the place,” Arnold said. “It has to do with a number of other community-based benefits, protection so all the resources, aesthetics, setbacks, funding for schools, funding for townships, funding for counties, quality of life is also part of power siting and your ability, basically, to advocate your position for your constituents is going to be incredibly huge. That’s what’s coming down the pike.”