PSEG says it will not negotiate on solar panel installations in Wyckoff

A spokesman for Public Service Electric & Gas said Thursday, Aug. 25, that the company would not negotiate the number of solar panels it plans to install in the township.

The township issued a cease and desist letter after PSE&G resumed installing the solar panels in June, becoming the first municipality in the state to challenge the legality of Solar 4 All, a program expected to generate 40 megawatts of solar energy through pole-attached solar panels.

Committeeman Christopher DePhillips said Wednesday, Aug. 24, that during ongoing negotiations between the parties' lawyers, the township gave the company a number and locations of where it would be "comfortable" with having the panels installed. DePhillips would not say what the number was, just that it was "substantially" lower than what PSE&G said it had planned to install.

The company had already installed 25 panels when the township issued the cease and desist letter; representatives had said the 3-foot by 5-foot panels could be mounted on as many as 100 of the company's 1,785 poles in the township.

But PSE&G spokesman Fran Sullivan said the company would not negotiate the number of panels it installed in the township because it has always been the company's stance that it needs every available pole to meet its goals.

"As a matter of standards we are not going to negotiate this number in Wyckoff," Sullivan said. "Truly our hope with this is that we can settle this in an amicable way with Wyckoff, and this shouldn't be perceived as a threat, but we would also have the legal option to go in."

Township officials contend the installation of the panels violates a zoning ordinance that prohibits communication antennas in residential zones and said in the cease and desist letter that the panels "exceed the scope of permitted activities in the municipal right-of-way."

Al Matos, vice president of renewable energy solutions, said at a special Township Committee meeting in April that the panels are part of a communications network. As such, Mayor Kevin Rooney said previously that the panels would violate the ordinance. He said that either the communications network would have to be disabled in the township or the company would have to apply to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a waiver for the installation of each panel.

Sullivan reiterated that the company feels the ordinance applies to cell towers and "not the communication antennas [and] equipment on the solar units."

"We believe we have the right to install these units on these poles," Sullivan said.

He said the company would not install solar units while the cease and desist order is in effect.

"Pursuing this through the courts to have the cease and desist lifted would be the last step," Sullivan said. "We're not anxious to pursue the legal route and hope to settle this amicably but we do consider legal action to be an option."