NORWAY — The town will have to repay a $27,000 sewer grant out of its sewer department budget, but officials say users should see no increase in their sewer bills as a result.

Earlier this month, town officials announced that Norway had been awarded $85,000 for two SolarBee units that will cut the town’s sewer plant’s electrical usage dramatically by using solar energy. The SolarBees will be added to the existing SolarBee that was installed two years ago in the Brown Street facility and cut the department’s electrical use in half.

The grant came with a $27,000 town match requirement that officials had hoped to take out of a $1.5 million Rural Development grant, but Town Manager David Holt said officials were told recently that it was too late to reopen that application to add the use of the $27,000. That means the town has to come up with the money through the sewer budget.

 Holt said he is not worried about paying the $27,000 off because the new SolarBees are expected not only to significantly decrease the remaining energy use at the plant, but may result in squelching any significant sewer user fee increases in the future.

“It won’t be very long before it pays for itself,” Holt said.

He said the local share should be paid within two to three years, and although it may cause “a little trouble” in the upcoming fiscal year sewer department budget, he said the temporary adjustment is well worth it.

The SolarBee funding will come from the Public Utilities Commission’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Custom Project grant fund that is part of the federal government’s stimulus program.

The SolarBee, which operates day and night on solar power, reduces energy consumption by reducing aeration/mixing equipment run time, according to information from the company. Norway was the first town in the state to use the SolarBee technology, Holt said. Sewer Superintendent Shawn Brown discovered the technology and advocated for it.

The two new SolarBees are expected to save between 150,000 and 250,000 kilowatts per year in energy and dramatically reduce the remaining $25,000 to $27,000 electrical bill.

Additionally, the town is expected to begin a $1.5 million sewer project this summer that will replace 100-year-old sewer lines and extend the life of the sewer lagoon, which was built in 1989.

“It’s another series in a long and difficult project,” he said of the ongoing work to replace the old sewer lines. The new lines are expected to last another 100 years and cut down on the storm water getting into the system. The work will begin this summer.

[email protected]