Jim Thorpe Borough Council voted Thursday to collaborate with Schneider Electric, an energy savings company, to conduct a no-cost comprehensive needs assessment of the electric service at the municipal water plant in Germantown.

The move, borough officials said, comes in response to ongoing issues related to the plant’s electrical infrastructure.

The issues with the electric service at the Germantown water plant have been an ongoing concern for the borough.

“We don’t have a true three-phase service coming into the plant,” borough manager Maureen Sterner told council in describing the problem. “We have an alternate type to equal three-phase, and it seems to be giving us issues, and it has been for a little while.”

Water plant supervisor Dwayne Sterner said the issue has persisted for years.

“It seems to happen in cold weather when a lot of people are running their furnaces or in hot weather when people are running all of their air conditioning,” he added.

Brendan Marzano, an account executive with Schneider Electric, expressed the company’s commitment to assisting municipalities across the country in identifying energy conservation measures.

“We want the borough to be able to reinvest those savings in infrastructure such as its water treatment plant,” he said.

Marzano emphasized that the site visit and initial assessment would be cost-free, with Schneider Electric working to help secure funding for any recommended upgrades.

“We will develop an audit of the site and present a report to relevant stakeholders,” Marzano explained. “Potential projects or their associated costs would only be determined after the needs assessment is complete. Typically, it takes us about a week or two to assign someone for the initial visit.”

Councilman Jay Miller acknowledged the need for action and hinted at the possibility of similar needs assessments for other municipal properties.

“The immediate concern is the Germantown plant, but we could move on to the sewer plant and the west side water plant in the future,” Miller remarked. “But right now, I’m concerned about what is happening on the east plant.”