Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 06/13/2019 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov facebook.com/SouthBurlington Draft Meeting Minutes & Notes June 13, 2019 Committee members present: Andrew Chalnick (clerk), Don Cummings, Keith Epstein (chair), Karen McKenny, Marcy Murray, Tim Perrin, Sam Swanson, Patty Tashiro Committee members absent: Fred Kosnitsky, Linda McGinnis Community members present: Lou Bresee Meeting was Called to Order: by Keith Epstein at 6:35pm. Meeting minutes Karen McKenny moved that we accept the May 9th meeting minutes. Don Cummings seconded. Tim Perrin abstained. Motion passed unanimously. Project Updates: Committee members reviewed their input to the Project Tracking Document. See Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FOAiX4pKCcVJHPqrc5vdRv49FRUfq-_ItugJKrkiSYE/edit UVM Service Learning Trip To Denmark: Members reported on what they learned from the UVM students that visited Denmark. Members were impressed with the level of education, understanding and transparency around climate change in Scandinavia. Can we post our sustainability goals around the city or post public visuals that show our carbon intensity? Can UVM present at a public forum, perhaps the library? Discussion around public outreach and supporting high school students at a climate strike on September 20th. Net Metering for Public Entities Keith reported that the school net metering cap was increased to 1 MW. The municipal cap is still 500 kW. Discussion as to whether City can shift some capacity to the school to free up capacity for City Center. Keith will followup with Ilona. SunCommon SUN Carnival Members attended the SunCommon SUN Carnival where we talked with members of the public about energy and what we are doing. Don, Patty, Sam, and Keith were there. Don gave rides in his Tesla. City Councilor Tim Barritt saw the Mean Green electric lawn mower demo and will bring up at the next city council meeting that the city should purchase one or more. A demo with public works is being scheduled. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov facebook.com/SouthBurlington Public Outreach Ran “Buying a New Car” Ad in May 30th Other Paper. This was in support of the Sun Common CARnival. The ad suggests Electric, Plug-in Electric and Hybrids as good choices for a new car. Karen continues to post to Facebook, including with respect to the CARnival and the climate strike. Energy Prize Solar Consortium School Fund Keith will contact Chad Farrell regarding when the school district can expect to receive his company’s $2,000 donation (pledged in early April). Solar PV Regulations Andrew provided a further update on the Solar PV regulations that he and Keith presented to the Planning Commission. Town’s counsel reviewed the draft language and did not see material issues. Paul Connor emailed some followups: 1. Test out the requirements on some typical building types: Don will reach out to Steve Roy, a local architect, for help with this. 2. Contact GMP to get their perspective: Don will contact Brian Otley at GMP. 3. Discuss with builders/developers: We have asked Paul to set this up. Andrew and Keith will then join Paul at the meeting. 4. Communicate with Solar Developers: Andrew received feedback from Building Energy. Keith will reach out to Sun Common and Encore Renewable Energy. 5. Test out Different Configurations of the Numbers: Members agreed that the requirements as currently contemplated are appropriate and that we should not try to increase the requirements. 6. Contact PSD: Sam agreed to contact the Public Service Department to determine exactly what the City needs to do (if anything) to adopt the Solar Ready requirements for commercial development. South Burlington Carbon Footprint Melanie Needle is still working on the 2015 inventory. Presently working through some questions with respect to the change in the carbon intensity of GMP’s electricity production from 2010 to 2015. Sam Swanson is going to investigate. Revolving Fund Options Keith described how the revolving fund would work and explained that all loan proceeds, grants, proceeds from the solar reserve and proceeds of energy savings will go into the fund, with expenditures for new energy-efficiency projects, loan repayments and costs of the fund itself (like software to run the fund) coming out of the fund. The link below is a diagram that describes how this works: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCKDT3VSTJMkSSOhJl4GFFQsNiHtzNkH/view?usp=sharing Keith then walked through the mechanics of revolving funds summarized in the document at the following link: South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov facebook.com/SouthBurlington https://drive.google.com/file/d/1asYyRnzkFo_qO3JVJYwjHdC0FK9-MGYl/view?usp=sharing After some discussion, Don Cummings moved that we request that 80% of recurring energy savings be paid back to the fund, capped at 125% of energy savings. Keith Epstein seconded. Motion passed unanimously. For this purpose, “Savings” would generally not include savings in respect of the wages of municipal employees (or municipal staff), but would include savings of third-party costs (like avoided equipment costs, ie., if fewer light bulbs need to be purchased, or avoided third-party contractors). Rationale is that only items which impact the budget should be taken into account – if a portion of a person’s time is freed up to work on other things there would not be a budget impact. If there is a true budget impact – for instance, if by reason of a project the town can eliminate a position – those savings should be taken into account. Discussion of the following document (summarizing how the revolving fund will work) was deferred: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V_6QedY64FcvZ8ORS2pbLLwBooQegmr7/view?usp=sharing Municipal Energy Manager Report: Lou Bresee then provided an update on the status of various municipal energy efficient projects. Follow this link for Lou Bresee’s presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMzR0em65eOaAn636W3wPWy_XcwvYQwl/view?usp=sharing Lou asked for assistance in assessing when it makes sense to spend money on a study. Patty commented that it would be useful to know the energy use intensity (kwh/sq ft) for each building under consideration as a guide to which ones might be more useful to study. Tim noted that portfolio manager includes this information. Lou and Tim will work together to include energy use intensity information in future presentations/discussions/decisions. Great job and thanks for the update Lou! Annual report and annual work plan preparation (Keith Epstein) SBEC is required to file an annual report in August. Must be approved at the July meeting. Don Cummings agreed to prepare a draft. Decision to defer preparation of annual work plan. Agenda Items deferred to the June Meeting: • Strategy/Branding – How the Committee might work first to flesh out the Overall Strategies that will help us meet or exceed our Vermont Climate Pledge commitments. This can then inform our discussions of how to “Brand” these initiatives. • Other activities – potential or underway Next Meeting. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov facebook.com/SouthBurlington [July 11th], 6:30 pm, South Burlington Police Station’s 2nd floor conference room at 19 Gregory Drive (middle entrance). Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:45 p.m.