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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 02/01/2018 South Burlington Energy Commiee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington SMS edits Draft Meeting Minutes February 1, 2018 Committee members present: Drew Gelfenbein, James Mount, Jeremy King, Karen Mckenny, Keith Epstein, Marcy Murray, Patty Tashiro, Sam Swanson (Chair) Committee members absent: Don Cummings, Fred Kosnitsky, Linda McGinnis Community members present: Bill Wooden, Tim Perrin (Efficiency Vermont, Account Manager) City staff present: Justin Rabidoux Initial business Members confirmed agenda items and shared new developments. James moved and Karen seconded a motion to approve the January 4, 2018, meeting minutes which were approved unanimously. Marcy agreed to write the meeting minutes. Save the Dates · Sam requested that all committee members reserve time before our March 1st meeting to carefully review the forthcoming information packet from City Planner Cathyann LaRose regarding Planned Unit Development. Cathyann will attend our March meeting. This is an important opportunity for input. Members should also review Don’s soon-to-be-updated “Climate Pledge Focus Areas & Potential Projects” list so we can discuss next steps. · All are welcome at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20 at Ascension Church (95 Allen Road) to participate in a community discussion of the ESSEX Plan (“an Economy-Strengthening Strategic Energy eXchange”), the carbon tax that supporters claim would significantly boost the Vermont economy by pricing carbon without causing economic harm. VPIRG and VNRC representatives will attend. City staff report Public Works Director Justin Rabidoux explained the project behind the $2.98 million sewer bond on which citizens will vote in March. Taxpayers would be responsible for approximately $1.6 million of the bond aimed at reducing long-term costs by redirecting sewer flows in the Proctor, Hadley and Swift neighborhood area (below Rice High School) from Burlington’s facility to South Burlington’s Bartlett Bay Road wastewater treatment plant. For the past six months, staff has done some energy-related planning, including how to use funds generated by solar savings. Justin’s recent meeting with Don was helpful, and the city supports spending money to save money. Specifically, staff supports spending money on energy efficiency and/or renewable energy projects or leveraging it for bonding opportunities in order to save money via long-term energy and operational savings. Staff’s related policy discussions with the City Council will likely begin in April. Given that reducing its energy costs could help the city address its challenge of rising expenses exceeding tax revenues, one member asked about immediately bundling multiple cost-saving energy projects and executing them simultaneously (they could be funded by borrowing money or using a municipal lease that would be repaid using landfill solar revenue and energy savings). Justin responded that he will present various options to the City Council. Sam encouraged him to include key committee members as needed to support his work and recommended that completing money-saving energy projects be identified as one of the City Council’s top five priorities. Because circumstances have changed since 2014 when the Chittenden Solid Waste District considered consolidating trash collection services, and given that a significant part of the country is already doing it, Justin and Kevin have begun actively exploring consolidation. Our 7/11/17 letter to the City Council Chair supports such exploration. Justing welcomes Committee support for such a proposal. Justin expects the Council to discuss this issue in April. Updates on key actions taken at the January 4 meeting Sam shared updates regarding the committee’s annual report submission, the planned 2/5/18 Energy Prize press release, Linda’s detailed Volkswagen-settlement-funds-related input to city staff and their subsequent submission to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and Sam’s letter to the City Council in support of the Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee’s improvements recommendation. Estimated energy savings during the two-year Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP) effort Sam explained that because of the inconsistencies in reported savings results that Marcy had uncovered while preparing the committee’s FY2017 annual report, he had asked Keith and Tim Perrin to explain how they, Don, Efficiency Vermont (EVT), and Georgetown University had calculated the energy savings related to the competition. For the 2015 and 2016 competition, Georgetown’s aim was to measure savings in weather-normalized energy usage per household (“population-normalized”)—while accounting for source energy—compared to the base period of 2013 and 2014. Potential impacts of solar power generation, increased heat pump usage, increased electric vehicle charging, and other effects were not identified. Keith shared EVT’s neighborhood electric usage mapping tool and a spreadsheet with the recently received GUEP electric and natural gas usage data. While acknowledging confusion related to some of the data, Keith explained that during the two-year competition period, the EVT tool showed that residents’ electric usage was 6% (or approximately $884,000) lower than expected—this was slightly lower than GUEP’s finding. Regarding the natural gas data, after meeting with Vermont Gas Systems to discuss what appeared to be untrustworthy data showing an increase in gas usage, Don and Keith calculated gas savings of approximately $300,000 for the second competition year by comparing 2016 usage to the 2014 base year. Following the competition, it appears that residents are saving $750,000 per year on their combined electric and natural gas bills. Next step: standardize numbers on Google Drive. Discussion touched on the desire to continue and expand usage of EVT’s neighborhood tool to include natural gas and transportation-related energy consumption while exploring ways to account for the benefits associated with the increased electricity usage of heat pumps and electric vehicle charging. Tim welcomed ideas on the latter and mentioned the limitations of the weather normalization of data. Keith suggested consideration of ending neighborhood energy tracking to measure total city usage. EVT will continue to maintain Portfolio Manager and will provide quarterly reports for the past year. More discussion is needed to determine how best to track future savings. Development of a City Energy Efficiency Plan Following a meeting with Sam, Kevin Dorn plans to schedule a meeting with our committee regarding the City Council’s March 2014 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Resolution. Keith suggested having multiple towns share an energy manager to maximize focus on and achievement of energy-related cost savings. Tim gave a Commons Energy project implementation update. Additional project updates Members shared additional project updates. Following Jeremy’s recent meeting with stakeholders who did not support combining energy efficiency efforts with airport noise insulation, Keith will contact a staff member at Senator Bernie Sanders’ office. It was reported that city staff appears to be waiting for Don’s late-March return before sharply focusing on its Climate Pledge work. Congratulations to Don! Last month, the South Burlington Rotary Club presented Don Cummings with the Fred Tuttle Award which recognizes individuals who “go beyond the expected, bringing extraordinary zeal and integrity to everything in which they are involved while enhancing the South Burlington community at large.” Adjournment & next meeting The meeting adjourned before 8:30 p.m., and the next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 1st, at 6:30 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room at the South Burlington Police Station (19 Gregory Drive • middle entrance).