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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 11/15/2012Thursday, November 15, 2012 7:00 pm South Burlington Municipal Offices, 2nd Floor, 575 Dorset Street Meeting Notes Marc Companion, the Committee Chair convened the meeting at 7:10 PM Attendance: Present: Marc Companion (MC) – Chair Keith Epstein (KE)– Vice Chair Don Cummings (DC) Marcy Murray (MM) Sam Swanson (SS) Laura Waters (LW) Ilona Blanchard (IB) - Project Director, City of South Burlington Absent: Peter Tousley (PT) SS volunteered to take notes and MC committed to serve as timekeeper while chairing the meeting. Review draft meeting minutes IB offered guidance on the minimum requirements for the meeting note records for this Committee. IB indicated that the Committee meeting minutes must record the members who are present and absent from each meeting. The minutes must also record the meeting date and location, the actions taken, the vote on actions of the Committee, including who introduced a motion to act, who seconded that motion, and how each member voted. The Committee should publish draft meeting minutes within five business days of the meeting. Consideration of the draft minutes for the October 18, 2012 meeting (prepared by KE) DC moved and LW seconded a motion to approve minutes as submitted. KE reported that the draft minutes had been amended to address comments offered by IB. The Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes as presented (currently posted on the Committee web site). Invite Public to Speak – No one appeared to speak; no visitors were present. 7:15 City Staff Updates – report by IB  Renewable Energy Partners Contract o The 60 kw solar project at Dorset Park is proceeding. It requires a Certificate of Public Good (CPG ) from the VT Public Service Board (PSB); if granted this solar project will be constructed in mid-2013. o A 500kW solar PV project at the South Burlington retired landfill site. Encore developing a plan for this project. The City is negotiating a lease with Encore that would grant the firm the right to develop this facility on the former landfill site. Encore would retain ownership of the facility and lease the facility back to the City. The City would receive a credit on its electricity bill for the electricity produced by the solar facility; the credit will include solar incentive payment for each kWh produced. DC asked whether the solar credit is in addition to the retail rate actually paid by the City or in addition to the residential rate (14 cents per kWh). IB reported that she understands that the per kWh payment has two components, a 14 cents per kWh credit for each kWh produced plus a 6 cent per kWh solar incentive. IB will confirm that this is correct. o Encore plans to file an application in the next week for a solar incentive for a 50 kW solar facility to be located on the roof of the City Police station. This project will be owned by the City because the solar incentive program requires that the City own the facility to qualify for the incentive payment o SS suggested the Committee invite Encore to brief the Committee at a future meeting.  LED street lamp project – There has been no progress on this because GMP has not yet conducted an audit of existing lights that will be replaced. The City wants GMP to conduct the inventory of the existing lights prior to replacement as there are several lights that GMP says exists but cannot show us on the ground and if they do exist the City will need to know what they are prior to making a replacement request. Previously GMP agreed to do this, but has now said they will do it during replacement.  City Capital Planning & energy budget line items o The City’s Director of Public Works is overseeing the rehabilitation of the City Office Bldg. The air sealing will be conducted in 2014 after the HVAC system has been installed because the air sealing will be funded by the capital budget for 2014. MC asked whether the air sealing will change the load enough to reduce the HVAC system size. DC reported that this is difficult to determine because the audit conducted by the City’a audit consultant did not provide sufficient detail to evaluate this. The Energy Committee is concerned that the new HVAC system will be oversized once the air sealing is completed requiring much higher energy cost than if it were sized to reflect the smaller building heating and cooling load after the weather sealing is in place. 7:35 Project Updates – reports by Committee members  School Solar Education grant update – MM reported that some progress has been made on introducing an educational component for the project, a component that had been neglected when the system was installed. MM reported that educators have been brought into the project and efforts are now underway to integrate student education into design and operation of this new solar PV system at the school. These changes will require additional resources for which there are now no available funds. The Committee discussed ways to obtain any funding that may be required to enable these changes. MM will continue to monitor project progress.  Home weatherization program - condos – MC reported that work is still proceeding with enlisting condos to sign on for weather-sealing. We discussed why participation has been so low and what steps we can take to improve participation. DC reported that VT Gas is negotiating with Shelter Analytics to begin offering a regular service to condos served by VT Gas. The Committee will consult with VT Gas on ways we may help promote condo weatherization. Interns - IB asked whether we had a project that we want an intern to tackle. After discussing some options the Committee advised that we had no project that we wanted to recommend for Intern support now.  Residential Building Energy Code compliance – MM reported the progress on her investigation into compliance with the new state requirement that builders file a residential building energy certificate for new construction and major renovations. She has found that only 14 certificates were filed in 2011 and 11 so far in 2012. MM is now trying to determine how many should have been filed. MM will continue her efforts to investigate this.  Claire Solar Project update - IB reported that the City Planning Commission has taken no further action because the developers have not yet formally submitted the CPG application. The Committee observed that we hope the applicant will develop a proposal that addresses the concern for protecting natural values on this parcel raised by the Planning Commission comments. IB indicated that any formal participation in the PSB’s CPG proceeding must by initiated by the City Council. Other updates  Energy/carbon baseline, ECOS data, ICLEI and EPA Energy Use Assessment- SS reported he has been assisting the Chittenden County Planning Commission staff with this project. Adjourn meeting and plan next meeting At 8:45 DC moved to adjourn the meeting; KE seconded the motion. The next meeting will convene on Thursday, December 6. The Committee indicated plans to meet regularly on the first Thursday of each month, a change from past practice of meeting on the third Thursday of each month. MC will chair the Dec 6 meeting and the Committee will then elect a Chair and Vice Chair to serve for the next four months. The Committee voted unanimously to approve the motion to adjourn.