HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 01/02/2014Thursday, January 2, 2014 7:00 pm
South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street Conference Room (2nd floor)
Meeting Minutes
In Attendance: Marcy Murray (Chair), Peter Tousley (Vice Chair), Laura Waters
(Scribe), Don Cummings, Sam Swanson, Keith Epstein, Marc Champion,
Brendan Taylor
Absent: Karen McKenny, Fred Kosnitsky
No staff or public present Convene Meeting Recruit scribe, timekeeper Laura Waters, Scribe. Don Cummings, Timekeeper Review and approve meeting agenda No changes to agenda Approve previous meeting minutes Approval of meeting minutes postponed until February meeting Invite Public to Speak No public in attendance
Project Updates – Committee Members City Council budget discussions & next steps for requested recommendation $42,000 meant for energy efficiency was cut from the capital budget. It is unclear where this number came from as there originally was $36,000 in the FY14 budget for weatherization & originally $108,000 in the FY15 budget for mechanical improvements and maintenance. It was discussed that City Council & Kevin Dorn need firmer numbers with payback calculations. As the budget will be voted on by City Council on Monday, Don sent an updated budget with recommendations to Kevin Dorn. Don will attend Monday’s City Council meeting. Sam prepared an Energy Policy Statement to be presented to the City Council. It was agreed that the policy statement would be presented as one component of a larger, comprehensive energy policy for the city. Peter moved that the first draft of the energy efficiency policy, as edited, be sent to Kevin Dorn for review and comments. Marc seconded the motion & it was approved unanimously.
Solar net-metering on landfill Don had a conversation with Kevin Dorn about asking the City Council to ask the State legislature to increase the net metering cap to 1MW. Because the City Council is extremely busy, Kevin was not inclined to present this request if their efforts would not add momentum to the State’s policy change. Don will inquire on the status at the state level to see if it is worth involving the City Council. Energy efficiency improvements for municipal buildings Peter has about 80% of the energy use baseline on the municipal buildings. He has reservations about some of the recommendations in the original energy audit. He stated that energy costs have decreased since the energy audit & that the payback on the recommended projects needs to be recalculated. His preliminary review of the utility bills does not show much low hanging fruit. Georgetown University Energy Prize Keith stated that they are waiting to hear from the GUEP consultant – should be this month. They intend to continue outreach to GMP, VGS, other partners, and the public over the next couple of months. Karen has volunteered to organize outreach, visioning events. Project selection criteria need to be developed; monthly meetings with VEIC to be scheduled. There is some activity already in the school system as they are going through past audits to see what might be implemented and there is a group looking at linking curriculum, school projects and facilities projects. A marketing meeting with the behavioral psychologist will be scheduled this month. Keith sees two marketing phases – the first to find ideas and volunteers and the second, starting in July, to market the projects. PACE Revisited Representatives will be invited to attend the March meeting. City Center district energy No further information. Button-up Day results Karen reported that 10 people attended. Keith asked that we get their email addresses to add them to the SBEC email list. VECAN conference No additional information. Traffic Lights Keith reported that he had a conversation with Ian concerning the recent City Council meeting that he attended. Ian was disappointed with
Justin’s response concerning his interest in changing traffic light timing. Ian wondered if the Energy Committee could reengage; Keith advised him that this issue could not be a priority right now but that he was welcome to attend another SBEC meeting.
Identification of Pre-July SBEC Expenditure Needs Don moved to ask Ilona to preserve the remaining budget for GUEP promotions. Sam seconded. The vote was unanimous. Usefulness, Maintenance & Future of SBEC Wiki Keith will add a header on the WIKI site leading people to the City’s website since they post the agenda & meeting minutes. The WIKI will be kept alive since it contains useful historic information. Adjourn Meeting Don moved to adjoin the meeting, Brendan seconded. Approved unanimously.