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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 02/06/2014 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Thursday, February 6, 2014 7:00 pm South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street MINUTES Present: Karen McKenny, Peter Tousley, Brendan Taylor, Marcy Murray (Chair), Don Cummings, Keith Epstein, Sam Swanson, Staff Present: Ilona Blanchard, Kevin Dorn Public Present: Linda McGinnis, Jeff Forward, Tim Perrin, Lou Bresee Absent: Marc Companion, Fred Kosnitsky, Laura Waters 7:00 PM Convene Meeting • Recruit scribe, timekeeper • Brendan scribe, Peter timekeeper • Review and approve meeting agenda 7:05 PM Invite Public to Speak • No speakers 7:06 PM Discussion with City Manager, Kevin Dorn • Kevin reviewed Council’s decision to remove $42K from the budget allocated for energy improvement projects, Sam’s presentation to the Council on the benefit of keeping that amount in the budget, and the Council’s reversal of that decision. Kevin described how the City will finance this amount through a very favorable product with Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA). We may be able to get this financing in place soon enough to begin work before the fiscal year begins. • Assessment of the Police building energy use is underway. It is believed that the majority of energy use is in the HVAC system. Peter asked about the gas meter for that building, as he was unable to locate it, and Tim reported that the REM Development has the gas meter in their name and they bill the tenant (Police Dept.). • Sam explained the rationale for putting together the efficiency policy as a first step toward a comprehensive energy policy, including the Council’s request. The issue of efficiency has so many benefits, has broad consensus, but can be a “sleeper” issue for many, which is why it’s important to have its consideration required at a policy level. Kevin pointed out that the response from the council has been positive. • Don pointed out that many of the ongoing projects can be completed without any impact to the operating budget, through financing. • Kevin said that he felt the Energy Efficiency Policy draft had too much work commitment for the current resources, but agreed a strong message to embed this thinking in city government is South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington essential. Also, if we don’t see results from this approach in a certain time frame, we can add more specific commitments.Kevin recommended making it a resolution. • Don showed the committee the results of an energy efficiency project in the South Burlington school (high school?) and suggested that a significant portion of the improvement seen there is a result of behavioral change. This supports the idea of creating an energy efficiency culture from the top down. • Kevin pointed out that there are very capable staff members in some of the departments who are already incorporating energy efficiency improvements in their work. For example, there was an applicant for lieutenant in the police department who did an analysis of implementing a lighting control improvement. • Don made the case that conservation should be made part of the energy efficiency policy and that there are additional energy policies that are needed, such as renewable energy generation and a policy that prompts the city to motivate residents and businesses to increase conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. Some RE projects have been quite successful and are currently saving the City money. • Sam and Kevin will create a new energy efficiency policy draft before the March meeting. 7:50 PM Linda McGinnis (CEDF) • Linda introduced herself. She’s been an economist for 20 years and was part of the State’s Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission. She’s interested in climate change strategy work and finding ways to get the public sector to move forward with efficiency measures. • Linda described Power Purchase Agreements as an opportunity for SB schools to generate electricity from 1 MW of solar PV on 7 – 10 acres of City land, or private land leased to a third party, even outside the City. • There is financing currently available that requires no upfront cost from the city and saves money in year one. • The schools have a $385K per year electric bill, so a 10% savings is about $38K. She would like to see that savings rolled into other efficiency projects to increase the savings even more. • She is aware of a number of private landowners that may be interested in leasing their land, though the savings could be even greater if sited on city land. • After 7 years, the City can buy the system at 40% of its initial cost, after which the savings would increase dramatically. Over 20 years, with the lease buy-back, the city could save $1 – 3M. And since PV projects built today are likely to last more than 20 years, the savings increase even more. • Other towns in VT have already done similar projects quite successfully. • There are two time constraints: • In 2016 the federal incentives are set to expire. • The State just passed a new net metering law that lowers the rate paid to generators by 1 cent starting in 2015. • Kevin mentioned that the Claire project had significant litigation cost because of conflict over land use, and Linda replied that those types of problems can be avoided with early outreach for any new project. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington • There was discussion about Encore’s role as exclusive developer for South Burlington. Don suggested that Encore investigate and propose a project for two 500kW solar PV projects on the city’s capped landfill, which has no other safe use of the land. • It was suggested that we do an inventory of the city land so that we can establish what land may be available for development. It was agreed that certain lands with sensitive ecological importance would be off the table. • It was suggested that Encore be more aggressive in identifying opportunities and making proposals to the City. • Marcy asked Kevin if the City Council would still like the committee to identify the technical assistance that would be needed to implement energy policies, and he said he had some ideas about that and would get back to the EC on that. • Linda commented that entities in the state are working on a model PPA contract and Ilona remarked that the power purchase agreements proposed by Encore in the past have been very complicated. • Jeff, Linda, and Sam will explore options and report back to the committee at its March meeting. 8:20 PM Project Updates • Peter reported out on his project work. • Majority of accounts have been loaded into Portfolio Manager (software tool for analyzing energy usage). He needs more information from Justin on square footage of buildings. There was some Q&A related to identifying municipal electric and gas accounts, with some help from Efficiency Vermont (EVT). • Tim reported that Efficiency Vermont is working with the City on improvements to traffic lights (LED switch-overs). These should reduce maintenance as well. • Keith reported out on the Georgetown project. • Ad run in The Other Paper for two upcoming parties to promote the project and brainstorm ideas with interested citizens. • At the parties, Chris Shaw will talk about why he voted for it. Karen will lead the brainstorming. Karen is working on food for the events. • The committee should use Twitter to promote the event. Ilona to tweet from SB with content provided by Karen. • Ilona to provide flip charts and pens. • Action: Keith moved that we approve $700 total for both parties. Don seconded. All were in favor and the motion was carried. Action: Don moved that we approve $2300 for further promotion of the Georgetown project, with a more detailed budget to be prepared by the committee soon. Keith seconded the motion, all approved, and the motion was carried. • Lani from Efficiency Vermont will give us a PACE update next month (March) • Keith described a pilot program from EVT for creating a Net Zero House. On March 10 or 17, they will make a two-hour presentation at VEIC offices for people who are interested, and provide assistance and guidance to 10 – 30 projects. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Action: Sam moved that we authorize Keith to sign SBEC up for promoting the program. Keith seconded, all approved, and the motion was carried. March 10 is our preferred date. 8:55 PM Approve December and January Meeting Minutes • Action: Sam moved that we approve the minutes for December and January, Brendan seconded, all approved and the motion was carried. 9:00 PM Adjourn Meeting