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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 08/08/2019 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov facebook.com/SouthBurlington 1 Draft Meeting Minutes August 8, 2019 Committee members present: Don Cummings, Keith Epstein, Marcy Murray (by phone), Richard Shrake, Sam Swanson, Tim Perrin Committee members absent: Andrew Chalnick, Linda McGinnis, Karen McKinney, Patty Tashiro Community members present: none Guests: Chris Kramer (independent consultant), Michele Mchutcheon-Schour (Efficiency Vermont), Lou Breese (City of SB Energy Manager). Meeting was Called to Order: by Chair Keith Epstein at 6:30pm. Meeting minutes Sam agreed to scribe. Don Cummings moved that we accept the July meeting minutes, including edits suggested by Marcy, with Keith seconding. Motion passed unanimously. Annual report and annual work plan discussion and approval Keith presented the draft annual report and work plan that he had drafted for Committee review. The report is due August 16th. Richard moved and Don seconded motion to approve. Those present voted unanimously to approve the draft plan prepared by Keith. Keith will submit the plan to the City staff. Capital Improvement Program discussion and possible recommendation Keith introduced the invitation from the City to review and comment on the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The Committee decided not to advocate for specific additions to the CIP since we were focusing our efforts on using the revolving fund effectively to achieve efficiency improvements in City facilities. Lou and Keith volunteered to review the draft CIP to assess whether there were elements in the proposed CIP the Committee may want to comment on because they posed opportunities for improvements in energy efficiency. If this review turns up issues the Committee wants to address, the Committee will consider whether it will offer related comments on the CIP at a later meeting. 2 Election of Chair and Vice Chair for next four months A motion to nominate Tim to serve as Committee Chair for the next four months had been tabled at the July meeting because Tim was not present. With Tim present Keith moved to nominate Tim to serve as Chair for the next four months. Marcy seconded the nomination. Tim accepted the nomination. The Committee voted unanimously to elect Tim to serve as Chair for the four-month period September thru December 2019. The Committee then considered the election of a Vice Chair for the next four months. Sam nominated Andrew Chalnick, Don seconded. Because Andrew is not present we tabled this motion until the next meeting when Andrew may be present. Presentation by Chris Kramer on JouleSmart business energy financing program. Chris Kramer, an independent consultant now associated with JouleSmart, presented a summary of the JouleSmart financing program. JouleSmart is a private for-profit company that offers financing services to commercial energy consumers. Efficiency Vermont is partnering with JouleSmart to demonstrate the JouleSmart program in Vermont. The JouleSmart program offers qualifying commercial energy consumers the opportunity to finance energy efficiency improvements over a 5 to 7 year period. To qualify to participate in the JouleSmart program a commercial customer must have a minimum total monthly energy bill, the amounts for which vary for different types of buildings. For example, for office/retail space the minimum monthly bill to qualify would be $3,000 (if no LED upgrades in place) or $3,500 (if LED upgrades have already been made). The program promises participating commercial energy consumers a guarantee that their total energy bill will not exceed historic levels. JouleSmart recovers the investment from the energy cost savings that result from the investments efficiency improvements. If savings exceed threshold specified in each contract, JouleSmart and the participating customer share the additional savings. After the contract term, the customer may choose to retain JouleSmart to manage/monitor the operation to make sure that the savings persist. The slide Chris Kramer used to outline the JouleSmart program is available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_omRIerG1Nd1DksSi0SK3VASQxJA0FKZ Municipal energy efficiency projects status and prioritization (Lou Bresee) Lou Bresee explained his latest status report, available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_omRIerG1Nd1DksSi0SK3VASQxJA0FKZ Don asked about the status of the Highland Neighborhood street light conversion to LEDs. Lou will check on the status of this neighborhood, which was not mentioned in Lou’s update on this work. Thanks for the update, Lou. 3 Project Updates: Committee members reviewed their input to the Project Tracking Document. See Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UNhYw5BIEEnDRh_z9PltIj42PNYppIQfzpFiA_2Pj3Q/edit?usp=sharing Strategy session for the Energy Committee and discussion of South Burlington Energy Prize branding (Don Cummings) Don walked the Committee thru his summary report “Results of Brainstorming Session Areas for Energy Committee Focus July 11, 2019” presented in Google Doc at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_omRIerG1Nd1DksSi0SK3VASQxJA0FKZ The Committee discussed steps to assign priorities to the long list of possibilities. Sam suggested trying to develop approximate “expected value” estimates for the options in a first cut assessment. This would involve assigning an assessment of the prospective impact and the likelihood of the EC achieving that impact. Don, Tim and Sam will meet to review the draft brainstorming report to apply such an expected value approach to screen the priorities. Municipal Energy Manager Report: Follow this link for Lou Bresee’s presentation, there are several documents to review. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1-vRmyAwb9dtW5_Tf02wBz8nxQBf_KcYI Lou also suggested we may want to draft a letter to recommend that as city vehicles are replaced that energy efficiency and electric options as considered where appropriate. Thanks for the update Lou. Project Updates: Committee members reviewed their input to the Project Tracking Document. See Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UNhYw5BIEEnDRh_z9PltIj42PNYppIQfzpFiA_2Pj3Q/e dit?usp=sharing Next Meeting. September 12, 6:30 pm, South Burlington Police Station’s 2nd floor conference room at 19 Gregory Drive (middle entrance). Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30 p.m.