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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 05/11/2023 ENERGY BOARD May 11, 2023 – 5:30 pm 222 Laporte Ave – Colorado Room ROLL CALL Board Members Present: Bill Althouse, Brian Smith, Thomas Loran (remote), Alan Braslau, Steve Tenbrink, Vanessa Paul, Marge Moore Board Members Absent: Bill Becker, Jeremy Giovando OTHERS PRESENT Staff Members Present: Christie Fredrickson, Phillip Amaya, Rhonda Gatzke, Brian Tholl, Cyril Vidergar, Katherine Bailey, Pete Iengo Members of the Public: Greg Fisher MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairperson Tenbrink called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. ANNOUNCEMENTS & AGENDA CHANGES None. PUBLIC COMMENT Greg Fisher is a Fort Collins architect and a member of the Passive House Network. Mr. Fisher said he is passionate about building better structures with lower energy and carbon consumption, as well as structures that are better suited for their occupants. The Passive House Network is participating in an event in July to help get people excited about passive house. The Ice Box Challenge will run July 1-15 and includes two small structures, each 7’x7’x8’. One structure will be built to current building codes and the other will be built to passive house standards. They will load a ton of ice into each structure a and then compare what’s happened to the ice inside both at the end of two weeks. Chairperson Tenbrink asked who is building the structures. Mr. Fisher said it is a volunteer effort from within the Passive House Network. APPROVAL OF MINUTES In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email for the April 13, 2023, minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. PACKET ITEM Q&A 2022 Energy Services Results Brian Tholl, Energy Services Supervisor Chairperson Tenbrink asked Mr. Tholl to give five-minute overview of the results. Mr. Tholl noted the bottom line on each slide of the presentation offers a summary of the data contained. Mr. Tholl pointed out the data shows the community is behind on natural gas savings goals (.2% actual vs 1% goal). Savings are accounted through residential behavior, historically, and some savings are ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING accounted through commercial portfolios. Mr. Tholl said staff anticipates over the next few years that the method to achieve natural gas goals will be more related to electrification and less focused on behavior changes. He also noted that as an electric utility, we are not always focused on natural gas savings so not every program has been or is actively tracking this data, so the .2% is likely a conservative number. The City’s first natural gas goal was introduced in 2021. Chairperson Tenbrink said he likes the consumption per capita, and he wondered how many new customers Light and Power has brought on since 2005. Mr. Tholl said population-wise the community has increased 30%, but he can’t speak on how that translates to premises. Board member Smith asked if Xcel Energy implements any programs in this area for conservation. Mr. Tholl said they do and the Utility partners with them on some programs such as Efficiency Works Homes. Xcel pays for incentives as well as a portion of the assessment fee. Board member Loran asked if the community is on track to hit 80% carbon reduction. Mr. Tholl explained with current modeling and reasonable trends, staff is forecasting a 70% reduction, so there is a 10% gap, which can be made up through a number of avenues that staff have begun to identify. Board member Althouse said in Denmark they did a portfolio standard on the gas grid with 34% renewable gas, and he wondered if Xcel has considered trying to “green up” the gas with something like a biofuel facility to carry through any periods of “Dark Calm,” meaning no sun or wind. Staff advised that would be a better question for Xcel Energy, since the City does not influence their organization. Quarterly Service Area Report (QSAR) Phillip Amaya, Deputy Director, Utilities Light & Power Board member Braslau advised staff to reword the CAIDI statement on slide 8 of the presentation as it reads a little bit confusing or misleading. BUILDING ENERGY SCORING IMPACT STUDY & BUILDING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS PLANNING Brian Tholl, Energy Services Supervisor Katherine Bailey, Project Manager The City’s Benchmarking ordinance was passed by City Council in December 2018. The ordinance requires efficiency benchmarking and transparency in commercial and multifamily buildings 5,000 sq. ft. and above (excluding industrial and manufacturing). There are approximately 1,400 buildings included in Building Energy and Water Scoring (BEWS), and currently 94% are in compliance. Benchmarking provides detailed Energy Use Intensity (EUI) data for buildings 5,000 sq. ft. and above, which provides a baseline for an upcoming initiative, Building Performance Standards (BPS). The Utility used a third-party reviewer, Apex Analytics, who found 2.4-4% of savings are directly attributable to BEWS. Utilities had ascribed 2% savings to BEWS, applying a discount, and EUI analysis showed consistency across the various data sources. Staff also saw compounding effects; buildings participating in Efficiency Works Buildings (EWB) and BEWS saw more savings than either alone, and BEWS directs more building owners and managers to EWB. Although it was accounted for in the analysis, uncertainties remain about any COVID-based influence and other external factors that influence commercial building energy use, so a similar analysis may be run again in the future. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Electric EUI changes between 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2022 from Fort Collins billing data showed non- BEWS commercial buildings had a slight increase in building electric EUI (2.4%), and BEWS participants had a 7.1% reduction in building electric EUI. In annualized metrics, BEWS participants showed 3.2% average annual improvement to the electric EUI (regardless of EWB participation). Apex also conducted a survey of contacts from covered buildings to understand attitudes towards energy use in general, and the BEWS system in particular. The survey sample was limited to non-governmental buildings that began BEWS reporting in 2020 or 2021, were currently in compliance with program reporting requirements, and had an email address on file. The final sample included 359 participants, representing 722 buildings. 56 participants completed the survey (a 16% response rate) and building owners and managers received a $25 gift card for their participation. The survey solicited feedback on questions such as the respondents prior to- and post-BEWS understanding of building’s systems, prior to- and post- BEWS attention paid to energy use, operational changes or capital improvements made as a result of measuring energy performance, barriers to making operational changes or capital improvements, and operational changes or capital improvements made. A few participants found substantial value in BEWS, a few participants had outspoken negative opinions about BEWS, but most participants report little difficulty complying with BEWS, but also reported seeing little benefit relative to time and effort required. BPS requires buildings to meet carbon or energy performance targets by specific deadlines. It can include multiple standards, allowing for flexibility while increasing performance for a different aspect of a building. The targets become stricter over time, driving continuous, long-term improvement in the building stock. It also accounts for local sustainability goals, in Fort Collins’ case, the Our Climate Future Plan (Big Move 6). Ms. Bailey reviewed a historical timeline of BEWS and BPS. In 2018, City Council adopted a BEWS ordinance, but the ordinance prohibited BPS. Then, in 2021 Governor Polis signs HB 21-1286, requiring State benchmarking and BPS. In January 2022, President Biden launched a BPS coalition with 33 inaugural jurisdictions, hoping to get communities across to country to commit to adopting some kind of performance standards by Earth Day of 2024; City of Fort Collins Mayor Arndt announces the City’s participation that same day. That following March, Fort Collins municipal code was updated to exclude prohibition of performance standards and added City buildings. In 2023, staff knows it’s important to cocreate this policy with the community. Staff is creating several avenues for public outreach, to include a Task Force (responsible for 10k-30k sq. ft. policy recommendations), a Technical Committee (responsible for 10k sq. ft. and below, they also support the task force), an Equity Board (to convene throughout implementation), and Broad Outreach (such as roadshows, open houses, listening sessions, website, surveys, etc.). The task force provides critical perspectives, designs an effective and implementable policy, builds support, addresses social and racial inequities, and creates new partnerships. The technical committee is still being formed, and will set specific efficiency targets that account for local building stock and opportunity and will include a consultant as well as technical experts. Equity group will be comprised of affordable housing group discussions and an equity team. The affordable housing meetings will be focused on how to improve housing without reducing affordable options, and identifying likely alternatives needed for subsidized affordable housing. The equity group will be supported through grant funding potential, and will review all policy recommendations from an equity lens, and convenes both during planning and throughout implementation to determine if there are any ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING negative impacts on the community. Board member Loran asked how the program will capture electrification (the reduction of natural gas). Ms. Bailey said at this time we don’t know the role of electrification in the policy yet. At the State level, electrification was introduced as an alternate standard pathway. The point of the policy is to improve efficiency, which is overall energy use, and includes natural gas and electricity. Board member Paul asked if the success of this program will translate to residential homes. Ms. Bailey it does relate, existing work is being done in the residential efficiency space, but what requirements would look like is very much in the air. Board member Braslau expressed happiness to see the results of the program, he noted that the Energy Board was involved in getting this ordinance passed. He wondered if it would it be possible for the Board to be represented. Ms. Bailey said the technical committee has not yet been formed and staff could share what they are looking for in members. Mr. Tholl added that later this fall, the task force will have a series of recommendations and will be seeking feedback or advisement to Council on those recommendations. The equity committee meetings and technical committee meetings will also be public. Board member Moore asked if there a notation of the building’s score, for valuation purposes, in the MLS Ms. Bailey said that is not currently part of the plan but it is good feedback. Board member Althouse asked how supply side deployment affect the policy? Ms. Bailey said the role of renewables is being discussed right now at the state level, but still to be determined at the Fort Collins levels. Staff reminded the board that these standards are measuring the efficiency of the building itself, not the energy that the building is putting back out to grid. Board member Loran asked if building-installed renewables (onsite solar, etc.) net-out the energy use. Staff explained no, because it is about how efficient the building structure is. Board members participated in a stakeholder brainstorming activity and shared their ideas with the group. OCF BOARD PRIORITIES Board member Paul explained the crux of this conversation is that she hopes in the future, the Board can focus less on information-only topics and more on opportunities to engage and take action. The Board decided they would like to utilize City Council’s six-month planning calendar to shape their own Board Planning Calendar. In many ways these two calendars are already intrinsically related based on Utilities staff initiatives and needs, but the Board agreed it would be good to have a wider view of Council’s plans. Mr. Vidergar also encouraged the Board to engage with the Council Liaison, Councilmember Canonico. Board member Braslau also reminded the Board that they can engage with their district representative as a member of the public. Board member Loran briefly reviewed a flow chart that he thought might be helpful for the Board to utilize when evaluating what actions they might want to take as Board. He will present the framework in full at the June Board meeting. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Board member Braslau and Chairperson Tenbrink will be absent for the June meeting. Board member Paul said she could chair the meeting if needed. Board member Paul spoke to chair of affordable housing board. FUTURE AGENDA REVIEW Mr. Minor will provide an Executive Director’s update in June, the Board would like to specifically hear about the Platte River IRP after the Community Listening Session. The Board will have several packet items and staff will be present to answer questions. There will be a building code update and the Board will also visit the Ice Box Challenge site since it will be very nearby the Board’s meeting room. ADJOURNMENT The Energy Board adjourned at 8:08 pm.