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HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 06/20/2007Fort Collins Utilities Electric Board Minutes Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Electric Board Chair John Morns, 377-8221 Electric Board Vice Chair Dan Bihn, 218-1962 City Council Liaison Wade Troxell Staff Liaison DeEtta Carr, 221-6702 Roll Call: Board Present Chairperson John Morris, Tom Barnish, John Graham, John Harris and Steve Wooley Absent Dan Bihn and Jeff Lebesch Visitors John Morley, Eric Sutherland Staff Present: Patty Bigner, Bill Bray, Terri Bryant, DeEtta Carr, Joyce Grenz, Brian Janonis, Bob Micek, Tom Rock and Mike Smith MeetinE Convened Chairperson John Morris called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Citizen Participation John Morley has been a wind power program subscriber since the beginning of the program. Mr. Morley wanted to register his complaint about Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) because he joined the wind program to vote his economic dollars to wind power and expects his dollars to go toward more wind power. The articles in a Fort Collins paper have brought to his attention that Fort Collins Utilities is buying credits and no one knows if they are supplying more wind power or not. Mr. Morley said it should not be hard to find out and move forward with more generators at our site. He believes the City's Web site is still incorrect as far as purchasing power from Pleasant Valley and does not believe the City is even purchasing RECs from Pleasant Valley. Mr. Morley wants Fort Collins Utilities to know that he expects his dollars to go to wind power. Elecrtric Planning and Engineer Service Manager Bill Bray said he would check and see if Fort Collins Utilities is still buying power from Pleasant Valley and let the Electric Board know. Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Page 2 Eric Sutherland said the last time he spoke before the Electric Board, he used the phrase "simplicity, sacrifice and solidarity." He thinks these words can inspire cultural change, which is necessary to address the problems of resource depletion and climate change posed to our society. He would like to add another "s" word which is sincerity, as it inspires confidence in the efforts taken to address these problems with honesty and straight forwardness. He would like the language on the fcgov.com site to be more straight forward as to where the wind power dollars are going. In general, Mr. Sutherland feels there is a lot of good in the renewable programs that Fort Collins Utilities provides. It's very progressive, and we should all be proud of the program. Even with this program, he feels it will only get us so far. The remainder of the effort has to come from energy conservation and looking at other methods that we have available to us to change the amount of greenhouse gasses and fossil fuels used so future generations will have the same quality of life we enjoy today. Minutes of Anril 18, 2007 Board Member Steve Wooley made a motion, seconded by Board Member John Harris, to approve the minutes of the May 16, 2007, meeting. The motion passed unanimously. Underground Conversion - Update Electric Field Services Manager Tom Rock said they are finishing underground conversion at Taft Hill Road and Vine Drive. The County is widening Taft Hill Road from Laporte Street north through the Vine Drive intersection, with a roundabout being put in at Taft Hill Road and Vine Drive. Fort Collins Utilities is putting an underground circuit down Taft Hill Road which will allow Utilities to drop out the overhead that runs just across Shields Street on Vine Drive. The underground circuit runs all the way west past Taft Hill Road, then it heads south to about the Poudre School Administration buildings. Right now that line is de -energized but Utilities is using it as a loop, and when the construction is finished they will be dropping off that piece of the overhead. The construction is done down Taft Hill Road to Laporte Street. Now, they are digging along Laporte Street to the Poudre School Administration buildings to get their loop, and they should be done in the next month. They are working with Xcel on Vine Drive, as the lines are running parallel to each other. Electric System Engineer Manager Bob Micek said a newspaper article mentioned many of the trees on the east side of Taft Hill Road would have to come out to relocate the Xcel line. Fort Collins Utilities made Xcel an offer to take over the 21 customers between Laporte Street and Vine Drive. Xcel declined the offer and will relocate their overhead line. We try to encourage neighboring utilities to do underground lines but have no control over them choosing to do otherwise. The undergrounding on North College Avenue will take place when North College is improved as part of the Urban Renewal project. Southwest Annexation will be phased in over a 10-year period. The plan is now for Utilities to shift resources towards maintenance programs, some -2- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Page 3 cable replacement and projects that needed to be done. Fort Collins Utilities electric distribution system is 98.5 underground. The Electric Board requested a summary of projects from Fort Collins Utilities to see what their plan is for current and future projects. City Council had asked the Electric Board to evaluate the state of conversion of the underground and what needs to be done in the future. UniverCity Connections and Clean Enerav Cluster Judy Dorsey, a principal engineer and founding owner of the Brendle Group, gave a presentation on the UniverCity Connections. This includes CSU, downtown, and the Poudre area. Ms. Dorsey is the executive director of the Clean Energy Cluster, which was launched in May of 2006 after a year formation process. This is a mass collaborative effort funded by businesses in the Fort Collins area with a goal to put Northern Colorado on the map as the "Go To" region for smart -grid technologies, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and cleaner and more efficient engines. The Cluster has a board of directors, investors, paid professional staff, Web presence events, 350 person network, growing portfolio of technology and economic development initiatives. Some in the Cluster were invited to the UniverCity Connections kickoff that was facilitated by the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. The three gems of Fort Collins are the University, the downtown, and the Poudre River Corridor. The question was what could be done, from a civic leadership standpoint, to cohesively tie these together to really improve Fort Collins. People from all levels of leadership throughout the community were there. The possibilities were to build a grid simulation laboratory into a regional platform. It would be great from the standpoint of clean energy capital investments to support the local economy. This would be the first of this kind and of this size. The concept was a pilot on a smaller scale (10—MW) and build it from there. The program would build professional capacity for the Cluster businesses to go and replicate this model to other communities through out the country. UniverCity would be in a position to be a worldwide leader in demonstrating the social and economic benefits that could come from commitment to what is called net zero energy. The idea is to transform the UniverCity Connections district into a net zero energy user. The name of the zero energy district would be FortZED. Implementation would be in five areas: 1. Jumpstart FortZED demo — 5MW; 2. Sustainability and high performance in built environment; 3. Remove barriers to develop needed infrastructure and create unique financial incentives in this district; 4. Local power generation and demand management; and 5. Education and promotion. A S5 million Department of Energy grant is possible if the funds are matched by $4 million from the Fort Collins area. There are only six grants available in the United States. The deadline for this grant application is July 25, 2007. If the grant is awarded, it will help place Fort Collins in a key leadership position in the energy industry. This will draw other energy companies to the area, bringing primary jobs in the renewable energy field. -3- Electric Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Page 4 Routine Uadates Steve Wooley gave a brief report on the legislative issues before the State. The State is going to keep moving forward with forcing large scale public utilities into higher percents of renewables, but providing a mechanism to do that to the point of profitability. Mr. Wooley thinks that gives us the future leverage as a part of our discussion with energy policy, and we need to watch and see how this works out. Other Business John Morris requested the Electric Board talk about the agenda at the next meeting. He said it is fine to have presentations, but the Electric Board needs to review policy, work plan, implementation schedule and attainable goals. He would like to review potential reactions and difficulties in achieving these policy goals. Are these realistic? The Electric Board needs to meet the goals so that the Electric Board is making an impact. The Electric Board thanked Mike Smith for his 28 years of service. The Board feels they are loosing a great resource and they wished him the very best. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. ME