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HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 08/20/2008Fort Collins Utilities Electric Board Minutes Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Electric Board Chairperson City Council Liaison John Morris, 377-8221 Wade Troxell, 219-8940 Electric Board Vice Chairperson Staff Liaison Dan Bihn, 218-1962 Robin Pierce, 221-6702 Roll Call Board Present Chairperson John Morris, Vice Chairperson Dan Bihn, Tom Barnish, John Graham, John Harris, Jeff Lebesch Board Absent Steve Wolley Staff Present Brian Janonis, Steve Catanach, Kraig Bader, Sharon Held, Norm Weaver, Eric Dahlgren, Bob Hover, Terri Bryant, Curt Miller and Robin Pierce Guests Rick Coen, Bevan Noack and Eric Sutherland Meeting Convened Chairperson John Morris called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. Citizen Participation Eric Sutherland referred to topics from last month's Electric Board meeting related to the Organic Contract with Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) and proposed change to the City's Electric Code. He questions the reference to competition for distributing energy having an adverse effect on PRPA's bond ratings. If a different regulatory environment can be crafted in Fort Collins to create incentives, and foster conservation and innovation, the Fort Collins community will be ahead in the effort to reduce demand. He encouraged the Electric Board to take the City Council proceedings from last night under advisement and understand the impact of decisions made by this Board to the rate payers and citizens of Fort Collins. Approval of Julv 23, 2008, Minutes Vice Chairperson Dan Bihn motioned to approve the minutes from the July 23, 2008, meeting. Board Member John Harris seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Smart Grid Technology Update Light and Power Operations Manager Steve Catanach introduced Standards Engineering Manager Kraig Bader. Mr. Bader manages our electrical standards and meter reader groups and will provide a presentation to the Board on the topic of smart grid technology. "Smart grid" refers to an end -to -end application not defined by any particular component or limited by any one design. The most successful smart grid encompasses the ability to have visibility and control over many aspects of the system, ranging from generation and transmission to distribution and the home. Designing the system to host one application may prove costly in the long run, so it's important to scope all of the eventual capabilities desired from the system at the outset. Security is extremely critical to account for in the planning process as it relates to communication and anonymity of customer data during transmission. Smart grid technology is receiving a lot of focus from the Federal government now. The Department of Energy is offering 20 percent incentives on qualifying investments. Mr. Bader referred to the triple bottom line philosophy which frames our approach to smart grid, with consideration of social, environmental and financial impacts. This philosophy is the foundation for the 2151 Century Utility project. Some aspects involved in smart grid planning include: Automated switches: Electronics and sensing technology make it possible for the electric utility to recover very quickly from potentially catastrophic outages. All of our designs to date have been created to allow for available capacity to deal with issues. If a transformer is lost, another transformer at the substation can pick up the load. This prevents our customers from having to suffer through unexpected, long outages. Issues can be managed with the sensing technology currently in place, and a crew is dispatched to perform switching to another transformer. The end goal is to strategically identify and automate switch points so automatic reconfiguration can be performed. Wireless technology is the preferred method, but some future technology may provide more opportunity for ubiquitous communications and easier address identification. Right now, this is a very secure method with the necessary bandwidth immediately available to the electric utility. Cable failure detection: When failure or probability of a failure is identified, switches are used to isolate a section and detect the issue without an outage. Currently, the electric utility uses predictive maintenance and statistical models for detection. Mr. Catanach noted some aspects of our infrastructure are reaching their predicted end of life or the anticipated onset of problems. The characteristic life of cable which has failed in our system is 23 years. Some other materials of similar vintage and design are reaching 44 years' life. Conservation: The Hot Shot load control program is intended to reduce demand from residential customers with and without air conditioning. This customer category represents 46 percent of our demand and 32 percent of our load (not based on peak demand), and this program provides the opportunity to have a positive impact on customer habits. The smart grid edges into smart metering in this particular program. A new term, "prosumer," has recently been identified as a customer who not only consumes energy but also produces energy and possibly feeds it back onto the grid. The customer categories with consistently larger demand (GS50, GS750 and contract industrial) are already on an automated meter reading system. 2 Smart Design and In -Home Meter Displays: Smart metering, or Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI), represents one part of overall smart grid technology and allows us to ask what the meter can do for us. Many meters on the market now will be promoted as smart meters. Mr. Bader cautions us to think of this as a smart metering system rather than a smart meter. The intelligence must reside in the system of how data is collected, stored, used and provided to customers. It is best to develop a way to collect all the needed data quickly, easily and generically so it can be molded once returned to Utilities and used to change rates, habits, etc. This technology will put us in closer touch with our customers. The system is flexible and can be modified as needs change. There are only a few meters on the market with in -home displays. Some customers may prefer in -home displays and some may not. Mr. Bader gave an overview on the variety of in -home displays currently available and of the various ways these displays provide cues to the customer. He also shared briefly on the Ontario Hydro Smart Price Pilot program which successfully made use of low -tech methods for sharing information and influencing customer habits. Communication Infrastructure: A potential smart metering communication infrastructure was shared. Infrastructure will be based on some method of collecting data from the meters via fiber optics, broadband, power lines or Wi-Fi in a secured manner. Rick Coen with Bella Energy (local solar company) asked where the project stands. Mr. Bader noted many parts are in place now, given the technology available at this time. Our SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system can look at all substations from the control center and shift load. Much of the system is automated and can be managed without dispatching crews. We are active in upgrading and securing the communication system to the extent any of the "outer ring" systems can be addressed. Mr. Coen referred to the point about a structure or system design and whether it would be a centralized rather than distributed system. Mr. Bader noted some systems can be both centralized and distributed, depending on the goal of central command. Electric System and Design IT Manager Bob Hover noted the SCADA system is based on a very open architecture, can talk to any end device, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) at Intel or New Belgium, monitor generation, and do load control. Mr. Hover noted the use of fully programmable ladder logic. If a switch is lost, we can communicate with another switch. Board Member John Graham asked if the system would be a single point of failure. Mr. Bader noted redundancy will be built into the smart grid system. Mr. Catanach noted the Climate Task Force (CTF) identified significant carbon reduction with the smart grid program. As the Climate Action Plan moves forward to Council, staff anticipates a strong signal from Council to start pursuing this project. Then the financing and implementation discussions will take place. Staff is discussing approaches and timing, including a very aggressive goal to have it all in place by the 2012 goal. Staff will work in reverse on the 2012 timeline and see where the timing places us. The CTF initially recommended use of the "customer feedback" type of power monitor costing approximately $150, resulting in an $8-9 million project to change out every meter in the City. Staff is interested in other monitors to allow more flexibility on our system for rate signaling to the customer, time of use pricing and other types of valuable data. Monitors to accomplish these functionalities cost $400-$600, so Utilities anticipates this will be a $20 million project. Board Member Jeff Lebesch noted commonalities to designing a smart grid. Are we partnering with any other utility or development agency? Mr. Bader noted our work with 3 the American Public Power Association (APPA) where many utilities are sharing information. Mr. Bader participates on an APPA committee and dialogues with utility representatives from other cities such as Austin, Texas and Springfield, Illinois. Board Member Graham asked if we anticipate a big staffing impact. Utilities Executive Director Brian Janonis stated it depends on the roll -out schedule. Utilities is currently looking at our internal resources and taking steps to move in this direction, such as retraining meter readers for meter technician positions. Once the backbone infrastructure is in place, it also allows for the possibility to add water meters. Mr. Hover noted a very good foundation has been laid in Fort Collins as it relates to the core design of the underground electric system, the amount of substation capacity and good equipment, all of which affords a relatively small staff the opportunity to spend their time on the leading research and development edge. Partnership with Area Entities — Poudre School District Key Accounts Representative Sharon Held provided an update on the educational programs developed by Fort Collins Utilities in partnership with Poudre School District (PSD). Our relationship with the school district began in the early 1980s. The initial program to educate teachers and students about electricity and conservation has grown into a very good partnership, and there are three major categories of programs: • Facilities and operations; • Resource conservation; and • Educational programs. Facilities and Operations: The Key Accounts Program manages the majority of interactions between the Energy Manager and the Facilities group at the school district. This program oversees a variety of topics, including billing, water, stormwater, wastewater, conservation and facilitation of miscellaneous City -related issues. A streamlined billing service to help the school district better manage over 115 accounts resulted from this part of the program. Resource Conservation: The school district participates in our Integrated Design Assistance Program, and LightenUP, Electric Efficiency and Cooling Rebate Programs. The school district has received over $100,000 in energy efficiency incentives from us, with reductions of 945 megawatt hours and 284 kilowatts of demand. In addition, PSD controls their demand district -wide using the Utilities' load management signal. They have a smart grid system of sorts, enabling the Energy Manager to respond to peak demand signal from his office by shutting off systems or changing temperature settings, based on facility schedules. PSD also uses the ElectriConnect (MV-Web) service, provided free -of -charge as one of our large customers, to view their daily electric load data by building for the preceding day to midnight. They also are a platinum level Climate Wise partner since 2000, promoting energy and water efficiency, recycling and sustainability. The school district also has six wind power contracts with us, five for schools and one for their operations building. Educational Programs: Utilities' programs provide enhanced student education about electricity, water, watersheds, alternative energy, safety and conservation. 11 Programs include: • Energy Rules! - Focuses on reducing our environmental footprint and developing good energy conservation practices. • Explore the Power of Wind - Focuses on renewable energy lessons of wind power by working with students to create and test their own wind turbines. • WaterSHED (Stormwater, Habitat, Education and Development) - Focuses on local water quality, and the plants and animals living in our wetlands and river habitats. • Dr. Water Wise (for 3'ti, 4" and 5'h graders) - Focuses on water conservation and water -use activities. • Energy Conservation (Energy lab for 6`h and 8'h graders and high school students) - Focuses on exploring renewable and non-renewable energy sources. • Look Up and Live - Focuses on electrical safety; a program for PSD and other student groups, such as Boy Scouts. • Children's Water Festival (3`d graders) - Focuses on teaching where water comes from, its importance to us and how to conserve it. Programs are also available to private schools by contacting Fort Collins Utilities; main number (970) 221-6700 and asking for Marcee Camenson or Michelle Finchum. Chairperson Morris asked if solar education is included in any of the programs. Ms. Held believes solar is included in the Energy Rules program. Routine Updates PRPA (Vice Chairperson Bihn) — There was no report other than some information of interest on bonds. Mr. Janonis noted the City's Budget Finance Manager has been meeting with bond counsel. The economic crisis is having a tremendous impact on municipal bonds. Climate Task Force (Board Member Lebesch) — The task force is not currently meeting and are awaiting review of the CTF recommendations by Council. Energy Supply Policy (Chairperson Morris) — Chairperson Morris and John Phelan, energy services engineer, met with the Air Quality Board recently, and they expressed interest in seeing us remain aggressive on this policy. Capitol News — Board Member Steve Wolley was not present, so no report was given. Other Business Mr. Janonis previously mentioned the possibility of getting together with the other three PRPA communities and their electric boards. He addressed this at the Utility Director meeting last week and noted the dissimilarities between the communities relating to electric boards. We'll continue to think about an approach. Vice Chairperson Bihn noted there may be some value to this Board to learn more about the function of some of the other Fort Collins boards. Mr. Janonis also noted the existence of teams such as the sustainability team, environmental management team and others which cross into the topic of energy. City leaders are aware of team overlap and proposed a consolidation of six teams into half as many teams to the City Manager. Vice Chairperson Bihn noted the Electric Board may want to convert their primary focus in the future to one of a carbon board with potential focuses to include reliability, undergrounding, policy and direction. Mr. Janonis noted the City (Utilities, Natural Resources, others) is working to sort out the common themes internally and trying to determine how to synch up the various aspects of the Energy Policy with the Climate Action Plan until the point is reached where policy drives the plan. Mr. Catanach asked whether Board members are interested in receiving electronic publications from him, such as APPA's Public Power daily, weekly and monthly editions. Board Member Barnish also mentioned membership to IEEE which produces Power Engineering Society and Control Engineering Society journals. These journals contain a lot of innovative information on wind, solar and fuel cells. Board members would appreciate receiving these publications. Chairperson Morris asked the members to look at the work plan and e-mail feedback to him on items the Board should focus on over the October through November time frame. Mr. Catanach noted the State passed a net metering law which covers municipalities. We currently have a net metering rate in place for our solar program. However, the electric utility feels the need to expand it. There will be some policy discussion and debate on this issue. State law says we will provide net metering up to lOkw to residential and 25kw to commercial customers. He would like to discuss expanding this to a much higher level with the Board and is not aware of the timing yet. Board Member Harris noted an opportunity to take a tour of Rawhide in October during a maintenance outage. Board members would like to participate in a tour. Future Agenda Items None Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:32 p.m. following a motion to adjourn by Board Member Graham. Submitted by Robin Pierce, Executive Administrative Assistant (Fort Collins Utilities) Approved by the Board on 2008 Signed Robin Pierce Date C]