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HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 12/17/2008Fort Collins Utilities Electric Board Minutes Wednesday, December 17, 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, Board Members John Graham, John Harris, Steve Wolley and Jeff Lebesch Board Absent Board Member Tom Bamish Staff Present Steve Catanach, Norm Weaver, Kraig Bader, Robin Pierce, Jenny Lopez-Filkins, Bill Switzer, Ellen Switzer, Tom Rock, Scott Dahlgren, Terri Bryant, Brian Janonis, Patty Bigner and Meagan Peil Guests Bevan Noack, Steve Yurash and Rick Coen Meeting Convened Chairperson Morris called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m. Public Comment None Approval of November 19, 2008, Minutes Vice Chairperson Bihn motioned to approve the minutes from the November 19, 2008, meeting. Board Member Hams seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Net Metering and Code Changes Light and Power Operations Manager Steve Catanach would like to continue the discussion from the previous meetings on proposed changes to the City Code related to net metering. During those previous discussions, the Board desired to see a provision in the Code for a net metering limit of 1 MW (megawatt) per system and a requirement that each system be reviewed either within a specific time frame or when the system has issues which become a concern. A draft of the new code language will be provided at the next meeting for t the Board to review and recommend changes. Question: Should the City of Fort Collins Code language remain as "provides for the recovery of all direct and indirect costs of the City and Platte River Power Authority 1 (PRPA) and such additional amount as may be determined by the City"? This would include costs such as PILOTS (Payments In Lieu of Taxes), taxes, insurance costs and the impact on the system. The example of this impact would be if we were to implement PILOTs with a 5 kW system. The loss to the City with PILOTs would be roughly $27and the loss in sales tax would be $14. We would still collect sales tax on this, because the customer was still purchasing energy from us. Another example would be a customer with a 7 kW system. The loss of PILOTS would be roughly $32 and sales tax of $15, and we would be purchasing approximately 1700 kWh at the retail rate. Total impact on the General Fund would be $46. With the larger customer like the GS-50 rate customer with a 750 kW system, this would be fairly large and has a peak demand of 158 kW. This in turn is energy consumption close to zero. Looking at the demand of this type of system with no infrastructure and no installation of transformer to handle this, who is going to be responsible for the cost? Electric Utilities looks at the size of the transformer, the wiring needed and service section going to the customer, and applies certain factors like looking at the building with practical knowledge and knowing not everything will be on at the same time. The National Electric Code dictates how the building is designed and requires each area have their own standards. We do not size our equipment to those standards, but we size the equipment to their equipment with our practical knowledge over time. On occasion, we do need to upgrade a transformer for a customer, but with the net metering system and the interconnection, who is responsible for the additional cost? Another example is with a 1 MW system. Only 10 to12 of our current customers would be capable of having a large system like this. With the 1 MW systems, we would be looking at the loss of PILOTS around $8,000. However, they would be paying taxes and that would add approximately three percent. The recommendation is we do not see PILOTS values as a significant cost to the General Fund and are not worried about PILOTS. Another recommendation is to review the language in the interconnection agreement to ensure an appropriate level of insurance for the system. In addition, if we should have to upgrade our facilities to support the generation, then the customer would be responsible for those costs. Discussion: If I purchased a system and installed that in 2009, is the language of the agreement going to cover that? There is a way to write in a clause and be grandfathered in to cover the interconnection agreement for the smaller systems. Can we change it in a couple of years? The agreement can be written as a long term agreement with periodic reviews. Mr. Catanach will be bringing the proposed language to the Electric Board at the January meeting before taking it to Council for approval. 2009 Work Plan Schedule The schedule is being reviewed and finalized. An item that will be new to each meeting is the budget because Council has asked all Boards be more involved in the budget and the Budgeting For Outcomes process. The budget portion of every meeting will be approximately 20 to 30 minutes long and will be informing the Board of each item in the budget. This has been requested for the February through May meetings due to any proposals to be submitted by July. Routine Updates PRPA — Dan Bihn: No report. Capital News — Steve Wolley: No report. Other Business A change to the meeting schedule of the Board meetings has been proposed in order to make it possible for our Council Liaison, Wade Troxell, to attend on a more regular basis. The Electric Board Bylaws will need to be reviewed and changed to reflect the permanent change, and can be changed by agreement of the quorum. It was agreed to change the first two meetings of the year from January 21, 2009 to January 7, 2009 and February 18, 2009 to February 4, 2009. These meeting changes will be posted for the public as rescheduled regular meetings. The Board will review the draft Bylaws outlining this change at the January meeting and seek to finalize their approval of them at the February meeting. It was also agreed to extend the meeting time to 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (rather than 7:30 p.m.) starting with the January meeting. In summary, the changes include moving the meeting day from the third Wednesday of each month to the first Wednesday of each month and extending the meeting time. In addition, the Board will begin to hold meetings at City Hall in the CIC Room starting with the February 4`h meeting. Future Auenda Items Electric Board Bylaws Steve Catanach - Code Language Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m. following a motion to adjourn. Submitted by Meagan Peil, Electric Board Secretary Fort Collins Utilities , Approved by the F =. .2009