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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 10/01/2015Energy Board Meeting Minutes October 1, 2015 1 Fort Collins Utilities Energy Board Minutes Thursday, October 1, 2015 Energy Board Chairperson City Council Liaison Peter O’Neill, 288-4562 Ross Cunniff, 420-7398 Energy Board Vice Chairperson Staff Liaison Phil Friedman, 493-2959 Lisa Rosintoski, 416-2432 Roll Call Board Present Vice Chairperson Philip Friedman, Board Members Greg Behm, Stacey Baumgarn, Peggy Plate, Nick Michell, Margaret Moore, Darrin Johnson Absent Chairperson Peter O’Neill, Board Member Michael Doss Board Member Stacey Baumgarn arrived at 6:09 p.m. Board Member Margaret Moore arrived at 6:51 p.m. Board Member Darrin Johnson excused himself from the meeting at 7:35 p.m. Staff Present Lisa Rosintoski, Lucinda Smith, Tim McCollough, Katherine Martinez, Cyril Vidergar, Gordon Cromwell, Ginger Purvis Guests Paul Davis of Platte River Power Authority Meeting Convened Vice Chairperson Phil Friedman called the meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. Public Comment None Approval of September 3, 2015 Minutes Board Member Greg Behm moved to approve the September 3, 2015 minutes with the revisions discussed and mentioned below. Board Member Nick Michell seconded the motion. Vote on the motion: It passed unanimously 5-0 with one abstention. Revisions to minutes, 2016 Utility Rates agenda item:  Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) Planning and Customer Service Director John Bleem commented that energy prices have dropped, especially natural gas, due to fracking, and stated it’s a different market than a few years ago. [Added the following two sentences as explanation.] The low energy prices mean Platte River receives less revenue from surplus sales. Surplus sales revenue offsets revenue that otherwise must come from Platte River’s municipalities. Energy Board Meeting Minutes October 1, 2015 2  A board member inquired about a comparison between Fort Collins and Longmont. Mr. Reuscher replied that the City of Longmont doesn’t have seasonal rates. [Deleted the sentences that followed due to incorrect information.]  Staff Reports New Light and Power Operations Manager Tim McCollough started September 14 as the new Light and Power Operations Manager, coming from Ames, Iowa, which has its own generation and distribution system, where he most recently held the position of Electric Distribution Manager with the City of Ames. Mr. McCollough has more than 10 years of progressive utility experience in both the private and public sector in a wide range of industry disciplines including generation, transmission and distribution. He is excited about the challenges ahead and opportunity to work for Fort Collins because of its focus on sustainability and position as a frontrunner in implementing Smart Grid and community solar opportunities. He and his wife, Christina, look forward to raising their four children along the beautiful Front Range and enjoying time with family members in the Denver area. Tim graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and spent an exchange semester of his Iowa State University education at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr. McCollough answered questions from board members on various topics, including his ties to Colorado and renewable energy use in Aims, Iowa. They also asked how his role would be different from that of his predecessor. Mr. McCollough stated that his experience is in asset management, which will help in Utilities’ effort to get back to the core business of maintaining assets in the ground, etc. He stated his goal now is to evaluate the status of current infrastructure; the Climate Action Plan will be a main focus going forward. Minutes Transition Water Resources and Treatment Operations Manager Carol Webb, who has been staff liaison to the Water Board over the past year, summarized how board members transitioned to taking meeting minutes themselves about seven months ago. The number of administrative assistants decreased while workload increased, and it became necessary for staff to reprioritize responsibilities of the administrative assistant assigned to board support. Most of the City’s boards and commissions don’t have administrative support and therefore take their own minutes. Water Board has refined the process of rotating board secretary duties and it is now running smoothly. The administrative assistant maintains a sign-up sheet on the board’s SharePoint site, along with a template for action minutes, which focuses on just brief descriptions of each agenda item, the discussion, and any formal board action, to allow the board member to continue participating in the meeting. The volunteer writes a draft, the administrative assistant reviews and proofreads it, and then the minutes are discussed and approved at the following month’s meeting. Board members asked questions and discussed the transition with staff. Utilities Customer Connections Manager Lisa Rosintoski stated staff would send the board an example of action minutes, and that the switch would occur in January, to allow time for time for a comfortable transition. A board member suggested the administrative assistant start taking action minutes October through December. Energy Board Meeting Minutes October 1, 2015 3 Board Introductions to Light and Power Operations Manager Board members spend a minute each introducing themselves to Mr. McCollough at his request, so that he could learn about their background and what led to them serving on the Energy Board. Energy Policy Presentation to City Council Utilities Customer Connections Manager Lisa Rosintoski reported that City Council showed unanimous support for the draft Energy Policy during its September 22 Work Session and acknowledged the Energy Board and staff’s work. Staff will bring it back to City Council for resolution and adoption on November 3, as a consent agenda item. Board Member Stacey Baumgarn arrived at 6:09 p.m. Climate Action Plan Environmental Services Director Lucinda Smith reported that the Climate Action Plan (CAP) executive team presented at the September 8 City Council Work Session. Many members of the team presented and received positive feedback. Several councilmembers expressed urgency, the importance of engagement with supporters and naysayers, and making CAP accessible to citizens. Eleven strategic initiative teams are working on CAP implementation with goals of having action items identified and metrics analyzed by April 2016. They will invite technical experts and citizens to join the strategic teams, and choose members of a citizen advisory committee via an application process: eight to 12 members will meet quarterly over the long term to provide a community perspective. Staff is planning for a first meeting in November or December. City Council considered mid-cycle budget offers at a September 15 Work Session and indicated initial support for all four budget offers related to CAP. Board members and staff discussed the sense of urgency in defining what to do to meet the 2020 goal, considering there are only two full budget cycles left before that time. Ms. Smith will forward Work Session agenda material to the board secretary, including a list of the 11 strategic teams, to share with the board. Light and Power Utility Training Center (Attachments available upon request) Electric Distribution Safety Supervisor Gordon Cromwell summarized the features of the current and proposed Light and Power Utility Training Centers and praised the work of Senior Electric Utilities Project Manager Jack Everett and Electric Engineer Ginger Purvis. The current center has limited training capabilities: overhead and underground equipment, no installed fiber-optics, no street lighting, no 750 cable switching, no transformer “change-out,” cable fault locating. For the proposed 2016 Training Center, the City would lease the land, near Horseshoe Substation in Loveland, from Platte River Power Agreement (PRPA) for 20 years at a cost of $1.00. Part of Utilities’ commitment to a “Safety First” focus includes having adequate and proactive training before an emergency occurs; consistent and repetitive practices in power outage situations; apprentice program growth: 11 new apprentices; new Utility Operations (OPs) Practices and Technologies: AMI, fiber-optics, enhanced confined space training; updated current field Ops Skillsets. Board members discussed the focus on safety among the sister cities of PRPA, the other cities’ training, and proactive safety training before an emergency happens. Mr. Cromwell stated the majority of training now happens on the job in power outage situations at 2 a.m., in the dark, in adverse weather conditions during winter. The goal is to give the best tools and training opportunities to employees. The utility industry is expecting a high rate of retirement among employees; City of Fort Collins has lost eight or nine employees to retirement over the last 1.5 Energy Board Meeting Minutes October 1, 2015 4 years. The average age is 43 or 44, and some employees are 57 and 58 years old. Ms. Purvis mentioned the Utilities’ Knowledge Management Program process that began three years ago, in which middle managers are interviewed to identify upcoming issues and ensure that knowledge transfer processes are in place ahead of employee turnover. Board members expressed support for the proposed training center and a desire for Light & Power employees to be safe and have access to good training. One board member commented that he appreciates the work L&P crews do and wants them to be as safe as possible while performing their “mission critical” work for the community, and that the amount of money for training should be tripled if necessary. He remembers unsafe practices in the early days of the solar industry, when workers did not use safety glasses or high-voltage gloves. Environmental Services Strategic Plan (Attachments available upon request) Environmental Services Director Lucinda Smith gave an overview of efforts to develop a departmental Strategic Plan to guide future policies, programs, and funding requests. The draft plan is organized into five themes that reflect areas of departmental activity: Climate Commitment, Be Air Aware, Road to Zero Waste, Lead by Example, Collaborate and Act Regionally. Base budget is $1.2 million. Board Member Margaret Moore arrived at 6:51 p.m. Board members discussed a need for clarity on what areas various departments are working on together and separately, and expressed support for the strategic plan process. A board member mentioned one example of strategic planning success: purchasing Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, which contains three of the iconic species of the Great Plains: prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and 10 bison to be released there November 1. Energy Policy and Climate Action Plan Project Prioritization Vice Chairperson Phil Friedman gave an overview of Energy Policy, which does not include implementation as the Climate Action Plan (CAP) does. He commented that it’s important to find ways to collaborate with City departments; staff mentioned the departments that would be involved in helping implement aspects of the CAP: Environmental Services; Planning, Development and Transportation; and Utilities. Vice Chairperson Friedman mentioned the idea of keeping built infrastructure at a high efficiency level, because buildings built today could still be in existence 100 years from now; they can be retrofitted but the goal should be to build them with the absolute best energy conservation, state-of-the-art within cost efficiency, etc. Board members and staff discussed the fact that there are opportunities for greater collaboration, and a major consideration is energy impacts of major development proposals, such as redevelopment of Foothills Mall. The City’s Green Built Environment Program Coordinator Tony Raeker, is tasked with advancing green building principles (http://www.fcgov.com/enviro/green- building.php). The City’s green policy includes identifying policy conflicts. Chairperson Peter O’Neill, who was not present at the meeting, gave Mr. Friedman the following topics to mention to the board: 1. Ensure Fort Collins Utilities, the Building Department, and any other staff involved in built infrastructure worked together to see that construction or major remodels adhere to the Energy Policy. 2. Increase reliability while increasing distributed energy resources affordability Energy Board Meeting Minutes October 1, 2015 5 3. Fort Collins Utilities to work closely with PRPA on natural gas distributed Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine (RICE) units, which can be added in small increments, and can be located at the wholesale or distributed level. These units provide flexibility to follow intermittent renewable resources. 4. FortZED has been offered assistance by Intel and Arrow Electronics. All are complementary goals to the CAP. Board members discussed adding Energy Policy implementation to the 2016 Work Plan; compiling a list of questions to get the conversation started on how to meet the goals in a timely manner; find out priorities of the 11 strategic teams and see if they’re goals the board wants to push forward and evaluate what will provide the most return; determine a process for board feedback and updates on team progress. The teams will identify goals within a month; staff will provide a status report; more comprehensive information will be available from the teams in December/January/February, so that staff can get feedback from City boards and commissions. Board members also discussed the overlap and intersections of goals for CAP, Energy Policy, and other City plans, and how to advocate for those efforts. One board member suggested re-reading the Energy Board charter to be clear on how it advises City Council. Board Member Darrin Johnson excused himself from the meeting at 7:35 p.m. Board Member Reports  Greg Behm mentioned the documentary The Merchants of Doubt and recommended board members watch it, in relation to City Council’s desire to engage naysayers of the Climate Action Plan and the notion that climate change is a political rather than scientific issue. The film examines pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3675568/  Margaret Moore mentioned Bruce Hendee was inducted into the Everitt Real Estate Center’s Real Estate Hall of Fame during the 19th Annual Northern Colorado Real Estate Conference held September 24 at the Embassy Suites Loveland. He has extensive experience in sustainability, community planning and landscape architecture. As the former chief executive of BHA Design Inc. and the former chief sustainability officer for the City of Fort Collins, he led projects relating to community planning, economic development, social sustainability and environmental planning.  Vice Chairperson Phil Friedman mentioned the Fort Collins Utilities Renewables quarterly enewsletter by Norm Weaver reports that in 2004 the City produced 13 kilowatts of solar energy, and now in 2015 it has 16.429 megawatts (MW) of solar energy. He also mentioned plans for a new parking structure in Downtown associated with building a new hotel on the old Armadillo Restaurant site. He commented that this project is an opportunity to advocate for making it as energy efficient as possible: LED lighting, electric car infrastructure, the most efficient elevators, solar canopy, EV charging stations, etc. Board Member Stacey Baumgarn mentioned plans for a new Colorado State University (CSU) parking structure that will be renewable-ready. New Business Electric Services Rules and Regulations Utilities Customer Connections Manager Lisa Rosintoski explained that there are currently three documents that guide customers on how to plan electricity for developments: the Electric Construction Policy Practices and Procedures, Electric Services Rules and Regulations, and the