HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 02/08/2018Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Fort Collins Utilities Energy Board Minutes
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Energy Board Chairperson
VACANT
City Council Liaison
Ross Cunniff, 970-420-7398
Energy Board Vice Chairperson
Nick Michell, 970-215-9235
Staff Liaison
Tim McCollough, 970-305-1069
Roll Call
Board Present: Vice Chairperson Nick Michell, Alan Braslau, Greg Behm, John Fassler, Amanda Shores,
Jeremy Giovando, Krishna Karnamadakala
Late Arrivals: Stacey Baumgarn
Board Absent: Bill Becker
Others Present
Staff: Tim McCollough, Christie Fredrickson, Cyril Vidergar, Coy Althoff, Kraig Bader, Kent Coldsnow,
Matt Zoccali
PRPA: Paul Davis
Members of the Public: Rick Coen
Meeting Convened
Vice Chairperson Michell called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
Public Comment
None
Approval of January 11, 2018 Board Meeting Minutes
In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email to the January 11, 2018
minutes. The minutes were approved as amended.
Announcements and Agenda Changes
Vice Chairperson Michell welcomed the three newly appointed board members, Jeremy Giovando,
Krishna Karnamadakala, and Amanda Shores (re-appointed). Board members went around the room and
briefly introduced themselves.
Budgeting for Outcomes Process
Tim McCollough, Light and Power Operations Manager
Matt Zoccali, Environmental Regulatory Affairs Manager
(attachments available upon request)
The Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) process was developed to better align the services delivered by the
organization with the things that are most important to the community. The City wanted to ensure the
services provided are a good value for the tax dollars and felt that budgets were not transparent enough,
and did not have a robust, data-driven culture. Today, BFO is a form of priority-based budgeting, focused
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
on community priorities. BFO provides more transparency into how the money will be spent internally
and externally, and a better understanding of what the programs and services do and how much they cost.
Mr. Zoccali said this process makes staff evaluate what the money is really being used for. Board member
Braslau asked what happens internally when a program or department is scaled back, and Mr. Zoccali said
in those cases, staff has to put a lot of focus on the priorities of that department or program.
The basis of BFO is the results that are most important to citizens. All offer narratives are available on the
City’s website; staff will do public outreach with focus groups and provide an online tool for citizens to
inform, educate, and collect feedback. Mr. Zoccali noted that as of a few budget cycles ago, two citizens
were added to each result team and it’s been very helpful to have their feedback. All ongoing offers must
include targets indicating the specific performance/result expected for funding an offer. The BFO process
has created a greater understanding of City finances, programs, and services for citizens, council, and city
staff. It has also established a clear connection between community priorities, resources, and levels of
service.
The BFO process is about selling offers (aka., budget requests) and purchasing services and programs.
This process happens on a two-year cycle with Strategic Plan Updates, Results Teams (or “Buyers”) are
comprised of citizens and City Staff, and Budget Requests (“Sellers”). The result teams/outcome areas
are: Neighborhood Livability and Social Health, Culture and Recreation, Economic Health,
Environmental Health, Safe Community, Transportation, and High Performing Government. Staff
submits Budget Offers (budget requests) and the Results Teams analyze the offers – discussing details of
the offer with staff and recommending what to purchase, by rank, to the Executive Team. Then, the
Executive Team finalizes what is included in the City Manager’s Recommended Budget (visually
represented as a Drilling Platform).
Vice Chairperson Michell said this is the third BFO cycle he’s been involved in, and the first cycle the
Energy Board was involved too late to make an impact. During the second cycle, the board received more
opportunity for input, but Mr. Michell still finds it difficult to engage with the result teams. Board
member Braslau asked if it is within the board’s purview to suggest certain priorities or tasks for budget
teams to sell as offers. Mr. McCollough said it is the board’s prerogative to provide encouragement of the
development of offers. Mr. Braslau also commented the ranking is independent of the cost of each offer,
and Mr. Zoccali said that is an astute observation and said it is not meant to pit the buyers against the
sellers and the teams are not trying to not fund things, and they may try to strike a compromise. Board
member Shores asked if the offer rankings are qualitative? Mr. Zoccali said every team has different
ranking criteria, but it usually begins with learning their individual strategic plan and trying to identify
how the offer fits into the plan.
Mr. McCollough reviewed the BFO timeline with the board, and board members commented that they
would like to provide their input but don’t necessarily know what the most appropriate channels to do so
are, such as suggesting offers to staff, or investing more time into providing feedback on the drafted
offers and what offers should remain above the line.
Asset Management Inspection Practices
Coy Althoff, Utilities Asset Manager
Kraig Bader, Standards Engineering Manager
Kent Coldsnow, Electrical Engineer
Mr. Althoff has been working on refining levels of service for all utilities, the overall goal being to ensure
the levels of service are in line with the concerns of Utility customers. He drafted five levels of service:
Safety / Regulatory Compliance, Quality, Capacity, Reliability, and Efficiency. Mr. Althoff provided the
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
board a copy of the definitions of each item and requested their feedback to be funneled through Mr.
McCollough.
Mr. Bader reviewed Light and Power’s major equipment categories: transformers, cable, loadbreak
elbows, bushings, and junctions. He provided physical examples of each (except the transformer) to the
board to see and hold. Mr. Bader said equipment failures are the cause of most of the Utility’s unplanned
outages (60%), which is why staff studies them so much. In 2017, primary cable failure had the highest
number of failures overall; 24 out of 48 failure occurrences were due to primary cable failures. Mr.
Coldsnow explained that overloaded transformers also cause outages. The overloads can be identified by
field inspections (including a red light on the transformer, using an infrared camera, or discolored metals),
as well as advanced metering data aggregation. Most overloads are caused by excessive electric
consumption that goes beyond the capacity of the electrical equipment to support it. Other reasons a
transformer might overload is due to corrosion, which is caused by ground water and deicer runoff, which
can compromise the integrity of the tank.
The design of a medium voltage underground cable incorporates two semi-conductive shield layers, as
well as an overall concentric neutral. The semi-conductive layers are designed to control voltage stress in
the bulk of the insulation. Mr. Coldsnow said many end-of-life cable failures occur as a result of dielectric
(insulation) failure; insulation failure mechanisms called “water-treeing” and “electrical treeing” are the
usual failure morphology. Also, cables are often hit by excavators and directional drilling operations. Mr.
Coldsnow noted cable failures have increased in the last several years, which can be attributed to the age
of the cables. The City started undergrounding power in the late 1960s, and some of that cable is still
underground and in use today.
Loadbreak elbow failures are consistent, particularly at their end-of-life stage, due to dielectric failure.
These failures occur when the insulation can no longer hold up against the electric field stress under
which the elbow is submitted. Loadbreak elbow failures can also occur as a result of damage during
installation or as a result of loose or cross-threaded electrical connections. The overall number of failures
per year is roughly constant, despite the increased number of elbow installations each year.
Loadbreak bushings are used on junctions, transformers, switches, and insulating standoff modules. These
failures are also roughly constant, despite population growth, and usually result from improperly seated
elbows, loose or cross-threaded elbows, or an elbow that has been backed off by other fault events that
create thermal degradation conditions.
Mr. Coldsnow noted that many of the equipment failures tend to follow trends. For example, cable
failures usually occur after the annual peak in the load curve. Board member Giovando asked if staff has a
sense of why the failures tend to follow trends. Mr. Bader said sometimes the trends correlate with ground
thaw or shifts in load. Mr. Coldsnow also reviewed the Utility’s reliability statistics, and displayed a chart
of the 2017 Utility SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) versus CAIDI (Customer
Average Interruption Index) comparisons. Fort Collins Utilities was one of seven utilities to fall in the
APPA first quartile.
Board member Karnamadakala asked if the 2% population growth relative to the system growth is still
considered normal, because to him it seemed low. Mr. Bader said 2.5-3% is average system growth, and
Mr. McCollough clarified the City is growing the lineal mileage of the system, but the system load
growth has essentially remained flat for the last 10 years, even amid circuit mile growth, meter growth,
and population growth. Mr. Bader noted the Energy Services department does great work with efficiency
and Mr. McCollough also said new construction is also very efficient, which helps to hold the load
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
growth number flat. Board member Karnamadakala asked if the reliability scores contribute directly to a
cost savings. Mr. Bader said that is part of the capital improvement project process.
Light and Power Crews inspect assets and record data each time they visit a piece of equipment or a vault.
The goal of the switch point inspections is to cycle through every four years, and they are expected to
complete their first iteration in 2019. Light and Power also has an Electric Meter Maintenance Program.
Tracked through a program called ADMIRE. They inspect the meters, and check for crossed meters on
multi-tenant commercial buildings, three-phase metering verification and calibration, and meter socket
jaw testing.
Mr. Bader said the Utility has monthly Outage Review Committee meetings, where staff reviews each
outage for data reporting and accuracy, the root cause of the outage, and concerns regarding escalating
outage frequency for a particular area or type of equipment. They also review practices with respect to
outage recovery, reporting, and system design. The committee will also review planned outages and
assess value with respect to potential avoided outage minutes.
Mr. Coldsnow explained the cable replacement project process, which begins at the outage review
meeting, and then staff will select replacement population based on factors like risk and impact of failure
and common conditions. Staff then maps failures specific to manufacturer and vintage, defines the scope
of the project, and then (depending on project budgeting needs) develops a budget to support the
replacement project or designs and vets the replacement project.
Officer Elections
Board member Shores nominated Board member Michell to the role of the Chairperson.
Board member Michell accepted the nomination.
Board member Braslau nominated Board member Shores to the role of Vice Chairperson.
Board member Shores accepted the nomination.
Board member Karnamadakala nominated himself to the role of Vice Chairperson.
Board member Behm moved that Nick Michell act as Chairperson until the next annual election of
officers for the Energy Board.
Board member Baumgarn seconded the motion.
Vote on the motion: It passed unanimously, 8-0, with one absent.
Board member Behm moved that Amanda Shores act as Vice Chairperson until the next annual
election of officers for the Energy Board.
Board member Braslau seconded the motion.
Discussion:
Board member Braslau said he is impressed with Board member Karnamadakala’s self-nomination and
enthusiasm and hopes the current motion does not discourage Board member Karnamadakala. Board
member Karnamadakala said he acknowledges he does not have very much board experience, but he does
have a lot of technical experience.
Vote on the motion: It passed, 5-0, with one absent. Chairperson Michell and Board member
Karnamadakala abstained.
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Energy Board Minutes
February 8, 2018
Nick Michell shall act as chairperson and Amanda Shares shall act as Vice Chairperson until the next
annual election of officers.
Board member Braslau moved that Board member Karnamadakala serve as an alternate Vice
Chairperson until the next annual election of officers for the Energy Board.
Chairperson Michell seconded the motion.
Discussion:
Board member Karnamadakala accepted the nomination.
Vote on the motion: It passed, 7-0, with one absent. Board member Karnamadakala abstained.
Board Member Reports
Chairperson Michell said Eric Shenk, the Chairperson of the Transportation Board, reached out to him to
increase engagement and communication between the boards. Board member Braslau used to attend their
meetings, but his wife serves on the board and so he no longer attends. Chairperson Michell said that he
encourages board members to attend other board meetings. Board member Behm agreed, cross-attendance
is a good idea, and said when the Energy Board was initially formed, the board divided up the other City
boards and commissions amongst the board members to regularly attend. He said it was an interesting
way to gain perspective on what those boards valued. Board member Shores volunteered to attend the
Transportation Board meetings and Board Member Braslau suggested that Energy Board members follow
the agenda of various other related boards and commissions and try to attend when subjects of interest to
energy policy are to be discussed.
Future Agenda Review
Mr. McCollough asked the board if they would like to have a joint session with the Water Board on April
19, and the board was supportive. In particular, the PRPA wind purchase PPA will require the
construction of a new electrical transmission line that may impact property owned by the Water Utility, to
be presented at this future joint meeting.
The new Chairperson and Vice Chairperson will work with Mr. McCollough to outline the remainder of
the meeting schedule for 2018. The board decided to cancel the February 22 work session since there
were no agenda items planned.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m.
Approved by the Energy Board on March 8, 2018
________________________________ ______________
Board Secretary, Christie Fredrickson Date
3/9/2018