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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 05/11/2017Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 1 Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 Fort Collins Utilities Energy Board Minutes Thursday, May 11, 2017 Energy Board Chairperson City Council Liaison Pete O’Neill, 970-223-8703 Ross Cunniff, 970-420-7398 Energy Board Vice Chairperson Staff Liaison Nick Michell, 970-215-9235 Tim McCollough, 970-305-1069 Roll Call Board Present: Chairperson Pete O’Neill, Alan Braslau, Greg Behm Late Arrivals: Stacey Baumgarn, Margaret Moore Board Absent: Bill Becker, Nick Michell Others Present Staff: Lindsay Ex, Molly Saylor, John Phelan, Kevin Gertig, Tim McCollough, Christie Fredrickson, Rhonda Gatzke, Cyril Vidergar PRPA: Paul Davis Members of the Public: Rick Coen, Patrick Shyvers, Amanda Shores, John Fassler Meeting Convened Chairperson Pete O’Neill called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Announcements and Agenda Changes A quorum is not yet present, so the approval of the April 13, 2017 Board Meeting Minutes will now be after Staff Reports. Public Comment None Staff Reports (attachments available upon request) Climate Action Plan Lindsay Ex, Environmental Program Manager Molly Saylor, Environmental Planner Ms. Saylor explained that the City of Fort Collins tracks carbon inventory through electricity, natural gas, ground travel, solid waste, and water. Electricity, natural gas, and ground travel make up 95% of the City’s carbon inventory. The City’s emissions progress measured between 2005 (the baseline year) and 2014 show an 8% decrease below the baseline. In 2015, the City was 11% below, and 12% below the baseline year in 2016, which is more than halfway to the City’s goal of a 20% reduction by 2020. Ms. Saylor also noted that even though the City’s population has been steadily increasing since 2005, emissions are still decreasing. On a broader scale, if the City continued at the current pace, emissions would likely slowly increase by 2050. However, if the City sticks to the goals of the Climate Action Plan, projection data shows the possibility Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 2 Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 of being carbon neutral by 2050. Ms. Saylor also acknowledged that the Climate Action Plan journey may not always be linear because staff is receiving new data all the time. Ms. Ex summarized the Innovate Fort Collins challenge, which was designed to solicit external innovative projects (focusing on Energy, Waste, and Transportation) to assist the City in meeting the goals of the Climate Action Plan. There were 64 applications and 15 proposals were selected; a public Pitch Night with be held on August 3 and awards will be announced by September. Staff is seeking judges from CAP-related Boards and Commissions. Board members Moore and Braslau volunteered to be judges and will officially decide closer to the event who will actually serve. Board member Braslau mentioned that we should be more communicative to the public about the CAP goals progress, and also to consistently reiterate the journey in front of us. Approval of April 13, 2017 Board Meeting Minutes No changes were made to the April 13, 2017. Board Members approved the minutes as presented. Energy Policy 2016 Annual Update John Phelan, Resource Conservation Manager (attachments available upon request) The Energy Policy was updated in December 2015, so 2016 is the first full year to report back on the new policy update. Mr. Phelan will highlight the content going into the Energy Policy Update report and would like the Board’s feedback. Some of the proposed content includes: Community Energy Use Characterization, Built Environment and Efficiency, Electricity Supply, Land Use and Transportation, Community Economics and Partnerships, as well as Looking Ahead. The base question under Community Energy Use are, “how much energy do we use, and where does it come from?” Community energy is characterized by the energy source and the energy usage delivery type, as well as by the GHG emissions delivery fuel type and sector. Board members commented that the charts presented in this category might be a little bit confusing. Board member Moore asked if it would be useful to include the population that the per capita is based on. Board member Behm asked if there is a way to show the breakdown of GHG emissions, because the numbers weren’t adding up to the -12% reduction from 2005. Mr. Phelan agreed that it didn’t quite make sense and he would be getting back together with staff to clarify their collaborative numbers. Mr. Phelan explained a new metric, Community Energy Use Intensity (EUI). EUI is calculated by dividing the total energy consumed by a building in one year (measured in kBtu) by the total gross floor area of the building. Even though the City’s built square footage has increased, the EUI is improving. Things influencing this efficiency are existing energy efficiency programs and rebates, as well as new construction building codes, etc. Board members commented that it should be noted how much more money the City has invested into efficiency programs and include a sidebar with cost effectiveness or return on investment. Electricity usage is continuing to grow year over year since the baseline year of 2005. Mr. Phelan highlighted the operation electricity GHG emissions metric; the term operational referring to how much electricity the community used and where it came from, which has decreased 13.9% since the baseline year and 1.1% since 2015. Mr. McCollough wondered if there were clearer titles for the operational versus ownership metrics, such as consumption versus ownership or production. Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 3 Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 Mr. Phelan displayed a bar graph showing annual metric tons of GHG emissions beginning in 2005 and forecasting through 2020. Board member Behm said the vertical axis of the graph needs to be updated to begin at zero metric tons, because non-zero graphs cause too much distortion. Board member Baumgarn advised the bar chart for the 2016 Efficiency Portfolio – Local Economic impact, is confusing because it doesn’t cleanly explain it’s about savings, not costs. Mr. Phelan reiterated his appreciation of the Board’s feedback. The report’s data content should be finalized by the end of May, and by June Staff will be working on the report’s graphics, appendices and publication. Solar Program Update John Phelan, Resource Conservation Manager Paul Davis, Customer Services Manager, Platte River Power Authority (attachments available upon request) Rawhide Flats was developed by Juwi Solar, Inc. and is owned by Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG). The project is 30 MW ac (or 36 MW dc), and it’s a single axis tracking. The original expected output was 65,000 MWh per year (currently equivalent to 2% municipal retail sales), but that output is currently declining, and could decline up to a rate of about .05% per year. The monthly solar production compared to the forecast is trending about 10% low. PSEG said about half of that production deficit is because solar irradiance is lower than forecasted, partially related to cloudy days and snow sticking to the panels, and the remaining half is related to inverter issues, which is not uncommon in the early stages of a project startup. Staff has been working on the Community Solar Project, a joint project with Platte River and the four cities. They’re currently working on a structure (ownership, location, energy or capacity models), procurement (the best power purchase agreement price), and managing ongoing customer enrollment and billing within the program. For the procurement portion, staff has been working with the Rocky Mountain Institute and their SHINE program, which acts as a buyer’s representative for rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Pacific Consulting Group conducted a survey across all four cities (1,300 responses) and found many customers’ influences in their in adoption of community solar. Some of those driving factors included the initial investment (32%), the net monthly impact on their bill (25%), the percent of usage covered by solar power (25%), the duration of contract at initial sign up (10%), and the location of the Solar Garden (8%). When estimating wholesale system solar value, the value includes avoided energy costs and increased energy revenues, but it does not include avoided transmission capacity (none to avoid), avoided GHG (no current cost to avoid), ancillary services/integration costs, avoided distribution costs (determined by municipalities), or the effects of future markets. Mr. Davis said they are using the Value of Solar as compensation for solar energy provided to Platte River for the Fort Collins Solar Power Purchase and Community Solar, as well as a portion of Loveland’s Foothills Solar Project. It’s also used for Community Solar Program Planning. Fort Collins and Loveland both provide hourly solar data, and Platte River lines up that hourly data with their marginal operating costs or revenues and assign the highest marginal cost or revenue each hour. Currently, the value of solar is mostly set by surplus sales, but it is occasionally allocated to fuel for Craig, purchases, or peaker fuel. There will also be a solar capacity payment, based on the anticipated firm output from solar at the peak time of need, summer afternoon. Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 4 Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 Staff continues to review several other solar topic areas, such as net metering (fixed cost recovery, time of use, net consumption and production), solar RECs (allowing customer ownership of RECs with ‘Conservation Easement’ concept), solar capacity planning, and a battery storage pilot. Energy Board Memo to Council Peter O’Neil, Energy Board Chairperson (attachments available upon request) Chairperson O’Neill drafted a memo to Council, to be delivered prior to Council’s retreat. The memo content included Board’s endorsement for the Time of Use rate structure as well as urging Council to incorporate energy in City plans. Board members commented that the Energy Board has been talking about many of these issues for years and it’s a good practice to keep reiterating the importance of these issues to Council. Board member Baumgarn suggested adding supportive contextual sentences to the beginning of the memo regarding issues the Board consistently supports and would like to see, such as the goals of the Climate Action Plan and the Energy Policy. Chairperson O’Neill moved to authorize the Chair to modify the memo and send it to Council. Board member Behm seconded the motion. Vote on the motion: It passed unanimously, 5-0, with two absent Energy Board Subcommittee Peter O’Neil, Energy Board Chairperson (attachments available upon request) Chairperson O’Neill proposed the Board develop one or more subcommittees to discuss strategic principles and directions on a short list of key topics to be determined by the full board. Chairperson O’Neill noted that subcommittees must always be open to the public and posted to the City website and calendar. A subcommittee has no authority on its own, but can bring discussion and topics back to the full Board. The Board would need to decide if the subcommittee(s) should be standing or temporary, define the purpose of the subcommittee and state an objective, and the appoint the members. Mr. McCollough explained the administrative logistics of an Energy Board subcommittee and Board Member Baumgarn said if the Board approves a subcommittee today, he would like to make sure there is a minimal administrative burden to Staff. Chairperson O’Neill asked the Board what topics they would like a subcommittee to discuss. His suggestions were Electric Rate Design Objectives and a Sketch of the Electric System Needed to Meet the Climate Action Plan Goals. Other Board member suggestions included Time of Use rates because of the timeliness and topicality, as well as Climate Action Plan Goals and Progress because the Board has been impassioned about the topic. Board member Behm said if the Board is hesitant to choose a topic tonight out of fear of speaking for the four absent members, they should not choose a topic at tonight’s meeting. Chairperson O’Neill moved to create two temporary subcommittees, not to exceed three people each, on the two topics he proposed, one on rate philosophy and the other on sketching out the electric system, the chair to determine and appoint the members at the next meeting. Discussion of the motion: Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 5 Energy Board Minutes May 11, 2017 Board member Baumgarn suggested a friendly amendment: “create two temporary subcommittees; the size of the subcommittee will be at the discretion of the Chair, on the two topics he proposed, one on rate philosophy and the other on sketching out the electric system, the Board chair to determine and appoint the members at the next meeting.” Chairperson O’Neill accepted the friendly amendment. Board member Moore seconded the motion. Board member Baumgarn asked once the subcommittee is appointed, if they set their own schedule and meeting frequency, and Mr. Vidergar confirmed. Board member Moore asked if there is a benefit to having a standing or ad-hoc subcommittee and Mr. Vidergar advised that for the Board’s intents and purposes, ad-hoc committees will serve them best. Vote on the motion: It passed unanimously, 5-0, with two absent Board Member Reports Chair Person O’Neill met with Kirk Longstein, Utilities Environmental Planner, who is working on commercial building energy scores, and he recommended Mr. Longstein get together with Board member Moore. He also attended the Energy Storage conference in Denver recently. Future Agenda Review The agenda planning calendar is very light for the June and July meetings. Mr. McCollough will work with the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson to see if there are any other topics they could bring forward to fill up those agendas. Chairperson O’Neill noted he will be missing the July meeting. Board member Braslau asked about Broadband and if the Board should be discussing it before a potential blackout period. Mr. McCollough said he would speak to the Broadband Core Team to see if they are interested or able to present at the June, July or August meeting. Board members discussed possibly cancelling the June 22 Work Session for lack of content. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Approved by the Energy Board on June 8, 2017 ________________________________ ______________ Board Secretary, Christie Fredrickson Date 6/13/2017