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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 02/13/2020ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING February 13, 2020 – 5:30 pm 222 Laporte Ave.; Colorado Room ENERGY BOARD MEETING |02/13/2020 ROLL CALL Board Members Present: Chairperson Amanda Shores, Vice Chairperson Jeremy Giovando, Bill Becker, Dan Gould, Alan Braslau, John Fassler Board Members Absent: OTHERS PRESENT Staff Members Present: Christie Fredrickson, John Phelan, Cyril Vidergar, Leland Keller, Lindsay Ex, Jensen Morgan, Josh Birks, Lance Smith, Lisa Rosintoski, Brian Tholl, Brad Smith, Rhonda Gatzke Platte River Power Authority: Paul Davis, Trista Fugate Members of the Public: Rick Coen MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairperson Shores called the meeting to order at 5:31 pm PUBLIC COMMENT None APPROVAL OF MINUTES In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email for the January 9, 2020 minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. ANNOUNCEMENTS & AGENDA CHANGES There is a Super Issues meeting scheduled for Monday, February 24 at the Northside Aztlan Community Center. STAFF REPORTS Energy Board Vacancies and Applications Update Mr. Phelan announced three new board members are slated for appointment by Council on February 18. They are interim appointments, to last only through December 2020. They will need to advertise again to fill Chairperson Shores’ vacancy in late spring or early summer. Legislative Update John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager City staff monitors upcoming legislation in Colorado regularly. Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities (CAMU) and Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA) both offer perspectives on the legislation and help the City form their position on various bills. Mr. Phelan highlighted a few of the bills the City has started to research or take a position on, including: ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ENERGY BOARD MEETING | 02/13/2020 Higher efficiency new residential construction (House Bill 1155), Consumer protections for utility customers (CO Senate Bill 30) and Statewide commercial benchmarking ordinance (not yet introduced). METRO DISTRICTS Josh Birks, Director Economic Sustainability A metro district starts as a development idea or project, and then the property owner (the developer) determines if infrastructure funding is needed and requests formation of a Metro District. City Council considers the proposed Service Plan (District Charter), and if Council approves, then the District Court certifies the Metro District and authorizes a formation election. The District holds an election and formally becomes a quasi-governmental entity, also known as a Metro District. The creation of a district may be considered if there is a clear demonstrated need and a proven result that the creation of the district will result in enhanced benefits to existing and future business owners and/or residents of the district and City. A recent Denver Post article raised several questions about metro districts. Mr. Birks reviewed a few of those items and how they pertain to the metro districts planned for Fort Collins. The baseline complies with state statute, and Mr. Birks felt like many of the concerns brought up in the Denver Post’s article are often not the common standards or practice in Colorado, such as mill levy caps, debt maximums and limited tax obligations. City Council continues focus on the challenge of identifying the end user benefits while also achieving the community’s goals. For example, taking energy efficiency measures helps the community achieve the goal of carbon neutrality but also it helps with cost savings and comfort levels for the end user, so it benefits both sides. The objective is to develop a simple, sustainable system for evaluating metro districts, and using multiple polarities can create healthy tension: predictability vs flexibility and, objective vs subjective. After going to Council, Staff heard unanimous support to use the tool sparingly, their concern is that if every project that comes through has a Metro District on it, it could change the cost of homeownership and the overall taxation structure. Secondly, Council should have an early role in review and projects should deliver exceptional outcomes, but Staff doesn’t have a lot of clarity yet on what “exceptional” means. Additionally, Council wants to keep the analysis simple, use existing metrics, and focus analysis on and around Council’s priorities. Board member Gould asked if the Council Priorities are available online, and Mr. Birks said yes, they are available on the Council Priorities dashboard. Right now, staff is in the “draft ‘scorecard’” step of their process and moving to stakeholder engagement by March or April (hopefully to include a liaison from the Energy Board). Board members discussed who might be able to take on the responsibility as the Energy Board’s liaison; tentatively planning on Board members Braslau and Fassler but hoping to have another discussion at their next meeting when the new Board members have been appointed. TIME OF DAY, YEAR-ONE RESULTS Lance Smith, Utilities Deputy Director Finance John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager Lisa Rosintoski, Utilities Deputy Director Customer Connections ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ENERGY BOARD MEETING | 02/13/2020 Following up on Staff’s Council commitment to present results following one year of time of day pricing for our residential customers, Mr. Smith said the energy use and bill impacts confirm what we learned in the pilot study: The community is benefiting from lower energy use, lower peak use, lower bills and reduced carbon emissions. Additionally, along the way staff simultaneously created an effective electric vehicle charging price structure The residential results showed an average of 2.3% customer bill savings, amounting to $1.54 on average. Wholesale expenses were reduced by about 2.7% and about 16,775 MWh (or roughly 3.5%) reduction in energy usage. Board member Braslau asked if Time of Day rates have ultimately cost the utility with the customer savings and energy reduction. Mr. Smith said there was no shortcoming, but the Utility does still need energy sales to support their revenue. Overall, 65% of customers paid less on their monthly energy bills than they would have on the previous tiered rate structure. 33% of customers paid up to $5 more per month and the remaining 2% of customers paid over $5 more per month. In the pilot study, gas heat customers saved slightly more than the 12- month actual numbers ($1.38 in the pilot vs. $1.26), but the all-electric homes saved $3.51 in the 12- month review as opposed to the $2.58 they saw in the pilot study. In gas-heated homes 65% saved on TOD rates, some up to $20.00 a month (200 customers). Those who paid more on TOD were mostly around $2.00 a month. The overall average was a $1.26 savings per month, and the median was $0.80 savings per month. In all-electric homes, 65% saved on TOD, and 35% paid more. The overall average was $3.51 savings per month, and the median was $2.24 savings per month. 100% of customers on the Income Qualified Assistance Program, which was launched simultaneously with TOD, saved on TOD with their discount, $14.05 average savings per month, and $10.76 median. Mr. Smith said staff would like to do additional calculations and analysis with their findings, especially with solar households and households with electric vehicles. Mr. Phelan said the Utility saw a 1.9% reduction in total residential electricity use, as well as a 7.5% reduction during peak hours. These numbers are year-over-year measured changes and not weather normalized. Once weather-normalized, the results showed a 3.5%-5% reduction in overall electricity usage, and 10% reduction during on-peak hours. The 16,775 MWh in electricity savings is equivalent to 15,800 metric tons CO2 avoided, which is 0.8% of the City’s community inventory. As a carbon mitigation strategy, TOD has reduced community electric bills, reduced wholesale power costs, and translated to significant savings. Ms. Rosintoski briefly reviewed the IQAP and its application process. She said there has been a lot of discussion at Council for an automatic opt-in to the program, and if the customer would like to opt-out they may do so, so staff will be exploring that further. TOD Communication and outreach to the community included mass communications, such as utility bill inserts, brochures, social media, etc.; targeted communications, such as all-electric homes, low-income, multi-family, community solar, etc.; and stakeholder collaboration, such as boards and commissions, low- income nonprofits, and HOAs. Initial communications focused on the times rates are most expensive, and stressed it was three times higher. Much of the initial feedback received was concerns about the City wanting more revenue, concern about raising the rates, and concern that the City is dictating customers’ days (when we can do laundry, etc.). As a result, staff changed their communications on the time customers can control, and that 80% of the day customers have an opportunity to save money. This ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ENERGY BOARD MEETING | 02/13/2020 included a graphic showing a ranking of household appliances power usages, such as dishwashers, dryers, and air conditioning units. Board member Braslau said he doesn’t recall receiving that customer tool, and graphics and tools such as that one should be sent out to every customer in the mail, regardless if a customer has gone paperless with their billing statement. Chairperson Shores echoed Mr. Braslau’s comment. Ms. Rosintoski said that is great feedback, but there should also be a link in the monthly billing statement, and it’s shared on the Utility’s website. Ms. Rosintoski said staff will continue education and outreach, while refining rate components to reflect ongoing changes in usage patterns and costs. Staff will also report ongoing TOD observations and encourage customers to contact Utilities for support. Chairperson Shores wondered how customers could be automatically opted in for IQAP, hoping it would not be associated or run through LEAP. Ms. Rosintoski said they do partner with LEAP for the information to enroll. Chairperson Shores expressed her concern that there are only a few months customers can apply for LEAP, which could leave a customer in a tricky position if something were to drastically change in their lives outside of the enrollment period. Ms. Rosintoski said the Utility does try to be as flexible as possible, and the reason they partner with LEAP is because they handle the administration and privacy of qualifying customers, which saves the Utility a cost that they no longer must incur. Chairperson Shores said she worries there is a sector of low-income people that will not seek out assistance, but if it were given to them, they would accept it. She is unsure the Utility is doing a good job of reaching those people. Board member Becker asked why we call it TOD as opposed to TOU (time of use), which is the industry title. Ms. Rosintoski said Staff found TOD resonated better with the community during their outreach and communication. OUR CLIMATE FUTURE UPDATE Lindsay Ex, Climate Program Manager John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager Jensen Morgan, Senior Specialist Environmental Sustainability Equity is a major guiding theme within the plans of Our Climate Future (OCF) and is represented in both the process and the outcome. Staff’s challenge is to make sure everyone has meaningful opportunities to engage and provide input and identify how everyone can benefit from a carbon neutral Fort Collins. Ms. Ex noted a quote from the OCF Existing Conditions Assessment: “By putting racial equity at the center of our planning process, this work recognizes racial inequity is the most pervasive type of inequity in our country. This aligns with organization-wide efforts to ensure equity for all, leading with race.” Staff is moving into the strategic planning phase of the OCF and wrapping up the initial community engagement phase. The engagement has included working to identify the historically underrepresented groups in Fort Collins. Traditionally these groups are communities of color, people under the age of 29, people experiencing homelessness, people making less than $25,000 annually, small business owners, LGBTQIA+ community, and people experiencing disabilities. Staff has prioritized engaging those parts of our community in this process. Engagement approaches included community partners and plan ambassadors (140 responses) community conversations (214 responses), pop-up events (245 responses), and online engagement (9 responses, but 2,000 people reached). During phase one, the goal was to engagement more inclusively and actively listen until repeating themes begin to emerge. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ENERGY BOARD MEETING | 02/13/2020 Mr. Morgan highlighted some of the engagement data found; he noted that in general OCF heard from racial identities at a percentage that was close to Fort Collins’ overall demographics. Mr. Morgan said the big takeaway is at a minimum staff wants the engagement to mirror the demographics of the City very closely. The median age in Fort Collins is 29, and 40% of engagement responses were 29 years or younger. This was a large improvement over previous plan engagement. The OCF Community Priorities include plans and goals for more reuse, recycling, and composting, healthy air quality, more renewable energy, etc.; staff collected feedback they heard from the community regarding what they see as barriers to achieve the goals. These barriers included racism, inequity, and access, enough funding and infrastructure, people already struggle to afford living here, population overcrowding, etc. The juxtaposition of these items creates the Core Principles for developing and screening the OCF strategies. Core Principles of the OCF are phrased as a set of questions, how might a strategy: How might a strategy: be designed for equity, diversity and access? Improve cost of living and of doing business? Promote system level solutions? Support the health and safety of people and ecosystems? Help prepare us to be resilient? Increase awareness and remove barriers to action? Enable us to work together and clarify responsibilities? The core principles are a way to frame the discussions in advance of the discussions and support the definition of future accountability metrics. Board members participated in an exercise, rating OCF statements falling under 3 categories: Community Priorities, Core Principles, Barriers. For each statement they gave one of three ratings: yes, yes but reword, or no. After they completed the exercise using stickers, the Board held a brief discussion to provide staff context on their assigned ratings. Mr. Phelan highlighted the OCF Plans next steps and timelines and reminded the Board there are regular check ins scheduled on their planning calendar. Chairperson Shores asked how the City is coordinating with the County. Ms. Ex said the County is having a lot of early stage discussions regarding resilience and mitigation, particularly with their Environmental and Science Advisory Board. Fort Collins is one of 33 communities that are part of Colorado Communities for Climate Action, and one of 11 cities nationwide that are developing a climate action framework that could be applied to any community. Mr. Phelan added the other regional efforts with Platte River, like the Integrated Resource Plan, which will help with surrounding community coordination. Board member Becker asked for clarification if the Climate Action Plan is OCF. Ms. Ex said OCF is the name of the planning process while they are deciding how many plans (Climate Action, Energy Policy, Road to Zero Waste) should fall under that masthead, so there is not a formal answer for that at this time. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Board member Becker asked about the Craig Station Units and Tri-State Generation. Mr. Phelan said Tri- State is the operator of Craig Station, which has five partner owners, including Platte River. Tri-State recently announced a plan to close all its coal-generated power plants by 2030. Ms. Fugate added that conversation is still ongoing amongst the ownership partners. She also reminded the Board that Platte River is going through the IRP process right now, and additional community meetings are planned for March. Chairperson Shores said there is very little scientific literature about Metro Districts, so there isn’t much ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ENERGY BOARD MEETING | 02/13/2020 guidance available as a resource. Mr. Phelan asked the Board who may be interested in attending the 21st Century Energy Transition Symposium. FUTURE AGENDA REVIEW The Board may elect to reschedule the March 12 meeting to accommodate the Platte River IRP Community Focus Group meeting if Board members are interested in attending. ADJOURNMENT The Energy Board adjourned at 8:15 pm.