Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 08/13/2020 ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING August 13, 2020 – 5:30 pm Remote – Zoom Meeting | ROLL CALL Board Members Present: Amanda Shores, Jeremy Giovando, Bill Becker, Dan Gould, Alan Braslau, John Fassler, Marge Moore, Sue McFaddin, Steve Tenbrink Board Members Absent: OTHERS PRESENT Staff Members Present: John Phelan, Christie Fredrickson, Cyril Vidergar, Tim McCollough, Leland Keller, Brad Smith, Theresa Connor, Rhonda Gatzke Platte River Power Authority: Andy Butcher, Paul Davis, Alyssa Clemsen Roberts Members of the Public: Rick Coen, Gordon MacAlpine, Nick Michell MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairperson Shores called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm PUBLIC COMMENT None APPROVAL OF MINUTES In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email for the July 9, 2020 minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. ANNOUNCEMENTS & AGENDA CHANGES None STAFF REPORTS Packet Item Only: Connexion Q2 Update Board members wondered if anyone could speak to the financials on Connexion’s quarterly report. Mr. Phelan and Mr. McCollough said they are not able to speak on behalf of the Broadband team but will take the Board’s questions and concerns back to their staff for consideration. Board members Braslau and Becker wondered what the Board’s purview is within Connexion since it is not considered energy, but there is financial interest due to Light & Power’s bonds. Mr. McCollough said the Board’s purview has not changed with the launch of Connexion. Mr. Phelan reminded the Board they can always reach out to their Council Liaison to express concerns for this matter and others. LEAP Partnership John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager LEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program) funds can only be used for Electric service support, but the way the billing system is currently set up, any bill credits are applied equally across all ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING | services (water, electric, broadband). LEAP requires compliance on this item to maintain the partnership with the City, so Council is urgently looking at approving changes to the billing system so that bill credits are only applied to electric services. Reimagining Boards & Commissions John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager Mr. Phelan explained that the Reimagining Boards & Commissions project has been delayed due to the pandemic. Board member Braslau hopes Council will consider extending the interim appointments of all temporary Board and Commission members (on the Energy Board those are members Tenbrink, Moore, and McFaddin). DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES STRATEGIC PLANNING John Phelan, Energy Services Senior Manager Tim McCollough, Deputy Director, Utilities Light & Power The DER (Distributed Energy Resources) Strategic Planning project is a collaboration with all four member cities and Platte River Power Authority. The DER Project Steering Committee is composed two members from each city and Platte River, to include a wide range of members, such as high level officers and managers who are focused on strategy, planning, operations, rates and finance, as well as customer and energy services. The committee went through a selection process to choose a consultant, and ultimately chose Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). Mr. Phelan highlighted that the committee is not using this program to develop specific DER programs, but rather the vision and principles of DER, as well as a DER framework and model. Mr. McCollough added that the individual communities have all been doing their own DER activities, such as pilot and partner programs. Over the last few years, the owner communities and Platte River have effected changes to their individual policies and goals, many of which are aligned. This alignment of the communities and the industry culminated in the formation of the DER Strategic Planning project. DERs are physical or virtual devices or systems that can be deployed on the electric distribution system or on customer premises that can be used to provide value to all customers through electric system optimization and/or individual customer benefits. With this definition in mind, SEPA and the Steering Committee have been workshopping several ideas and activities, such as developing the vision and guiding principles, having early framework discussions, and engagement planning. The committee is structuring a lot of their vision and questions around three pillars: Planning, Operations, and Customer Programs. Platte River created a microsite, https://www.prpa.org/der/, which links to the project strategy, resource examples, and FAQs. Fort Collins is also planning a landing page, but it is still pending as of today. Staff has a targeted engagement period planned to begin in mid- to late-September. Board member Tenbrink wondered if this effort includes any energy resources that are outside the purview of Platte River. Mr. Phelan said no, at this time the committee is looking at the project under the scope of system and geography, resources or assets, and tools that are installed on our distribution system, residentially or commercially. Resources beyond that would fall under Platte River’s purview through integrated resource planning. Board member Becker said he is excited about this project and this is always how he hoped the City would be able to interact with Platte River as a utility. He added the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project did a lot of similar work; they had a lot of interesting learnings from their work ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING | which might contribute some useful data points. Mr. McCollough said there is interest from each of the communities to participate in this project, with different levels of experience, maturity, and assets. Ms. Clemsen Roberts added everyone is committed and working together, and though they don’t always agree, their differences make them a stronger community. BATTERY STORAGE PILOT Leland Keller, Energy Services Engineer The Battery Storage Pilot, designed to demonstrate installation, monitoring, and control of commercial batteries, was funded with $100,000 in 2020. The funding will support incentives for residential customers to install batteries, as well as expansion to demonstrate a residential battery. Mr. Keller also hopes that will expand work with ITRON to launch their IntelliSource platform, which will give the battery program greater integration into the same platform that controls the demand response assets. In 2020, staff has completed the commercial battery commissioning (located inside the Utilities Administration Building at 222 Laporte) and launched a residential installation incentive in June. There are still some operational hiccups with the commercial battery after Spirae relocated their headquarters, and staff is still working to establish a connection to Spirae’s Wave Control Platform to restart the battery operations. As of last week, there are 38 different battery systems installed in Fort Collins, all of which are customer owned except the battery inside the UAB. Mr. Keller explained the Battery System in the UAB is set to limit morning warm up peak, which is typical in winter, and then recharge from solar and/or off-peak to reduce building load for the anticipated winter system peak in the evening hours. Midday charging increases building load, but with solar charging, that apparent ‘peak’ is only 20 kW, the same as a night-time baseload. He noted that staff is only weeks into the testing and there are still errors happening. Staff is targeting 30 new project starts in 2020, and so far, four projects (of 11) since June are utilizing the customer incentive. Mr. Keller said battery customers are better for the grid operation, in that they require less energy during on peak, and they return more energy to the grid during on peak, which helps collectively reduce on peak loads for wholesale purchase. Staff is still seeking the best site for a residential battery technology demonstration in 2020, and they continue testing at the UAB. Staff is also pursuing a grant for another battery installation at the Northside Aztlan Center. Board member Tenbrink wondered if it is possible to have a tour of the battery system, or if that not possible due to the pandemic. Mr. Keller said in person views are not prohibited, but there is very little to look at. Mr. Phelan agreed, the system is nothing remarkable to look at, but we could schedule a quick tour at the Board’s next in-person meeting (it is located very near the Board’s usual meeting room). A tour of the battery installation was given to the Board in 2019 following its installation. Board member Becker wondered what the total kWh are for the 37 residential batteries, and he wondered if the economic investment would pay off for the customer. Mr. McCollough said including the battery at the UAB (which is approximately 100 kWh), there is 754 kWh of connected distributed battery systems, the total peak output of that is 300 kw, or a little over a two-hour battery. Mr. Keller said that the return on investment depends on the customer’s system and battery selected, as some batteries do not discharge back to the system. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING | NATIONAL & LOCAL ENERGY CODES UPDATE Brad Smith, Energy Code Specialist The Energy Policy has an objective to improve performance of new buildings, which helps keep the City up to date with current codes: “Adopt and enforce current International Energy Conservation Codes (IECC) within one year of issuance, with local amendments, advancing efficiency, indoor environmental quality, installed performance and readiness for building-scale renewable energy and demand response.” Mr. Smith said this has not always been the case, but by 2018 the City was back on track. IECC gains have stagnated recently due to opposition from special interest groups and their desire to roll back progress. A report from the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment stated that the flat gains over the last two code cycles are not enough to help local governments achieved their energy and climate goals. The City’s current code adoption process starts with City staff reviewing the code and amendments once it is released, and then doing community outreach before adopting the code. Mr. Smith said staff has since realized that local governments can play a role in developing code proposals by voting and participating in committee action hearings. This saves time and resources by reducing local amendments. The City of Fort Collins was able to register 30-member voting representatives, but each representative has to be vetted by the International Code Council (in the end, 6 voters in the City were not approved as not directly involved enough). The Council determines this as someone who administers and enforces code regulation and policy. Because of the City’s voting ability, they were able to overturn several code revision proposals that stagnate or walk back energy efficiency. A few opposition groups have since challenged voting and results, and Mr. Smith explained that most of the challenges carried no weight but some of the groups have filed appeals. The City departments who have voting members each sent letters of support for the outcome and the process. Board member Tenbrink wondered the makeup of the opposition groups. Mr. Smith said primarily they are groups representing contractors, such as National Representation of Home Builders, as well as a few law firms (representing unknown at this time) who are participating in the appeals process. Mr. Smith said the last two code cycles combined had less than 6% improvement in energy efficiency, but preliminary estimates on the 2021 code cycle are projecting greater than 10%. The Board generally approved of the City’s active involvement in this process. Board member Fassler commented that window R-Values are consistently lacking in code and encouraged the City to go beyond code to meet at least an R-10 value. Board member McFaddin asked when electrification will be in future iterations of the code. Mr. Smith said that is a work in progress and something City Staff is looking at. Mr. Phelan said staff is looking at a number of planning initiatives around electrification, including policy considerations within the Our Climate Future process. DRAFT 2021 WORK PLAN Board members provided suggestions to Chairperson Shores to include in the final draft of the Board’s work plan. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING | BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Board member Tenbrink said his previous utility in Los Alamos, NM, is contemplating participating with a small nuclear reactor that is deploying in Idaho. He wondered what the Board thought about nuclear generation given that it has no carbon footprint. Mr. Phelan said a resource decision like that would likely be made at the Platte River level or above, in a regional market, not at the City level. Board member Braslau said he is disappointed that Larimer County decided to build a future mental health facility at the county landfill location. The County furthermore will not be seeking LEED certification largely because of the transportation impact needed to access the location. FUTURE AGENDA REVIEW The September 10 meeting is quite full, including approval of the 2021 work plan, budget items, and the Utilities Affordability Programs. Mr. Phelan confirmed that staff from Transportation, Transfort, and FC Moves will be presenting at the October 8 meeting. ADJOURNMENT The Energy Board adjourned at 8:13 pm.