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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 05/12/2022 ENERGY BOARD May 12, 2022 – 5:30 pm 222 Laporte Ave – Colorado Room ROLL CALL Board Members Present: Alan Braslau, Steve Tenbrink, Dan Gould, Sidra Aghabibian, Marge Moore (remote), Emilio Ramirez (remote) Board Members Absent: John Fassler, Bill Becker, Jeremy Giovando OTHERS PRESENT Staff Members Present: Christie Fredrickson, Adam Bromley, John Phelan, Kendall Minor, Rhonda Gatzke, Cyril Vidergar (remote), Leland Keller (remote) Members of the Public: Joe Huyett (remote), Eric Sutherland (remote), Tom Loran MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairperson Tenbrink called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. ANNOUNCEMENTS & AGENDA CHANGES None. PUBLIC COMMENT Mr. Sutherland expressed a few concerns about the functioning of Utility Services at the moment. He said he lobbied for a citizen advisory board to provide policy guidance to Council on the management operations of Connexion Broadband services. He believes the management of Connexion is a large public policy failure and he is frustrated there is nothing the citizens can do to protect their financial interests. He is also concerned that some City Councilmembers do not seem to be aware that Utilities has other advisory boards (Energy Board & Water Commission). He hopes the Energy Board will do more to advise City Council to communicate and protect the concerns of the City’s residents. APPROVAL OF MINUTES In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email for the April 14, 2022, minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. STAFF REPORTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S UPDATE Kendall Minor, Utilities Executive Director Mr. Minor updated the Board about current projects and hirings happening in the Utility. The first cycle in Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) is complete. There are also several updates coming down the pipeline, including the hiring of a new Light & Power Director; that position is posted and should be closing in mid-May. Jason Graham is also the Utility’s new Water Director; he will oversee all water- related activities and projects. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Board member Braslau said there is often confusion about the role of the Energy Board, which is to advise City Council on energy policy, and they are not exclusive to the Electric Utility. One of the Board’s concerns is the transformation and movement toward electrification. He wondered what Mr. Minor’s vision is for the Board as they advise Council. Mr. Minor said Operations and Maintenance (O&M) is a key focus to help keep up with reliability. Look at capacity factors and hot spot issues within the system and educate Council about the importance. Mr. Minor added that there will need to be a balance between rates & equity without any extremes over long periods of time either. Board member Ramirez asked what is the Board’s role is in the process of informing Council. Mr. Minor said from an O&M perspective, understanding what the Utility needs to replace and what the impact is to the customer can be useful in when the Board chooses to advocate for a project or initiative. Board member Gould wondered given the priority of reliability, in the longer term how will utility-scale wind and solar (versus rooftop) play out in cost and installation. Mr. Minor said right now the Utility relies on Platte River for much of that, but in the future, we can revisit if it is viable for the City to have more solar or wind projects. Board member Aghababian how are staff is working to keep the electric system safe from fire (given the wind and climate conditions currently). Mr. Minor said the majority of the system is underground, so it is protected. Mr. Bromley said there is a small amount of system that is still overhead, but it is proactively and regularly inspected, and appropriate mitigation strategies are in place (such as animal protection and vegetation management). Chairperson Tenbrink said California is working toward new legislation that homes built after 2026 can not be supplied with fossil fuels for energy. If similar legislation arrives in Colorado, the demand on energy will be much higher. Mr. Phelan said the impact of legislation like that is highly dependent on the climate zone and what resources are available—California has the capacity to implement those kinds of strategies. It is harder in the Northwest due to winter peaking loads, and Mr. Phelan said it is important to consider a regional perspective. The City hopes to implement zero carbon buildings in code by 2030. Chairperson Tenbrink also wondered if the Board’s limitations and rules would prevent them from participating in the hiring process of the Light and Power Deputy Director, staff agreed the Board should be able to participate. Chairperson Tenbrink asked if there is anything Mr. Minor would like to see the Board do or work on. Mr. Minor said he is excited that the Utility has an Energy Board to begin with, he values the space to bounce ideas and get new perspectives and appreciates the effort and time of all the volunteers. Board member Braslau wondered how Mr. Minor views the issue with the Utility Billing System project. Mr. Minor said staff needs a roadmap with more IT support than last time; it’s not practical to worry about everything that has happened in the past and it is time to move forward, staff and the Utility are already heading down the right path and working through many of the details. Mr. Phelan added that anecdotally from a staff perspective, the project already feels so much better. Board member Moore mentioned the Net Zero Cities BizWest conference and the LA100 study. She wondered what would it take for us to do a similar study, and if would it be worthwhile? Is there value in a local or regional study? Mr. Phelan said he can’t speak to if the City would want to replicate the study exactly; however, many of the components are already being done as part of the Our Climate Future plan. He noted that he feels like the level of planning and collaboration with PRPA is at a different level than it ever has been before. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Board member Gould asked what should the Utility be doing, other than maintaining reliability, to achieve a clean electricity goal (locally) Mr. Minor staff is already working on a lot of these things, but it’s important to keep the focus on strategy on DERs (distributed energy resources) so that we can implement as soon as its time. He also noted we need to evaluate what that will look like from a rate perspective. It’s going to be important to evaluate as many things in tandem so we can be prepared, like constraints and capacity, and not only O&M (though that is critical). Mr. Bromley added that projects such as Advanced Distribution Management System were part of a key foundation for this future. These types of technologies and projects will set the Utility up to not have to make as many investments in things like capacity, and hopefully help the Utility stay up to date as things are evolving. LIGHT & POWER OPERATIONAL UPDATE Adam Bromley, Interim Deputy Director, Utilities Light & Power Mr. Bromley explained previous operational updates to the Board had been based off the Utility’s quarterly Strategy Map updates, but ELT (Executive Lead Team) did not request those updates this quarter due to all the budget work staff has been working on. That said, many of those project updates are included in tonight’s update. The Utilities Service Center (USC) has a backup generator from the 1960s, which serves the Operations Center and Emergency Operations Center, among other critical necessities, in an outage. Last year’s budget included funding to replace that generator. Staff recently started working with Operation Services to get ready for project. The Overland Substation, which is no longer a substation, is becoming a disaster recovery site for the Utility’s operations center. An RFP was recently released to select a design firm. Mr. Bromley said staff is getting very close to be able to begin construction on the Training Field project, some pieces of the project are in design some are in procurement. The Training Field is a joint space to be shared with Poudre Fire Authority. Some of the Utility crew members recently attended hot line school and came back asking for more training in overhead operations—this Training Field will support that development. The LED streetlight conversion project, which is an attrition based, crossed the 50% threshold of replacements. Staff remains on budget with this program. The transformer off cycle appropriation request was supported and put on City Council’s consent agenda for next week May 17. The Meter Data Management System appropriation request is on a temporary hold, as a vendor came forward and said they could do the upgrade. Staff is pivoting to issue an RFP for services to complete the product upgrade. The AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) equipment & tech upgrade project is in the process of replacing all the data collectors. Staff recently completed the first successful installation where it has been connected to Connexion fiber and will continue to transition all to a fiber connection (as opposed to wireless). This project will help with reliability concerns. Staff was waiting for a new switch for the 2021 Drake/Dixon tie circuit, which is now on site. It will be connected to the SCADA network so it can be controlled from operations center. Board member Gould wondered if the AMI installations are following the Connexion fiber installations. Mr. Bromley explained staff is starting in locations where there is already fiber, Connexion will reach build out ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING before staff is ready for those locations. There is no specific location needed to begin. Mr. Bromley showed photos of the Utility’s cable testing diagnostic van. The van provides the ability for staff to run partial discharge tests, which tests cable for potential failure. There are currently five priority areas on the schedule to be replaced this year. Staff will use the test equipment to verify how close our data analysis in identifying the priority locations. Staff training with the equipment is scheduled for next week. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Board member Moore had lunch with former Board member Sue McFaddin and Senior Energy Services Engineer Rhonda Gatzke. They discussed businesses using solar, and when evaluated county by county they found personal property taxes were a barrier to installing arrays in Larimer County. They are hopeful the state will pass legislation waving those taxes on solar arrays. FUTURE AGENDA REVIEW Mr. Phelan will discuss Platte River’s revised 2022 resource plan at the June meeting, this item could also be a packet item. He will also bring a presentation about the solar 120% rule in advance of the Council work session on June 28. Mr. Bromley said the planned BFO update will remain tentative as it is dependent if staff has received feedback from budget results teams yet. ADJOURNMENT The Energy Board adjourned at 6:48 pm.