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HomeMy WebLinkAboutENERGY BOARD - MINUTES - 11/09/2023 ENERGY BOARD November 9, 2023 – 5:30 pm 222 Laporte Ave – Colorado Room ROLL CALL Board Members Present: Bill Althouse, Thomas Loran, Marge Moore, Alan Braslau, Jeremy Giovando, Bill Becker, Stephen Tenbrink Board Members Absent: Vanessa Paul, Brian Smith OTHERS PRESENT Staff Members Present: Christie Fredrickson, Phillip Amaya, Kendall Minor, Cyril Vidergar, John Phelan, Members of the Public: Sonia Koetting MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chairperson Tenbrink called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. ANNOUNCEMENTS & AGENDA CHANGES None. PUBLIC COMMENT None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email for the October 12, 2023, minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. STAFF REPORTS Mr. Phelan advised of an ongoing issue at the Riverside Community Solar Garden, the project has been down since August due to an issue with the inverter. Staff has been communicating the issues with participating customers, as well as working with Schneider Electric to try and identify and remedy the problem. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S UPDATE Kendall Minor, Utilities Executive Director Mr. Minor gave an update on the Customer Information System; he reminded the Board that the City has been involved in lawsuit with the previous CIS vendor, Open International. The judge presiding over the case recently ruled in favor of the City, and there will be a hearing to determine the judgment. Open International said they plan to appeal, so the case will be ongoing. Mr. Minor thanked and congratulated Mr. Amaya on his one-year anniversary with the City and spend some time thanking Mr. Phelan for his many years of service ahead of his retirement next month. Light & Power’s Safety Supervisor position remains unfilled, but the posting is still open while staff ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING continue to search for the right candidate. Financially, Mr. Minor said things are going well overall, though there has been some overuse of the Operations & Maintenance fund. He explained that there has not been as much growth as anticipated due to higher interest rates, slower development and construction; but the community has also had a mild year in weather so purchased power costs are also down. The bond issuance for Light & Power and Connexion was also recently completed. Mr. Amaya and Light & Power staff have been working very hard on the Capital Improvement Plan, which is a robust 10-year plan. Board member Becker wondered if staff or Council has received much feedback on the rate increase that was recently passed. Mr. Minor said he has not heard much feedback; he said the monthly rate increase amounts to $4-5.00 a month and the Utility remains one of the lowest rates in the state. The Meter Data Management System upgrade has been going well, though it is slightly delayed (just a few weeks) until shortly after the new year. The vendor needed some extra time to work with the integration of some of the Utility’s databases. There have been some challenges with electric and water meters this year due to supply chain issues with Honeywell (the meter vendor). This has caused a lot of manual meter reads until the malfunctioning or older meters can be replaced. Board members discussed Platte River’s entry into a regional market as well as their Integrated Resources Plan and how it will interact with the Utility’s Distributed Energy Resources Management System. Staff advised that in many of the Board’s discussion points, the technology might exist, but the cost or the existing infrastructure may be prohibitive. Mr. Minor said while the Utility does have a robust roadmap to reach many of these milestones, he is always open to hearing new ideas and talking through things that work for other communities, but the ratepayers will always come first. Board member Braslau said the Energy Board to push for new ideas and innovation even if the City is a small player in the bigger picture. Mr. Minor agreed and thanked the Board. Board member Moore asked if staff has seen much about vertical-axis wind turbines, which are potentially a good alternative to more traditional horizontal-axis turbines. DISCUSSION TO IDENTIFY QUESTIONS FOR PLATTE RIVER Board member Braslau feels that Platte River is investing in a natural gas turbine to satisfy a regional market requirement to have 20% excess peak hourly capacity. He wondered if the gas line would be running all the time to sell into the market. Mr. Phelan said Mr. Braslau’s resource planning assumptions are correct; from that perspective nothing has changed. The combustion turbine will be an aero-derivative combustion turbine, which is a gas- or hydrogen-fueled jet-type engine that starts up and stops fast, allowing it to be quickly accessed when solar and wind sources aren't producing enough. Mr. Phelan added the existing combustion turbines are reliability peak assets and they hardly ever run, but the communities pay their share for them whether they run or not. Mr. Braslau said his concern is that the IRP modeling is based on the financial model of what makes the power less expensive for ratepayers is that will be selling generation; he would like to know what the alternatives are, like investing in more wind, solar, etc. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Board member said more importantly it comes down to what the market is going to buy, not so much what is going to be generated. Mr. Loran would like Platte River to confirm that a renewable resource is always going to be less expensive than a carbon-based resource, so in theory in a market environment, that should keep Platte River from generating and selling a non-carbon resource. Mr. Phelan said Platte River is in a tough spot because they don’t have all the market moves, and they can’t take their resource planning model and use it for a different purpose, such as operations. He doesn’t know if there is something better out there and would like to ask what tools can be brought to the table to see how this might run in the future. Board member Becker would like additional clarification on the market capacity requirements; markets are built to separate generation from consumption, and it seems to him that those two cannot go together. Board member Loran agreed, he provided a list of questions to the Board he hopes Platte River may be able to answer, and explaining resource adequacy was one of them. City staff agreed that would be a great question for Platte River to work through with staff and the Board. Board members discussed the questions Mr. Loran had provided and will refine the details before the Platte River is able to attend a future Board meeting. APPROVE 2024 WORK PLAN Board member Braslau moved to approve the 2024 Energy Board Work Plan with proposed edits. Board Moore seconded the motion. Discussion: None It passed unanimously, 7-0, with two absent. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Board member Braslau said the Historic Preservation Commission is also working on their work plan, and he noticed one of their goals is to work on the energy impact of historic buildings. Board member Althouse has been monitoring the Economic Advisory Board, who has been discussing the idea of a circular economy. He used the example of local resources, if Platte River utilizes more local resources from prosumers (as opposed to natural gas, for example), that money goes into the pockets of local consumers, and then it can be circulated back into the economy. Chairperson Tenbrink said he is helping lead a project at his church, which recently installed 100KW solar system, and they are working to convert all their natural gas to heat pumps. He will report back to the board as the project progresses. FUTURE AGENDA REVIEW Staff will invite Platte River to the December meeting. If they are unable to attend the Board would like to defer the discussion to a later date so that they can have a thorough question and answer session with Platte River staff. The Board will also hear a brief follow up presentation about PURPA Section 111 “Shall Consider” Standards for the 2021 IIJA’s demand flexibility and electric vehicles. ENERGY BOARD REGULAR MEETING ADJOURNMENT The Energy Board adjourned at 7:47 pm.