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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 04/13/2017Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 1 Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 Fort Collins Utilities Energy Board Minutes Thursday, April 13, 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, Vice Chairperson Nick Michell, Stacey Baumgarn, Alan Braslau, Bill Becker, Greg Behm Late Arrivals: None Board Absent: Phil Friedman, Marge Moore Others Present Staff: Travis Paige, Honore Depew, Jason Graham, John Phelan; Tim McCollough, Christie Fredrickson PRPA: Paul Davis, Adam Perry Members of the Public: None Meeting Convened Chairperson Pete O’Neill called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Announcements and Agenda Changes None Public Comment None Approval of March 9, 2017 Board Meeting Minutes Amendments to the March 9, 2017 minutes were made by the Board Members and the minutes were accepted as amended. Staff Reports (attachments available upon request) Customer Satisfaction Survey Travis Paige, Community Engagement Manager The purpose of the Customer Satisfaction Survey is to document customer satisfaction with services provided in Electric, Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater. The full survey is conducted biannually, but beginning in 2016 the Utility rolled out a truncated version to begin a yearly approach. The survey helps the Utility understand attitudes and perceptions for the services provided to both residential and commercial accounts, which are tracked separately. The Utility collects the survey data via telephone calls by asking the customer to rank various items on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is low and 5 is high. In the 2016 survey, there were 600 residential customer survey responses and 200 small/medium commercial customer survey responses. Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 2 Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 In 2016, residential customers said their overall satisfaction with Fort Collins Utilities was a score of 4 or 5, 44% and 42% respectively, or 86% overall satisfaction. Residential customers also gave high ratings to “reliability of services” (93%), “quality of electric and water service” (90%), “accuracy of bills” (87%), and “convenience of bill payment options” (84%), among several others. These customers gave lower rankings to “controlling costs to keep rates as low as possible” (42%), “opportunities to participate in conservation programs” (42%), “contributions to the community” 45%, and others. Commercial customers gave similar ratings in overall satisfaction (~84%). Commercial customers high and low ranked metrics were also very similar to residential customers, but generally commercial customers tended to rate survey questions with overall higher marks. Board member Baumgarn asked why the Utility decided to conduct the survey via phone, and Mr. Paige explained the survey has been administered a few different ways in the past, but they’ve gotten the best response collection via telephone calls, especially with commercial customers. He said they would probably be safe to add an electronic version with residential customers. Chairperson O’Neill commented that many surveys are just too long, and that can tend to wear out people and they may not give the most honest responses. Mr. Paige said the survey conductors do try to break up the conversation at times to keep respondents engaged. Solar Application Processing John Phelan, Energy Services Manager Mr. Phelan presented a flow chart graphic summarizing the solar rebate process and timeline, which includes the application, field inspection and finally the rebate processing. Board members commented that they found Mr. Phelan’s graphic helpful and suggested adding it to the City’s solar website page. Board member Baumgarn asked if there was any way to streamline the process, and Mr. Phelan said it’s difficult to imagine the permitting process and the Utility’s process becoming one. Efficiency Portfolio Evaluation John Phelan, Energy Services Manager Mr. Phelan advised a team was selected through an RFP (Request for Proposal) process. The team is led by Research into Action, and they have two subcontractors, Apex Analytics and Mesa Point Energy. Staff received a scope of work recently, and hopes to sign a contract very soon. It’s expected to be completed by October. There are two components to the programs, an impact evaluation (meant to verify the savings at the measure, portfolio and program levels), and process evaluation (meant to assess if the programs are meeting their objectives and market needs). The program scope includes the following programs: appliance rebates and recycling, home energy reports, efficiency works homes, efficiency works business, and retail lighting. Platte River will sign a concurrent contract, so there will be samples from all four cities, including Fort Collins. Chairperson O’Neill asked why the evaluation is necessary. Mr. Phelan explained the City has wanted to do the evaluation for many years, and now that the Utility’s (and Platte River’s) investment in these programs has grown, it’s valuable to get a third party’s perspective. Many Utilities do evaluations because they’re required to, but the City of Fort Collins recognizes there’s not only a need to show the customers the quality of the work that’s being completed, but they also want to get better at it. Community Organics Recycling Project Honore Depew, Environmental Planner Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 3 Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 (attachments available upon request) Council adopted a waste reduction plan in 2013, known as the Road to Zero Waste. By 2030, the City hopes to be a zero-waste community. Goals of the Zero Waste vision include 90% waste diversion by 2025 and 75% waste diversion by 2020; as of 2016 the City is measured at 51% waste diversion. The 2016 composition of Fort Collins’ Landfill waste shows that over half of garbage in the landfill could be composted or diverted into some other organics recycling (true for residential and commercial customers), and approximately 30% of the waste is could be traditionally recycled. Mr. Depew noted that within the residential compostable waste, approximately 23% of that waste is food scraps. Additionally, the landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2025. Managing organic recycling through the Road to Zero Waste is crucial to meeting the City’s 2020 Climate Action Plan goals. In September 2016, City Council approved updated rules for trash and recycling collections. The update mandates grocery stores to divert all food scraps from landfill disposal by the end of 2017; by 2020 there will be expanded recycling options and service to multi-family and commercial customers. Staff included organics collection and management for residents and restaurants in their initial presentation to City Council, but Council did not see the feasibility at that time and asked staff to return within a year with more options and in-depth analysis. Some services considered for the Community Organics Recycling Project (CORP) include curbside collection of food scraps and yard trimmings (for single family homes only), as well as restaurant collection of food scraps. Staff is analyzing the financial impacts, climate impacts, and waste sorts at restaurants. Staff is considering a few decision points, such as if the program be mandatory or voluntary; should residential disposal include yard trimmings only, or also include food scraps; and where should the end destination be for materials collected. Staff’s analysis includes input from other Colorado communities as well as private sector haulers that serve Fort Collins. The estimated residential capture rate of diverted waste could be up to 16,000 tons a year, depending on the type of capture (i.e., mandatory yard and food vs. voluntary yard and food), but the potential monthly cost does not vary drastically regardless of the collection scenario. Annual greenhouse gas reductions were between 1,000-12,000 CO2e tons, depending on the collection scenario. Board member Becker asked what the difference is between letting the waste decompose in a landfill as opposed to a composting scenario. Mr. Depew clarified in a landfill methane is released due to the anaerobic conditions—the waste breaking down without oxygen. Conversely, composting is aerobic (with oxygen), so there is no release of methane as the waste breaks down. Board member Behm asked if there were no changes to the rate of diversion and the landfill is at capacity by 2025, what will the cost expectation be for customers? He believes that no matter what, an additional cost is coming, whether that’s for composting or hauling garbage. Mr. Depew briefly explained the Regional Waste planning process, which addresses what might happen post-landfill-closure. There will definitely be increased costs for disposal, so how does the community at large want to redistribute those costs and address that issue. Anaerobic digestion produces biogas, which is combusted to generate electricity and/or heat. The Drake Water Reclamation Facility (DWRF) currently has the capacity to anaerobically digest some of the organic material that comes through the sewer to produce biogas and heat the facility, but by the end of 2017, DWRF will also have co-generation capability to create electricity onsite. This option is currently being considered for restaurants or other commercial facilities, but a receiving or preprocessing station (on or offsite) would be required. Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 4 Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 Mr. Depew reviewed some of the Lifecycle Assessment Research and how it pertains to routing food waste to DWRF. One possible residential scenario is using a garbage disposal to transfer food waste to the wastewater treatment plant via the sewer; this equates to approximately a 74% reduction in GHG from landfilling baseline. Mr. Graham noted that there would need to be a lot of public outreach to make this an effective strategy, including what food waste can go down the disposal as well as the currency and effectiveness of the disposal. A commercial scenario is truck hauling, and onsite pretreatment at a new receiving and processing station; this equates to approximately 98% reduction in GHG from landfilling baseline. The Food Waste Reduction Education campaign is expected to roll out in the fall of 2017. It will be focused on residents and providing them tools, a website and infographics. Vice Chairperson Michell asked how sensitive staff’s analysis is to contamination. Mr. Depew said in general, the contamination rate is much lower (in comparison to other communities) and they hope to continue to see low contamination rates. The numbers do reflect an expectation for a certain amount of reject materials, regardless of the processing facility (between 1-5% to landfilling). Platte River Efficiency Programs Update Adam Perry, Customer Services Supervisor, Platte River Power Authority Paul Davis, Customer Services Manager, Platte River Power Authority (attachments available upon request) Energy Efficiency (EE) programs have matured and continued to grow since they were started in 2002, and it is appropriate to have a policy that governs how funding levels and goals are set, and how programs are evaluated. The policy is to make prudent investments in EE programs and direct GMs/CEOs to direct staff to develop and maintain EE guidelines, which are stated in the Demand Side Management-Energy Efficiency Funding Reference Document. The EE Funding Reference Document establishes a portfolio- level goal and budget, as well as how to choose programs to meet that goal and other goals. Currently, the scope of the policy is limited to EE programs; a different policy for Distributed Energy Resources will be developed as these programs grow. Mr. Perry discussed the EE programs that Platte River offers. Common programs across all four municipalities are: Efficiency works for home and efficiency works for business. EE participation is trending up in commercial rebates, Efficiency Works home audits and Commercial & Industrial assessments. Mr. Perry noted the EE lighting and products has many different products and has seen some varying success over the years as lighting technology changes. PRPA decides EE programs by using the goals in the EE Policy and the EE Savings Potential Study, such as savings and rebates per commercial project, as well as the goals of the program participation, like increasing customer and contractor participation. In the future, EE savings potentials increase in both residential and C&I customers (23% and 77%, respectively). The study identified several end-use technologies that will contribute to the savings targets, such as plug loads, refrigerator replacement/recycling, and cooling. Board members inquired about some of the different programs, such as refrigerator replacement and recycling—will the retailer deliver the new fridge, remove the old one and will rebate be taken at the point of the retailer? This process would ensure that the customer sees the ease of the swap and ultimately didn’t keep the old fridge and plug it in in their garage. Mr. Perry advised that most retailers will take the old appliance away upon delivery. Other current pilot programs include a shift model for plug loads, a midstream update (commercial HVAC) and income qualified (all sector). Platte River is still working on new commercial rebates, EE technologies and delivery models, strategic energy management for commercial customers, datacenters, an Efficiency Works Marketing plan, and a third party evaluation. Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 5 Energy Board Minutes April 13, 2017 In this market, washing machines under $500.00 account for nearly half of all washer sales, but only 14% of incentives. Mr. Perry explained the Shift Model Pilot looks at the sales by store, and looks at the bestselling model and the most efficient model, and then the Utility makes up the price difference. The program begins April 20th at Sears and hopefully it will expand to more retailers; it will run for 3 months and expand throughout the year. Vice Chairperson Michell commented that many efficient washing machines are more effective at spinning the water out of clothes, so now drying time has also decreased which is also contributing to the energy savings. Mr. Michell would like to see a more holistic measure of that overall savings. He also hopes to see PRPA to come back with the results after the pilot study concludes. The Midstream Cooling program increases savings three times at one third of the cost and distributors are stocking high efficiency equipment which is influencing purchasing decisions. The Income Qualified Home Efficiency Pilot leverages partnership funding with Energy Outreach Colorado and Xcel Energy for 1.5 times more funding than Platte River. Board Member Reports Board member Braslau asked Chairperson O’Neill about the possibility of forming a subcommittee that would work specifically on discussing the political direction that members of Council are seeking in a future Time of Use rate structure. The subcommittee might help Staff better answer to the expectations of Council and citizens of Fort Collins. Mr. McCollough advised forming a subcommittee is possible and the Board could discuss it at a future meeting. Chairperson O’Neill commented that they are unsure how best to communicate with City Council ahead of a Council Work Session, and Mr. McCollough explained when the Board sends a letter to their Council Liaison, the memo is distributed to the whole Council in the next Council packet. Board member Braslau also reminded the Board of CSU’s commitment towards a 100% renewable electricity generation by 2030, and informed the others that a student-led movement is underway to try to get the City of Fort Collins (as well as the three other PRPA partner cities) to make a similar commitment. Chairperson O’Neill mentioned that Board Member Friedman’s schedule consistently conflicts with the Board’s regular meetings. The Board discussed possible options to accommodate him because they value his input. Mr. McCollough said it would be very difficult to change the monthly meeting dates at this point in the year due to conference room availability, but it is something Staff can look into. Future Agenda Review The Board reviewed the Agenda Planning calendar and combined the Platte River and Fort Collins Utilities Solar Programs Update at the May 11 meeting. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m. Approved by the Energy Board on May 11, 2017 ________________________________ ______________ Board Secretary, Christie Fredrickson Date 5/15/2017