Environmental Sustainability Council

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE Thursday, November 7, 2019 City Hall Dogwood Room MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members: Tim Stevens (Chair), Thomas Cash, Jon Ward, Chris Thompson, Kate Walker (staff liaison), Dan Sze (City Council liaison) Guest Speaker: Ben Anderson (Sr. Dir. Mid‐Atlantic, TPIefficiency), Chase Counts Community Housing Partners) 1) Ben Anderson, TPIefficiency TPI is a competitive provider of energy services, including renewable energy (RE). TPI is a broker of RE, which is sourced from wind, solar, hydro, etc. They perform calculations of potential savings (versus services offered by Dominion Energy Virginia – DEV), and explain procedures to potential clients, who tend to be small businesses, such as Italian Café Restaurant. Current VA law allows for the competitive supply of RE until such time as DEV achieves a lawful RE tariff. TPI arranges for RE supply from vendors such as Direct Energy, Excelon, etc. These vendors still utilize DEV’s local grid distribution facilities. They get charged DEV’s transport rate elements, and substitute their own rates for DEV’s generation rate elements to provide a packaged rate to the end customer. Whether the end customer saves money is a function of how much cheaper the RE vendor’s rates are vs. DEV’s generation rate elements. TPI also provides energy efficiency services to the end customer, which may add to their savings. The end customer is not buying RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates), but is credited for certified RE (via Green‐e) which is sent to the PJM grid by the RE vendor who is working with TPI. Therefore the end user can advertise that they use 100% renewable energy. Mr. Anderson explained that TPI could perform an analysis of energy use for the entire City, or for a single building, such as City Hall, to determine if TPI could offer savings versus the rates the City obtains from DEV via an agreement referred to as VEPGA. 2) Chase Counts, Community Housing Partners Mr. Counts described the energy efficiency services CHP provides for low income residential units. They implement weatherization assistance programs funded by the DOE and some utility companies, including DEV and Washington Gas. They have previously worked on both multi‐family and single‐family properties in Falls Church, and are about to begin work on The Fields, a rent‐subsidized multifamily building in the City. VA law currently limits the scope of energy efficiency services offered by CHP. It is likely that very few residents of Falls Church fall below the income threshold for federally‐funded programs, which are based on statewide median income. However, the City has done targeted outreach to residents who applied for property tax relief by including a flyer in their property tax‐related mailing. 3) Legislative Recommendations Possible recommendations for the City’s legislative agenda were discussed. Tim will draft a letter and circulate for comment. Adjournment