Energy Advisory Committee

Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes September 7th, 2010 Committee: Alan Weiss, Chair and City Council representative, Tim Heney, Barry McPhee, Ken Jones, Edith Pike-Biegunska, Carl Etnier, Karl Bissex, and Bill Neuberger. Staff: Doug Wilhelm, BERC Cindy Wyckoff, BERC, Kamalesh Doshi, BERC, Isaac Lawrence & Taylor Newton, VISTAs, Harold Garabedian, Wanda Minoli, BGS, Mary Hooper, Mayor of Montpelier and Representative to the Vermont House. Others: Dan Jones, resident. 1: Report from the Document Sub-committee and Discussion The sub-committee reports on their discussion of the public information brochure. With the news that the only item up for 11/4 vote being the charter changes, the public information document had to change dramatically to reflect the scaled-back nature of the vote the document intends to inform voters on. The sub-committee recommends that Doug and Cindy come up with an even simpler document than that presented. Doug and Cindy describe their timeline for the document and for getting it to the Bridge as an insert. The Bridge is preferable because it’s available to everyone in Montpelier. The committee, after some discussion, reaches consensus on the following timeline: *Committee gets a draft Wednesday, *Committee members respond by Monday to Harold *Harold will synthesize comments from committee and submit to Doug and Cindy *Doug and Cindy make final changes and pass document to the committee *Committee will meet Tuesday to finalize document. Then, the committee discusses who will take credit for the document. Consensus is reached that the Planning Department will take credit on the brochure. 2. History and Vision of the Project Harold presents on the above topic, takes questions as we go along (contact Harold for his Powerpoint on the history of the project). Harold takes questions: Tim asks whether there is any more detailed information about existing heating systems and hook up potential in privately owned downtown. Harold will send BERC’s study of private buildings to Tim. Alan asks for clarification of the phases of the project. Harold: Phase I: State and Municipal Buildings. Phase II: Spoken in terms of sq. ft. for city and state — the DOE grant speaks to 1.8m sq. ft. Phase I gets to 700k sq. ft. ~ Over time we don’t have to invest in more capacity, we can instead put money in efficiency accommodations. 3. State-municipal relationship Wanda speaks at some length on the history of State-Municipal partnership on the biomass district heating plant and on the timeline for moving forward with the partnership and the project at large. Earlier this year, Gwen came to BGS with the possibility of supporting the grant. BGS signed on with support to assess state property, to provide staff time, and, if Planning was successful, BGS would discuss partnership. Montpelier received the grant — during the legislative session, there was some discussion surrounding the idea that the best course of action was to return to the state site. BGS went to the legislature, and was authorized to sign a letter of intent to continue supporting pursuit of the plant on state property. The letter went out in June to the City Manager and BGS-Planning meetings have been happening since July. The state has not, however, done any major analysis as of yet. What BGS realizes is that this project is moving, and people are engaged, that steps need to be taken. The state has hired a consultant to review the work that has been done on the operation of the facility and the technicalities of the plant. An RFP was sent out and Economic and Policy Resources in Williston won the bid. Four important steps, to be completed in the next three weeks, include: -Design -Organization/Partnership -Legislative Action –Before anything is presented to the Governor for the capital bill, everything needs to be prepped and outlined. -Financial Analysis --The financial analysis is the biggest part right now, and once this is figured out, other questions can be addressed. Right now, Wanda is the project lead. The team, currently, is composed of Tom Sandretta, Teigh Southworth, Debb Baslow, Bob Ray will oversee (regional) when and if all the immediate pieces fall into place and we can start moving on the physical project. Wanda takes questions: Ken asks about whether the State has a capital plan for replacing existing heating systems (lines and boilers) into the future. Wanda responds that the state does not, that it plans to replace as needed, but recognizes that they will be better served by doing a large upgrade to the system than by replacing aging components as needed. 4. Charter Changes 5. Solar 6. Recap: Draft of public information sheet will be sent out tomorrow and responses will be given to Harold by Monday — Tuesday night we’ll review go or no go. Dick Saudek and Harold will speak about charter changes. Solar will be on the agenda for the next meeting. Harold will send BERC study on private buildings downtown to Tim. 7. Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 14th at 7 pm in the Police Station Conference Room (booked), will cover solar (Ken), the draft of the public information document, the outcome of the City Council meeting, and other business.