Energy Advisory Committee

MEAC meeting minutes Memorial Room September 16, 2014 Attending: Time Shea, Becky Wigg, Geoff Fitzgerald, Barry McPhee Allison Hollingsworth, Dan Costin, Kiel Corey, Andrew Stein, Joey Miller, Ken Jones, Barbara Conrey Also attending: Mike Miller, Andi Colnes, Hannah Reckhow, Cara Robechek, Paul Markowitz, Amy Nixon, Bill Chidsey Meeting began at 7:08 Motion to approve August minutes – seconded – passes unanimously Mike gave an update on Solar RFP process. All applications have been received, subcommittee can start meeting. Becky will take lead on getting subcommittee meeting together. Outreach and Community Engagement Paul passed around a proposed schedule of workshops for VEIC Li Ling public education outreach event. Feedback: Barry – are the presenters going to know that these are part of this fifteen year initiative, or is it just a one-time workshop for them? Paul – This will be advertised as part of net zero initiative… Tim – this is all about awareness of NZM Andi – This is great! But it will also seem aspiration. In Rutland an old home was made net zero. They’ve committed to doing 100 of them in Rutland. I would love to propose at least 1 in Montpelier. Real picture. Real action. Real affordable action. All done through affordable home loans. I”ll follow up on this. Geoff – This is great. Should number seven be the first to get people excited? Andrew – it’s an experience leading up to number seven. Paul – educate, then how would you like to participate? You’ve heard this, now let’s start thinking bigger. Dan – have we decided on electric vehicles or transportation piece? Paul - No, but we decided to start somewhere Moving forward: Tim is willing to find a location and set some dates Kiel gave an update on the documentary event. He will check in with library, perhaps 6 pm Hayes Room and will schedule around lecture series, co-populate the two events. He can schedule one of those in coming months. Andi – too close to dinner, make it around dessert! Kiel also gave an update on website process. He can get calendar onto wordpress site, but as far as nicer site, will not have time to work on it. Welcomes ideas for others who have capacity. Tim will take lead on pulling together outreach group and developing similar branding between events. Tim talked to Jessie Baker and Mike Miller about how to handle stakeholders’ involvement with committee. They went back to City Council about stakeholders being advisors. Letters have gone out to Andi, Paul, Robert Dostis, and representatives from Buildings and General Services to participate starting next month to leverage their knowledge and resources. Reporting policy proposal Becky – we did some homework and found that city does not have authority to create policy around reporting and benchmarking energy usage. This requires charter change. Joey – a voluntary option is being developed at state level Paul – we’ve been working on voluntary disclosure. Bill - Link to City’s town assessors records, we have codes for abbreviations. That could be decoded and we could find out square footages. That is public information. Happy to share with anyone who’s interested. Ken – anyway to get homeowners to voluntarily give this information? Andi – energy dashboard has database that’s based on estimates and averages. Not precise but generally accurate… Barbara – when houses are weatherized, doesn’t the ‘after’ need to be reported? Maybe for subsidized projects. Strategic Plan Barbara gave an update on the strategic plan. Essential changes were around kickoff activities. There was a concern that we were setting specific reduction metrics that could potentially get up in trouble because we don’t have data to back it up. Instead, use them as targets not absolutes. Added a few initiatives to scope – work with state of Vermont, benchmark consumption data, changing of language from zoning to organizational changes in city government. Added some organizations affected. Would like to have committee accept charter to move on to CC. Geoff – if we’re going to present this, we have to be able to say why we’re using these numbers. Barbara – I think we said ‘where do we want to be?’ and moved backwards from there. Barry – a lot of things right now are open to change Used EAN document as reference, have 20 years less time to compete but smaller focus… Ken – I like the use of the word ‘target.’ Is it the absolute correct number? We don’t know but we’ll adjust. We need to track progress and follow up to fully learn about baseline. Alison – there will be several methodologies layered on top of each other – we won’t get full information for electric, gas, propane. Combine top down estimates, bottom up estimates. Paul – why do we need this document approved by CC? Why now? Barbara – we need to start now! Paul – why not just update not approve? Joey – this is great for us as an internal document. I would hesitate to put in front of city council. Andi- with so many precise numbers, the council would be hard pressed to pass it as a charter. Dan – this document is very similar to e Montpelier town plan. If we’re writing this plan document, it can be used in future plans too Barry – I’m going back and forth…generally this 15 year initiative is outsized compared with what we’ve done and it may need additional formality. Would give us a more defined relationship with CC. Barbara- why don’t we ask Anne to take to CC as information? Bill -People involved will change, best to strike iron while it’s hot Tim – we could use other language this is our first plan Geoff – ‘roadmap’ The Committee decided to give to Anne with other information to present to CC as roadmap and ideas that MEAC is working on. Or Tim will present to CC. Dan – could we add something about walkability, density, connectedness? Barbara – Density refers to infill not new development, but yes it’s an important piece to stress Next steps: Committee struck #4 and last part of #3 (not going to CC for approval) Barry volunteered to take charge of developing details of strategic planning Georgetown University Energy Prize Alison gave an update on GUEP process. Are we going to apply for second phase? Is Montpelier a good candidate based on how competition is being scored? We would only be judged on municipal and residential electric bills. Penalized for heat pump fuel switch. Not judging fossil fuel impact. Jamie Irvin pointed out that the way that net metering is installed will reduce utility bill, it’s behind meter. Would far outweigh any conversion to heat pump or EV increases. Separate from thinking we will win, this is a way to get organized over next two years. Don’t think we will win, but it will motivate the community, we can use their resources, focus on implementation. Whatever we submit, would have to be approved by CC. (can do strategic charter too!) it’s a jumpstart. Ken – is the state a part of the city for this? No, municipal and residential, no commercial Thoughts: Benefits… shot in arm, prestigious, would help us get other funding Andi – if we had a chance, yes. It would work, but since we know we’re not a match it may not do that. Joey – Would hate to build into the narrative of people only thinking about energy in terms of electric consumption. Other VT energy committees also made it to quarter finals, do we want to compete? Tim – is there anyone who can dedicate time to this work? Ken – how much of municipality is school? Then schools will have to participate Decision: yes, MEAC will peruse if there’s someone who’s got time. Allison will solicit help. Will send around tasks. VEEP update from Cara Robechek Whole School Energy Challenge - Specific schools make a commitment to reduce energy use by 10% over the course of the year. This is done through education on usage and work with facilities managers. 17 schools in program this year! All of Montpelier’s schools are involved making it the only supervisory union in the state to make that commitment. Main Street Middle has Green Team with 1, 10, 100 thousand proposals to reduce energy. They come up with activities, and we could identify partners for them. Joey – VECAN conference is 12/6! Workshops on net zero, MEAC will be represented by Tim. There are also requests for rewards for energy committees. Button Up Day of Action 11/1, we’re partnering with Capstone Community Action and others. There’s a video contest to tell story of benefits of energy efficiency in 2 minutes. VEC/VTC 11/13 Creating a Carbon Conscious Community Meeting adjourned at 8:48