Energy Advisory Committee

MEAC minutes November 18, 2014 Memorial Room 7 PM Attending: Dan Jones, Dan Costin, Barbara Conrey, Tim Shea, Barry McPhee, Geoff Fitzgerald, Johanna Miller, Andrew Stein Also Attending: Bill Chisdey, Paul Markowitz Meeting began at 7:02 Tim announced that Dan Edson and Robert Dostis are officially advising members. Motion to approve October minutes (Tim) Seconded (Geoff) Approved unanimously Project updates Solar RFP: Geoff gave an update on City Council meeting where the solar project was discussed. There were some issues that the City didn’t want to accept blindly, mainly the site of the project. Site overlaps with bike trails and is adjacent to land that the Fire Dept uses for training. It’s important that council understands what our recommendation was based on: the financial deal and that they’ve agreed to accept all risks of finding another site if necessary. Tim: For next time, it’s important to articulate what the “ask” is: let us continue to engage groSolar to fine-tune contract. We need to know more details. Dan J: If the project is kept at the same site, and we decide to sell, it means we don’t have to work with anyone else to do so. There’s a strong economic argument for keeping it on the Stump Dump. Joey: So what are the next steps? Tim: Contact Michael Miller, I’m happy to do more talking but I need to be more informed. Subcommittee made plans to attend the next City Council meeting. Municipal consumption: Scott was not able to make it. He does have a meeting next week with Sandy. Andrew: There hasn’t been a lot of progress. Compiling this information can take months. It’s difficult to keep moving with only volunteer hours. Perhaps the best solution is to use professionals from Efficiency Vermont? Dan J gave Andrew Harold Garabedian’s contact information, who used some of this data as lead consultant on the District Heat project. Paul has electric usage information by account. Andrew explained difficulty of when multiple buildings use fuel from same account. Energy Consumption: Barbara gave an update. Bill and Geoff have been looking into plans for collecting information. Geoff is going to seeking Steve Everett’s data from CVCLT. Bill generated a form questionnaire. If Barbara has students who wanted to help with facilitation, he would be happy to help organize. The questionnaire includes how much fuel people are using, transportation questions, and how open they are to make changes. Johanna: Last year for Button Up Day, we did some door-to-door outreach, mostly just giving them a menu of things they can do. We have some of those plans for routes that you can use. Bill: If we get the okay, we can contact their fuel company. Open for feedback. Johanna: What have other towns done? Just so we know where this is heading… Paul: What level of accuracy do we need in this data? This seems like a lot of work, as opposed to using calculations. But I’m glad to share surveys that other towns have used. Dan J: What this provides is a foot in the door - are you a prospective auditor? Plus we don’t have a transportation profile for residents. Andrew: If we do this prematurely, we could see an adverse affect. People may be concerned about privacy. Barbara: We would need buildup before we do it, advanced notice and explanation of what the information is for. Bill: I’m hearing that people need a non-business champion for lower energy prices. Joey: This takes time, but going door-to-door in empowering. Paul: Doesn’t seem like there’s clarity on purpose. Barry: We have to decide scope and it sounds like we haven’t. Paul will share surveys and methodologies he has. Outreach Tim gave an update on tabling. We’ve got a stack of surveys from Election Day tabling that will be useful going forward. There’s another tabling opportunity Saturday morning 10-2 at high school farmer’s market. Workshop update: Paul gave an update. Had about 40 people show up. Next time we’ll put out publicity a few weeks in advance. Dan C.: Would be nice to see emphasis on a US supplier of heat pumps. EMI makes energy star rated heat pumps. Let’s support any potential for economic stimulus. Green Mountain Power partnering update: There is the potential for e-home campaign in Montpelier. Will have follow-up call in December about lessons learned in Rutland. Also, the health pump program has been launched, but GMP hasn’t done much recently. In near future, they may do door-to-door or targeted mailing in Washington County. Strategic plan Barbara has three students who need internships. After speaking with Jessie Baker and Mike Miller, looks like they can do work for committee - contacting stakeholders, doing research, groundwork. She will create draft of duties, but would like from committee is a list of stakeholders that students should contact. This includes 600 hours, December to May. The scope is assisting introductory work for kickoff year. Andrew would be glad to meet with them. Paul thinks we need an established action plan for their work to fit into Barry: We can come to an agreement of a structure for each project. Month by month. Would like to map this with one of our upcoming projects. Geoff: We should organize Google Drive documents into project by project folders. Hannah will look into this. Funding and grants Stage two of the Georgetown University Energy Prize went out last week. No response yet. Andy submitted the CACC application. Joey: New England Grassroots Environmental Fund always has funds available. Great option for money for materials. Presentations and conferences VECAN conference 12/6 MEAC won award for best project – Net Zero Montpelier. Meeting adjourned at 8:31