Energy Advisory Committee

Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday August 16th 2016 7:00- 8:30 PM Memorial Room, City Hall -- Montpelier, VT Members Present: Barbara Conrey, Becky Wigg, Scott Muller, Kate Stephenson (Chair), Dan Jones, Dan Costin, Johanna Miller, Barry McPhee, Geoffrey Fitzgerald, Rebecca Harris (AmeriCorps VISTA) 1. Introductions 2. Kate moved to approve agenda. Johanna added to the agenda Efficiency Vermont and Button Up. Becky moved to second. All in favor. Kate moved to approve minutes from July. Geoffrey mentioned a correction for number 4 --- the city’s energy use has not yet been appreciably reduced. Kate will send out the minutes again to be approved at the next meeting in September. 3. No public comment 4. Working Group Reports: Transportation  Dan C mentioned hire of consultant/ design company. Alta will be collecting data (streets/construction) and help us by creating street typologies, which will inform what certain roads will look like when they are developed. The grant money is from VTrans.  Consensus that coordination between Alta and the new Zoning regulations (Planning Commission) is a good idea because they can flag any potential issues if they arise.  Dan C --kickoff meeting is a good opportunity for input into the process. The meeting is potentially scheduled at the same time as the next transportation advisory committee. Community Solar  Johanna reviewed residential solar consumer guidelines coming out in early September- hoped to individualize/personalize the guidelines and tie them to Net Zero Montpelier goals and make them Montpelier-specific with a cover letter from MEAC to be attached to guide for distribution.  Net metering--- Johanna discussed how the state is required to update its net metering program by the end of 2016, however the process is taking longer due to vigorous assessments/public comment. Scott- Vermont’s state commitment to make the fleet electric might be blocked. Mentioned event 6 months ago when Green Mountain Power (GMP) signed with NRG for EV Go. Laws limiting municipal feed-in are going to cut off municipalities’ ability to provide renewables for their own fleet. Discussion that it is worthwhile to meet in a smaller group and come up with a concrete recommendation for city council.  Johanna --solar team needs to meet and discuss logistics for October’s solar tour Municipal projects   Geoff- Current major project is presenting the revolving loan fund concept to City Council in September to fund smaller sized municipal energy efficiency projects. He will ask the city for seed money and Efficiency Vermont might match it. Eventually hope for donations. Discussion of issuing green bond- only suitable for larger projects. Talk to Treasurer Beth Pearce about how funding may be available through the State.  No further updates from city staff on pursuing the ESCO for the wastewater treatment plant. First step would be a feasibility study. Geoff will follow up to find out status on this potential project. Outreach  Kate updated the Net Zero Montpelier website. Running Facebook ads campaign – 5- 6 new likes a day, part of MEAC’s communication plan.  Still have a lot of money left from Efficiency Vermont grant ($6,000). Have to spend by December 31st. Plan for digital display- haven’t developed slides. Johanna - proposed we hire photographer to take pictures of people in homes with heat pumps/solar. Waterbury Leap’s most powerful outreach component was their pictures- showed breadth of people and homes. Becky suggested videos of families’ homes and creating a plaque with information about district heat on State Street. Scott questioned this idea since the city still burns oil in summer, and EPA is currently debating if biofuels are considered carbon neutral. 5. S3 Sustainable Design Competition update (Dan Jones)  Launched a month ago. Registration is due September 8th. Visit www.netzerovt.org. First round entries due September 30th. There will be pop up gallery in town where Montpelier residents can vote. Top 3-5 will proceed to second round in first week of December.  How can we get people out in first week of October to vote for this? Created a Facebook page NetZero Vermont. The more we can get people talking about it- the more likely they will come out, vote and bring NetZero issues to the master plan.  Requires volunteers during pop up event October 2-5. 6. October Home Tour planning  Solar and outreach teams need to meet soon to plan October 8th event. Kate will send out Doodle poll to determine date. 7. Membership Update: suggestions for new members, revisit current membership  Kate- reached out to members asking them if they want to continue. Becky is moving to Marshfield but would like to stay on committee as an advisory member. Keil Corey, Alison Donovan, Tim Shea, and Dan Crisp have stepped down from MEAC. That leaves the committee with 12 Montpelier resident members , plus representatives from GMP, EAN, and State of VT. We would like to get back to 15 resident members as a goal. Jessie Baker will post request for interest. Members will reach out to individuals they know to encourage them to submit a letter of interest. Current Membership as of 8/16/16: Members  Kate Stephenson, Chair  Barbara Conrey, Member  Dan Costin, Member   Geoffrey Fitzgerald, Member  Dan Jones, Member  Ken Jones, Member  Paul Markowitz, Member  Barry McPhee, Member  Johanna Miller, Member  Scott Muller, Member  Cara Robechek, Member  Anne Watson, Council representative  Andrea Colnes, Energy Action Network representative  Robert Dostis, GMP representative  Daniel Edson, State of VT BGS representative  Becky Wigg, advisory member Rebecca Harris, City Planning Department AmeriCorps Member 8. Other business  Scott reported on the municipal metrics project – He is planning to present FY15 and FY16 data to City Council on 9/14/16 and is working get the city to start using/handling the data without having to go through Efficiency Vermont..  Efficiency Vermont is offering a grant to energy committees to promote Button Up in the fall – does it make sense to apply? General consensus was we wouldn’t need to since we are still working on spending the $10k EVT grant already received and part of that money was for thermal outreach in Q4. Dan Jones noted we are having problems with executing current projects, and was hesitant to take on more. 9. Dan C voted to adjourn. Dan J seconded. Adjourned at 8:46. Next meeting September 15th at 7:00 PM