HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-09-18 RMLD Citizens Advisory Board MinutesREADING MUNICIPAL LIGHT DEPARTMENT
CITIZENS' ADVISORY BOARD (CAB) MEETING
MINUTES
Regular Session
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Date: Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Place: RMLD, 230 Ash Street, Reading, MA, Winfred Spurr /Audio Visual Room
CAB Members Present:
Mr. Tony Capobianco (Reading), Mr. David Nelson (Lynnfield), Mr. John Norton, Chairman
(North Reading), Mr. Thomas 011ila, Secretary (Wilmington)
CAB Members Absent:
Mr. George Hooper, Vice Chairman (Wilmington)
RMLD Commissioner(s) Present:
Mr. David Mancuso
RMLD Staff Present:
Ms. Coleen O'Brien, Ms. Jane Parenteau, Ms. Kathleen Rybak, Mr. William Seldon, Mr. Kevin
Sullivan
1. Call Meeting to Order — J. Norton, Chairman
Chairman Norton called the meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Board to order at 6:30 p.m.
2. General Manager Introduction and Remarks — Coleen O'Brien
Chairman Norton introduced Coleen O'Brien the new General Manager.
Ms. O'Brien thanked Chairman Norton. Ms. O'Brien presented a handout regarding celebration plans
for National Public Power Week. RMLD will be hosting an Open House during the week with the
focus on education - electrical safety, careers in the public power utility business. There will be a number
of educational booths set up and customer incentives. Anyone who signs up for paperless billing or the
water heater program will get an LED bulb. There will be a raffle co- sponsored with Home Depot that
will pay up to $500 for an LED home conversion. RMLD will work with the winner to study the usage
before and after so that we can comment on actual changes to a home when making this type of
conversion. Between 400 -600 kids (an estimate based on previous gatherings) are expected to attend.
Each of the RMLD areas will be represented and staff will be available to answer questions. Ms.
O'Brien welcomed CAB members to attend.
Other events that week include a breakfast on Tuesday that is open to everyone that contributes to the
successes of RMLD. The CAB is invited to attend. Wednesday will be an employee appreciation lunch.
A group picture will be taken and then there will be some team building activities.
Ms. O'Brien reported that she has met with all four town managers and attended three boards of
selectmen meetings. She has met with each of the Commissioners individually and also with a number
of CAB members (and is scheduled to meet with the remaining two). Ms. O'Brien stated that she is
moving ahead with a strategic plan. Ms. O'Brien reported that she is working on an RFP for an
organizational study and is in the midst of performing the preliminary assessments and designing a
strategic road -map for all four major key utility functions: Business, Customer Service, Engineering and
Operations, and Energy Services. Things are moving ahead and it's going quite well. Ms. O'Brien
thanked the CAB for their support.
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 1 of 8
3. June and July 2013 Reliability Report — K. Sullivan
Mr. Sullivan reviewed the June Budget Variance report included in the Agenda packet. There were
between 35 -40 new residential services in the month. The total number of cutouts replaced fiscal year -
to -date is 195. As we get closer to completing this project the numbers are dwindling as it takes outages
to make those replacements. Mr. Sullivan reported that CAIDI for the month was at a very low level —
the average June CAIDI is 45.39 minutes; June 2013 was 18.56 minutes. The CAIDI monthly average is
at its lowest level in the last 12 months due to the number of customers that saw outage in June (3,819)
and were restored under the RM -D four -year average outage duration of 51 minutes. SAIFI is in the
opposite direction. The average June SAIFI is 1.15, not too far away from the average June numerical
value. SAIFI is at its highest for the past twelve months due to the number of customers that had
outages in the month. The MBTI is at 30.8 months between interruptions and as the SAIFI continues
to climb (in a month like June or July) when MBTI drops off. MBTI has been as high as 40 months
(when the SAIFI goes up that MBTI goes down).
Mr. Sullivan provided an update on the meter project. The Department is still tweaking the optimal field
placement of its repeaters and will be for some time. The commercial meter replacements will be
increasing as the weather gets cooler. There is demand reset on those meters, and therefore, they could
not be replaced during months of June, July and August except right after they were read (very limited
time). The meter project is complete for the residential sector. Commercial is at about 80 %. Mr.
Sullivan reported that we will deploy the fixed network for the meters in place and begin using those
values for billing (once we validate each one of the values). Currently, we are reading on the fixed
network for 99.4% of the territory for residential customers. About 157 -160 customers are not being
read which is why we continue to tweak repeater locations.
Mr. Capobianco asked, those (repeaters) are up on the poles and they are just not picking up wirelessly?
Mr. Sullivan confirmed and added, there might be a better placement — maybe one pole away does it —
we're looking into those things. Mr. Sullivan stated a propagation study was done by the vendor and
we've tweaked this constantly since that point in time. We're getting down to the nitty gritty and want
to get as close as possible to 100 %. Mr. Capobianco asked, if this was all tested during good weather,
will the poor weather affect much of the rebuilding of the computers? Mr. Sullivan replied, actually it
doesn't — what really affects this is leaves. Fully leafed -out, we are at a 99.4% read rate — that's just
fantastic — so it can only go up. Mr. Sullivan reported that we would like - while it's fully- leafed out - to
optimize it. Every day values are pulled to try and figure out which of those meters are going in and
going out from the reads. We can then see what repeater needs to be moved.
Mr. Sullivan reported on the June reliability stats. There were two separate heat waves in early June and
then one in late June, and two storms where lightning affected the system. There were 168 customer
calls for the month, 36 outage incidents with customers affected at 3,819. There were no feeder
outages, 27 area outages and 10 service outages. The causes of outage were pretty much vanilla. We
had six (6) faulted transformers in June and two (2) faulted in May. There were 21 faulted transformers
throughout the summer for various reasons (overloads, lightning, etc.). Lightning damage for the
month ravaged the system in six different areas.
Mr. OlWa asked about transformers in Wilmington that were leaking or had some issues, and asked if it
had been resolved. Mr. Sullivan responded, RMLD became aware of a leaking transformer due to
outage. Since that point, we have looked at about 300 -400 transformers. There are a total of about 700
single -phase transformers, and a couple of hundred three -phase transformers. We are going to be
looking at them all. The situation on Houghton Road has been resolved — it's been cleaned up — totally
taken care of. RMLD is doing transformer inspections in each of the four towns we serve.
Mr. 011ila asked if that inspection was a result of what we saw or were we doing that anyway. Mr.
Sullivan responded that it was the result of what we saw.
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Mr. Nelson asked if we have seen an increase in hazmat or oil spills with the transformers; Mr. Sullivan
asked — because of the inspection program? Mr. Nelson replied, because of that or any outage that may
happen. Mr. Sullivan responded, no. Mr. Sullivan stated what happened on Houghton Road vas a 60
gallon incident and that was taken care of. RMLD has since replaced one other transformer (that was
leaking) that had been hit during the winter and not noticed because it was still in and running. That
was cleaned up by RMLD staff. So, no.
Mr. Sullivan provided a wrap -up to FY13. There is only one project that was worked on in July (for
FY14) - Project 3 Old Lynnfield Center URD upgrade. As in years past, we continue to work on
projects that did not complete on June 30. It is a very fluid business — there are things that effect what
you do each and every day. We lost 20 days because of Hurricane Sandy, not only in the preparation, but
the clean -up and then moving from temporary to permanent installations and beyond. We were down a
lineman (who was on disability) for nine and a half months. Things like that are largely out of our
control. Things that come in that you have to handle - take the capital budget and push it aside.
Mr. Sullivan reported that there is a project (in FY13) that we did not get to. We purchased the wire for
it, but didn't get to it. However, in FY14's Capital Budget there's a very similar project out of the same
substation for the same wire replacement for $80,000 less. Mr. Sullivan reported that we will take the
wire that was purchased in FY13 and do the install in FY14. The FY14 project (Project 11, Station 4
(Gaw) Getaway Replacement, 4W9) will then be delayed to the following year.
Mr. Sullivan went on to review the July Engineering & Operations Report. CAIDI for the month was
up to 35.78 minutes, whereas, the average July CAIDI is 70 minutes of outage. Again, there were a
good number of customers (2,494) that were out of service during the month of July. In June and July,
we saw significant outage for our customers. There were 17 days during the months of June and July
that were over 90 degrees. The CAIDI monthly average is very low at 36 minutes compared to the
average July minutes of outage (70 minutes). The CAIDI rolling average continues to show stability at
approximately 60 minutes of outage. Seeing stability, next month (August) we will use data from 2008-
12. Data used currently is 2006 -09, whereas SAIFI shows 2008 -12; we are going to align the CAIDI and
the SAIFI information. Mr. Sullivan reported that the SAIFI value came down somewhat, but there
were still almost 2,500 customers out of service. The average July SAIFI is 0.93, whereas, our numerical
value for the month is 0.99; we are not too far away from the average July SAIFI. MBTI (tied directly to
SAIFI in an inverse relationship), is 28.6 months, whereas last month we were just over 30 months. We
had two heat waves in July and two lightning events. Calls for the month were 149, customers effected
2,494; there were 39 outage incidents, 33 area outages and six (6) service outages. For the month of
July, we have 13 overloaded or faulted transformers due to lightning.
Mr. Capobianco asked about the outages with the heat wave. What was the cause - overloading or did
demand out - stripped supply? Mr. Sullivan responded that demand did not outstrip supply. We were
very close to that on one day. Mr. Capobianco asked if the equipment that overloaded was scheduled
for maintenance or to be replaced. Mr. Sullivan replied that it just gave out.
Ms. O'Brien stated that RMLD will have a transformer load management program (typically
incorporated as a GIS function tying customer data with system assets). It will take the connectivity
between the crib of everyone connected to a transformer, there's a calculation, and it will spit out which
transformers are nearing overload. Preventatively, we can address them before the heat season comes.
In conjunction with that, we work with the wire inspectors and the Utility Authorization Number so
when people are adding load, we would know about it. That gets put into the calculation so that we are
continuously monitoring what's coming from the billing data for usage and it does self - calculations and
will spit out those that are outside of the tolerance of what the transformer is designed for. That way
you can try to address them — separate the crib or upgrade the transformer - before the summer. We
will be heading in that direction.
Mr. Nelson asked about the response from the four municipalities during the heat waves when RMLD
asked them to conserve energy. Mr. Sullivan responded that it is difficult to tell. Some folks were very
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 3 of 8
amenable to doing what eve asked and did so. It is difficult though on an aggregate perspective to really
understand how many complied.
Ms. O'Brien added that we are working to develop an emergency operating procedure that follows the
REMVEC (Rhode Island, Eastern Massachusetts, and Vermont Energy Control) - you go from a public
appeal to the next step of public appeal, to a power warning. We're looking at the best way to reach out
to voltage sensitive customers - reverse 911, code red or similar IVR (Integrated Voice Recognition) -
different types of systems. We will be following that appeal process to try and get as much of a
reduction as we can - proactively - before we anticipate the peak. Ms. Parenteau noted that we have a
new peak for this year - 163 in July.
Mr. 011ila asked if there were standardized protocols or programs through NEPPA or other towns that
we could use as a template for that kind of warning or notification program. Ms. O'Brien replied that
different towns work differently - an IVR system (RMLD's IVR is old and would need to be updated) or
reverse 911 - each town uses a different system. The important part is that we follow the appeal process
that's being mandated to us, and that we get that information out to the public so that no one is caught
off guard that we may need to take some action. We want to educate the public on the ISO load
reduction steps, including appeals and warnings, so that the customer can anticipate requests for
curtailment to mitigate the potential for voltage reductions and /or load sheds. In addition to the
customer education, Energy Services will be developing demand response programs with our larger
commercial customers to augment with the peak shaving objectives. We are looking into the best way
to reach the public.
Mr. 011ila, asked if there is a tiering structure within that, so you go to your biggest customers first. Ms.
O'Brien responded, that the demand response program with the larger customers would be initiated
coincident with an overall public appeal.
4. July 2013 Power Supply Report — J. Parenteau
Ms. Parenteau presented the July Purchase Power Summary which was included in the Agenda packet.
Energy Costs were equivalent to a little less than $0.045 per kilowatt hour; the fuel charge adjustment
for July was set at $0.045 and sales totaled 65.6 M kilowatt hours. As a result, RMLD under collected by
approximately $564,000, resulting in a deferred fuel cash reserve balance of $2M. The August fuel
charge adjustment was increased to $0.05, and was set back to $0.045 in September. It is currently
forecasted to decrease to $0.04 for the remainder of the year which would hit the target levels of
between $2.5 to $3.OM for the deferred fuel cash reserve. Ms. Parenteau noted that after meeting with
Ms. O'Brien and her meeting with the Commissioners, we thought it would be helpful to graphically
represent the mix which is right under Table 2. Ms. Parenteau went on to review Capacity noting that
she had miss spoke earlier regarding the peak — we hit a peak of 168 megawatts which occurred on
Friday, July 19 at 4:00. The average temperature at that hour was 97 degrees. This compares to a peak
demand a year ago of 164, so it was about 4 megawatts higher. The average temperature was 94 degrees
a year ago. Ms. Parenteau went on to review Table 4. Hydro generation for the month of July, which
tends to be on the lower month, was 4.8 %. Ms. Parenteau reviewed Table 5. The RMLD sold 4,600
quarter one RECs to EDF Trading for $246,000 or $53 per REC. Ms. Parenteau reviewed Table 6 —
Transmission.
Mr. Capobianco questioned whether $53.00 for the RECs that were just sold was comparable to the
price when we went through the whole REC discussion, or has the value dropped. Mr. Seldon
responded that since the discussion the price for RECs has gone up; in 2011 the average was about
$47.00; 2012 went to $49.00, and now it is around $53.00 on average.
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 4 of 8
5. Approval of Minutes of May 15, 2013 — J. Norton, Chairman
Chairman Norton asked for a motion to approve the minutes.
Mr. Nelson made a motion to approve the Reading Municipal Light Department Citizens' Advisory
Board Meeting Minutes of Wednesday, May 15, 2013, as written, seconded by Chairman Norton. Mr.
Capobianco asked for confirmation that he could vote even though he was not present at the meeting.
Chairman Norton confirmed that he could. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4.•0.•1(4 in
favor, 0 opposed, I absent).
6. Review of CAB Policies — D. Nelson
Mr. Nelson stated that he has been on the CAB for a little over a year. He thought as he was looking
through the CAB handouts, that this would be an opportune time — with a fairly new Board of
Commissioners (the CAB pretty much has stayed the same) and a new General Manager — to take a look
at the policies (dated November 1998) and some of the other documents (such as the 20 -Year
Agreement) and review and update them as necessary. If no revisions are necessary, we could update
them with the date that shows that we at least reviewed these policies.
Chair Norton noted, that Policy 1 needs to be updated to reflect the current structure of the CAB and
the addition of a Vice Chair. Proposed changes were: Under responsibilities add: B. CAB Vice Chair:
1. Preside over meetings in the absence of the Chair. The current B would become C and add Item 3
to that: Presides over meetings in the absence of the Chair and Vice Chair. The current C would
become new D and stay the same. Chair Norton asked to have the changes in writing for a formal vote
at the next meeting. Chair Norton asked if anyone else had anything under Policy 1 or 2. Mr. Nelson
responded that (as it relates to Item 7 on the Agenda — Code of Conduct) Policy 1 provides an outline
of the CAB and how they act in accordance with certain situations. Mr. Nelson noted that the Board of
Commissioners established a very short, simple and to the point, code of conduct and suggested
incorporating a code of conduct into CAB Policy 1 (as opposed to creating another document). Mr.
Nelson agreed to provide some input as we go through this. Chair Norton said that would be fine;
we'll do that at the next meeting. Chair Norton asked if there was anything else under one and two.
Ms. O'Brien asked for clarification. Do you want a draft of the changes discussed for vote or wait until
you meet and decide if there are any other changes to include in Policy 1? Chair Norton replied, that
his proposal is to be done at the next meeting so it is in compliance with the way we operate now. Mr.
Nelson added, to clarify, the Vice Chair position would be added in, but it will be ongoing to look at the
documents for several meeting. Chair Norton confirmed.
Commissioner Mancuso stated that the Commissioners will be going through a very similar process. We
have not really gotten into the meat of that discussion, but I think that we are in agreement that the
timing is excellent to be able to really reset and update. As the CAB goes through the process and the
Commissioners go through the process, it will be good to stay in lock -step so that we're coordinating
some of our efforts to make sure that we're all on the same page.
7. Code of Conduct — Consideration — D. Nelson
Mr. Nelson stated that Code of Conduct had been discussed as part of the policies discussion. Instead of
creating another document, it's worth our efforts to look at Policy 1 and maybe see how that is worded
and to have it in one place instead of two.
8. CAB Annual Goals — Consideration — D. Nelson
Mr. Nelson talked about the importance of goals for committees, commissions and boards and
suggested, the CAB think about what we may want to create as a goal for ourselves as we go into next
year. If the Board was agreeable, we could come back and talk a bit more about a goal. Mr. Nelson
offered to write something a little more descriptive of what he had just talked about. Chair Norton said
that was fine.
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 5 of 8
Mr. 011ila asked, are you talking about an overall mission statement, or something more specific. Nelson
replied, I'm just looking at the different projects that are going on within the RMLD - from the CAB's
relationship to the Commissioner Board and how we interact with the municipality management and the
selectmen, to the educational programs that are going to be generating for the community - maybe a goal
could be to help make that be better and bring it up to other municipalities. Mr. Nelson continued, we
can think about a mission statement, or maybe put something at the beginning of the policies about our
charge. Mr. 011ila clarified, so you're thinking at the beginning of our calendar year (or fiscal year) we, at
one or two of the meetings, agree what our focus is for the year. Mr. Nelson responded, maybe it
doesn't have to be goal that everyone has to do, but that he certainly would come up with a goal for
himself, and he would let the CAB know what that goal is, what he plans to do with it, and how he plans
to present that to the CAB.
9. Discussion — RMLD Policy on Payment in Lieu of Taxes — D. Nelson
Chair Norton noted that Mr. Fournier provided a memo regarding this Agenda item which was included
in the packet.
Mr. Nelson stated that the documentation regarding the payment in lieu of taxes was dated 1987. It does
discuss some Massachusetts General Laws that deal with how that is set up through the RMLD. The 20-
Year Agreement is resigned every ten years. Is that a document that needs to be looked at and does it
hold true today as it did in 1987? Are the Mass General Laws quoted there applicable laws today or are
there new laws? Mr. Nelson noted Mass General Law Chapter 164A, Section 8, which really doesn't
reflect in the 20 -Year Agreement.
Chair Norton stated, this is pretty much set by the 20 -Year Agreement and noted that Mr. Fournier will
be at the meeting next month and may be able answer the question a little bit more in- depth. Chair
Norton, cautioned, if you start changing too much in the 20 -Year Agreement, you then have to go back
before all the Boards of Selectmen to re -vote things. In some communities it has to go before their
town meeting.
Mr. Nelson replied, well at least maybe look at it. Mr. Nelson noted that the 20 -year Agreement and the
policies for the CAB (and some of the other documents) are pretty old. If you can't look at it because you
can't change it, then that's fine, maybe wait for a cycle that you can. But, it's one of those things that
seems like it's gone by so many years that it's just easy to overlook. Chair Norton, stated if we're going
to make changes, we should do it in a wholesale type way. Mr. Nelson agreed, it should be done in a way
that's going to work for everybody and it's going to be a smooth transition and not cause a lot of
problems. Chairman Norton asked Ms. O'Brien to put a flag out to Mr. Fournier to have a little bit more
information on this particular item for next month.
Ms. O'Brien asked for clarification. Specifically, what's in your packet discusses the calculations and the
amounts paid out. What additional information would you like me to have Mr. Fournier look at? Mr.
Nelson replied, one of the things would be Mass General Law Chapter 164A, Section 8 — is that
applicable to our 20 -Year Agreement? Sometimes things are grandfathered and you don't have to deal
with it but, that was one of the questions.
10. Discussion RMLD RECs Policy — D. Nelson
Mr. Nelson thanked staff for putting information together regarding the payment in lieu of taxes and the
RECs. Mr. Nelson stated that he has spoken with his Town Administrator about RECs and they still
have questions. Retire RECs? Sell RECs? You sell 40% and you retire 60% - well why can't they all be.
sold? Some RECs are worthless, but is that worthlessness at the end of their cycle or is it given to us
being worthless in the first place? The money that goes to the RECs, goes toward our fuel budget, right?
Are there other places the money could go, or is that what RMLD chooses to have as the best place?
Another example would be alternative energy possibilities for different communities or the RMLD to
look into. Mr. Nelson noted that Ms. O'Brien heard some of these questions when meeting with the
Town Administrator and Mr. Nelson, and may have felt the frustration about RECs.
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 6 of 8
Ms. O'Brien acknowledged the frustration, which is why she had instructed Energy Services to put
together a document (a draft was included with the Agenda packet) that explains the process in detail.
Mr. Seldon stated, the way we determine the value (of RECs) is unique from facility to facility. It
becomes extremely unique and challenging for the smaller hydro units to qualify for more expensive —
more valuable — RECs for the different states, which is one reason why one unit that we have in our
portfolio of the four hydro's that generate the RECs pretty much don't have any value to the traders —
they do have value for a specific program in Connecticut. We didn't know that going into it — we were
pretty new to the RECs market. It was a learning process for all of us. That's why, in our portfolio, we
have some RECs that hold zero value when you look at the table of the monthly power supply report
that both boards get every month.
Ms. Parenteau, elaborated. The RECs are only valuable for one calendar year at a time, and there's a six
month lag for that. 2012 RECs had to be sold by June 15 of 2013. If they are not sold at that time, they
become worthless, because there is no longer a market for them. That ties into the value - are they worth
something or they are not - because after a certain window of time, if you haven't banked them, sold
them or retired them, they are worth nothing.
Mr. Nelson noted the revenue going into the fuel account. The RMLD, the Commissioners and the
CAB have agreed that that's the best place to put that - is there any possible alternative?
Mr. Seldon replied, that was predicated on a Board vote after the Sustainability Policy came into play,
based on a clause that's in the Sustainability Policy to best use the value of the RECs to lower the supply
or the cost. It was agreed by Board vote to take the money and put it to offset the costs of fuel, that way
it's a benefit to everybody.
Ms. Parenteau added, when those contracts were negotiated, it was a bundled contract. We didn't
negotiate separately for capacity, energy and RECs. We were dealing with a developer, and we negotiated
a bundled rate. For example, for 2012 the Swift River Projects the average cost for those units was
$0.0985, which is significantly higher than our average portfolio of about $0.05. When you take the
revenue that we received in 2012, of approximately $776,000, against the money that we paid, it brings it
down to about $0.055. That discount, or that additional revenue, offsets that higher price that was
bundled into the project and all our customers benefit from that. That was the thought process going
into how we handled that revenue.
Mr. Nelson thanked the staff and noted that Ms. Parenteau is an expert in this field and that anyone that
has a question about RECs should talk to her. Chair Norton asked if there were any further questions or
comments on number 10. Mr. Nelson asked if the other municipalities had any questions or concerns
about RECs. Chair Norton stated there was quite a bit of discussion when this whole thing flared up,
back some time ago (about a year and hall), but it was recently taken care of and there's been nothing
since. Chair Norton stated that his Board is satisfied with the way that things have developed as far as
that particular issue.
11. Report on 2013 Northeast Public Power Association Annual Conference — T. 011ila
Mr. 011ila gave a brief review of the NEPPA conference held in August. Mr. 011ila noted that he found
it, personally, very interesting and educational, and offered to share materials from the conference if
anyone was interested. Mr. 011ila stated he thought a lot of the benefit of conferences like these is just
the opportunity to meet peers in the industry, other municipals or other organizations - general manager
to general manager, or power supply person to other — you pick up a lot that way. Those sort of general,
intangible things are always a benefit of NEPPA and the APPA type events.
Mr. 011ila gave a brief overview of the formal programs and the topics presented at the Conference.
Chair Norton thanked Mr. 011ila.
RMLD Citizens' Advisory Board Regular Session Minutes: September 18, 2013 Page 7 of 8
12. Next Meeting —J. Norton, Chairman
October 23 was identified as a tentative date for the next meeting.
Mr. 011ila asked to bring up a new item before moving onto Item 13. Mr. 011ila stated that he come
across an article about the City of Boston. They have put in place a Building Energy Reporting
Ordinance which requires all buildings over a certain size to report their energy and water use. It is a
first step in trying to encourage energy efficiency. Mr. OlWa acknowledged that RMLD is understaffed
on the energy efficiency side and doesn't have time to take on new projects, but wanted to bring this
information forward. When we get that bandwidth back, we could see if there's something that the City
of Boston is doing that we could benefit from — is that something we could leverage to help our towns
manage their energy.
Ms. Parenteau responded that prior to the vacancy, RMLD was working with the towns. The Town of
Reading received energy use from all their municipal buildings and we were using the energystar.gov
website to input that information to benchmark the towns through the MAPC affiliate that we were
working with at the time. Ms. Parenteau went on to state that she believes there was something that we
were tracking that is probably reflective, but really can't say that until she sees the article. Mr. 011ila
agreed to send the article to Ms. Parenteau. Mr. OlWa acknowledged that Energy Services is
understaffed, and volunteered to look into this to see what details can be found and present it to the
town folks to see if it is any value to our customers.
13. Executive Session —J. Norton, Chairman
Mr. Nelson made a motion that the CAB go into Executive Session based on Chapter 164, Section 47D
exemption from public records and open meeting requirements in certain instances, to approve
Executive Session Minutes of May 15, 2013, and to return to regular session for the sole purpose of
adjournment, seconded by Mr. Capobianco. Motion carried 4:0.•1(4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent),
by a poll of members pirsent. Mr. Nelson, aye; Chairman Norton, aye; Mr. Capobianco, aye; Mr. Olhla, aye.
14. Return to Regular Session —J. Norton, Chairman
Mr. Nelson made a motion to return to regular session, seconded by Mr. Capobianco. Hearing no
further discussion, Motion carried 4.0.1(4 in favor, 0 opposed, I absent)
15. Motion to Adjourn —J. Norton, Chairman
Mr. Nelson made a Motion to Adjourn the Citizens' Advisory Board meeting, seconded by Mr.
Capobianco. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4.•0.•1(4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent).
The Citizens' Advisory Board Meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas 011ila, Secretary /
Minutes approved on: i
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