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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-21 RMLD Citizens Advisory Board MinutesTown of Reading y A, ; *� Meeting Minutes SJ9: I.V�pAQpP Board - Committee - Commission - Council: RMLD Citizens Advisory Board Date: 2015 -10 -21 Time: 6:30 PM Building: Reading Municipal Light Building Address: 230 Ash Street Purpose: Regular Business Attendees: Members - Present: TOWN CLEW READINL, MJ11%3S. N023 ADOT Location: Winfred Spurr Audio Visual Room Session: General Session Mr. George Hooper, Chair (Wilmington); Mr. David Mancuso, Secretary (Reading); Mr. Mark Chrisos (North Reading); Mr. Dennis Kelley (Wilmington) Members - Not Present: Mr. David Nelson, Vice Chair (Lynnfield) Others Present: Mr. Philip Pacino, Board of Commissioners Ms. Coleen O'Brien, Ms. Priscilla Gottwald, Mr. Rahul Shah, Ms. Tirzah Shakespeare Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Mr. David Mancuso, Secretary Topics of Discussion: c 1. Call Meeting to Order — G. Hooper, Chair Chair Hooper called the meeting of the Citizens' Advisory Board to order at 6:30 p.m. and noted that the meeting was being audio recorded. 2. Approval of Minutes — G. Hooper, Chair Materials: Draft February 11, 2015, Minutes; Draft August 12, 2015, Minutes; and Draft September 16, 2015 Minutes Mr. Mancuso made a motion that the Citizens' Advisory Board approve the Minutes of the February 11, 2015, meeting as written, seconded by Mr. Chrisos. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4:0:1 (4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent). Mr. Mancuso made a motion that the Citizens' Advisory Board approve the minutes of the August 12, 2015, meeting as written, seconded by Mr. Kelley. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4:0:1 (4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent). Mr. Mancuso made a motion that the Citizens' Advisory Board approve the minutes of the September 16, 2015, meeting as written, seconded by Mr. Chrisos. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4:0:1 (4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent). Ms. O'Brien provided an update on the status of the minutes as requested by Secretary Mancuso. There are six outstanding sets of minutes from previous meetings and Ms. O'Brien committed to getting them completed and out to Secretary Mancuso for review by the end of November. Ms. O'Brien reviewed the process for completing minutes. Ms. O'Brien will be looking into options to get additional assistance with the minutes and will keep the CAB and Commission informed about the status. Mr. Chrisos asked if Page 1 1 there is a statutory timeline. Ms. O'Brien responded that a draft, which is not clearly defined, is supposed to be completed within ten days. Mr. Mancuso thanked Ms. O'Brien for the update. 3. General Manager's Report — C. O'Brien, General Manager Ms. O'Brien introduced Priscilla Gottwald, Community Relations Manager, who was present to provide an update on recent events and upcoming plans. Ms. Gottwald gave an overview of the Public Power Open House, which was held on October 8. This year we centered on what RMLD does inside, so people would know what goes on to make an electric utility work. RCTV was present and taped the event. In addition to department displays, we had electric vehicles and chargers, a band, face painting and other activities. With over 200 children and parents, it was a success. Ms. Gottwald provided an overview of the annual RMLD T -shirt Contest, which is in its second decade. It reaches a different audience of 1,000 kids every year (third grade in Reading and fourth grade in the other towns). We send the schools educational activities books, t- shirts and markers, as well as teacher guides. The focus is electrical safety and conservation. Students make their own designs (on the t- shirts). We ask each school to submit 25 t- shirts, and we then select winners from each town. A calendar depicting the t -shirt designs is produced, and we host a reception in January for the winners (with superintendents, principals, teachers, and the families attending). It is a nice feel good night. Ms. Gottwald is also working on the Annual Report, which has been brought in -house this year, and the 2016 historical calendar, which is in draft. New this year is a holiday light decoration contest. A winner will be selected in each town. RMLD will also have a system -wide school competition, to promote our online store. EFI (the on -line store) will have all the schools listed. When purchasing lights, the customer will check a school and that school will get points. Ms. Gottwald noted that a lot of scouting troops come in for tours at this time of year. We give them a presentation on conservation /electrical safety. We will also go out to the schools when requested. Ms. O'Brien added that (for the Open House) we were able to do the event for a very efficient amount of money. Because of the grants and the rebate programs, we focused on the electric cars and chargers in an effort to determine public interest in these type of things. The whole concept of the Open House was "peak performance" which will carry into the Annual Report. Mr. Mancuso asked if the t -shirt contest was going to follow the peak performance theme - trying to educate the kids on peak performance. Ms. O'Brien responded that similar to conservation, we will work to educate children on that message; it is something we may be able to do in the future. Ms. O'Brien noted that she is preparing a slide presentation for the Reading Town Meeting, and will share it with the CAB once it is completed. 4. Commercial LED Lighting Program — G. Hooper, Chair Materials: RMLD Commercial Lighting Rebates Program Slide Presentation Chair Hooper noted that he had requested this item for an update on where we are currently with the commercial light rebate programs. Ms. Tirzah Shakespeare and Mr. Rahul Shah, Integrated Resources Engineers, introduced themselves and gave a brief overview of their background and experience. Ms. Shakespeare gave an overview of the RMLD Commercial Lighting Program, which includes LED conversions, LED retrofits, and LED new construction (Slide 1). RMLD has moved away from florescent fixtures. The standard building efficiency right now is a T8 requirement, so we want to bring our customers into the next level of efficiency. Ms. Shakespeare reviewed Slide 2: Program Eligibility and Criteria. The push for LEDs, and the MLP grants, has allowed us to give an extra $75,000 to commercial customers Page 1 2 and push the maximum for the projects to $20,000 (from $15,000 for municipals and $10,000 for commercial). All projects must be energy star certified and DLC listed. These are our standards of measurement to be sure our customers are using products that are going to benefit our customers down the line. Slide 3 is available on the RMLD website under commercial customers. This chart outlines every category of LED that we accept. We left it a little bit broad so that when customers are looking to put in product, if something needs to be a bit more customized, we can allow that for our customers as well. Each fixture is listed with an incentive rate. This is a one - for -one, and does not include de- lamping (as was provided with our older program); right now, we are just looking at the new install and having them be the most efficient. Ms. Shakespeare reviewed the various incentives. We are trying to get ahead of the curve with the smart lighting and controls so we have included the sensors and controls. However, we did included a caveat at the bottom so that customers looking to do custom projects can contact us, and we will work with them hand -in -hand to consult as well as manage the project with them. Slide 4 provided a summary for FY2015. Ms. Shakespeare noted that $75,000 of the $200,000 fund dollars is the MLP grant. We were able to use the entire $75,000 within a year and a half. There are projects that are still open, and we don't calculate the full - on savings to our peak -end for our customer until the very end of the project. Ms. Shakespeare asked if there were any questions about the program. Mr. Kelley asked about unplanned, smaller changeovers — as something goes out we are going to LED. How would we handle the smaller scale to make sure we are getting money back wherever we can? Ms. Shakespeare responded that on the smaller scale, we would usually talk to the customer and see what is best for their calendar. The program is ongoing, so we like to make it flexible for the customer. We can track it over time and then figure out how many fixtures they replaced, and what the monetary value is for those. We can then give them an incentive break and determine if they want to complete that rebate and then move onto the next segment, or we can just hold it out and total it to the end of the year. Mr. Chrisos asked about the disposal of old materials. Ms. Shakespeare responded that as part of the program, we ask that customers have a qualified electrician do all of the work. It is their responsibility, but if they have questions, we can provide advice. Chair Hooper commented that it is a great opportunity especially for load shedding. However, many companies have changed over from either T12 eight- footer or quartz fixtures to metal halide or high - pressure sodium. They've invested for the long -term and now it's changed again. Now we're at LED and we are going back through and reinventing it all over again. Ms. Shakespeare noted that one of the great things about this program is it lends a hand to the electricians when they are working with the customer — its not just about the cost reduction in terms of what you are saving in energy, but you are saving in maintenance. The group discussed the effectiveness of the luminance (brightness) of the LED lights in particular for security applications. The CAB members thanked Ms. Shakespeare and Mr. Shah. Chair Hooper asked if there were any additional comments. Ms. O'Brien noted that RMLD has gone to an internal "SharePoint" website, which allows for sharing of documents and elimination of paper. When this is complete, we are going to update the external website so that its more dashboard focused. Eventually, the website will be more focused on programs and the products that we are trying to get to, and we will include learning tools for children. Page 1 3 Chair Hooper asked Mr. Pacino if he had anything to add. Mr. Pacino reported that the Reading Board of Selectmen has requested a presentation from Mr. Talbot on monetizing fiber - opportunities for public power utilities. The date has not yet been set. Mr. Pacino noted that Mr. Talbot had asked the Commission if there was any problem with him doing the presentation, and the Commission had no objections. Mr. Kelley asked if he could return to the discussion on rebates for an additional question. LED's were installed at the new Wilmington High School. Do they qualify for the rebates program? Ms. Shakespeare responded yes. Now that the high school is completed, an Integrated Resources Engineer can look at that on a custom basis to see what it would be eligible for just on the demand reduction side. More than likely, we would prequalify for the full $20,000, and just go one - for -one to see what the actual reduction is. Mr. Chrisos asked if North Reading had done the same with their new high school and athletic fields. Ms. Shakespeare responded yes. With the high school, while it was still under construction, we did a walk through looking at all the equipment (lighting, HVAC, etc.) They will be eligible; it just has not been completed yet. Chair Hooper noted that Wilmington is doing some conversions with heating systems, and the heat pumps and motors. Ms. Shakespeare noted that that is a separate program, but is eligible for up to $50,000. Mr. Kelley noted that because of the way the budgets are handled in Wilmington, the schools' electricity is billed to the schools. Every other public building is billed to the Public Buildings Department. Would Wilmington qualify for two separate $20,000 rebates or just one? Ms. Shakespeare responded yes that would be separate. Normally, in the terms and conditions, we would say its $20,000 per customer regardless of multiple accounts, but this is a different scenario where you are governing different accounts. The schools are the customer and the town buildings are separate. Ms. O'Brien asked to continue and noted that she has met with three of the four town managers who will be scheduling selectmen updates. I mentioned to the town managers that we will be seeing transmission and capacity increases starting next year. The current numbers are based on re- running the cost of service models, and we are looking at about a 7 -9% overall increase to the customer; approximately 2% of the increase is for operating expenses and the rest is power supply. By March, we segway into the towns' budgets, by giving more formal numbers. I have been trying to go over the capacity and transmission increase coming down the pike so no one is going to be surprised. Chair Hooper noted that he will be doing budgeting prep in November to have it ready for Town Meeting. Ms. O'Brien responded that that is why we send out preliminary figures. Ms. Parenteau can put that together and send it to the CAB. It will be preliminary though. Mr. Chrisos noted that the newspaper articles preparing everyone for these increases were very good. The group agreed that they should be rerun at some point. Mr. Chrisos asked if we get phone calls from anyone about the articles. Ms. Gottwald responded that she does not get too many phone calls, but she is on the Chamber Board in Reading and North Reading, and is also a North Reading Rotarian. RMLD also has Rotarians in each of the towns and we are readily available for any questions. Ms. Gottwald noted that she has recently received inquiries about solar. Ms. Parenteau has asked Ms. Gottwald to get in contact with some of the cable TV companies and the libraries to see if they would be interested in any kind of public forum during the winter months. Solar would be a good subject, because people want to know how it works. Chair Hooper noted that it was a great idea. Ms. O'Brien stated that solar rebates for RMLD is not the same as the IOUs. The IOU's who have a 2% collaborative account funded by millions of customers. They are trying to make it affordable, and the payback is supposed to be less than four years. Chair Hooper noted that the Wilmington library does a couple of discussion panels for the community, which might be a good opportunity. The group talked about various public forums available such as Page 1 4 Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce meetings, cable TV, etc. Ms. O'Brien agreed to work on some public forums. S. Next Meeting — G. Hooper, Chair The next meeting of the CAB was scheduled for Wednesday, November 18. 6. Motion to Adjourn — G. Hooper, Chair Mr. Mancuso made a Motion to adjourn the Citizens' Advisory Board meeting, seconded by Mr. Chrisos. Hearing no further discussion, Motion carried 4 :0:1 (4 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 absent). 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