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Board - Committee - Commission - Council: 2023 MAR -8 PM 3: 08
Climate Advisory Committee
Date: 2020-07-22 Time: 7:00 PM
Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Conference Room
Address: 16 Lowell Street
Purpose: Bi -monthly meeting
Attendees: Members - Present:
David Zeek, Chair; Ray Porter, Secretary; Jeff Everson; Member; Peter
MacGown, Associate Member; Celeste Kracke, Member; Patti Cameron
RMLD, Associate Member; Travis Estes, Associate Member
Members - Not Present:
Denise McCarthy, Member;
Others Present:
Chuck Underhill, RMLD Integrated Resource Director
Gail Page, Greater Reading Alliance for Clean Energy (Grace)
Jim Satterthwaite, GRACE
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Ray Porter
Topics of Discussion:
Meeting was held via a Zoom Conference Call
Welcome to Members and Guests
Introductions by guests: Chuck Underhill, Gail Page and Jim Satterthwaite
Review minutes, vote on acceptance
Meeting minutes for 7/8/2020 was accepted as amended.
RMLD Renewable Portfolio — Chuck Underhill:
• Sustainability Policy under review.
• New programs: electrification of carbon sources to electric customers
• EV program incentives
• Heat pump programs (central units or mini -splits retrofits)
• Yard equipment electrification (mowers, trimmers, chainsaws)
• Service panel improvements for heat pump use (60%) or isolated upgrades
(40%). Limited interpretation of electrical service from monthly billings (100, 200
or 400 amp service)
• Virtual residential audits for energy efficiency (cell phone survey)
• Energy loads over this COVID period were lower over the winter (reduced space
heating). Looking at 1 to 1.5% reduction in commercial loads 1 to 1.5% load
reductions for residential loads. Some loads are strongly weather dependent.
• EV Charging stations installed as part of the RCS reporting requirements
• Energy New England provides various services for audits, rebates and reporting
• ISO New England payments for load management
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Town of Reading - Meeting Minutes
• Solar Choice 3 options being evaluated for several options. Some options were in
North Reading, but have not had a response from the municipality. Looking for a
vendor to design this 3'd Solar Choice program.
• Steps include:
o Commitment of interest by the community
o Structural assessment of roof
o Design system and customer participation
• Difference between Community Solar vs Individual Solar Installation
• Solar RECs are in the possession of RMLD, so there is a possibility to retire the
RECs
• RMLD does plan to hire someone who can review heat pumps designs
• Wrap-up - Next steps involvement in 2020 planning and input by RCAC
o EV fleets adoption is the highest value
• Green Communities - Select Board Presentation on July 21
• Julie Mercier discussed the changes to the bylaws that are needed to adopt Green
Communities
• RMLD was present at the meeting in force, but fees to be collected by RMLD were
not discussed
• Dave presented the Sustainability Plan summary. No further action was taken.
• Road Diet pilot to continue through the spring, due to low traffic.
RCAC Facebook Postings
• Celeste sent guidelines about Facebook posts. Video content is best.
• Length Is critical - keep it short (3 -5 minute videos, text messages limited to 50
characters
• Focus on relevancy and clear calls to action. Why we are posting something.
• Things that are more personally relevant get better engagement. (Town or RCAC
activities)
• Green Sense - take a nugget from the article more effective post
• Strike a balance between general knowledge and community content
• Commenting on the Road Diet might need to be spread over several posts.
• Scheduling of posts can be arranged to appear over time automatically (including
time of day (9 to Slpm) and day of week (Sunday))
• Pinning tool can keep a post at the top of the page
• Need to Improve outreach to people who follow or like our page.
• See email from Celeste for guidance on posts.
• How to link with other Town groups (sports teams)
Next meeting 8/12/2020 at 7:00 pm
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