San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES January 7, 2010 Invitees: Barbara Marty, City of Hanford Valerie Williams, City of Lindsay Jim Perrine, City of Porterville Leslie Caviglia, City of Visalia Nathan Garza, City of Visalia Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Harry Verheul, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tulare Cynthia Downing, SJVCEO Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO
Mike Nemeth, SJVCEO Chris Coronel, SCE Jesse Langley, SCE Bill DeLain, SCE Brian Thoburn, SCE Cal Rossi, SCE Paulo Morais, So Cal Gas Frank Spasaro, So Cal Gas
Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: Thursday, February 4, 2010 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Agenda Topics on January 7, 2010 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Administrative Business 3. 2010 Tier Levels and Goals 4. Energy Savings Goals for 2010 5. Marketing and Outreach 6. Funding Opportunities Update 7. Other Business Summary of Discussions: •
Jesse Langley reported that the utilities are working on substantiating the budget for local marketing and outreach that the CPUC has questioned. Southern California Edison has brought on a third party to conduct surveys and interviews in order for the evidence supports the claim that local works!
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Paulo Morais noted that the Partnership does have money set aside for marketing but it is prudent to be cautious in how the Partnership goes about promoting utility core programs. 1
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
Jesse reminded that Partners that now that Partnership has entered the 2010‐12 funding cycle Partners are now subject to the tiers. He explained that the tiers are based off participation and energy savings levels. Tiers determine what rebate and provide incentive for the participants. Jesse noted that all VIEW Partners at the table are at a tier level, so to move forward the government energy savings level needs to reach the community savings level. Jesse used the County of Tulare as an example: The community is at a 2.5% savings level and the municipality is at 12% savings level, so the community needs to move up. Jesse continues by explaining that the City of Visalia is more typical; the community is at a 12.5% savings, but the municipality is only at 3% and they both need to be at the base level before moving. Jesse noted that he thinks that with new funding from EECBG and other funding opportunities that VIEW has a good chance to have some Jurisdictions move up levels. Jesse will send out an email that spells out the tiers. Paulo explained that Southern California Gas Company does not have a tier program; they have a dollar per therm program. There’s not an enhanced rebate program, but funds set aside for rebates.
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Jesse reviewed the Project Tracking list with the group, and noted that there have been no changes to the list since the December Partners meeting. He did explain that on January 25th SCE plans to roll out new forms, so Chris Coronel will need to meet with all Jurisdictions to fill out the applications. Once the application is completed and entered it the project is triggered and added to the project tracking sheet. The three year Partnership goal is a reduction of 4,476,469kWh and 1,118kW goal. The SCG goal is 85,000 therms over the three years. Cynthia Downing noted that the Partnership needs a list from SCG to track goals against. We need the SCG lists to track goals against.
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Courtney Kalashian reported that the Partnership website is in review and PESC is hoping to have it ready to launch by the end of the month.
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Despite there not being a final decision on marketing dollars the Marketing and Outreach committee still wants to look at calendar and determine where the best use of resources will be.
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The Holiday Light Exchange was a mixed success. While the City of Hanford was only able to give out 22 strands Woodlake was able to exchange 100, with requests for even more! Porterville exchanged all 100 light strands, but it came down to the very last day, and it was a struggle in the end. Cynthia asked if it would be possible to help get a flyer out into the local papers and help the Jurisdictions with promotion next year. The City of Visalia, with the most lights, was able to exchange 375 light strands through a table at the Senior Center and an employee exchange day. Leslie Caviglia felt that the City could have pushed harder to get one of the local high school environmental clubs involved, and said that they would definitely pursue that connection for the 2010 HLE.
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Cynthia reported that the SJVCEO has been pumping out a lot of grants! 37 jurisdictions took part in the partnership and their applications will be submitted on the 12th on time! 2
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
For the State Energy Program, there are two applications turned in. On one application, the City of Visalia is the lead for a two county residential retrofit program. Cynthia explained that the Residential Retrofit application did not have an AB 811 component in it because in the two counties involved have such high foreclosure rates; instead, the application included the possibility of creative financing through local banks.
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The SJVCEO submitted an application in the competitive Department of Energy for small jurisdiction grants program called, “Greening Main Street”, which will focus on small business retrofits in downtown areas.
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Cynthia reported that there is yet another grant that the SJVCEO is looking at that has a March deadline. It is a larger, competitive grant, but it is “squishier” than — not as technical as the previous grants and has a community based approach. The SJVCEO will circulate information and interest notification at a later date.
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Cynthia noted that her main concern regarding AB811 and California First is that we were told that funds came on a first come first served basis and we were concerned that we wouldn’t have the people. We still have questions.
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Paulo introduced Frank Spasaro, SCG Manager for Energy Efficiency Partnerships, to speak on AB811. Frank first explained that the Partners don’t have to go through California First, that as is can be implemented as a city, county, or regional group. Frank went on to talk to the group about the different approaches to AB811 and how the Partners could participate. The group participated in an open question and answer session with Frank, and in the end, asked Kim Loeb to communicate with California First on behalf of the Partnership.
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Jesse made the Partners aware of a Strategic Planning Budget that was set aside for each partnership. There will be an RFP sent to the Partnership and Partners for $27.5 million in February, it will be due in March and implemented in May. SCE has put together a menu list for Partnerships, i.e. reach codes, climate action planning, etc. This is all geared toward California’s Energy Efficiency long term plan. Jesse explained that this is not money the utilities asked for, but were awarded by the CPUC to encourage long term practices in sustainability. Cynthia asked who applies ad Jesse explained that the collective Partnership or the individuals can apply. An update on this will be added to the February meeting agenda. Frank pointed out that there are two things going on: the utilities tried to build this into the budget and the menu aspect is to update where we were with the strategic plan two years ago. The CPUC wants Partnerships to be working on similar things and the utilities are trying to implement that. He explained that the Partnership should look at the original plan and compare it to the menu and see if there are any changes. Cynthia asked if the Partners needed to keep the PIP plan with the menu and Frank explained that there could be no changes or that there could be some changes to the PIP Plan.
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San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
The group nominated Lew Nelson, in his absence, to facilitate the next meeting.
Action Items: 1. Jesse will send out an email that spells out the tiers and goals schedule 2. SCG will provide their list to track goals against. 3. Chris Coronel will meet with all Jurisdictions to fill out project applications when the new forms are released on January 25th. 4. Southern California Gas will provide the Partnership with their projects list so goals can be tracked against it. 5. The SJVCEO will send out information on an upcoming grant opportunity (due in March 2010) in the coming weeks. 6. Kim Loeb will communicate the Partnerships outstanding questions to California First. 7. The February meeting agenda will include an update on the Strategic Planning Budget
PARTNERSHIP 2010 MEETING SCHEDULE: Thursday, February 4, 2010 Thursday, March 4, 2010 Thursday, April 1, 2010 Thursday, May 6, 2010 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Thursday, July 1, 2010 Thursday, August 5, 2010 Thursday, September 2, 2010 Thursday, October 7, 2010 Thursday, November 4, 2010 Thursday, December 2, 2010
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