San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
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PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES February 2, 2012 | 10:00 a.m. County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room| 5961 South Mooney Blvd., Visalia, CA 93277 Attendees: Barbara Marty, City of Hanford Lew Nelson, City of Tulare Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Gail Henry, County of Tulare
Jim Claybaugh, Tulare County WIB Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO Hammad Chaudhry, SCE
Mark Okino, SCE Cal Rossi, SCE
Location: County of Tulare RMA, Conference Room E, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: Thursday, March 1, 2012 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277
Agenda Topics on February 2, 2012 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Energy Savings 3. Marketing and Outreach Report 4. Strategic Plan Effort Update 5. LivingWise Program 6. Retro-commissioning 7. Energy Upgrade California 8. Other Business 9. Adjourn VIEW Partnership Meeting
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Welcome and Introductions Lew Nelson facilitated the meeting, starting with a welcome and introductions. Energy Savings Mark Okino reviewed the SCE project tracking list and addressed project questions or concerns. The City of Woodlake’s EECBG project cannot include streetlights because those are Edison owned. Mark suggested pumps as their best option, but Courtney Kalashian expressed concern that there would not be enough time to order materials. Mark Okino will provide Lew Nelson with a list of LEDs and other fixtures. Maureen Hoff will post the list to the Archive page of the VIEW website. Lew is interested in replacing about a dozen old fashioned, city-owned street lights on the north side of town with LEDs. Courtney brought up the fact that the City of Tulare did some parking lot street light retrofits in 2011 and
2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) didn’t think the savings had been captured. Lew will give the information regarding the retrofit to Hammad and Mark in the hopes that the savings can be captured retroactively. Kim Loeb noted that the City of Visalia is having some problems with their contractor because materials do not follow the ‘Buy American’ guidelines. It was suggested by Mark to submit an application for the work completed on the other lighting project and to submit a separate application on the Convention Center lighting once they proper materials are in place. There was a brief discussion about the difficulty in navigating the SCE website and Hammad suggested that Courtney speak with Vinnie at SCE. Hammad reported that the Partnership is 109% over the three year electric savings goal. The Energy Leader report cards for each jurisdiction were reviewed. A correction to be noted was that the City of Visalia has already met Gold at the community level. The City of Hanford is just shy of Silver and if their downtown lighting project qualifies it would put them close or just there as the community goal has already been met. Courtney explained that her preferred order for work on the Demand Response pieces to move jurisdictions up tier levels would be Tulare, Visalia, Hanford, and then Porterville. The Demand Response co-branding event for the City of Visalia will be the Visalia Springfest and for the City of Tulare it will be the Valley Go Green Summit. As soon as the pump order is placed for the City of Lindsay’s EECBG project to secure more savings towards their goal, the partnership will proceed in assisting the city with other pieces to move up tiers. Courtney asked Hammad if the current savings/tier levels will transfer over to the next Partnership cycle. Hammad said he could guarantee that everyone will move over in the next cycle at the tier level they are at the end of the current cycle; however, he could not say how long they will stay at that level because the details are still being worked out. The City of Visalia is on track for Gold, but is about 100,000 kWh short so a few smaller projects need to be done. Hammad suggested getting to Gold before doing any large projects in order to maximize incentive dollars. Kim said the city is starting to receive the results of energy audits and will be looking to put together a bunch of projects. Maureen and Courtney also have the results from the IDSM audits from each jurisdiction that show recommendations for Demand Response pieces. Courtney explained that she and Maureen will be making monthly visits to those jurisdictions that cannot regularly make the monthly partnership meetings. They will deliver materials as needed, assist in getting the Demand Response pieces complete, and anything else to keep those cities up to speed. The County of Tulare is currently at Silver and their EECBG project would bring them to Gold on the municipal side. The community savings have been a challenge but Hammad said he will look 2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) into solutions to reach their goals. He will also check to see if savings are being realized without our knowledge. Jim Claybaugh of the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board said the county is researching tax credits for dairies that put in anaerobic digesters and other technologies. Courtney said there wouldn’t be energy savings credit for the partnership but that would make a great success story for the county. Hammad encouraged all that the partnership is doing great and that while it is wonderful to be a Valued partner, it is easily possible for all partners to at least get to Silver. He also mentioned that the Comprehensive Mobile Home Program will be coming through the area again soon and that someone will be in touch with Courtney to help coordinate. Kim said the City of Visalia plans to have the partnership benchmark all but 30 or so facilities that will be taken care of through their competitive grant. Kim will send Maureen the list of those facilities. A second round of funding for EECGB will soon be available but the SJVCEO will not be able to help with the application process. Hammad said there is a possibility that the technical assistance funds from the utilities could cover this. Hammad announced that T12 lighting rebates are coming to an end about June 1 st so any jurisdiction that is doing a project must be done before then to get the rebate. Marking and Outreach Report The Visalia Springfest Home and Patio Show will take place from Friday, February 10 th through Sunday, February 12th. Details are still being worked out for whether or not the Mobile Education Unit will be able to staff the booth because of budget constraints. Mark Okino suggested sending Bill DeLain an email to help garner support in having the MEU at the event. The Partnership will also have a booth at the February23rd Valley Go Green Summit where Courtney and Maureen will self-staff the booth. Strategic Planning Effort Update The City of Hanford is just about complete in getting all of their utility data into Portfolio Manager. Maureen said that the City is waiting on a few pieces through the automated benchmarking service and then all should be complete. The City of Tulare returned their data to Maureen and most that is left is to find the year built/installed for all of the facilities and then the data can be uploaded into Portfolio Manager. The new strategic plan items that focus on education of elected and department officials will be kicking off in March and May.
2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) Courtney noted that the Energy Action Plans done under the Partnership’s Strategic Planning efforts will have to be tweaked slightly to add in a community piece to make it comprehensive. LivingWise Program Hammad presented results from the LivingWise program that provides 6 th grade classrooms with energy efficiency education. The program went very well and it will return to the area. Retro-commissioning Hammad presented details on the retro-commissioning program which will optimize HVAC systems of existing buildings. The program is only effective for larger buildings that are at least 25,000 square feet. The Tulare County RMA building could be a prime target. There are nine Edison-qualified providers that are set to do the retro-commissioning, but if a jurisdiction would prefer another contractor that is not on the list, Edison will work with that contractor to get them certified. Energy Upgrade California Gordon Smith from Ecology Action updated the partners on Energy Upgrade California. There are currently 18 approved contractors to serve Tulare and Kings County, 4 of which actually reside within Tulare County. There will be a free workshop in Visalia on February 9th at the Holiday Inn and Conference Center for those interested in learning how Energy Upgrade California can help save energy and money for businesses and customers. Gordon reported that the demand for the Energy Tune-Up program has been high. The program is free to homeowners in Tulare, Kings, Fresno, and Kern counties. Gail Henry asked if new homes can go through the free energy assessment. Gordon said while newer homes probably won’t have the issues of older ones, it is still beneficial to get it checked out in case the ducting system has come loose or other unknown efficiency problems exist – it is a free program and worthwhile to have these things checked out! Other Business The City of Tulare requested a letter of support from the VIEW partnership for a grant application. While everyone agreed to support the city, Hammad said that both utilities’ legal departments will have to review first. All agreed that Courtney could sign on the partnership’s behalf. Maureen will email the letter of support to Hammad and Paulo so the utilities can look it over. The SJVCEO will also be sending a letter of support. Hammad presented a success story about PC network power management software. The software gives the IT manager a lot of control over when/where updating of computer systems takes place. Gail said the County of Tulare approached IT with similar software a few years ago but it didn’t seem appropriate because of employee schedules. Hammad will provide Courtney 2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) and Maureen with the one page business case letter for why it is financially feasible to make the PC software change.
Courtney and Kim discussed their recent experience at a meeting with the Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition. The group would like to see regional partnerships in how PUC funds are spent and be more directly involved in receiving those funds rather than running the funds through utilities. The group’s main concern is that the PUC funds continue. Courtney felt the group had a bit of unnecessary hostility towards the utilities because the utilities are regulated by the PUC; however, she did think that the group’s work in advocating cities to get them more involved in the process was good. Lou Camara was nominated as the February Partnership meeting facilitator. ACTION ITEMS: Mark Okino will provide Lew Nelson with a list of LEDs and other fixtures. Maureen Hoff will post the list to the Archive page of the VIEW website. Lew Nelson will give the information regarding last year’s lighting retrofit to Hammad and Mark in the hopes that the savings can be captured retroactively. Courtney Kalashian will connect with Vinnie at SCE regarding difficulty navigating the SCE website. Maureen and Courtney will review and provide results from the IDSM audits that show recommendations for Demand Response pieces. Hammad will check on potential community savings in the County of Tulare. Kim Loeb will send Maureen the list of 30 or so facilities that the City plans to benchmark through their competitive grant. Hammad will look into the possibility of technical assistance funds from the utilities covering the cost of applications for EECBG 2. Hammad will work to get an answer on whether or not the Mobile Education Unit will be able to staff the Visalia Springfest Home and Patio show booth. Maureen will email the letter of support for the City of Tulare’s grant application to Hammad and Paulo so the utilities can look it over. 2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) Hammad will provide Courtney and Maureen with the one page business case letter for why it is financially feasible to make the PC software change.
2012 Meeting Schedule: March 1, April 5, May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2, September 2, October 4, November 1, December 6.