San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES March 20, 2014 | 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Attendees: Dave Christensen, PG&E Bob Decker, SCG Michael DeSousa, SCE Sarah Farell, SJVCEO Gail Henry, County of Tulare Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO
Mario Krstic, City of Farmersville Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Mark Okino, SCE Mario Orosco, City of Hanford Cal Rossi, SCE
Location: Tulare County RMA, Main Conference Room Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Next Meeting: April Partnership Meeting – April 17, 2014 – TBD
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Welcome & Introductions Kim Loeb welcomed the group, introductions were made and the discussion was turned over to Dave Christensen and Bob Decker to discuss Partnership Business. Partnership Business Dave had no pressing matters from PG&E to discuss with the Partners. SCG is rolling out a Ways to Save Portal. It will be valuable to the Valley in three months once the SCG Advanced Meter installation is complete. Bob suggested we have a seminar on this as well as the similar sites from SCE and PG&E for our third quarter VIEW presentation meeting. Kim wondered if there was any existing data on participation rates of residents who look online at their usage with the smart meters. Dave said it’s probably out there, but he hasn’t seen it. He said he will look into this. Bob said he thinks the participation levels are very low since most Program Managers from the utilities themselves don’t participate.
SCE Direct Install (DI) Roll Out Planning DI for small businesses has been in the region before and Kings and Tulare Counties completely bankrupted the program. Now it will be in the region for municipalities! SCE can learn a lot from PG&E because PG&E has had DI for years. Mark has two more forms that need to be initialed and sign. These forms represent an understanding that when funding ends, the program ends as well. Mark will email these forms out ASAP. They need to be signed and initialed before work can start. Michael said there is no cap as the Partnerships pay for all DI projects out of Direct Implementation funds. Funding DI for businesses comes out of a different pot of money. $2,500-3000 is average amount per business and $2000 is average amount for municipal facilities (mostly just lighting retrofits for muni). Gail asked which products would be used so she could present as many details about cost of replacement to the decision makers. Michael has some lists – CRI (contractor for DI) sometimes uses name brand products and sometimes uses custom made proprietary bulbs which are cheaper. Gail should contact Heidi to obtain a full list. Mark said Heidi would like to start with municipal facilities before moving into the communities, but can only do this if she has ALL paperwork completed from the municipality. Mario Krstic mentioned that Heidi would be in Farmersville that afternoon and Mario Orosco said that all paperwork for Hanford should be complete and turned in. Heidi was in Tulare today, but is doing community work first as the paperwork has not been turned in. Michael said that corporate owned chain businesses cannot go through the DI program, but franchises can. CRI can also go into businesses that FESS (contractor from last SCE DI cycle) went into before since that program was over a year ago. Michael to work with FESS to get this list. Attachment #2 from the meeting packet displays some missed opportunities (these have lines through them). Porterville is not a top priority – they are not as interested. Visalia and Hanford will reach out to the EDCs and Chambers to drive outreach through them. Lindsay doesn’t require much outreach; Mark has talk to the City and they’re interested in doing lighting they haven’t done before. The challenge is that CRI is only there for four days. The City may be able to tie outreach in with a street fair. There would be opportunity for CRI to do outreach with the whole community this way. Visalia covers areas of three different supervisors. Gail said that Three Rivers had been hit hard with DI before. Farmersville, Strathmore and Terra Bella will be hit hard with DI. Kim mentioned that a good way to gain support of certain supervisors is to make the case that DI will save a lot of money for small businesses. LPA will reach out to supervisors to do block walks in areas with high levels of people under the poverty level. Supervisors to do these block walks with the SCE team (this will ensure people understand and know the eligibility criteria). Pitch high savings for SMB to supervisors to gain their
support. Will have SCE teams (BCD from Irwindale) in town before CRI. Mark offered to walk the streets with the supervisors and SCE team if needed. How will CRI report back numbers? Michael said Heidi will most likely adopt Staples’ report (attachment #4). Dave said Staples gives PG&E business names, addresses and savings by each business. PG&E then gives SJVCEO an executive summary (attachment #3). Courtney said that we just need something back because we need to be able to quantify our efforts for the CPUC. Dave said that this information could be sent to Courtney with a nondisclosure agreement. Quarterly Meetings We have a three hour time block (11am – 2pm), but do not need to use it. Gail will check to see if the Tulare County RMA Conference Center is open then, but the Visalia Convention Center and Ag Tech are other potential venues. Want presentations on EE, DR or other programs that cover all IOUs. Want to invite others (i.e. supervisors) and will have a meal to entice them. We could have sessions broken up by a lunch period so our audience changes if a three hour block is too long for attendees to be out of their offices. In April, Michael will talk about ESCO sales versus opportunities, how to not get ripped off and how solar financing works. Other Business Mario Orosco will facilitate the May 15th meeting. There will be no June monthly meeting as the SEEC Conference will be held then (June 18th and 19th) in San Diego. PG&E and SCE will cover travel expenses but not staff time so if any VIEW partners would like to go, they should submit travel reimbursements to SJVCEO who will in turn send those to PG&E and SCE. Partners should expect a 90 day turnaround for reimbursement. Partners should let Courtney know if they plan to attend. Adjourn Meeting ACTION ITEMS 1. Dave to look for participation rates of those with smart meters who look at their usage online. 2. Mark to email additional DI forms for Cities to initial and sign before DI work can begin. 3. Gail to contact Heidi for complete list of DI products. 4. Michael to work with FESS to get list of business hit by DI last time. 5. Michael to work with Heidi to ensure SCE gets a document with quantifiable data from CRI, preferably something similar to Staples’ executive summary for PG&E’s program. 6. Partners to let Courtney know if they plan to attend the June SEEC conference in San Diego.