San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION REGIONAL WEBCAST SUMMARY NOTES May 15, 2014 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Attendees: Joseph Carlini, City of Tulare Dave Christensen, PG&E Kuyler Crocker, PG&E Bob Decker, SCG Michael DeSousa, SCE Becky Estrella, SCG Sarah Farell, SJVCEO Betsy Garcia, City of Visalia
Devon Jones, City of Visalia Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Cam Maloy, PG&E Rhonda Mann, County of Kings Mark Okino, SCE Joseph Oldham, LGC Jarred Olsen, Fresno EDC Mario Orosco, City of Hanford
Location: Fresno Pacific University, Visalia Campus Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: No June meeting. SEEC Conference June 18th and 19th in San Diego.
SUMMARY OF REGIONAL DISCUSSION What were your thoughts on this presentation? The goal of SEEC was to keep this regionalized to maintain some face-to-face interaction, but they also needed to reach individuals and organizations state-wide. Most of the group found the webinar a hard format to follow, but necessary to reach the entire state. Are there opportunities to better infuse economic development opportunities in your energy activities, either locally or regionally? Betsy asked how people are financing programs and projects. This was missing from the conversation and it is an especially important topic to those in the Central Valley. Joseph Oldham mentioned the PACE and HERO programs available in the Valley as well as a few Credit Loan Programs. These are all good programs, but he acknowledged that there are gaps. Courtney said there should be a comprehensive study by region about funding options. Joseph’s office could do this or SJVCEO could take this on. After the group agreed that a tool like this would be helpful, Joseph said that there has been a recurring
theme. There has been a growing demand for a searchable database that can quickly give a rundown of programs, resources, etc. in a specific area. How this will play out, where it will be housed is TBD, but it is becoming more and more necessary. Devon mentioned that Proteus has a similar training program to the Rising Sun Energy Center. Proteus in in partnership with the Labor Union for energy efficiency and renewable energy trainings and the program has an 80+% placement rate. Dave added that PG&E has been working with Rising Sun and the Great Valley Center to bring these training programs to the Northern San Joaquin Valley counties. In response to this, Joseph asked if there has been active workforce development promotion in the various communities. West Hills Community College has an Energy Efficiency Program at the Coalinga campus and Reedley College has a Power Pathways program. We see that programs exist, but do Local Government Partners understand the path between economic and workforce development as well as how the two intersect with Energy Efficiency in the community for both residential and commercial sectors? Visalia does; the City is looking to partner with Proteus to get a crew out to reprogram irrigation timers. Direct Install has contractors coming in, but all are Southern CA contractors. How do we get local folks into these programs? Those in the Valley no longer want outsiders doing their work. The local contractor force is intimidated because they are unaware of training programs and how to incorporate EE into their work. Staples, one of PG&E’s DI contractors, is based out of Bakersfield. Staples will start subcontracting to local contractors in the Valley. Larger contractors are generally better for bigger projects, but smaller contractors will be more cost-effective. Joseph Carlini, the new Operations Manager for the City of Tulare, comes to us from Florida. Regional contractors in Florida are required to do at least 15% local work for SMB. This work is completed either at a City or County level. Brendan Reed has the Free Business Energy Evaluations (FREBE) program in the City of Chula Vista that requires business to get a free energy evaluation and they are encouraged to perform any energy-saving improvements suggested during the evaluation. Betsy suggested that we look into replicating this program in the Valley, but we would need to identify where the funding would come from. Courtney mentioned that SJVCEO is looking to do a pilot program with the CPUC to do this in 2016 and take the load of the Cities’ backs; the program would provide staff to help out with this. It is important, however, to push for regional programs in Partnerships where utilities intersect. There are only a few Local Government Partnerships where this happens, and these LGPs want all customers to have access to similar programs. Joseph Oldham mentioned that some areas, such as those in the SMUD territory, have partially subsidized audits. The LGC would like to work with LGPs to offer PACE and HERO so customers have nothing out of pocket or they get reimbursed for projects. Are there opportunities to better incorporate economic messaging in your energy activities, either locally or regionally? The San Joaquin Valley is far more money-focused than most other regions in California. Air quality and climate matter a lot too since the SJV has the worst air quality in the state. We need contractors and
Project Managers who know this but also know how to talk to customers about this. The contractors also need to be the sales person. They need to sell air quality points to families with small children and cost savings to low-income customers. Rhonda said Kings County needs help. Contractors in the area are poor and won’t take time off to go to an EE training. She and Mario agreed that trainings held on the weekends may attract more local contractors than those during the week. Cam suggested holding evening training sessions as well. If the VIEW Partnership could provide the training sessions, the jurisdictions have the resources to perform the outreach and get the word out. These trainings would need to provide contractors with something valuable to sell so that the sessions will be worthwhile to the contractors participating. The website for Energy Upgrade CA has a searchable database for contractors serving particular regions. The website lists two participating contractors in the San Joaquin Valley, but neither is from the region. There is a need to get more local contractors willing to participate, but this means there needs to be an incentive. We also need to figure out a sales message for the region and make sure it is simple. Courtney asked for volunteers to set up a brief taskforce for messaging. She would like to set up a one or two hour working lunch about this and the Local Government Partnerships can support it. The taskforce needs to keep in mind that contractors need to immediately be able to make money from having this EE training under their belts. The Title 24 update may be a great avenue to launch this. Dave also mentioned that EUCA has a new marketing company that has improved its messaging and made it more widespread, which could help this taskforce. Betsy said Visalia is already trying to do outreach with EUCA and engage contractors that way. Rhonda said that many contractors in her network overlap in residential and commercial work. The Valley needs something to help the unemployment rate and the growth of green jobs. She would like to see more community outreach events, similar to the October event in Stratford, to get information about Proteus and other programs out to those that don’t know about them. Next Steps? Courtney will send out a meeting request for the aforementioned taskforce. Those who cannot participate should reach out to their contacts and we should look to bring in the EDCs.