San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES June 3, 2010 Attendees: Lew Nelson, City of Tulare Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Harry Verheul, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tulare Bryan Styles, City of Porterville Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO
Chris Coronel, SCE Jesse Langley, SCE Bill DeLain, SCE Cal Rossi, SCE Paulo Morais, 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, August 5, 2010 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277
Agenda Topics on July 1, 2010 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Energy Savings Goals for 2010 3. Strategic Planning Progress Report a. Recommendation of Consultant for 4.1.1 and 4.1.3 4. Report from All Partners Meeting 5. Marketing and Outreach a. Recap of Events – Visalia and Lindsay Farmers Markets b. Volunteer Recruitment c. Upcoming Events i. Visalia Farmers Market, July 22nd ii. Lindsay Farmers Market, July 23rd iii. Visalia Rawhide ‘Christmas in July’ Promo Event, July 25th iv. Hanford Farmers Market | City Employee Appreciation Night, August 12th 6. VIEW the Success Story 7. Old Business 1
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) 8. Next Steps a. Actions Items b. Facilitator for next meeting
Summary of Discussions: •
In Valerie Williams’ absence, Kim Loeb took the role of Facilitator and called the meeting to order at 10:10am and we went around the room for introductions.
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Chris Coronel kicked off the meeting with a discussion regarding Energy Savings Goals and presented the Partners with the project tracking list. Chris reviewed the list and clarified a few points where people had questions. Porterville’s progress was noted and Courtney Kalashian introduced the city’s new representative, Bryan Styles. On-Bill Financing applications will be available any day now and applications will be accepted starting August 2nd. Bill DeLain asked whether this was still a first-come, firstserved program and Chris confirmed that was the case. Please submit project ideas! Courtney Kalashian updated on EECBG funds and noted that the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization (SJVCEO) received a stop work order from the Air Control District until the CEC issues a contract. Chris applauded the VIEW partners saying they were ahead of the curve compared to other Partnerships in terms of getting projects lined up before funds are scheduled for release. Chris noted that the City of Visalia’s installed airport lighting project was never officially approved by a third party. There are still discussions as to whether or not this will qualify. Jesse Langley explained that in our earlier meeting for Visalia’s Needs Assessment, we discussed the importance of communication. Chris reviewed the steps for receiving funding for each type of project. For a customized solutions project, there first must be discussion whether or not the project will qualify; an application is then submitted by the customer; a 3rd party reviews and sets up pre-inspection for the project (this does not give the ok for work to begin); the 3rd party completes their review and can either reduce or bump up the estimated savings that were originally predicted; the customer will receive an electronic and hard copy of the letter showing savings, project number, and confirmation that a contract is coming in the mail; not until the contract is signed can work begin and all documented work must be shown to have occurred on or after the contract date; customer should make a copy of the contract and get it to their representative to show that it is a partnership project so the savings will be tracked. For an express solutions project, a pre-inspection is not required. Savings by Design projects require a letter of interest to start the process. 2
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) Kim Loeb made the point that the lesson learned is to make sure everything sent in the mail is tracked to make sure it has been received. This will also help to solve any communications issues. Jesse added that in order for any savings to count towards the partnership, they must be visible and brought to attention. Paulo Morais noted that even though the utility is not incentivizing for HVAC, we could still quantify the savings and give credit towards the partnership. This would have to be for all projects going forward, nothing retroactive would count. •
Strategic Planning Progress Report – Courtney Kalashian reported that we had been looking at Portfolio Manager a while back but had been distracted by other pieces for the Partnership. She noted that we have the available resources for data entry at the Professional Exchange office and can easily move this piece forward fairly quickly. Paulo noted that the partners simply need to set up their Portfolio Manager accounts and that the data would be dumped into the system – each piece of data does not have to be manually entered. Kim Loeb recommended the EPA Energy Star webinar for people that wanted to become more familiar with the system. Courtney, on behalf of the implementing partner, SJVCEO, after review by Executive Director, Paul Johnson recommended to the VIEW Partners that the US Green Building Council Central California Chapter (USGBC CC) be selected as a consultant to perform work assigned to the Long Term Strategic Plan menu options 4.1.1 and 4.1.3. The board members are local, very experienced, and have had great success with Delano. The board is willing to work on our timeline and within our budget. After review of the board roster, Harry Verheul commented that Loren Aiton does great work! There seemed to be minimal discussion and the Partners approved to use the USGBC CC as a consultant.
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Courtney reported on the All Partners Meeting saying it was great and very educational. Paulo agreed and said feedback from event attendees was very positive. Kim Loeb said he attended last year’s event but he didn’t see the cost benefit of going this time if it was the same. He hopes that the next one has the format of this last one since everyone had such positive feedback. Kim and Gail Henry agreed that June is a hard time to get away from the office due to budget planning and vacations. Courtney’s favorite three pieces of the All Partners Meeting were the County of San Bernardino’s revolving energy fund, a direct install story, and Long Beach’s energy efficiency contest. The revolving energy fund involved all of the county’s incentive dollars going to pay their loan fund, allowing the county’s general fund to not take a hit. The direct install example was in an area that received only 2 weeks notice but managed to put in a great effort to build awareness and have successful community participation. The Long Beach energy efficiency contest chose one winner in each of their nine districts to receive $5k for retrofits. Jesse clarified that these funds did not come from the partnership budget, but everyone agreed that this was a great concept to gain exposure and get the message out about energy efficiency. 3
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
It was briefly discussed that the CEC will be marketing under the program name ‘Energy Upgrade California’. SEEC will be hosting webinars over the next year or so. Courtney and Maureen Hoff participated in the first one, ‘Funding and Resources for Energy Programs’, and will continue to update the partners on future webinar topics and dates. •
Marketing and Outreach – Courtney showed off thank you letters we received from the Porterville Prospect Education Center students after VIEW’s participation in their Earth Day event. Paulo especially was impressed with the letters and suggested that we add them to the VIEW website. Courtney will also scan the letters to Jesse in the hopes of getting in the Partners newsletter. Maureen Hoff has been reaching out to all jurisdictions for community volunteers and will continue to keep in touch with all Partners regarding upcoming events. We have yet to receive the MEU reports from the June Farmers Markets in Visalia and Lindsay. Lew Nelson said the City of Tulare is thinking about starting up their market again. Maureen reported on the upcoming July 25th Visalia Rawhide Christmas in July event where VIEW will be doing a holiday light exchange.
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VIEW the Success Story – Courtney presented Hanford’s success story, one of our first completed stories that will eventually be published to the VIEW website. She attributed the great idea to Kim and explained that we are trying to incorporate these positive stories on the web in order for the partnership and each jurisdiction to tell their story and spread awareness. We are hoping to get multiple stories from each jurisdiction so we can have a rotating library.
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Old Business CARE Program – Since we were not able to get a CARE representative at this month’s meeting, Maureen will coordinate with Paulo to get a customer assistance representative at the August Partners meeting to discuss CARE and other available programs. Competitive Strategic Planning Funding - It was asked if it was ok share information on the submissions that were not awarded in original process and why they were not awarded. Jesse clarified that there were no submissions from this partnership, but for those that did submit, there was a briefing on why they were not awarded. Jesse also explained that the SJVCEO can help to draft and coordinate submissions as long as the jurisdiction partner is listed as the lead. He also clarified that a group can put in a submission, but one partner must take the lead and then distribute funds if awarded. 4
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) The partners thought this could be a great opportunity and liked the idea of setting aside time for brainstorming. Cool Centers – Gail Henry was concerned that the County of Tulare never heard back from anyone regarding their Cool Center application. She understands their application was late, but she would appreciate advanced notice for next year so they can sign up in time. Lew Nelson thought the City of Tulare was signed up for this year. Courtney thought it would be a good idea to send press releases to spread awareness for the centers next year.
ACTION ITEMS o Courtney Kalashian will coordinate with the USGBC Central California chapter to bring representatives to the next VIEW meeting. o Courtney Kalashian will scan our thank you letters from the Prospect Education Center students to Jesse, who in turn will try to these in the Partners newsletter. We will also work to get these on the VIEW website. o Courtney and Maureen will encourage all partners to turn in an OBF projects. o Chris Coronel will email Gail Henry as a reminder to resend the County of Tulare’s savings to service account for the Floresco Lighting Project; will also resend to SJVCEO’s Mike Nemeth to coordinate. o Jesse Langley will follow-up with the Cool Center representative regarding the County of Tulare’s application. o Maureen Hoff will coordinate with Paulo to get a customer assistance representative at the August Partners meeting to discuss CARE and other available programs. o Valerie Williams will be facilitator for the August 5th Partners meeting.
PARTNERSHIP 2010 MEETING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, August 5, 2010 Thursday, September 2, 2010 Thursday, October 7, 2010 Thursday, November 4, 2010 Thursday, December 2, 2010
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