San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES December 20, 2012 | 9:30 a.m. Attendees: Ki m Loeb, Ci ty of Visalia Bets y McGovern Ga rcia, Ci ty of Visalia Rhonda Ma nn, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tula re
Location: Time: Next Meeting: Location :
Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO Mi chael DeSousa , SCE Ma rk Okino, SCE Paulo Morais, So Cal Gas
Alma Briseño, So Cal Gas Da ve Chris tensen, PG&E Steve Newvine , PG&E
Visalia Chamber of Commerce, 220 N. Santa Fe Street, Visalia, CA 93292 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Thursday, February 21, 2012 Visalia Chamber of Commerce, 220 N. Santa Fe Street, Visalia, CA 93292
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Welcome & Introductions Kim Loeb welcomed the group and introductions followed. Paulo Morais introduced Alma Briseño, the partnership’s new Gas Company program manager. Business Items Maureen Hoff gave a brief recap of the VIEW the Success luncheon and the Energy Efficiency/Demand Side Management 101 presentations for Woodlake, Hanford, and Kings County. The City of Woodlake had just about the entire Council at its EE/DSM 101 presentation. Rhonda Mann said all of the County representatives in attendance at both the luncheon and educational presentation had very good and positive feedback. One of the benefits of having the EE/DSM 101 presentation was that the County of Kings, who had originally sent back the plug load occupancy sensors, decided that they did want them. In two days, over 200 sensors were installed and the county was impressed with the professionalism of Lincus, the third party installer. Municipal Energy Savings SCG Paulo reported that there had not been any changes since the last meeting. He said Alma will be in a much better position to support the counties and cities and has a well rounded background in communications and marketing as well as engineering so she has valuable technical skills. Alma will be working on both the VIEW and Kern partnerships and she officially begins her position on December 24th. SCE Mark Okino reported on SCE related projects. He will try to set up a meeting in the new year with Betsy McGovern Garcia to get an update on Visalia’s WWTP project to make sure everyone is on board and that we stay on top of the project. He plans to bring the SCE engineers as well in order to provide any needed clarity.
2013 Meeting Schedule: February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) Kim asked for an update on Visalia’s lighting retrofit incentive because it has been ‘oddly silent’. Mark said there are currently two managers working on getting it through the system. He wrote an editorial about the project in order to present to upper management and attempted to attend a project related meeting in Southern California but was called back. He said there are rules and guidelines that exist and SCE is following those which make this process more difficult and drawn out. Maureen passed out SCE tier level reports to those jurisdictions in attendance and discussed offline any updates to the lists since they were printed. Planning for 2013-14 Report from SEEC webinar Paulo gave an overview of what was discussed on the SEEC webinar ‘New Energy Programs that Impact Local Governments: Overview of 2013-2014 CPUC Energy Efficiency Decisions’. Frank Spasaro spoke on the webinar and covered what will be coming up in the next program cycle. There are new finance options that are currently being designed and will roll out sometime in 2013, hopefully for sure by 2014. The utilities are also working with the Regional Energy Networks (RENs) to figure out logistics since they can’t pay for work that they are going to be doing outside of utility territory. There will be a heightened focus on Energy Upgrade California and program managers will work closely to ensure that we can collaborate with marketing and outreach organizations to make sure the San Joaquin Valley is getting the attention it needs. Kim asked if Energy Upgrade California will be staying within the same framework of incentives or if things have been reevaluated. Paulo said that the basic path option is being redesigned to offer more flexibility. Most of the customers who have already taken advantage of the program actually went with the advanced route. Multi-family and small business options will also be coming online and will be something to look for and expect in the future. Paulo thought that the multi-family program would likely be adopted in the transition period sometime in 2013-2014. Alma added that she will be able to continually provide updates. She also added that the available rebate for the residential advanced path will now be up to $4500 as opposed to the $4000 that was being offered in the past. Kim added that one of the challenges will be to get local contractors certified though the program. It was a real challenge getting them to understand that this would be a good business opportunity. He suggested more opportunities to bring training through the area. Paulo felt the training program itself was probably a barrier because of the time investment required (3-10 days depending on type of training). Kim also said that the time of year for training will also be critical because most contractors can’t spare time in summer, for example, when they are swamped with work. Paulo suggested coordinating with Kern to bring training options to the region. PG&E offers a training webinar so this may also be an option. PG&E programs for 2013-14 Dave Christensen thanked the group for allowing PG&E to become a part of the partnership. They have already been working with incorporated cities in the area and will continue similar efforts. The main focus will be energy savings with a goal of 1.5 million kWh and will utilize Direct Install to achieve most of these savings. PG&E uses Staples and Associates to conduct the direct installations and requires customers to co-pay because the program is not free. PG&E strives to touch all customers with their programs and believes that their Direct Install, Middle Income Direct Install (MIDI), and other energy 2013 Meeting Schedule: February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) savings assistance programs do just that. Dave also mentioned that PG&E is collecting proposals from cities on how they would like to reach out to their communities and PG&E will help provide funding to a select two cities to assist them in achieving their goals. Dave explained that the Home Energy Tune Up program that was originally an ARRA funded program but ran dry will now be infused with funds from PG&E to continue its efforts to provide energy audits and diagnostic tools for residents in Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, and Madera counties. It doesn’t always make sense to provide a full diagnostic to every customer because high energy bills may be the result of lifestyle factors so in order to utilize program funds wisely, only select customers will receive the more expensive diagnostics after an audit shows there is cause to perform more testing. The program will relaunch January 1st. The program is only for PG&E customers. Gail Henry asked if Dinuba was at all interested in joining the partnership. Dave said that they have yet to go out to specific cities and make contact regarding joining VIEW. This is something they will do in 2013. Dave offered to provide a list of the smaller, unincorporated areas that will be covered by the partnership. Dave said that the contract with Staples and Associates covers Kings and Tulare counties so many of these communities have already been touched by PG&E efforts. Gail mentioned that when Direct Install does come through the smaller areas that presentations and door to door efforts have been worthwhile with the SCE cities. Dave said we can certainly do this in PG&E territory in addition to sending out letters and going through the Chambers of Commerce to get the word out. SCE programs for 2013-14 Michael DeSousa said that in the next cycle there will be a focus on providing as much technical assistance as possible to partner cities. Lincus, the company that facilitated the PLOS, identified some WWTP and other water processing facilities within VIEW territory but Mark felt that the ones identified already have projects in place and there is probably not much opportunity. Michael also mentioned that SCE has a variety of programs available on the residential side and they are continuing to look for ways to improve the Energy Upgrade California roll out. In addition, SCE has a new mobile education unit that is a trailer, not an RV, and has three rooms of a house and large screen videos that walk you through the experience. The Visalia home show would be an ideal event for this MEU. Maureen will work with Michael to reserve it if available. Kim asked if SCE has a program like PG&E’s MIDI program to address the middle income neighborhoods. He felt that this is an area of need and it would be great to have something like that. Michael will check on this. Other SCE programs/offerings to look forward to will be improved energy efficiency opportunities for pool pumps and a new, friendlier way to present rates that will correspond with customers’ lifestyles (e.g. optimize comfort, cost conscious, etc.). SoCalGas programs for 2013-14 SoCalGas programs for the coming years will, for the most part, be the same. Incentive programs will stay at $1 per therm and rebate levels will depend on specific measures. There is still a residential rebate for furnaces but this is not available for commercial customers. In addition, if there is interest in the MIDI program marketing and outreach will be coordinated to support these efforts.
2013 Meeting Schedule: February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) ME&O for 2013-14 Maureen recapped the marketing and outreach events of 2012 and said that the partnership will do similar events over the next two years, but she did encourage partners to send ideas for new events to keep it fresh and to reach a new audience. Other Business The January partnership meeting will be cancelled and only utility managers and implementing partner will meet. Paulo suggested opening up the conversation if the third Thursday still works best for all parties. If the date changes we will have to check to see if the Visalia Chamber of Commerce can still accommodate the group at an alternate date/time. The February partnership meeting facilitator was voted to be Lew Nelson or Lou Camara. Adjourn Meeting
ACTION ITEMS: Dave Christensen will provide a list of the smaller, unincorporated areas that will be covered by PG&E in the partnership. Maureen Hoff will be in contact with Michael DeSousa regarding reserving the new MEU for the February Visalia home show. Maureen will poll the entire group to see what date/time works best for monthly partnership meetings.
2013 Meeting Schedule: February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19