San Joaquin Valley Partnership Program April 2012 Focus: San Joaquin Valley kWh and peak kW reductions This Month’s Major Accomplishments: The monthly Partnership meeting was held on April 5th. Discussion included an update on the Home Energy Tune Up program in Tulare and Kings Counties. A draft of the new partnership brochure was presented. New brochures will be printed and distributed upon final approval from utility partners. The Partnership had a booth at the April 28th Porterville Iris Festival. Co-branded Demand Response flyers were passed, satisfying one of the City of Porterville’s ELP requirements for tier level advancement. Implementing partner met with their staff IT person to discuss using Microsoft Access to track all projects completed by jurisdictions throughout the life of the partnership in order to capture a holistic view of overall efforts. Work on this project is set to begin in the second half of May. Implementer participated in an EPA webinar featuring new updates to the online Portfolio Manager system. Implementer finalized the document “Energy Efficiency and Your General Plan: A VIEW users guide to incorporating Energy Efficiency in your General Plan” for Strategic Plan menu item 4.1.3. VIEW was contacted by the County of San Luis Obispo through the SLO Energy Watch to provide guidance and best practice sharing as they begin their energy benchmarking efforts. Partnership was invited by the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority to present at their first EE Workshop on the Partnership process and successes. Key Issues or Emerging Concerns: The implementing Partner has been working with all eight jurisdictions to gather details relating to energy accounts in order to provide a comprehensive portfolio review, and prepare the facilities for upload into the EPA Portfolio Manager system. The project is still scheduled to be completed in June 2011. Due to staff cutbacks and lack of time jurisdiction partners have not been able to provide necessary information in a timely manner. Implementer continues to assist and encourage all jurisdictions to help complete this project. Implementer and Utility managers are working to ensure submission of application for incentive on ARRA funded projects with all eight jurisdictions. Politically, the two counties are facing election year increase in local politics—especially from the Central California Tea Party, and their “Agenda 21” coalition. The group is well organized, active, and vocal at most regional council meetings. The implementer and local public affairs team are monitoring activities to ensure that potential agenda items related to the VIEW partnership are not singled out by the group because of the relation to what they consider “government waste”. Upcoming Milestones The next monthly Partnership meeting will take place on May 3rd.
Implementer will present on benchmarking efforts at the May 11th International Green Industry Hall of Fame (IGIHOF) event at Fresno State. Implementer, with Local Public Affairs will begin planning the promotion of the Home Energy Efficiency Survey (HEES) and gathering city and county support for mailings.