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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCS CEC Mins Nov 2021Climate Smart/Clean Energy Community Task Force Minutes of the Meeting at 5 pm Tuesday Nov. 2, 2021 Hybrid: Caldwell Conference Room and Zoom (link below) Attendance: Marie McRae, John Kiefer, Ray Burger, Alice Green, Shelley Knickerbocker, Gina Cassidy, Rachel Zevin, Todd Knobbe Call to Orderat 5:03 pm Approval of October MinutesAdditions to the Agenda: Community Choice Aggregation webinar report – John, MarieClean Energy Internship – Alice, Ray Responsibilities of CS/CEC Coordinator - AliceThe Climate Smart Communities action guidelines for the establishment of a Climate Smart Coordinator provide for extra points when a municipality includes a job description for the position. Alice provided the following draft: The CSC TF Coordinator is responsible for: Preparing agendas and convening monthly meetings of the Task Force Ensuring the monthly Task Force meeting minutes are recorded, approved and filed on the Town website Guiding the Task Force to initiate actions through both the Climate Smart Communities and Clean Energy Communities programs of New York State Receiving and sharing with the Task Force any updates from the Climate Smart and Clean Energy Communities Program Documenting Town actions under both programs and submitting that documentation on the DEC and NYSERDA portals Meeting periodically with Cornell Cooperative Extension energy managers to stay abreast of new state initiative and incentives, and to receive guidance on how to complete actions. Overseeing preparation of public relations and media submissions regarding the Town’s participation in the Climate Smart Communities and Clean Energy Communities programs. Coordinating communication with other boards and commissions (including the Town, Planning and Conservation Boards) on a regular basis regarding CSC and CEC actions completed and planned. John asked how many hours per week does coordinator job involve? Alice estimated that it varies from 2 to 10 hours/ week depending on what research; record keeping and data entry are needed. But she anticipates that there will be considerably more weekly work as the Town completes actions that qualify for both Clean Energy grants, and Climate Smart Silver certification. The job description was approved unanimously. NYSERDA Clean Energy Internship– Alice Summary of internship program: 90% of the salary is covered for employees with 100 employees or less. The Town could have up to 7 interns Clean Energy Community action grants can be used to for the Town’s match Internships must last a minimum of 8 weeks Internships starting after July 1, 2021 are capped at 480 hours for a 12 month period Interns can be employed during the school year, with a maximum of 18 hours per week. The Town will have to be approved by the NYSERDA Clean Energy Program Interns must be hired as employees, not contract workers. The Town is responsible for workers comp, FICA and Medicare Town HR considerations include A civil service job description would need to be developed and approved by Tompkins County Town responsibility for benefits To be determined: reporting structure for position, where located, time frame for work etc. Alice said there is an existing Civil Service job description for this position. The Town match can be covered through grants funds already received for earlier clean energy actions. The intern can also work on implementing the Town’s Climate Action Plan. Ray said he felt a qualified candidate could be an asset in the planning department. He can serve as immediate supervisor, and provide space for the intern to work. NYSERDA will provide a list of vetted candidates. Todd said NYSERDA’s timeframe for approving a municipal application was about two weeks. Interns can work remotely. Montour Falls has the intern come in to the office. Process: develop a job description with HR, and then request Town Board approval. Sense of the task for was to move forward to apply for the grant for this internship. Review of Clean Energy Community Actions – Alice/ Todd Purchase of COE Electric vehicle – Ray The Town Board approved a $35K budget item to purchase an Electric or hybrid vehicle for code enforcement use, with $9K provided by Clean Energy grant funding already received. Considering a 4-wheel drive VW, and hope to find one available. This will be obtained through NYS Procurement programs; there are some rebates available. Town EV charging station price structure - Marie The Town is currently charging 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, very high price. Marie says most municipalities are charging 15 cents/kwh. She said we should be charging less. Ray said there are monthly costs for maintenance but he’d recommend that we provide it free. Consensus was to request the fee be set at 15 cents/kwh. 100% Renewable Energy – Town Board Action - John John presented the Town Board with his research about possible providers, and the TF’s recommendation to buy 100% renewables. It appears the Town Board will include this in the 2022 budget. Next step will be preparing an RFP for potential providers to begin in January. Clean Building Energy Demo – Marie Marie said she’s started creating a workup for Dryden from the template that Todd provided to educate the public about the benefits of electrification. The educational material would come out after the Ground Source Heat pump upgrades are complete. Marie commented that the template was pretty basic. Todd said they encourage building and elaborating on the foundation they provided. This could be both a poster and flier. John said he’d be glad to do an energy analysis that shows in detail how much the town is saving GHG’s. Stretch Code Research- Shelley, Todd Shelley said her office has been working with some other municipalities to review the provisions of the NYS Stretch Code 2020 to identify if there are any other conflicts with the NYS Uniform Code, besides the mechanical ventilation requirement. They haven’t found any additional conflicts. Todd reported that in mid September, the building codes council met and there were 14 municipalities being reviewed.Three or four severed the EVR requirement (these will be reviewed 12/3), some have not made a decision, at least 3 communities filed notice of petitions that they wish to keep the EVR requirement. There will be a NYS Stretch 2.0 that addresses some errata like grammatical errors and also the mechanical ventilation requirement. John clarified that Dryden has chosen to enact the Code and beginning Sept. 1 is enforcing all provisions except the mechanical ventilation requirement. John said he believes the Town does not need to adopt a version of the code with the mechanical ventilation requirement severed, and no public hearing is necessary. Shelley said the mechanical ventilation issue hasn’t come up in any projects so far. Advanced Benchmarking –Alice Dryden has an established system of data collection for benchmarking energy savings using NYSRDA’s Energy Star system. Additional CEC points can be obtained by publishing the report. Todd has produced a spreadsheet that covers all the data required for the points, but it would be better in a narrative form. John and Marie volunteered to work on that. John said he’d like to include data on the amount of energy the Town receives from its solar installations. This is not in the current analysis. Todd said when he can include that in the report once the data is found. The report will go on the Climate Smart page on the Town website, and also in the monthly newsletter. Subcommittee to work on this: John, Marie, and Alice. John asked who to ask about solar output? Shelley offered to check the mechanical room andwith Rick Young to see where that data is displayed. LED Streetlight Conversion Jason Leifer reported today that the Town is in the process of purchasing the LED fixtures. Review of Climate Smart Community Actions – Rachel/ Alice Preparing actions for January 7 submission Goal now is to submit all actions that have been completed, or expired and need new documentation, by January 7. This won’t be the Town’s complete submission for Silver certification. When the Comprehensive Plan and Climate Action Plan are completed in 2022, these actions will bring many points towards Silver. Review of crossover between CEC and CSC actions Alice noted that she sent the Task Force a sheet called “Crosswalk” that shows how many Clean Energy actions can also be applied toward Climate Smart Points. Rachel suggested a meeting to go over each action to prepare for the submission. Todd noted that Gina will be transitioning to the role of Dryden contact for Clean Energy Community actions. Community Choice Aggregation Marie thought the recent webinar was really well done. She sent the link to TB and PB members. She’s been working on CCA for about 4 years. She’s lost track of status of county work on this. At one point Loren reported that the city and town are moving forward on this, other municipalities will be invited to join once they move through the kinks. John said that by now, there are few kinks. This program has already been implemented in 150 communities. 70 percent have started service. And 70 per of those are doing 100% renewable. The infrastructure is in place. Another takeaway is benefits. This opt-out approach gives maximum participation and allows a swifter shift to saving GHG’s. Another important takeaway: we need to be careful of talking about savings.By aggregating electric bills there are savings, but we can’t promise that electric bills will go down if renewables are the source. Todd added that he attended the webinar; it’s gotten a great response around the region. John said: Of all the things that we can do, that would make the most difference (in GHG reduction). Marie agreed, and asked how the guy from Lima figured out how to connect to a community solar array to get the power. Todd said Opt Out Community Distributed Generation would be similar to what ToD is looking at with purchasing with an ESCO. If the Town passed enabling legislation for a CCA, they would work with a CCA Administrator, who will work with ESCO(s) to secure the electricity via REC’s (energy cost plus a premium). Energy Coop of America works with Fluent Energy. Todd said one CCA Administrator failed to procure 100% renewable energy produced in NYS, so it’s important to fully vet the energy administrator. Alice reminded members of the current status of Dryden’s CCA investigation, as reported by Loren. She asked if they want to switch gears and move more quickly, either in partnership with the City and Town of Ithaca, or move forward independently. Gina reminded that it’s a good point not to promise savings with CCA, but she noted that the fossil fuel industry is likely to become much more volatile, with renewables will not have those spikes. Todd said that a lot of the CCA have fixed rate 2-year contracts. He can share a website that shows who other municipalities are contracting with, and their fixed rate. First step is to pass the legislation enabling the CCA. He wonders if the City/Town are pursuing creating their own CCA. Rachel said she thinks the City wanted to take the lead because there wasn’t funding enough to hire an administrator for all the municipalities. Gina said there’s no particular point advantage in the NYSERDA system for joining with other municipalities. Todd said one potential benefit is lower fixed rate for a larger number.Alice said she would check in with Loren, and also explore the Town Board’s interest in pursuing this more quickly. Adjourned at 6:58 pm Meeting follow-ups: Alice: Send John and Marie spreadsheet to create Advanced Benchmarking narrative that can also be publicized in the Clean Energy Demo Shelley: look into how to determine how much energy is generated by Town solar arrays and also the status of Town Hall upgrades Loren: check re: status of CCA worksby City and T of Ithaca; get feedback on whether Dryden wants to join or go it alone. Alice: Send memo re: next meeting. 4-6 Dec. 7? Todd: Share link for website listing municipal CCA’s and existing rates