AVON CLEAN ENERGY COMMISSION
AVON ROOM BLDG. #1 TOWN HALL
MINUTES
AUGUST 3, 2011
I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Acting Chairman Bernard Zahren in the Avon Room, Building 1 Town Hall. Members present: Acting Chairman Bernard Zahren, Martin Kaplan, Brian Glenn and Lisa Levin. Members absent: Jeffrey Bernetich, Brian Preleski and Linda Meyers. Advisory member present: Giorgina Paiella. Advisory members absent: Jonathan Craig and Diane Zhao. Also in attendance were staff members Steve Bartha, Assistant to the Town Manager and Ann Dearstyne, Town Clerk.
II. APPROVAL OF THE PRECEDING MEETING MINUTES – July 6, 2011
VOTE: Mr. Kaplan motioned, Mr. Glenn seconded and all agreed to accept the July 6th minutes as presented. None opposed.
Mr. Zahren asked Ms. Paiella if she had anything to report to the commission. She said the club had not met over the summer but she’d take any developments back to the group for when they’d meet in the fall. Mr. Zahren said the commission has already signed up for a booth for this year’s Avon Day. Ms. Paiella said she’d like to share it this year as the school’s booth had such low turnout from last year. Mr. Zahren thought it a great idea.
III. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE
None.
IV. OLD BUSINESS: a. Energy Plan update, b. Solar Panels
Mr. Bartha spoke of the energy plan draft that Mr. Weisman of Peregrine forwarded for discussion. He said the last page showed areas where information still needed to be provided for the fleet and street lights. Mr. Bartha said he had trouble obtaining street light location information from CL & P and suggested perhaps sending an intern next summer to map them. He added that the mapping would be the first step in determining which lights the town did not need or paying for ones we don’t have. Sensors are available for the lights that turn them off from midnight to dawn. Fitting the identified poles with the sensors would result in a payback of a year. Mr. Bartha said too that the town attorney is hesitant to use Avon as the flagship town and will wait until another one goes first. He spoke to the Chief of Police
who oversees the lighting for the town to determine which lights to stagger or keep on. Ms. Levin noted that the town is not well illuminated as it is but realizes there could be cost savings. Mr. Bartha added that we spend about $110,000 for street lights. Cost is based per pole and not energy usage. The street light issue will be a wait and see.
Mr. Kaplan noted that the sewer pumping stations use a lot of energy and suggested Mr. Weisman take this into consideration for the plan. Mr. Bartha said he’d put Mr. Weisman in touch with our Sewer Supervisor, Tim Foster, but hasn’t followed up yet.
Mr. Bartha said that Mr. Weisman was looking for feedback from the group for the energy plan draft and that he will email the information to the members absent from the meeting for their input as well. Mr. Zahren pointed out that the plan covered the town and the BOE but not the rest of the community, which he’d like to incorporate into the plan as well. Mr. Weisman relayed too that he’d like feedback on the plan for the charettes as well – the timing and desired content. Mr. Zahren suggested that this would be the best use of Avon Day – present plan ideas through conversation with the visitors and announce a date for a town charette. Ms. Dearstyne reminded that preliminary arrangements would have to be made for a location for the charette through the Board of Ed or recreation department. Mr.
Bartha suggested holding the charette at the Senior Center as it has the flexibility to accommodate either a small or large crowd. Mr. Kaplan questioned whether there was to be a couple of charettes involving the town employees and the citizens. Mr. Zahren and Ms. Dearstyne mentioned the difficulty of a charette involving the town employees. Mr. Bartha said that he’d like to include the Public Works staff. Mr. Kaplan would like the engineering and planning departments included. Mr. Zahren summed that the remaining charette earmarked monies would best be used with perhaps one large meeting. He liked the Senior Center as a location. Staff discussed timing of the charette, recommending the October newsletter as a good reminder to announce the date and location. Late October or early November was agreed to be the best time to hold the charette. Ms. Levin questioned the make up of who’d be attending. Mr. Bartha suggested checking the town calendar to select some times to
determine feasibility and will consult Mr. Weisman on who to best invite from the town staff.
Mr. Zahren reiterated his former question of which level of an energy reduction goal should the commission attempt to reach with the plan. Should Avon make a statement or be satisfied with middle of the road. Mr. Glen responded that we’d agreed that a working number of 15% in energy reduction would be an attainable goal. Ms. Levin said that the 15% would be a metric to evaluate success. Mr. Zahren said it would be a short term one being 15% by 2015 whereby many of the plans went to 2020. He explained that it was a reduction in our use. The next level would be what power source is supplying the energy, whether it’d be solar or wind. Mr. Kaplan referred to the email from Lynn Stoddard that tells of the new state law that has metrics for energy savings for state buildings – 10% by 2013 and another 10% by
2018. Mr. Zahren said that Ms. Stoddard, of the newly formed Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, will be a great help for information and direction for the commission. She said there will be a new document coming out from Clean Air, Cool Planet with goals and metrics they’ve established. He again asked if the commission wanted to take the minimum standards from these documents, or be more aggressive, and that the direction should be decided before the next month’s meeting to go before the Town Council. Mr. Bartha felt that Mr. Robertson needed more information before deciding on a level to present to the Town Council and that historically the town was conservative. Beyond reducing energy costs, he wasn’t sure how far they’d want to go.
Mr. Kaplan mentioned that there was help on this. A gentleman who works for Roger Smith is looking for ten towns to help by providing advice and training to help create and implement a strategic campaign plan incorporating the state incentives. Mr. Kaplan said too that it was funded through a foundation in Mr. Smith’s group, all gratis. Ms. Levin questioned how this was different from what Peregrine was doing. Mr. Kaplan said the gentleman was in the State, funded by a foundation in the State of CT and is deeply involved in the new law. Mr. Bartha clarified that Ms. Levin was concerned that we’d have parallel systems running and be spreading our resources thinner than they are currently. Ms. Levin understood that it would help to implement the recommendations that Peregrine would make. Mr. Zahren said that
this man could be an adjunct aid to this commission if he could function this way. He added that it was Ms. Stoddard’s function as well to go around and help the towns. Mr. Bartha cautioned that bringing in a consultant to begin strategic planning parallel to Peregrine wouldn’t be a productive use of staff time. He’d be happy to speak with the man but could not commit at this time. Mr. Zahren reminded Mr. Kaplan that we are an advisory body and could not arbitrarily commit staff time. Ms. Levin added too that it could provide additional resources to the Town Council whose perspective is largely one of “cost.” This is one of the reasons too why she’d want to go with a more conservative approach. She feels you need to start slowly in order to bring everyone on board. Mr. Glenn, Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Zahren like the idea of being more aggressive. Mr. Bartha would like the members to provide feedback to Ms. Dearstyne via email within the week to
relay to Mr. Weisman at Peregrine.
Mr. Zahren discussed where we might be going with renewables and sources of funding. Mr. Kaplan sought ideas for his condo community. Mr. Zahren posed what we could expect from the new DEEP. He said the Clean Energy Fund has changed from a grant giver to a finance oriented entity that gives low cost long term loans. They may give 100% of the cost of the panels that would be paid over a long term with low interest. Mr. Zahren’s source said they’d love to do a condo deal but found the bylaws to be restrictive. Individual units posed problems where a total solar installation could discriminate owners by not having the right sun exposure for example. This led Mr. Zahren to describe town facilities – which ones would have better exposure or benefit the most. He said if the ZREC passes the way it’s
supposed to, installation of a zero emission station would allow you to sell the REC – renewable energy credit. The power providers in the state must provide a certain percentage of renewable power. Through deregulation, one can choose any energy supplier but still must use the CL & P transmission equipment and billing. One REC equals 1 megawatt of power or 1000 kWhs. The new bill says that trading RECs will be allowed. A provider of power needs a certain percentage of renewable power (which increases every year) and can purchase these RECs. The price target has been set not exceed $350/REC or $.35 a kWh. (Between net metering and selling the REC, Mr. Zahren receives $.55 income on his own property.) He added that it would pay off as the price of solar panels has come down and will pay for itself in 8-10 years. Mr. Zahren is posing that a push for renewable energy for the town is not absurd at all, setting a goal of 10% of all of our power coming from renewables by 2020. Mr.
Kaplan said to consider virtual net metering, whereby the town could put a solar array anywhere in town with enough power to cover five facilities and qualify to receive the retail rate for generating the power. Mr. Zahren clarified that you’d get paid on the power producing portion only (installations that just feed into the grid) and not the transmission part. Mr. Bartha questioned what 10% of our power coming from renewables would look like and to not set ourselves up for unattainable goals. He queried would the landfill now become a wind farm with conduit running from it to buildings or perhaps all town buildings outfitted with south facing solar panels. Mr. Kaplan added that the math would have to be done.
V. NEW BUSINESS: a. Avon Day – brainstorm possible activities
VI. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE COMMISSION
Mr. Zahren asked what we’d need for Mr. Weisman to bring next time. Mr. Bartha said he’ll give Mr. Weisman the feedback the members will provide. By the next meeting, we should be talking about exactly what the charette would look like and what we hope to achieve during Avon Day. Mr. Weisman’s ideas for the charette included the need to provide something for the people to react to, specific things to discuss and also include a power point presentation. Mr. Bartha would like to include Mr. Zahren in a meeting with Mr. Weisman when he returns to town in preparation for the Town Council meeting.
Mr. Kaplan would like to use Mr. Weisman’s outline as a guide to set priorities and include end of life costs which are currently not represented in the report. Mr. Bartha suggested Mr. Kaplan include this in his email to Ms. Dearstyne. Mr. Bartha posed that it could possibly add a cost to include it in the report.
Mr. Zahren discussed the upcoming presentation to the Town Council regarding recommitting the town’s purchase of renewable energy and extending participation in the 30% by 2015 campaign. If piggybacking on West Hartford’s rate of $.90/REC, Avon would cover the cost of participation by various utility accounts. Mr. Bartha spoke to Mr. Franzi of the BOE about participating as well and he has agreed to discuss the matter at their August meeting. In addition to supporting clean energy, Avon’s participation in the 30% campaign will allow the Avon Clean Energy Commission to continue its efforts in qualifying the town for free solar panels through the CCEF. Two members of the commission are working with the BOE and the PTO to promote a fall campaign to get families to sign up for clean energy. Mr. Zahren asked
that Mr. Bartha make sure that Mr. Mala and Mr. Gaski have the information they’d need on his behalf. Mr. Bartha said to make sure when promoting the sign up campaign to not promise the $25 sign up bonuses that were originally offered, because the Town never received any. He added that the new REC provider may not offer the bonus either. Mr. Bartha hoped that the competition and possibility of putting clean energy on the AMS roof would be incentive enough. Mr. Kaplan would like to discuss the energy efforts the BOE is concurrently making. Mr. Zahren added that a conversation with Mr. Mala revealed that the efforts center around behavior modification only and do not involve a single facility change.
Mr. Glenn left the meeting at 8:15 PM.
Mr. Bartha noted that Mr. Gaski now has 9,000 light bulbs at the high school to install. A reporter from the Valley Press will be going there to take some pictures and interview Mr. Gaski. He added that it will help to advertise the efforts of the Commission and publicize the OEM grants so we’ll have a clipping to accompany the checklist for grant sign-off. Mr. Zahren hopes to have Ms. Pollock of Avon Life write an article publicizing the charettes as well.
VII. DO ANY BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS MEETING
VIII. ADJOURNMENT
Lacking a quorum, the meeting was informally adjourned at 8:22 PM
Respectfully submitted:
Acting Chairman Bernard Zahren
Attest: Susan Gatcomb, Clerk
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