AVON CLEAN ENERGY COMMISSION
AVON ROOM BLDG. #1 TOWN HALL
MINUTES
JUNE 6, 2012
I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by Chairman Bernard Zahren in the Avon Room, Building 1 Town Hall. Members present: Chairman Bernard Zahren, Martin Kaplan, Mitch Kennedy, Richard Kretz, Brian Glenn, Robert Bullis and Lisa Levin. Members absent: none. Advisory member present: Giorgina Paiella. Advisory members absent: Jonathan Craig and Diane Zhao. Also in attendance was staff member and Town Clerk Ann Dearstyne.
II. APPROVAL OF THE PRECEDING MEETING MINUTES – May 2nd
VOTE: Mr. Kaplan motioned, Dr. Kennedy seconded and all agreed to accept the May 2nd minutes as presented. None opposed.
III. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE
Mr. Zahren welcomed and thanked members of the audience for attending.
IV. COMMUNICATIONS FROM STUDENT ADVISORS.
Mr. Zahren noted that this would be the last meeting for the student advisors and asked if Ms. Paiella had any comments. Ms. Paiella would like to meet one last time with the high school group and Ms. Zhao to discuss potential candidates for next year’s student advisory members. She cautioned that the Green Club could possibly be merging with the Sierra Club and would leave it up to them for direction. Ms. Dearstyne relayed her conversation with Mr. Marella regarding continuing to have students come in the fall. Mr. Zahren distributed gifts for the students and thanked them for the time spent, commitments made and future activities.
Mr. Zahren noted a June 19th meeting to be held with the Board of Ed to present the energy plan. He cautioned that communications with Steve Bartha indicated that the plan was to be presented but the “BOE wasn’t adopting anything.” Mr. Zahren suggested the students attend the meeting to help support the plan and show that there are kids who care. Mr. Zahren would also like to visit beforehand with Mr. Mala to discuss the plan. Mr. Glenn would like to attend the June 19th meeting as well.
Ms. Levin asked for some background to Mr. Zahren’s statements as she remembers there not being any communications. Mr. Zahren clarified that there was cooperation, for example Mr. Gaski’s help, but currently he’s seemed to hit a wall. He continued that there were some deadlines that have been missed such as for the SREC bid as an example of new incentives to acquire solar panels. Mr. Zahren described it as a non priority item for the BOE to worry about their renewable energy and profile, suggesting they had other things to do. Ms. Levin corrected that she was trying to establish who made the contact or was it made after the Town Council meeting. Mr. Zahren said it was put back to the Town Manager’s office to make the contact whereby the June meeting was set up. Mr. Zahren would like to meet with
Mr. Mala before that meeting.
Mr. Zahren said that the plan’s presentation to the Town Council and BOE will still elicit questions of how would we pay for it. He noted too that he felt the whole concept of the power purchase agreement was not very well understood either. He described the agreement as someone comes in and pays for it, gives you part of the savings and they keep the rest and you get to keep the solar panels. He continued that you wouldn’t save a ton of money but you’d have the solar panels, especially at the middle school where a roof was designed for it. Mr. Zahren continued that it’s a shame that they’ve missed this year’s opportunity to get the panels. Mr. Kaplan concurred that if you missed the program then you’ve missed what Connecticut has to offer. Mr. Zahren noted that currently solar
panels are at a very good price and there is an anti-dumping law that has been passed but not yet implemented against the Chinese dumping cheap panels. Mr. Kaplan mentioned another program offered by the Clean Energy Committee (Solarize Connecticut) where four towns will be looked at for solar installations. The RFI is June the 7th. Mr. Zahren lamented that the town really doesn’t have a good place for these solar PVs on a rooftop or the lack of interest from the BOE. He hoped to address this at tomorrow night’s Town Council meeting to go out to the community in trying to promote this as well. Ms. Zuras of the audience said that she is very interested in learning about this. Mr. Zahren’s impression is that the Town Council will adopt the plan at the meeting tomorrow night. Ms. Dearstyne cautioned that she did not think the plan would be resolved by tomorrow night’s meeting and that it would be scheduled for the Town Council July meeting for
adoption. Ms. Levin reminded that it is a policy and how you get there will impact the BOE in what projects are selected and implemented and how they are paid for.
V. OLD BUSINESS: a. Select a Vice-Chairperson, b. Avon Day – form a committee, c. Report on Energy Plan presented to Town Council – Bernie
Ms. Levin declined the position of Vice-Chairperson as she’s taken a new job and will be very busy and asked that the decision be tabled. Mr. Bullis volunteered to take the position.
VOTE: Ms. Levin motioned, Mr. Kaplan seconded and all agreed to elect Mr. Bullis to serve as Vice-Chairperson. None opposed.
Mr. Zahren relayed that the Town Council suggested the Commission make Avon Day a really big show to reach out to the community to educate them about these initiatives. He was able to contact Diana McCarty of the CT Energy Efficiency Fund of CL & P to attend the event and bring along materials and displays. Talcott Mountain Science Center will be there with kids and experiments. Mr. Zahren asked for volunteers for a sub committee. Ms. Dearstyne reminded that groups coming in would have to pay for their own booths and should be grouped together. She suggested some members attend the Avon Day planning meeting July 18th, 8:30 AM to be held in the Avon Room, Bldg. 1 Town Hall. Mr. Bullis suggested vendors participating to show their products and inquired about the protocol to do so. Ms. Dearstyne said
they’d have to get a booth as well and urged that someone attend the next Avon Day meeting in July. Ms. Paiella felt that if her club merged with the Sierra Club that it’d be a good idea to get a separate booth too. Avon Day will be held September 29th with a rain date of the 30th. Ms. Levin, Dr. Kennedy, Mr. Bullis and Mr. Glenn volunteered for the sub committee. Mr. Zahren added that it was the students who drew in the people to the booths.
Mr. Zahren asked the status of the Canton Hydroelectric Committee. Mr. Kaplan relayed that it had disbanded and they are forming a new Canton Energy Commission similar to Avon’s. He said we don’t want to participate. Mr. Kaplan continued that Adam Lazinsk would be informing the Town Council of the progress at tomorrow night’s meeting. He added too that the grant was over with and they had to renew the license. Mr. Kaplan said the upper dam made the most economical sense and the town of Burlington had bowed out a while ago. Mr. Kaplan posed that we could possibly partner with Farmington and Simsbury to get money from the State to put the micro hydro in the effluent before it goes back into the Farmington River which could generate 50kW of energy back but that it really needed to be studied.
Mr. Zahren added that there wasn’t very much available that the Town could use right now for renewable energy short of the school buildings. He did say that the new town center development project could offer avenues for a micro generator. Mr. Zahren noted that it’d be a big project with a five to eight year build out. He cautioned that we couldn’t make the property owner do anything but could suggest that they listen. Mr. Zahren added that the general feel from the Town Council is that they would not favor changing the building codes. Dr. Kennedy said there are currently new energy codes out there that are being adopted by communities.
Mr. Zahren noted that Town Council member David Pena is willing to propose a budget line item be given to energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. Mr. Zahren expressed disappointment that it wasn’t specific or of a greater amount. Ms. Levin felt it was a question of narrowing down what we want to spend the money on. Mr. Bullis noted that many items were a “one time” where it wouldn’t get us to our long term objectives. He suggested asking companies, UPS for example, how they reached the conclusion to convert their fleets to natural gas and come in to talk to us.
The balance of the grant is approximately $13,000 which needs to be spent soon and on consulting related projects and not hardware modifications such as re-lamping or increased insulation. Mr. Kaplan referred to the handout sent by Mr. Bartha highlighting project recommendations made by Peregrine to use up the balance. Mr. Bullis suggested that we could use the remaining monies to have Peregrine go after the Solarize Connecticut. Mr. Zahren and Mr. Kretz offered to review the email Mr. Kaplan sent regarding this solar RFI. Mr. Zahren also suggested that the leftover monies could be used better elsewhere than having Peregrine go after renewable energy when it’s not their forte.
Dr. Kennedy offered two reservations about retro-commissioning recommendation: 1) taking readings during times when people are not present – heat loads are different when schools are not in session and 2) remember that the schools are beholden to the contract that splits the savings with the school and the savings are based on a model that is based on certain assumptions about the energy use it covers. Dr. Kennedy has suspicions that some of the assumptions in the model could be a liability to the town and monies would be better spent looking at those. Ms. Dearstyne concurred that many of the other towns are holding back on these performance contracts for the same reasons. Dr. Kennedy concluded that if our contractor did find errors that it could only help to bring the Commission closer to credibility in the eyes of
the BOE. Mr. Zahren offered that spending the money before the deadline doesn’t necessarily mean that the work needs to be done at the time the funds expire but could be put off to a more conducive time. Mr. Zahren suggested too that we should be developing a list of what we think is out there for financing.
Mr. Zahren noted too that both publications that reported on the presentation to the Town Council gave misinformation. Mr. Bullis concurred that most people don’t know what we’re talking about.
VI. NEW BUSINESS:
VII. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE COMMISSION
VIII. DO ANY BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS MEETING
IX. ADJOURN
VOTE: Ms. Levin motioned, Dr. Kennedy seconded and all agreed to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 PM. None opposed.
Respectfully submitted:
Chairman Bernard Zahren
Attest: Susan Gatcomb, Clerk
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