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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, June 18, 2009
6:30 pm
In Attendance: Cindy Keegan (Chair), John Hayes, Jeff Barz-Snell, Nick Lewis, Paul Marquis
Members not in attendance: Rick Nye, Betsy Horne, Rob DeRosier, Adam Segal
Public: Phil Wyman, Gavin McCauliffe, Brian Murphy
City Staff: Tom Watkins, Michael Adler (Intern)
Introduction
Those in attendance introduced themselves to each other. Meeting Minutes from the month of May were reviewed and approved as amended.
Intern Update and Community Choice Aggregation Program
Michael informed the group that National Grid has vetoed their summary billing system (by Department) but can still provide the City with one bill for all departments.
Last week, both he and City Electrician John Giardi visited a number of meters that they hoped could be removed given their low usage. After visiting them, they determined that none of the meters on their list could be removed because they were located at City parks or tied into emergency lights. Michael will now continue to negotiate with National Grid on lowering the monthly cost of the meters given that they are only active for a month or two during the calendar year.
Michael also reported on the traffic lights that were left off the City’s contract with TransCanada. After talking with a few smaller suppliers, he stated that he did talk to one that would be willing to pick up the contract on the lights, thus providing the City with a reduced rate. Tom, John Giardi and he will work on an Invitation for Bid (IFB) and publicly bid this out.
Michael introduced the RETF to Brian Murphy of Colonial Power Group. Since opting into his Community Choice Aggregation Power Program, he has saved the ratepayers of the City of Marlborough over $1 million. The basic idea of the program is that it provides the rate payers a less expensive choice on their energy supplier – someone other than National Grid. Brian continued to address the benefits of the program and the process as to how it was implemented in Marlborough. He went on to say that the entire process took 12 months to implement in Marlborough. He stated that in the first year of the contract, 97% of the rate payers opted into the program (that number raised to 98% in the second year). Jeff stated that decoupling is the future for local communities. He also said
the State of California has been very successful with this. The RETF thanked Brian for sharing information on his program and will take this idea under advisement.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Pastor Phil Wyman and Gareth Jones joined the RETF and informed them of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival happening next week in Washington DC. The date of the festival is June 24-28. Phil will be arranging a trade and cultural mission there and has invited the RETF to come along. He stated that the festival will be featuring Wales on the Washington Mall and will be leading a zero carbon conference – which will be presented by the Centre for Alternative Technology of Wales. Phil passed around a Conference flyer to the group. He also stated that if there is enough interest garnered by particular groups/areas, the Centre would be willing to do a similar conference/seminar in their area. The RETF will email Phil any groups that may be interested in this type of conference.
Winter Island
Jeff and Tom discussed the cost estimate for an anemometer tower (met tower) for Winter Island which they received from Meridian Associates of Beverly. The total cost for a 50 meter tower for 6-12 months (to collect wind data) would be $16,000. The group agreed that the installation of a met tower at Winter Island would be the next step in order to see whether or not the site would be feasible for a wind turbine. Jeff also stated that in talking to Don Bowen of Meridian, he learned that the $16,000 is refundable through state grants. Tom and Jeff will follow up on this reimbursement program. Jeff also learned that the City does not have to submit an RFP but could always opt to. Tom will start putting together a draft RFP and will see if Don has any samples he can use. Tom will
also follow up with Salem State College to see if they would be interested in a joint venture as they had previously mentioned. RETF recommended that the City use their MTC funds for the full purchase of the met tower should Salem State College decide to partake.
Living Green Fair
The RETF discussed the success of the Living Green Fair and voted unanimously to hold and participate in the Fair next year. A special kudos was given to both Ben Bouchard and Rinus Oosthoek of the Chamber of Commerce for their roles in planning and organizing this year’s Fair.
Other Business
The RETF would like to invite both the Planning Department and a representative from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to their next meeting to discuss the application of the Energy and Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) process. Tom informed the group that the Planning department will be submitting the application for the grant next week. After next week’s deadline of the initial application, the City will be contracting with MAPC to develop an energy strategy plan which will detail how the City intends to spend the federal grant money ($176,000) they are entitled too.
Jeff will be speaking at an energy event this Saturday afternoon in Beverly.
Next meeting will be July 16th, 2009
Meeting Minutes recorded by Tom Watkins
Meeting adjourned at 8:40 pm
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