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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - AEC - 04/06/2015 Meeting Minutes Alternative Energy Committee Time: Monday,April 6, 2015 Location:Town Hall Basement Meeting Room Attendees: Alternative Energy Committee Shaun Selha—Co-Chair Marie Caristi-MacDonald—Co-Chair Steve Wenner David Eisenhaure Andrew Muir Mary Jo Larson Patricia Gooding Eric Seuss Josiah Stevenson Committee Friends Kevin McCarthy Board of Selectmen Amanda Thompson Cohasset Mariner 1. Meeting Minutes Marie Caristi to update November and December 2014 Meeting Minutes with Attendees. Josiah Stevenson has updated February 2014 Meeting Minutes. All three (3) sets, along with April 2015 Meeting Minutes to be approved at next meeting on April20t", at 7:30 p.m. in Basement Room of Town Hall, which will focus on the Annual Town Meeting (ATM) Warrant Article Presentation. 2. Renewable Energy Initiatives Palmer Capital PV Array Lease Agreement and PPA a. The Town and Palmer Capital have executed the Lease Agreement and Power Purchase Agreement. The Lease of parcels B4-06-025B and B4-06-003 are contingent upon the successful ATM vote for their lease for the development of the PV array. Parcel B4-05-048 was already approved two years ago. The ATM warrant article has been reviewed by Town Council and is being presented to the Board of Selectmen tonight for their vote (April 7t" @ 8:15 p.m. in Town Hall) for inclusion on the ATM agenda. Advisory Board to be debriefed on it on Wednesday, April 8t" @ 8:00 p.m. in Town Hall Board of Selectmen Room. b. Eric Seuss discussed the status of the "Landfill Post-Closure Permit" with CDM Smith (engineering consultant). CDM Smith noted that Cohasset does not currently have a "Landfill Post- Closure Permit" as the application was denied many years ago (1998) for various reasons. They advised that the best course of action would be to meet with the DEP to discuss the denial conditions and negotiate what is required to correct the conditions, if they still exist. At a minimum, the Town would need to provide supplemental information to the DEP, file a Notice of Landfill Operation for the property, and request a certificate of compliance for the wetland work from the Town Conservation Commission. Eric to work with CDM Smith to set up the DEP meeting. Attached is the letter that will be sent to the DEP. SolarCity Virtual Net Metering Credit (VNMC) Agreement c. The VNMC Agreement has fully executed between the Town and SolarCity. SolarCity advised that they are currently looking for a site that they currently have a Notice of Intent (NOI) to develop on that will match Cohasset's expected load (i.e. 25% of total annual electric consumption by municipal facilities). SolarCity noted that the net metering caps (both Private and Public) for National Grid have filled up more quickly than anticipated so there may be some delays in assigning the applicable site to Cohasset if one already in the queue does not match up. 3. Green Communities Certification Initiative a. QC#1:Adopt "As-of-Right Siting"—The revised ATM warrant article (Revision 10) was developed in conjunction with the Planning Board and has been approved by Town Council. The Board of Selectmen (BofS) will vote on it tonight (April 71h @ 8:15 p.m. in Town Hall BofS Room) for inclusion on the ATM agenda. Planning Board to vote on recommendation on Wednesday, April 8th @ 7:15 p.m. in Town Hall Basement Conference Room. Advisory Board to be debriefed on it on Wednesday, April 8th @ 8:00 p.m. in Town Hall BofS Room. The DOER has reviewed the revised version of the warrant article and have stated that it will comply with the "As-of-Right Siting" criteria. b. QC#2: Adopt Expedited Application/Permitting Process (12-month) —Cohasset already satisfies this criteria. No follow-up work required. C. QC#3: Establish an Energy Use Baseline With a Plan to Reduce Baseline by 20% in 5 Years — Patricia Gooding gave a thorough review of current status of initiative. While reviewing the current energy use baseline with the DOER (Seth Pickering) they realized that there are still fifteen (15) municipal accounts that are not assigned to specific facilities or have their classification correct in the system. Patricia will work with Brian Joyce to complete the classification and to educate him on the operation of the system. Additionally, Patricia confirmed that the 20% reduction is aggregate across all energy types not per type of energy consumed. 2014 will be our base year. Patricia also went through the components of the Energy Reduction Plan that must be submitted to the DOER with the Green Communities application. Essentially it is the baseline analysis with a list of energy conservation measures (ECM's) that will be enacted to achieve the 20% reduction. In the case of Cohasset, those ECM's will consist of the following: • Lighting retrofits at Deer Hill, Osgood, and Middle/High School • Lighting retrofits at Police/Fire Station • Lighting retrofits at Pratt Library • Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) at Deer Hill, Osgood, and Middle/High School • De-stratification Fan Installation at Middle/High School Gymnasium • Streetlight LED conversion (potential use of money from initial Green Communities grant) • Parking Lot (Schools in Particular) Overhead Light LED conversion (potential use of money from initial Green Communities grant) • Energy Efficiency Vehicle Procurement (potential use of money from initial Green Communities grant) • Other ECM's to be determined (Control System Upgrade in Schools or Town Hall Renovation Energy Efficient Upgrades) d. QC#4: Purchase only Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Steve Wenner completed the Municipal Vehicle inventory. There are six (6) vehicles that are ruled as "non-exempt" under this qualification criteria. Two (2) are for the Fire Department, two (2) for the School Department, and two (2) for the DPW. Four of the six vehicles are less than 10 years old. The vehicles only need to be replaced with fuel-efficient vehicles at the end of their useful lives. No further action needs to be taken. The two (2) vehicles that are over 10 years old can possible be replaced in the next five years with Green Community Grant allocations. e• QC#5: Adoption of Stretch Code—The ATM warrant article has been reviewed by Town Council and is being presented to the BofS tonight for their vote (April 7t" @ 8:15 p.m. in Town Hall BofS Room) for inclusion on the ATM agenda. Advisory Board to be debriefed on it on Wednesday, April 81" @ 8:00 p.m. in Town Hall BofS Room. 4. Energy Conservation Measure Implementation a• Schools— Lighting retrofits are complete at Deer Hill and Osgood. The lighting retrofits at the Middle/High School are in progress. The VFD and premium efficiency motor installation on the pumps at the Deer Hill School is in progress. The initial installation contractor was fired due to poor workmanship that resulted in damage to equipment. As new Town and National Grid approved contractor has been assigned. The VFD and premium efficiency motor installations at Osgood and the Middle/High School have not started yet. b• Other Municipal Facilities—The Town has signed the contracts for the lighting retrofits associated with the Police/Fire Station and the Main Library. The work will be scheduled to take place in the next 2 months in conjunction with other space modifications. c• Streetlight Procurement and Conversion—The Town has hired a consultant to map all of the Streetlights in Town. The current estimate is 511. The consultant will input all of the streetlight data into the Town's geographic information system (GIS) starting this week. This inventory will help the Town assess which lights to procure from National Grid based upon which are active and retired in place, which are overhead fed as opposed to underground, and how much repairs are needed. Once the inventory is completed a new purchase and sale agreement will be completed with National Grid. 5. Miscellaneous New Business Brian Joyce received a letter from National Grid indicating that they plan on performing some system infrastructure improvements on Cedar Street to improve reliability of the network in that area. This work will be performed in conjunction with Palmer Capital since the interconnection location for the "Old Landfill" PV array may change based upon the upgrades National Grid makes. The AEC will present on 143 T.V. ("Our Town'O to try to reach a broader Cohasset audience and educate them on the initiatives the AEC is involved with. The airing will be on April 14, 15, 21 or 22. The following items were discussed: Respectfully submitted, Shaun Selha Alternative Energy Committee