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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - AEC - 08/15/2016 Meeting Minutes Alternative Energy Committee Town Hall Basement Conference Room, 7:30 p.m., 8/15/2016 AEC Attendees Shaun Selha, Chair Mary Jo Larson, Vice Chair Patricia Gooding Marie Caristi Steve Girard i Eric Seuss Andrew Muir Other Attendees Amanda Thompson (Mariner) Bob Silvia (Fire Dept) Chris Senior (Town Manager) Meeting Minutes Meeting Minutes for June 2016 were approved and later posted. Green Communities Activities 1. Green Community Year 1 Grant Implementations With an initial grant of $141, 460, estimated savings for the work below is 2.5% of Town's annual energy consumption ■ Exterior lighting upgrade at Cohasset Middle/High School ■ Exterior lighting upgrade at Osgood Elementary School ■ Exterior lighting upgrade at Deer Hill Elementary School ■ Exterior lighting upgrade at Cohasset DPW Facility ** Brian Joyce reported that the physical work is 100% complete . The final walk though will take place the week of 8122 2. MassEnergylnsight (MEI) Log-in Rights (Chris Senior): Town Manager has forwarded names of five Town employees to Seth Pickering (DOER) for log-in rights (view only). List includes School Department, Fire Chief Silvia, Mary Snow, AP/AR/Finance employees and other Department Heads. "Awaiting MEI read-only credentials for 5 Town employees from Seth Pickering. 3. MassEnergylnsight (Chris Senior, Patricia Gooding): Town has identified Mary Snow to work with Pat Gooding on transitioning the diesel and gas consumption and cost data uploads to MEI. Town one year behind in uploads. Chris intern/coop assignment. "Mary Snow needs "read/write"access to upload MEI data. Town is interviewing coops/interns this week to assist in the MEI inputs and other engineering efforts. 4. Municipal Energy Technical Assistance Grant (Chris Senior, Patricia Gooding): Cohasset missed the deadline for 2016. Will apply in 2017 for the grant, which funds up to $12,500/yr for a technical assistant to assist Town with: • MassEnergylnsight data system uploads • Green Community Grant Applications • Energy Conservation Measure implementations • Commodity Contract Negotiation and Review • Demand Response Program Enrollment • Others? **Pat Gooding is monitoring grant announcements. • Warrant Article: Emergency Services for Buildings with Solar Energy Systems (Mary Jo Larson): 1. The proposed warrant establishes safety standards for commercial and residential solar energy systems based upon latest NEC and NFPA code. Town Counsel has reviewed the AEC draft and proposed that the warrant article amend Section 21 of Zoning Code. 2. AEC plans to forward the finalized draft to the Planning Board in time for public hearings and the Fall 2016 Town Meeting. **Fire Chief Bob Silvia and Building Inspector Bob Egan plan to review Town Counsel's draft warrant article together the week of Aug 22. In particular, they will to compare NEC and NFPA codes to the MA State Building Code to determine if a warrant article is needed in Cohasset, and where it might be added. • Electric Vehicle and Charging Station Initiative 1. MA DEP EVIP (Brian Joyce, Chris Senior, Mary Jo Larson): The MA Electric Vehicle Incentive Program has awarded the Town of Cohasset $33,000 to lease three (3) electric vehicles and install Level 2 dual head charging stations. • Vehicles are currently assigned to Public Safety (Fire and Police Department), Elder Affairs and the School/Other Municipal employees. • Lease payments of $60-100/mo are to be offset by gas reimbursements and maintenance costs for existing vehicles. • Charging stations to be located at the Fire and Police Department, Main Library and Town Hall. Town now negotiating with Evan Melillo for assistance with installation of charging stations and vehicle procurement. Currently considering Nissan Leaf or VW e-Golf. **Chris Senior confirmed that the Town will save money through the EVIP program, primarily through the offset of gas reimbursements and maintenance costs. The Town is now looking into vehicle procurement. • Virtual Net Metering Credit Option — Presentation by Marc Miller, Soltage LLC 1. Soltage is seeking "off-takers" for a VNMC agreement, similar to what Town was originally planning with Solar City, for a new PV Array that is currently being constructed in East Bridgewater, MA. • Discussion will include how Soltage would structure the Town's contract. **Soltage is looking for off takers for virtual net metering projects in East Bridgewater, Randolph and Plainsville. ("First come, first served") described no escalation pricing. In response to Chris Senior's questions about pricing, Marc Miller stated the following terms: • 20% net savings • No escalation • 20 year term • 2 5 year options for renewal • fully loaded- includes both transmission and supply **Marc Miller will send Chris Soltage's contract and project status/timeline. Town Manager will compare the offer to Solar City's contract and should be able to respond quickly. • Electricity and Natural Gas Commodity Contracts and Demand Response Enrollment (Brian Joyce, Chris Senior, Shaun Selha) 1. ConEdison Solutions electricity commodity contract expires in November 2016. Natural gas commodity purchases floating through National Grid for all municipal facilities with the exception of School Department, which is part of a South Shore Collective. • Town executed proposal from Titan Energy for electricity commodity supply. • Town to advise on state of natural gas contract. • No decision yet on Demand Response Contract. **No updates. Chris Senior will look into this situation. • Status of Old Landfill PV Array Development (Brian Joyce & Chris Senior): 1. The three-parcel merger into one Lot has been filed with the Registry of Deeds, and the closure Permit application has been accepted. 2. Palmer's lead engineer is preparing the Post-Closure Use Application for DEP and will include the test pit data when that is available from CDM Smith. 3. Palmer believes the wetlands issue was closed out by the Conservation Committee and addressed in the Town's closure application with the DEP. 4. National Grid has fully executed the Interconnect Service Agreement. **Test pit analysis started 15 Aug and should finish 16 August. Then Palmer will move forward with Closure, Post-Closure Use, Planning Board and other paper work. • Streetlight Procurement and Conversion (Brian Joyce & Chris Senior) 1. Town Counsel reviewed National Grid's revised Purchase and Sale Agreement. National Grid has offered price a bit over $13,000 for all 500+ streetlights, and they will grant the Town a credit for the eighty-eight (88) streetlights that were found to be inoperative and reported to them last September. Chris Senior waiting (42 days) for National Grid to clarify (1) credit for the off-line streetlights, and (2) when the inoperative streetlight repairs will be complete. Chris to follow-up with National Grid again. 2. DOER will issue separate grant for Municipal Streetlights in September. Shaun Selha has submitted LOI to DOER indicating Town's interest in grant for LED retrofit and controls installation. ** The meeting with National Grid is schedule for next Tuesday, Aug 23, to include streetlight procurement. Town plans to apply for DOER streetlight retrofit funding announced by DOER. • Other Energy Conservation Initiatives 1. Energy Audit of Water Distribution and Treatment Plant, Pumping Stations. (Brian Joyce): • National Grid (Michael Skinner) has hired J.K Muir to conduct the energy audit (no cost to Town) • J.K. Muir to return to the plan to set up temporary meeting to help them assess load profile for the equipment, which will be used to better estimate energy and cost savings. **Report due from Michael Skinner 1. Microgrid Feasibility Study (Stephen Girardi): MA Clean Energy Center has pre- qualified engineering firms for the feasibility study. One firm has already responded back with proposed scope of work. Now waiting for official release of RFP. (September?) 2. CCSCR Partnership (Shaun Selha): National Grid approachlNG project in two phases: (1) Initial site visit, audit and ECM's implementation proposal from Rise Engineering. (2) The second phase will be for renewable energy projects. AEC may use Green Community Grant Funds for the implementation of the ECM's or other projects. **Report due from Michael Skinner • MISCELLANEOUS OTHER BUSINESS 1. Shaun Selha confirmed that he is stepping down from the Cohasset's AEC Chair position. Shaun and his family are is moving to San Francisco by the end of August. 2. The AEC Chairman discussed and set the date for next AEC meeting: Sept 12. 3. AEC elected a new Chair, Mary Jo Larson; a new Vice Chair is Steve Girardi; and the committee confirmed its full support for Josiah Stevenson as Secretary. 4. Mary Jo Larson agreed to take AEC's seat on the Planning Board for Town "Master Plan" initiative. (If others have an interest in representing AEC, please let her know.) 5. Capital Budget Committee plans to meet up with the AEC and other committee Chairs to review projects underway as well as the typical process for any capital projects the Town undertakes. 6. The AEC Chair has started meeting regularly with Chris Senior and staff to review Town projects currently scheduled and for future allocation of funds. 7. Shaun Selha described upcoming Green Community initiatives and followed up with the written notes, summarized on the following page. 8. The Committee thanked Shaun for his expert leadership and celebrated his remarkable contributions, particularly the Town's success in qualifying as a Green Community. Planning/Transition Notes from Shaun Selha 1. WWTP Energy Audit by J. K. Muir—We are waiting on the final report from them. 2. CCSCR Energy Audit by Rise Engineering—We are waiting on the final report from them. Additionally, we are starting to plan out for the ECM's we plan on implementing next Spring utilizing our Green Community Grant money. As part of that we would like a National Grid TA to conduct a more detailed energy audit on the ECM's below that we identified as part of our Phase 3 energy reduction plan. The Phase 1 ECM's were the ones we implemented last year that were mostly lighting retrofit related with some VFD installations at the High School. The original TA report did not really address much on the HVAC or thermal side of the equation in terms of natural gas savings. Please let me know when you believe we can get a TA to conduct the detailed energy audit so we can refine these cost and savings numbers and put together our Green Communities Grant application. Please note that Phase 1 B as the exterior lighting upgrade completed this past month at the schools and the DPW facility. Phase 2 will be a Streetlight retrofit which we are hoping to complete with the new DOER grant coming out next month. These are the ECM's we are thinking of implementing as part of Phase 3: Middle-High School HVAC Controls Upgrade • Unoccupied Boiler Hot Water Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Unoccupied Space Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Boiler Combustion Controls System Tuning • Demand Controlled Ventilation System Implementation Middle-High School Lighting Controls Upgrade • Occupancy Sensor Installation • Photocell ("Daylight") Controllers Middle-High School Building Shell/Envelope Improvements • Installation of Door/Window/Hatch/Skylight Weatherstripping • Installation of Sealant Around Door/Window Frame Gaps • Installation of Sealant Around Duct/Pipe Penetrations Osgood Elementary School HVAC Controls Upgrade • Unoccupied Boiler Hot Water Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Unoccupied Space Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Boiler Combustion Controls System Tuning • Demand Controlled Ventilation System Implementation Osgood Elementary School Lighting Controls Upgrade • Occupancy Sensor Installation • Photocell ("Daylight") Controllers Osgood Elementary School Building Shell/Envelope Improvements • Installation of Door/Window/Hatch/Skylight Weatherstripping • Installation of Sealant Around Door/Window Frame Gaps • Installation of Sealant Around Duct/Pipe Penetrations Deer Hill Elementary School HVAC Controls Upgrade • Unoccupied Boiler Hot Water Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Unoccupied Space Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Boiler Combustion Controls System Tuning • Demand Controlled Ventilation System Implementation Deer Hill Elementary School Lighting Controls Upgrade • Occupancy Sensor Installation • Photocell ("Daylight') Controllers Deer Hill Elementary School Building Shell/Envelope Improvements • Installation of Door/Window/Hatch/Skylight Weatherstripping • Installation of Sealant Around Door/Window Frame Gaps • Installation of Sealant Around Duct/Pipe Penetrations Teen Center Interior/Exterior Lighting Retrofit • Conversion to LED wall-packs and cobrahead fixtures. Police-Fire Station HVAC Controls Upgrade • Unoccupied Boiler Hot Water Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Unoccupied Space Temperature Setpoint Reset Implementation • Boiler Combustion Controls System Tuning • Demand Controlled Ventilation System Implementation Police-Fire Station Building Shell/Envelope Improvements • Installation of Door/Window/Hatch/Skylight Weatherstripping • Installation of Sealant Around Door/Window Frame Gaps • Installation of Sealant Around Duct/Pipe Penetrations Police-Fire Station Variable Frequency Drive Installation Police-Fire Station Premium Efficiency Motor Installation Next Meeting: Monday, September 12, 7:30, Town Hall Basement Conference Room