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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 8ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE Special Meeting Minutes Date: July 8, 2021 Attendees: Pat, Steve, Anand, Aileen, April, Peter, Vrinda 1.Call to order & roll call. 2.Agenda Review: No requested changes. 3.Cody Einfalt: the management analyst for the town. Working on this project for some time now--replacing the back-up generator for the Town Hall. Presentation same given at the Town Hall meeting i.Project: Replacing the backup generator. ii.Existing generator from 1993, (same age as Cody!) 27 years old and used for only 176 hours. Regularly maintained. iii.Money $76,000 leftover from 2019-20 budget. In mid 2021, the council another allocated $200,000 +$250K grant from CAL OES allotted for resiliency capital improvement projects which included generator replacement and possible battery backup. + $50,280 from SVCE for resiliency capital projects. Total $576,580. iv.Started the generator replacement project and combined it with rewiring of the electrical panel to comply with the emergency plan (which was previously part of the Phase 2 extension of the city which is under discussion) v.The original plan was to go with a dual fuel back up but because of the new REACH code and and need to go “green” battery back up was chosen vi.Out of the three bids received, Syserco was chosen because it was the only one that offered design-build. vii.Cal OES grant required purchases to be made by October of this year. viii.Syserco: "Find that the anticipated energy savings from the project will be more than the anticipated cost of the system over the life of the system..." ix.Design portion: $15k; They will give a proposal for the installation will be given by September. x.Need output from solar PV... by hour? by year? To size the batteries. Peter: install monitors! xi.There is going to be a controller too. The old generator will be used to charge batteries in case PV cannot charge the batteries xii.How much does EIC want to get involved? To see the proposals, answer Syerco’s questions…. xiii.Q: Includes cell tower? No -- plan is to exclude it. xiv.Peter : The Telco might have their own backup system xv.Steve: Per our work on the CAP, Syserco should include V2G. xvi.Peter: Goal should be to run critical systems for a week or more. Cody: Controller should be smart enough to do that. xvii.Anand: Could they also work on energy efficiency to reduce the load? xviii.Action: Cody will email us updates on the Syserco proposal, which we can review. But we are not "in the middle" -- no authority. 4.CAP Update ○Recommending feasible measures with minimal cost to residents and to the city. ○The measures chosen from a list of 40 that were discussed by the subcommittee ○Vrinda reviewed the 5 measures for Municipal: i.Convert the natural gas loads at town hall to electric ii.Install storage at town hall to match PV production to loads iii.Town V2G for resiliency pilot iv.Green Fleet Program with “EV First” commitment free v.EV charging for town staff ○Summary by Anand: EV fleet, Free EV charging for town staff, and several others that Srini is working on Town emits about 300 MT eCO2/yr about 3% is the actual building, 13% is employees going in and out, 8% town’s fleet of vehicles , 20% fire prevention (?) ●Converting natural gas loads will reduce 3% of the emissions from the building, if they go for any remodel, the REACH codes will require the conversion anyway. ●Install backup storage battery-- Cody is already working on that. ●Convert any or as many vehicles to electric ●Since employees long distances and contribute 13% to the carbon emissions, 4K gasoline per year. The benefit would translate to $16000 per year ($4/per gallon) The cost of the electricity would be around $10,000. A good incentive would be to offer free charging. ●V2 G-- All the cars that are parked in the parking lot will be available for V2Grid as a backup power for resiliency. More and more manufacturers are offering cars that allow bi-directional charging It will set a good example. LAH leads the state (may be nation) in EV adoption. We can easily set the right example in V2G and lead the state. Town did that with PV 10 years ago. Steve: The free EV charging may help with town staff turnover! Win-win-win. ○Community Measures: GHGI shows AIR Travel very significant for an affluent community like LAH -cant do much about it After Air Travel, NG is second largest contributor to GHG, way above car travel. So it is all about NG i.Steve on vision to be off gas by 2045 Require carrot and sticks Educate how you will electrify, offer additional square footage to the development area as an incentive for electrification, additional incentives over and above what PG&E, SVCE is offering, volume discounts (pick a vendor or a contractor), identify homes that are easy candidates for electrification, and postpone the more difficult homes until technology evolves or market evolves, recommend tools and services, recommend replace on burnout ordinance (already passed by Menlo Park), require electrification at the time of sale (objection by April, Pat, Peter and Vrinda), no reconnections after electrifications ●April: SB9 & SB10 impact... it will definitely have a tremendous impact ( population size, schools, parking, etc), but will it impact GHGs? Address the possibility of impact of the passage of SB9 and SB10. ●Aileen: If these bills pass, then it is all the more important to have the new construction bar high. But has any town actually discontinued services of NG?. Not yet . ●Anand: All our goals are reducing total GHGshould we consider per capita goals? ●Clarification: NOT A BAN, but a vision to get off gas ii.Steve on Electrification walkthrough: ●If we do nothing about 700 homes will electrified between now and 2030. If we take the additional measures we will get about 800 more homes to get off NG. ●Subsidized by town, to educate homeowners on their particular electrification opportunities ●Need to stress that some subsidy would be required $100,000 iii.Peter on Permits for electrification: ●Might need several permits for electrification (MEP Mechanical, Electrical and plumbing permit) $180 + escalator fees. The conversion jobs are more expensive upfront and then add permit fees over and above. New permit for Heat pump conversion for space heating and water heating. ●Simplify and reduce permit fees iv.Peter on working with SVCE to promote on-bill financing ( paying for the conversion over the life of the appliance through the monthly bill through the efficiencies you are realizing from using the more efficient appliance) via BE Smart. ●1,600 MT of reduced emissions for every 10% of LAH homes ●Vrinda: Cost to town? Negligible....? Make it efficient & simple-- may be after the fact like they do with water heaters. ●The solar permit is $450--very high 5.Drinks and pizza for all EIC (esp. Peter) Sunday the 18th at 6pm at "State of Mind"