GEAC MINUTES OF JUNE 26 2008 GOVERNOR’S ENERGY ADVISORY

12 (ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY COUNCIL MINUTES 2007 08 30)
3 CATHOLIC SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL (CSAC) MINUTES
3 MINUTES FROM UNECE “TELECOM INITIATIVE” MEETING

HERTFORD REGIONAL COLLEGE CORPORATION MINUTES OF THE
MINUTES OF HEALTHWATCH NOTTINGHAM AND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BOARD MEETING
MINUTES OF MEETING PROJECT GUI FOR

GOVERNOR’S ENERGY ADVISORY COUNCIL

GEAC Minutes of June 26, 2008

GOVERNOR’S ENERGY ADVISORY COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES OF JUNE 26, 2008


PRESENT: Bryant, Jacqueline DNREC/DEO

Buttner, Sally PSC

Hodas, David R. Chair Widener University School of Law

Kramer, Brian League of Woman Voters

Kreiner, Andrea A.Kreiner Company

Murphy, Justin DPA

Nelson, Bob DEL DOT

Neilson, Mark DEC

Padmore, Arthur Public Advocate

Pelham, Bill William E. Pelham, ALA

Ross, Seth DNS

Sample, Paul Tech Advisory

Smisson, Charlie DNREC/DEO

Stockbridge, Gary Delmarva Power

Stone, Jeff DEDO


I. CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME - CHAIR DAVID R. HODAS:

The Governor’s Energy Advisory Council Meeting was brought to order at 9:35 a.m. by Chair David R. Hodas on June 26, 2008, in Conference Room at The Department of Agriculture 1221 College Park Drive, Room 107, Dover, Delaware. Chair Hodas welcomed everyone, introductions were made, and handouts were made available including copies of the May 22, 2008 GEAC Meeting Minutes.


II. REVIEW OF LAST MEETING ACCOMPISHMENTS–CHAIR DAVID R. HODAS:

David advised the Council that the workgroups are moving along quite well. He further advised if anyone has not signed up to a workgroup, please do so. The minutes of May 22nd, 2008 were approved, accepted and adopted by the council.


III. SEU/RGGI/LEGISLATIVE UPDATE – PHIL CHERRY & CHARLIE SMISSON:


LEGISLATIVE UPDATES: CHARLIE SMISSON: SB 263 passed with no amendments.

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 7 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO A REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE AND CO2 EMISSION TRADING PROGRAM. This bill grants legal authority for Delaware to participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) CO2 cap and trade program. The bill grants DNREC the authority to implement the program including promulgating regulations and implementing or participating in an allowance auction as necessary to fulfill the goals of the program. This bill further requires that all proceeds from the sale of RGGI CO2 allowances be used for public benefit purposes and directs revenues to the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) for the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, to programs designed to help low income ratepayers, to a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program and to DNREC for administration of the program.

http://legis.delaware.gov/lis/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+263?Opendocument


RGGI Auction funds:


The auction will start of with 65% and go up to 100% in 5 years. We are not sure if Delaware will make the September Auction, but will definitely be in the January Auction. The RGGI bill was a long time in the making and several people worked hard to get this through. Phil Cherry has spent many hours traveling to Vermont, New Hampshire and Newark, New Jersey to talk with the RGGI people. We are gratified that this bill has finally been passed and ready for the Governor signature. It is a very good bill to get through.


David: Are there any other States that have not finished their legislation.


Charlie: Delaware was the last one.


Seth: asked about funding to the SEU?


Charlie: The funding that goes to the SEU, can be used by the SEU for energy efficiency for renewable energy projects. The funds will be supplemented by the RGGI auctions. Depending on the size of the auction dollar amount, it could bring in substantial dollars.


SB276 passed. AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY UTILITY. This bill establishes the new Board to oversee Delaware’s Sustainable Energy Utility. The bill provides that the Board shall be governed by and subject to the Delaware Freedom of Information Act. The bill also requires the Board to adopt a provision in its bylaws to address conflicts of interest. The bill also creates an Advisory Committee to advise the board on issues of public policy, and public education which will enhance the performance and quality of service of the Sustainable Energy Utility.


http://legis.delaware.gov/lis/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+276?Opendocument


This SEU Board bill sets up the board of appointed members by the Governor. There are some selected members; State Energy Coordinator for The Energy Office who is the ex-officio non-voting member of the board. Charlie feels that is appropriate since the Energy Office is going to have day to day control of the board. There will also establish an Advisory Committee to the SEU Oversight Board, which will be comprised of people from all of the state. That process will begin soon, as long as the Governor signs the bill and the formation of the Board and the Advisory Committee will be in.


David: Why don’t they link into the Governors Energy Advisory Council for advice and oversight?


Charlie: That is a good question and he will ask that at the next board meeting. They may very well take advantage of some of the members of this Council. The Oversight Board selects the Advisory Committee and the Governor selects the Oversight Board.


Arthur: Who are the members that should be on the board?


Charlie: The Oversight Board shall consist of 11 members, including the Secretary of DNREC, The Public Advocate, A member of the General Assembly, An appointed member by the Senate and 7 members of the board will be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Governor;

  1. One representative from Academia

  2. One Non-profit with experience in overseeing low to moderate income Community.

  3. One Non-profit from the Environmental Community

  4. One Non-profit from the Energy Community

  5. One from the Business Community

  6. Two Representatives from the Financial Accounting Community


This is the last obstacle for the SEU, there are no further legislation remaining. We have just released the RFP for the Contract Administrator for public comment as of this morning. A copy is on The Energy Office website; www.delaware-energy.com. A copy of the public notice is also available for two weeks, starting today and ending July 10, 2008. There will also be a public forum on July 3rd, 2008 at the Energy Office Conference Room from 10:00am to 12:00pm for anyone interested to talking about the RFP or the SEU. After the Oversight Board reviews those comments, they will make the necessary changes so it can be released. Charlie will try and get the RFP released on July 16th, 2008. DNREC still has to have approval of the Oversight Board on the final version of the RFP. The current Oversight Board will approve the RFP, because there wouldn’t be enough time to get in a new board and get it approved in time.


Sally: Which Governor will appoint the new board?


Charlie: It will probably be the current Governor. The Governor will appoint the members to a 2 to 4 year term at a staggered pace, similar to Governor Energy Advisory Council. Charlie submitted the structure of the Governors Energy Advisory Council as a recommendation copy.


Andrea: The Chair of the Energy Advisory Council should send a letter to the Governor with his recommendations regarding the structure of the Oversight Board. The Council members agreed with the recommendation.


Charlie gave an up date on a few more Senate Bills:


SB314 AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ENERGY CONSERVATION. This Act updates building code requirements for energy efficiency.

This updates the ASHRAE/IESNA Standard to 90.1-2004 for Commercial Building. New York and Rhode Island have shown a decrease in new construction, because of the change in lighting regulations, with efficiency up to 10% from the old ASHRAE codes. The bill passed the Senate and needs to pass the House.

http://legis.delaware.gov/lis/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+314?Opendocument


SB 238 AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS. This Bill bans the use of covenants or other restrictions to prohibit the installation of solar photovoltaic systems in Delaware. This bill passed the Senate but is being held up in the House, because the Delaware Association of Realtors opposed the bill. They sent a letter to Representative Hocker stating their 4,300 member organization thought that it infringed upon deed requirements and development. So the bill was tabled.

http://legis.delaware.gov/lis/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+238?Opendocument


SB328 AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 26 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO OFFSHORE WIND POWER INSTALLATIONS. This bill promotes the establishment of clean offshore wind energy off the coast of Delaware, while minimizing the cost concerns related to offshore wind installations and encouraging DPL to execute offshore wind power purchase agreements for customers by: (1) Creating a 350% offshore wind renewable energy credit multiplier, (2) Making the 350% renewable energy credit multiplier available for the life of offshore wind contracts, and (3) spreading both the cost and the benefits of offshore wind power contracts executed by DPL to DPL's entire customer base, rather than only to DPL’s standard offer service customers. This bill passed the Senate, passed the House and signed by the Governor in 3 hours.

http://legis.delaware.gov/lis/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+328?Opendocument

Gary informed the Council about the offshore wind project with Blue Water Wind. Delmarva was pleased with the outcome of the bill. This was a combination of negotiation regarding the future and what each business was looking to get out of this project. The environmentalist kept it going to get us to where we are now, for the least cost alternative and renewable energy credits. There were 3 areas that were important to Delmarva;


1. Cost: The work they did on the RECs allows 100 million in saving to go back to the customer.


2. Fairness: This is handled by spreading to all customers and also making Delmarva Power a part of the project, so they wouldn’t be the only one taking the lion’s share. They have a significant part, but not the only part.


3. Wind Farm: They now have contracts with three developers on four wind farms; three land based and one offshore. By spreading it out it decreases the risk from one type of installation.


David: How does the bonus for the RECs tie into the RPS requirements.


Gary: The way this issue with the RECs evolved was in the negotiations with Babcock and Brown. We wanted to come up with a way to save money and keep the price down. They looked at existing legislation that already allows a multiplier for instate solar and land based wind. So they took that model and put a multiplier for the RECs that will free up not buying as many. We would by for example 1/3 of the RECs and multiply. That frees up some RECs to sell elsewhere and some of the saving goes back to the customer. The RECs can be sold to other states. As we get closer to the construction of the wind farms any customer can buy into that project above the REC requirement for the state up to 100 %.


David: Do the RECs meeting the RPS requirements.


Gary: For example we buy one REC and get three RECs toward the RPS requirement. The RECs can’t be produced without the energy being produced and we are buying the energy. The RECs have to be produced; they can be sold elsewhere to allow additional economics to this deal to float back to the customer is saving. The Blue Water Wind project alone will not provide us with the RPS requirements, but through the other four wind farms we will meet our RPS requirements in 20years for that whole portfolio. Remember there is a solar carve out that will be meet through the SEU. We will buy aggregated RECs from the SEU.


David: Are the Municipals and Delaware Electric Coop (DEC) part of this deal.


Gary: The Municipals have a deal and they are working on that. The DEC is not part of the portfolio and they shouldn’t be forced to do it. It should be their options to participate. They are aggressively going after some of the land based wind to meet their renewable goals they have for themselves.


David: Was the key to spread it among all customers.


Gary: The key was to not have Delmarva Power take on the whole risk of the project and that it was spread across all of their customers.


Brian: Does Blue Water have the multiplier applied to them.


Gary: The way it works, we buy a fraction of the RECs that we are use to buying and we multiply where it will reach the energy. That benefit goes back to both companies, part of the benefit goes to the customers and part goes back to Blue Water Wind.


Brian: Will they end up with more RECs to sell then they would have before the project.


Gary: Yes, that is where they are able to improve their economics and keep it sustainable.


Brian: What is the multiplier on Solar?


Gary: In-state solar gets a 300% multiplier which is already an existing standard. That is the model Delmarva used, along with another multiplier. The other multiplier is irrelevant, because there isn’t enough land based solar.


Brian: The 20% standard has been shot by a factor of 3 overall on the average. So we are getting to a point where all renewable energy, including solar or anything has a multiplier of 3, correct?


Gary: That depends on where you get it from. It does impact the overall requirements. It is similar to other states, where the State recognizes there is an in-state value to the project. In-state solar provides an economic boost by providing jobs that surround in-state solar projects. That is one of the reasons this deal came together, because of the jobs that the new wind project will bring to Delaware.


David: Does the bill deal with additional KW hours that Blue Water might generate if they expand the project.


Gary: Not from a multiplier. The Multiplier was enough to get this deal done and it wouldn’t apply to anything beyond that. This was something that was mentioned by Senator McDowell, that we didn’t have an open end multiplier. Gary requested that everyone go to www.delmarva.com to find out more on the project. The two developers are Synergics Roth Rock Wind Energy, LLC and AES Armenia Mountain Wind, LLC.


Andrea: Will increasing our generation from wind in this state qualify for offsets for RGGI in the future. It’s not a reduction in carbon, but a reduction in carbon per kilowatt.


Gary: I am not sure.


Seth: Is there any plans to handle the issue we have with shortage of steel.


Gary: This was factored in when they placed the bids. But they all have the same issue, high demand with a lot of wind turbine installation. This is why Delmarva wanted to have a fairly diverse portfolio and not use the same developer/manufacture.


Justin: Is it probable, for the Blue Water Wind project to back out of the deal, if they don’t get enough customers.


Gary: Yes it is possible, but not probable. They have tried to get as close as they could without help from anybody else. Only they know if they can build this without anyone help.


IV THE 5YR ENERGY PLAN: ANDREA KREINER:


Andrea informed the Council that the workgroups are going well. Everyone has had two meeting so far. There are concerns with the Reducing the Environmental footprint of Energy Used by Delawareans workgroup. They are looking for a clear definition of what they should focus on. After some discussion the Council decided to have the workgroup focus on renewable. The Council decided to have the workgroup Chairs make the decision on additional topics to add to this workgroup. The Council talked about using July to focus on the agenda items for the August meeting.


Bill gave an update on Environmental Footprint workgroup. They have had presentation from Phil Cherry on RGGI, Roy Whittaker from Seaford School District on the money saved by implementing energy efficiency. In the next meeting, Dr. John Byrne will do a newly updated presentation on the SEU. Also at the same meeting Ken Davis will present information on the SEU early launch program. The Council is invited to come to hear the presentations on July 21 at the Appoquinimink School District. In the September meeting Phil Cherry will have ACEEE come in and spend the days talking about the policy issues that are going on around all of the States. If you want more information on ACEEE, please go to http://www.aceee.org/ .


The Council highlighted the new Energy Plan web page -http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Admin/Pages/DelawareEnergyPlan.aspx . They further complimented the Energy office on the website. On this website you can find all of the meeting dates, the meeting notes, presentations and agendas for all 5 workgroups.


Andrea further informed the Council that the other workgroups are in the same stage of gathering data at this point. The transportation workgroup is working on reducing vehicle miles traveled and the environmental aspect of the vehicle miles traveled. They are also looking into signalization. Andrea further explained that her role is different with each workgroup. Some workgroups use her for the agendas and other she doesn’t have to do much at this point.


In the next meeting Andrea will need to get the survey information from Sue, to give to the workgroups.


V. THE NEXT MEETING

The next meeting is August 28th, 2008 from 9:30am to 11:30am


VI. ADJOURNED

Meeting adjourned at 11:05
































STUDENT EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE SEC10M3 MINUTES OF THE MEETING
(BOARD NAME) MEETING MINUTES (DAY MONTH DATE YEAR) (BOARD
(INSERT LOGO) ROANOKE CHOWAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES


Tags: advisory council, energy advisory, governor’s, advisory, energy, minutes