GOVERNOR’S ENERGY ADVISORY COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTESOF JUNE 22, 2006
PRESENT:Anderson, JanDNREC/Delaware Energy Office
Baron, Dominique (for Seth Ross)Delaware Nature Society
Buttner, SarahDOS, Public Advocate
Esposito, PatriciaNRG – North New Jersey
Hodas, David R., ChairWidenerUniversitySchool of Law
McCullar, PatrickDEMEC (DE Municipal Electric Corp.)
McRae, ArnettaPublic Service Commission
Nielson, MarkDelaware Electric Cooperative
Padmore, ArthurDOS, Public Advocate
Sebastian, Suzanne E.DNREC/Delaware Energy Office
Smisson, Jr., Charlie T.DNREC/Delaware Energy Office
Smith, GaryDelaware Economic Development Office
Thompson, SteveChesapeake Utilities Corporation
I.CALL TO ORDERAND WELCOME - Chair David R. Hodas:
The Governor’s Energy Advisory Council Meeting was brought to order at 9:40 a.m. by Chair David R. Hodas on June 22, 2006, in the Farmington Conference Room of the DELDOTAdministrationBuilding on U.S. Route 113 in Dover, Delaware. Chair Hodas welcomed everyone, and handouts were made available for everyone including copies of the May 25, 2006 G.E.A.C. Meeting Minutes.
II.OPENING COMMENTS -Chair David R. Hodas:
The minutesof the May 25, 2006 meetingwere approved, accepted, and adopted by the Council, after Arnetta McRae mentioned a couple of changes. Since the time of the meeting, the minutes were modified and now stand correct.
III. REVIEW OF LAST MEETING ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND OTHER
COMMENTS – Chair David R. Hodas:
Chair Hodas made a motion for the Governor’s Energy Advisory Council to take a vacation over the summer – not meeting again until September 28, 2006. This motion was adopted and approved by all Council Members. Chair Hodas went on to say that there are a couple of exciting possibilities doing what we are really tasked to do – come up with a new Energy Plan for the State.
IV.LEGISLATIVE UPDATE – Phil Cherry, DNREC:
Chair Hodas asked Phil Cherry to give a report of what is going on in the Legislature regarding “energy”. Phil said, right at this moment, there is not a whole lot going on about energy legislation. Phil stated that he was not aware of any “front burner issues” pending right now; but that is not to say there are not any Bills still in the works which he
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said he did not see much possibility of action on them any time soon. Phil referred specifically to Senate Bill 282 – the Green Energy Fund rewrite – the one that would have expanded to a broader group, the one that would have increased the mil charge, it was heard in the Senate Committee on May 25 – discussed at length in the Senate – was placed back on the ready list for a lot of reasons. Phil said first and foremost was that there was no interest in the Senate to increase any fees at any time this year. The bill then was tabled. Chair Hodas interjected that being an election year does make a difference. Phil agreed.
Phil said there was also an amendment put on the Bill to carve out the Cooperative and the Municipal Electric Corporation. That amendment did get on the Bill. Pat McCullar stated that the amendment that was added to the Bill allowed the cooperatives and municipals to determine the level of the fee locally.
Phil also mentioned House Concurrent Resolution No. 70 about Ethanol. Charlie Smisson stated that this legislation replaced House Concurrent Resolution No. 66. No. 70 added on one more legislative representative from each of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Charlie Smisson stated that Senator McDowell may try to run an update for the State Energy Code to update the code to the newly-released I.E.C.C. 2006 on the residential side and to ASHRAE 90.1-2004 on the commercial side. Pat McCullar asked Charlie to explain what this all means. Charlie said basically it updates the codes to the most current version – the Energy Code. The I.E.C.C. 2006 (International Energy Code Council) is a lot easier to use than the 2000 version that we have now. It does offer more energy efficiency initiatives. But whether Senator McDowell has time to pursue this remains to be seen. Sarah Buttner stated that she thought the I.E.C.C. 2006 change over the 2000 version is much easier to use. Charlie went on to explain that on the commercial side, the 2004 version of the ASHRAE code has some updates in it. Chair Hodas asked if this is something that developers would be opposed to. Charlie said he did not think so. The big problem is enforcement of the Energy Code as it always has been. The municipalities and counties are charged with that. The code is only as good as the enforcement. If the Bill does pass, we will provide training throughout the state in the form of workshops for builders, code officials, and architectural engineers before the act takes effect.
Chair Hodas asked if there was any word on funding for the new Energy Plan. Phil Cherry answered – yes – your letter went to the OMB Director. The word I got back was that we are to take it out of another funding source (the $8 Million).
Phil Cherry said he forgot to mention that House Bill No. 6 setting up a deferred payment plan for Conectiv customers was passed – but more importantly it sets up an entire
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process for integrated resource planning on the part Delmarva Power – and an RFP process for them to potentially install some power generation locally. The Public Service Commission staff has held their first meeting on this process.
Phil also mentioned that on June 20, 2006 we had our Business Energy Summit at the Dover Downs Complex. Word has it that it was an outstanding success, and there is a possibility of having one again next year. Over 300 people attended – many
exhibitors. Charlie Smisson said WBOC as well as The News Journal was also there.
Sarah Buttner asked Phil Cherry his opinion on Senate Bill 282 for next year. Phil answered he thought the Bill would have to be reintroduced next year. I think it stands a chance especially if Governor Minner stands behind it.
V. REGULATORY ASSISTANCE PROJECT REPORT -ENERGY
EFFICIENCY POLICY TOOLKIT, Sarah Buttner, Public Advocate’s Office:
Chair Hodas stated that a new report just came out on the Regulatory Assistance Project which is a good small group located in Maine started by a number of former PSC Commissioners. Chair Hodas said they do a lot of analyses. They have come out with an Energy Efficiency Policy Tool Kit which Sarah is going to give us a briefing on. This contains some specific things other states are doing that are successful. This will give us some specific ideas as we move forward to answering this question in the Open Task Force Report Recommendation. Chair Hodas added that after Sarah’s presentation, Pat Esposito could tell the Council about what NRG’s new plans are and be able to answer questions.
Sarah thanked Chair Hodas for the nice introduction, and added that she is speaking today on her own behalf not necessarily on behalf of the Public Advocate. Sarah started out by saying that she would like to convey two points – first that the Regulatory Assistance Project is a resource available to Delaware, and second to summarize the states energy efficiency activities. This will give more information about what other states are doing.
Sarah continued her Power Point Presentation drawing attention to the following points; and handouts of the presentation (Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit) were made available:
Purpose --- What is RAP? --- RAP Training and More --- RAP Workshops --- Source for this Presentation --- State Energy Efficiency Activity --- Main Points --- Required Policy Decision --- Energy Efficiency as a Resource --- California --- California Specific Actions --- New Mexico --- Pacific Northwest --- Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards
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--- Aligning Utility Profit Motives with Efficiency Investments --- Decoupling ---Decoupling North Carolina --- Decoupling Oregon --- Bonus Rate of Return Performance Incentives --- How Are Efficiency Requirements Established? --- Resource
Planning --- Least-Cost Resource Planning Connecticut --- Least-Cost Resource Planning Hawaii --- Least-Cost Resource Planning Indiana --- Least-Cost Resource Planning New Mexico --- Investment in Energy Efficiency Transmission --- Avoid Bad Rate Design
--- States with Successful Clean Energy Policies --- In Summary – Shanghai Story
Chair Hodas commended Sarah on a great presentation. Chair Hodas said he was impressed with the range of states that are doing things.
Chair Hodas said that we should hear about the supply-side news. He asked Pat Esposito, of NRG-Northern New Jersey, to talk about the news about NRG in this morning’s newspaper. Pat Esposito said that NRG representatives, David Crane, CEO and President and the Regional President for the Northeast Region were rolling out our repowering plan to Governor Minner. They were presenting it on a state-by-state basis. The 10-year program, $16 Billion, and the full program across the country is 10,500 megawatts of new or repowered generation. What the overall intention is – NRG wanted to diversify its portfolio so this will include coal gasification, nuclear, wind, etc. The expectation is - air and emissions will be reduced by 67%, and the carbon intensity will be reduced between 20% and 25%. Of the 10,500 megawatts 8,000 is base load – 2,700 of that is nuclear – and 2,500 is peaking. Pat went on to explain some other information about the project.
Pat continued to say that NRG sent in a request for a feasibility study a few weeks ago. Yesterday was the kick-off meeting. NRG engineers and Conectiv engineers and PJM engineers are going to work on this. We will have an answer by September 30, 2006. The feasibility study cost us $10,000. On September 30, 2006, we will have another meeting to look over the information. At that time, we will have the opportunity to stop the project or we pay $50,000 to go and due a system impact study for all of Delmarva. On September 30 we have 30 days to make our decision. It is anticipated that by October 30 we will give PJM $50,000 and say study it some more. If that be the case, then we will get our answer by May of 2007 as to the system impact. This will give us a much cleaner and closer idea of what it will cost to interconnect to the grid. If we still choose to go forward, the facility study goes on from there.
VI.MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS:
Charlie Smisson commented that there is a corps of ENERGY STAR builders that we have been working with. It is not a huge number of builders but they are building to ENERGY STAR standards, and we are hoping to expand that. We have another program we are
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hoping to start sometime in the future called “Home Performance With ENERGY STAR” which will look at existing homes.
Phil Cherry mentioned that there is a new TV commercial soon to be released. Charlie said the Governor has a commercial that is about to come out on building ENERGY STAR homes.
Charlie also said that the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) is doing some good things. They are building to a certain code. They have construction under way on a Gold Standard LEED-Certified building.
Chair Hodas recognized Steve Thompson. Steve stated that the press release is a culmination of periodically our transmission company surveys its companies on projected demand requirements out several years. The last survey was two years ago. We asked our customers two questions: (1) Do they have any additional (South) needs; and (2) Are they interested in tapping into Dominion’s Cove Point facility and accessing their supply? Customers responded positively to both. With that, Eastern Shore Pipe Line Unit filed with FERC the first North-South Expansion which is a 2006, 2007, and 2008 project. FERC approved that project last week. Steve went on to say that construction will be started within the next 30 days.
Steve said the second press release is a project we announced two weeks ago – we are proposing to cross the Chesapeake Bay with a new pipeline by 2009. He said the first step was getting the customers that had an interest in it to sign a contract in an attempt to utilize the service if it gets built. That is the easiest part of this project. We are optimistic that it can be permitted but it will take at least two years to permit and one year to build so we are targeting late 2009 to be in service.
VII.REVIEW OF OPEN TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUMMER FAREWELL, Chair David R. Hodas:
Chair Hodas stated that it was late in the meeting (time wise) to go over a review at this point; however, he did say that starting next year, the Council has to start putting together a new Energy Plan. He went on to say that we have already done work on some of the recommendations. Chair Hodas mentioned that he would get together with Charlie Smisson to put together something to send out and ask people which recommendation they would like to work on – in particular – he said we need to look at transportation a lot (electricity, natural gas) – because transportation consumes a lot of energy both in driving and building roads. Charlie interjected that according to the Task Force Report, 25% of all primary energy in Delaware is in transportation costs.
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Pat McCullar made an announcement to the group – as of June 1, 2006, the Municipal Electric Utilities in Delaware and the Delaware Electric Cooperative are providing voluntary subscriptions for Green Energy to their customers. He said there are already 100 customers signed up with the Municipal Electric Utilities to purchase and receive various quantities of Green Energy in their supply to their homes.
Chair Hodas wished a “great summer” to everyone present. He said the Council should look forward to the Fall when we will attempt to do great things for the State of Delaware.
VIII.OLD BUSINESS: There was no old business discussed.
IX.NEW BUSINESS – FOR THE SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 AGENDA:
Chair Hodas mentioned that in the Fall, the Council will be getting a presentation from the University of Delaware on hybrid cars that can be recharged/plugged in overnight.
X.NEXT MEETING:
The next meeting will be held as follows:
September 28, 2006 – 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Farmington Conference Room – DELDOTAdministrationBuilding
U.S. Route 113, Dover, Delaware
XI.ADJOURNMENT: Today’s meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.
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Jan Anderson, DEO, Recorder/Transcriber
(f:\Energy\Gov’s Energy Advis. Council\6-22-06 Meeting Minutes Rev.)