ORDER-2018-3 : Authorization to Accept a Grant in the amount of $217,484.00 from the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) through the Green Communities Division; and Authorize the Mayor to Execute a Contract with the Department of Energy Resources; funds to be deposited into Fund #4030

Transcript (~23 min @ 26:50)

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▶ 26:52 Peter D. Mortimer: The next order we have before us is order 2018-3. It is authorization to accept a grant in the amount of $217,484 from the Department of Energy Resources through the Green Communities Division. And to authorize the Mayor to execute a contract with the Department of Energy Resources. to be deposited into fund number four zero three zero we are under suspension would you please join us miss Grover thank you for coming please proceed

▶ 27:32 Speaker 5: hi there so yes the order is a very straightforward one this is our fifth green community grant so the request is for your approval to accept these funds and enter into a contract with the Department of Energy Resources I anticipated your questions likely to be so how are we doing so I put together a really quick presentation that I'm gonna go through quickly because I know you've got other agenda items after me so if you have any questions as I go along feel free to tell me to pause but otherwise I'll just go through and let you know where how we're doing on green communities and other things related to

▶ 28:22 Speaker 5: this position very good thank you so I'm gonna go do the green community update and talk about what this grant award what we're going to fund a little bit about what we've done on solar PV development and some community outreach projects in the city just to review in 2010 the city applied for and was designated as a green community by meeting these five criteria I won't go through them all Thorp no change into the first two there was a stretch code adoption for the building code which is now the base code so the state code is now caught up with the stretch code we adopted a fuel-efficient vehicle purchase policy and we created an energy reduction plan where we pledged to reduce our energy consumption in municipal buildings streetlights fleets by 20% in five years so since 2010 that these are the grants and other programs that we've applied for including our designation grant and three competitive grants and almost a million dollars in utility incentives totaling over two million dollars all all of these have gone to a number of projects energy efficiency projects solar projects and other construction over the years pretty pretty good return on investment I think this is our energy reduction plan progress so if you look in the tape what I have to do every year is report to the state our baseline year is FY 2009 and then report year-on-year our total MMBT use which is a measurement of it's an energy measurement that what's the word I'm looking for anyway it takes the different fuel types and merges them into one measurement one unit and if you look at the bottom right our energy reduction in the Latin since our baseline year of 2009 has been a total of just over 12% with sizable reductions and the streetlights obviously from the LED retrofit vehicles and also the water sewer the pump stations buildings have proven to be a bigger challenge and I think that the main reason for that if you think back to 2008 2009 eight years ago or yeah we didn't have ed stations we didn't have campus kids we didn't have that was before an aggressive rental program in this for the school buildings put in place by superintendents Casey and Superintendent Taymor 2009 was before Kathy Piggott Broder managed Memorial Hall her bookings have gone up by 300% it was before Franco Laverie who's the director of the recreation programs whose programs use all of our buildings our gyms around the clock all all year long all winter long and this is a this challenge of reducing energy when usage and occupancy goes up it's it's such a rate is a challenge for a lot of cities and towns who are using their municipal buildings more and more for community uses to the extent they actually you could have applied this year for an engineer to figure out I don't know what we would have saved if do you know how that all plays in together I I think it's kind of a waste of money but um I'd rather spend it on projects but in any case this so this you know 2009 was just with that lot has changed and so what you see here is a reduction of almost 6% but I think that it's a lot of avoided energy usage from a number of projects that we've done and most recently from and wait mark Thompson our building system supervisor are really managing our buildings in a very expert way so the next slide is just I won't go through all these but this is the list of all the projects that we've done and the green community funding that supported these and the utility incentive funding that supported them the the biggest projects were again the the ESCO project excuse me and the streetlight project but there have been a number of lighting projects and upgrades to a number of buildings including the other third big

▶ 33:24 Speaker 5: one was the um high school hvac project that took that building off of electric heat so next slide um what i what i worked very closely with john shenna anne waite and mark thompson at dpw this time because it's clear that we've we've picked the low-hanging fruit so now it's time with the streetlight and yasko project in the in the high school hvac so um we sat down to you know we had you know over 200 000 how do we want to spend it so this is the list of projects that we applied for and received approval for one of which is an additional electric vehicle the second item is retro commissioning the high school middle school those those buildings retro commissioning means going back in with a team of engineers and going through the energy management system with a fine-tooth comb and making sure that everything is working the way it was designed to work it's really easy these buildings are not these new systems that we've installed are not a set it and forget it that it requires constant care and upkeep and those two buildings represent about 40% of our building energy usage so spending some money to make sure that the systems are working as designed as is money well spent we're gonna do an upgrade project at the Milano Center mostly renovating their their univents they have I think they have 10 or 11 of them and throughout their building and we've got two projects at the Lincoln believe it or not the Lincoln one of our new schools is now almost 20 years old and we're gonna do a small HVAC project there and one of the things that came up in the ESCO project when we installed this integrated energy management system a lot of that was overlaying on existing energy management systems and it became clear that the Lincoln system it's like a 20 year old computer and I don't know many of you still have computers from 20 years ago but it's time to upgrade that and um so we're going to put some money there that is the only project that requires additional city funds and i understand from john shena that he has set aside money in his budget to subsidize that project so total grant award of 217 000 um just over that so the next slide just goes over what we've done for the fleet um there is a fuel efficient vehicle policy that only applies to non-exempt vehicles all of the heavy equipment are exempt from this policy so about 24 25 percent of our fleet is subject to the fuel efficient vehicle policy that we put in place and over the last few years we've added two ford focus battery electric vehicles we're going to add one more to the engineering department we've got the charging station here and we're going to find another location for a second one the new water meter technician van is going to be outfitted with this xl hybrid system that will cause regeneration of through the braking system and reduce energy fuel usage in

▶ 36:54 Speaker 5: that van by 25 and then over time just you know we've got a couple of ford fusions and the animal control officer got a new car a few years ago and the schools replaced these old ford vans with much more efficient dodge caravans so that's all helped to decrease usage on the vehicle fleet and we've got as you know a number of solar projects right now we're still working on the dpw roof system and you've already approved the city being an off-taker of the solar carport at the mbta parking lot at oak grove and Thorp a new incentive program solar incentive program that's about to be introduced i'll be working on a solar canopy at the high school parking lot and Thorp a lot of interest right now in energy storage so i'd like to add perhaps an energy storage component to make that area that building more resilient and possibly even a community shared solar component to that but i may be trying to do too much fun projects so we'll see um and then just the community outreach projects that you that you are aware of and know that we've um along with the melrose energy commission have done over the years thank you very much

▶ 38:06 Peter D. Mortimer: for your presentation appreciate it we'll now throw it open to alderman boyce hell please

▶ 38:13 Robert A. Boisselle: going back to your vehicle fleet update are you purchasing another electric vehicle to make this

▶ 38:21 Speaker 5: three yes vehicles yes with this grant it funds the balance after i have another grant to pay that'll pay 7 500 of it and then this grant will pay the net okay so there'll be three electric

▶ 38:29 Robert A. Boisselle: vehicles it would be nice to to maybe put uh one of these new chargers next to the fire station it's getting a little embarrassing seeing going a little orange plug going into the

▶ 38:45 Speaker 5: firehouse to charge their vehicle yeah he can use the charge the charging station i just think that

▶ 38:53 Robert A. Boisselle: uh captain white prefers to to just plug it in at the back of the building yeah uh with the hvacs was there any reason why the why the library wasn't considered in the hvac upgrade i think

▶ 39:04 Speaker 5: because it's going to be renovated i think any hvac would probably be included in the

▶ 39:12 Robert A. Boisselle: in the renovation project that's coming out of a grant that's maybe two or three years down the road and listening to that machine chuck away a couple days ago i don't think it's going to make the summer yeah all right thank you very much thank you thank you alderman boycelle alderman

▶ 39:30 Monica C. Medeiros: medeiros please thank you i'd first like to move that we include this uh presentation in the order is it it's not included in my order on the intern alderman Medeiros has made a motion

▶ 39:43 Peter D. Mortimer: to include the paperwork that was presented by miss grover this evening waiting for us as we came into the building to the order the said motion to amend was duly seconded by alderman boyce seeing no discussion on the matter all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the order as amended is before us and alderman Medeiros you still have the floor thank you thank

▶ 40:06 Monica C. Medeiros: you very much appreciate this i like to see the uh update on what we've done and and where we've come um i did see mentioned in terms of the community electricity aggregation program and it's a little bit off topic but you can you can just mention uh i understand yeah this would be a great opportunity

▶ 40:24 Speaker 5: sorry yeah thank you for bringing that up so um the program's been in place for 18 months and we went out to bid this is a community aggregation program where the city has arranged for electricity to supply on behalf of residents and businesses here in town about 95 percent of eligible accounts were had have taken part in the program which has resulted in modest savings for most households and was a trendsetter a pioneer and that we purchased an additional 5% class 1 Rex which now a number of towns have just gotten approval to do the same thing and with we went out to bid to extend the contractor to start a new contract in May and June and due to market situation for what's called the NEMA zone, the Northeast Massachusetts zone, a capacity cost increase in what we are all paying for supply.

▶ 41:32 Speaker 5: The suppliers who are bidding on Melrose were unable to beat the basic service national grid rate. National grid, because they do business across the state, are able to offer a blended or average rate from across the state. were at seven cents out west and nine cents south of here and 11 cents here when we went out to bid we were only getting the 11 cent rates because they were just bidding for our zone so it just it just didn't make sense to to

▶ 42:05 Speaker 5: continue that and keep people enrolled in a program when they could be getting a much lower rate with basic service at least for the next year until this price spike um is over so we've suspended it we'll um we'll refile and we'll we kind of have to go back to square one but it because you know it'll just pretty much be the same plan and we'll just monitor the markets because i i found that um one of the unintended consequences of this program was

▶ 42:35 Speaker 5: how much people appreciated being able to set it and forget it and not worry about it and feel like they were protected that there was somebody else looking out for them in this what they consider to be otherwise very confusing they're getting slammed with phone calls confusing marketplace they really don't understand their electric bills i've spoken to hundreds of people and i did a lot of public outreach and i have another session i'm going to the milano center thursday morning and i'm just bring your bring your electric bills i'll walk you through it tell you what's in this um and the empowerment that people have felt just being able to feel the phone calls or the person who shows up at the door and just say you know either enter into the market themselves or just not worry about it or understand it better has been that that has been really surprising to me but it's also made me very aware of how price sensitive so many of our residents are and it's that's really important to make sure that we're getting them the best deal

▶ 43:54 Speaker 5: that we can so now everyone is back yes so as of meter reads this month everyone is switched back automatically to basic service and then assuming we possibly could go back

▶ 44:08 Speaker 5: and move everyone again in a year but they would get the full notification there would be the full

▶ 44:15 Monica C. Medeiros: public outreach yeah and uh in the meantime back at national grid is we having the same commitment to uh renewable local renewable sources through national grid right is it back to if you

▶ 44:26 Speaker 5: it's back to the state mandated um what's called a renewable portfolio standard so we're at 12 we were it's you know an additional five percent um but it's it's um Thorp still some green and anyone can contact me if they want to find out how to buy more green in a responsible way from local

▶ 44:51 Monica C. Medeiros: local sources and um you know just in terms of the discussion about buildings i do think that you know both both us in in the city and in the schools and it even at home you are going to feel some challenges and I'm sure that we do every time you know we go back to say 2000 even 2009 how much more reliant everyone is on computers and you know that's the other thing yeah we added all those computers and computers and things like that and I'm wondering if you have any idea you know how much more energy that takes to to run then you know then the black

▶ 45:31 Speaker 5: boards and chalkboards of right old right well I know that a lot of the computers and Chromebooks are very low energy and a lot of the new workstations that have been installed around the city are very low energy but certainly it adds

▶ 45:48 Monica C. Medeiros: up yeah I think until you know the overall marketplace becomes a little bit more efficient yeah probably have some growing pains in that right right and

▶ 46:01 Speaker 5: and I can also tell you that this in this coming year especially come November people will experience a rate increase pretty sizable I still think that what they can get from national and great is going to be cheaper than than most other suppliers because of their ability to average rates but get ready and get your home energy assessment and your insulation and your LED light bulbs

▶ 46:29 Peter D. Mortimer: now thank you thank you thank you very much Alderman Medeiros just so everyone's aware we are operating under an order to accept a grant from the doer and authorize the mayor to make a contract in that regard so that's what we're discussing this evening and next in queue we have alderman MacMaster

▶ 46:49 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Margolis thank you mr. chairman I do have a question about the grant but just to kind of ask one more thing about what Alderman Medeiros was saying will people will will residents be expecting phone calls again and people knocking on

▶ 47:06 Speaker 4: their door calls haven't stopped they haven't stopped anyways okay okay and I

▶ 47:08 Speaker 5: And I think that once word got out that we were doing aggregation, a lot of suppliers came into town making it seem like they were representing the city or something. It was just used another tool to confuse people. And Thorp really not much that can be done about it.

▶ 47:21 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: People should still be aware and call your office if they have a question. So thank you. I had a question on the Lincoln upgrade. So you explained it as kind of like right now it's almost like there are two different systems operating.

▶ 47:36 Speaker 5: well there there aren't enough points and can wait who manages our facility she can't see enough of the building so if somebody's complaining right now and in most of our buildings if somebody's complaining in room 201 she can look at room 201 and know what the temperature is but not at the Lincoln there just isn't she doesn't have enough access to enough areas of the building to know what's really going on there and to address the issues or to manage it and And she's only got just like I think it's like three big zones and do you think that has led to higher energy costs there?

▶ 48:10 Speaker 5: Yes, once you can zone it off more and if you know and control and if you're aware that a room is off the charts You know when not wait till somebody to tell you if you get an alarm about it You can get you know send mark in and he fixes it or if you want to just have the auditorium or the gym

▶ 48:34 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: heated or, you know, cooled. School vacation and someone's

▶ 48:37 Speaker 5: renting the gym. All of that, yeah. It just gives, it gives her more control and, and it's just, it's created in this

▶ 48:45 Speaker 5: century, the technology. Do you think we should be looking at

▶ 48:48 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: the Roosevelt School for this as well, or is the Roosevelt

▶ 48:53 Speaker 5: School just that much later? That's a little, no, she, she feels like they've got a handle on the Roosevelt. So it's just

▶ 48:57 Speaker 4: that much earlier at Lincoln. Yeah, it's the Lincoln is, yeah,

▶ 49:02 Peter D. Mortimer: problematic great thank you mr chairman thank you alderman mcintyre margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard president khan has made a motion to recommend this order for passage and it was duly seconded by alderman boisselle already all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board for passage thank you very much