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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-04-03 Utilities Advisory Commission Summary MinutesUtilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 1 of 12 UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING FINAL MINUTES OF APRIL 3, 2013 CALL TO ORDER Chair Cook called to order at 7:03 p.m. the meeting of the Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC). Present: Commissioners Cook, Foster, Hall, and Melton Absent: Commissioners Chang, Eglash, Waldfogel and UAC Liaison Scharff ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES The minutes from the March 6, 2013 UAC meeting were approved as presented. AGENDA REVIEW No changes. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEETING/EVENTS Commissioner Melton advised that the UAC budget committee met with staff to discuss the CIP budget. The meeting included discussion on future and current staffing issues and retirement rates. UTILITIES DIRECTOR REPORT 1. CPAU earns Electric Reliability Award: In February we learned the American Public Power Association (APPA) would be awarding the City of Palo Alto Utilities “gold member” status as a Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) for 2013 through 2015. This award is given to roughly 150 public power utilities out of over 2,000 nationwide that have shown exceptional achievement in regards to reliability, safety, workforce development and system improvement. CPAU also received the Reliable Public Power Provider award for 2011-2012. APPA did not issue a press release about the 2013 award until the March E&O Technical conference and so we waited to do our own publicity about it until that time. 2. Demand-Side Management Update: a. Two Spring Workshops---EcoHome tour on April 4, Irrigation Basics Class on April 13. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 2 of 12 b. Summer Workshop Series in June and July will include classes on solar PV, green remodeling, whole-house sustainable water management and hands-on sheet mulching (a “layered” mulching process). c. Solar PV Installations--we continue to coordinate with diverse customers to get PV installed either through the PV Partners program rebates or through the CLEAN program. Utilities is working with Public Works and Planning on getting PV installed on City structures and looking at revising zoning to allow the building of PV parking lot structures for shading. d. Home Energy Reports—a contract to renew this program and add water use to the report is scheduled for Council consideration on April 15. e. New LED lighting rebate for residents is in development. The last element to be worked out is being sure the local stores have an ample supply of the approved bulbs. We expect to announce the new program’s start within the next couple of months. 3. Communications Update: a. Annual Walking Gas Leak Survey of gas pipelines throughout the City begins this month and will continue through the summer. We have information posted to the web (www.cityofpaloalto.org/GasLeakSurvey and a notice about it appeared on last month’s utilities bills. 4. Council Action: a. On March 18, Council voted against the proposal to appoint a committee to review and make recommendations on the City’s electric service undergrounding policy. b. On March 19, the Finance Committee joined the UAC in recommending that Council approve a 7% water rate increase effective July 1, 2013. c. On April 1, Council approved an amendment to the City’s Water Supply Agreement with San Francisco to allow the wholesale customers of the Hetch Hetchy system to have a say in any plans to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley (i.e. take down the dam). 5. RPS Update: On March 19, CPAU terminated the Power Purchase Agreement with Ameresco for the Crazy Horse landfill-gas-to-energy project that was executed in May 2010. This contract required Ameresco to achieve certain key development milestones—such as obtaining all necessary permits and executing an interconnection agreement with PG&E— that were not achieved by the contractual deadline. The project had been expected to deliver about 2% of the City’s total annual electric supplies starting by the end of 2013. Fortunately, this was one of the more expensive resources in the City’s RPS portfolio, with a price about 50% higher than current renewable energy market prices. In tonight’s report on the new contracts for three solar PV projects, staff had assumed that the contract for the Crazy Horse project was going to be terminated. We can now confirm that it has been. Vice Chair Foster asked if the new Home Energy Reports vendor is the same as the current vendor, OPower. Director Fong stated that the new vendor is the same for the electric and gas reports and that it partnered with a new vendor for the water reports. She added that the water reports may be separate at first, but the goal is for the reports to have all three services. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 3 of 12 UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. NEW BUSINESS ITEM 1: ACTION: Power Purchase Agreements for Project Output from Three Solar Photovoltaic Facilities Resource Planner Jim Stack acknowledged the assistance of the team members, including Tom Kabat, Shiva Swaminathan, the City's Energy Risk Manager Mary Figone, and Marybelle Ang and Amy Bartell from the City Attorney's Office. Stack noted that he is returning to the UAC to report on the culmination of the effort that started in the fall of 2012 with a Request for Proposal (RFP) for renewable energy contracts. He stated that the RFP resulted in 92 projects that were evaluated on price and value to the City, and presented a graph showing the “green premiums” and start dates of all of the proposals, with the three selected proposals circled. Commissioner Melton asked why the City did we not pursue the next project in line after the first three best projects. Stack said that it was lower ranked due to its project viability score and that the three higher ranked proposals were enough to meet the City's needs. Stack said that the addition of the three recommended contracts would bring the City up to about a 50% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and carbon neutrality by 2017, and described how the City would manage its electric supply portfolio under dry and wet hydro conditions. Chair Cook asked if there is a market for bundled renewable power that the City could transact in, especially in a wet hydro year. Stack said that while there is a market for selling bundled or unbundled renewable energy, it would be more likely that the City would sell hydro power in a wet year and that the renewable power market is more long-term with products sold for a year or more, not on a monthly basis. Stack stated that the 183 gigawatt-hours per year (GWh/yr) that these three contracts will provide, along with the existing committed contracts have a "green premium" of only 0.22 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), or well within the 0.5 cent/kWh RPS rate impact limit established by Council. Stack presented summary information about the three proposed projects (Elevation Solar C, Western Antelope Blue Sky Ranch B, and Frontier Solar) and explained that the projects could begin operating in late 2016, or in late 2015 for a slightly higher price. He stated that due to the higher cost for an early start date, staff recommended choosing the 2016 start date option. Stack discussed the risks of the contracts as well as the mitigations of those risks that the City has negotiated into the contracts. These mitigations include letters of credit and liquidated damages if the projects do not get built or do not produce the energy expected. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 4 of 12 Stack stated that the three contracts will supply about 18% of the City's entire electricity use and one may question if the City should commit to such a large fraction of the City's needs at one time. He stated that the reasons that staff recommends executing all three contracts include the City’s need for the power in order to achieve its Carbon Neutral Plan and RPS goals. He also noted several factors indicating that renewable energy prices, which have declined sharply over the past few years, are unlikely to continue to decline at the same rate and may begin to go up again in the near future. Stack presented staff’s recommendation that the UAC recommend that Council approve the three Power Purchase Agreements, select the 2016 contract start dates, and waive the Municipal Code’s investment-grade credit rating requirement for utility commodity purchases. Public Comment: Bruce Hodge, a resident representing Carbon Free Palo Alto, strongly supported the contracts and encouraged the UAC to recommend approval. Commissioner Hall asked about the stage of development of the three projects and if they have completed the CEQA process. Chris Wiedemann, representative of Silverado Power, said that one of their two projects has completed the CEQA process while the other one is expected to complete the process in the next few months. Stack said that the Frontier Solar project, developed by Ridgeline Energy, has already completed its CEQA process as well. Commissioner Hall asked if any of the three contracts would require the City to put up any money up front, or pay transmission upgrade costs. Stack stated that none of the three contracts require the City to put up any money up front, although the City has done so in previous contracts. Commissioner Hall asked about the likelihood that the developers would come back to the City in the future with a request for a higher contract price if the price of panels increases, similar to what happened with the Brannon Solar contract. Stack said that the developers have not purchased the panels or other equipment yet, so they had to make their best estimate as to what the projects’ costs would be, but that staff is not aware of any factors like export tariffs that might increase project costs significantly. Commissioner Hall asked if there were any factors related to transmission congestion or losses that might change the amount of energy we will get from these projects or change their costs. Stack said that the City will have to pay regular transmission related costs for all of the energy that the projects deliver, as we do with all of the power that we receive. He also noted that it is possible that the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) may assess new intermittency costs on resources like solar and wind in the future, but that these charges are unlikely to be so large that the City would prefer a non-intermittent renewable resource to these solar projects. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 5 of 12 Commissioner Hall asked how we know when we have enough renewable energy project commitments. He noted that the energy balance shows that the City’s needs are met in an average hydro year if all of the committed projects get built. Stack stated that if these three contracts are approved staff will be satisfied with the level of project commitments, but are constantly analyzing the progress on the committed projects. Director Fong noted that we don't over-procure resources in order to speculate on the price and make a profit selling the excess to others. Commissioner Melton said that he is concerned with the risk of some of the projects not coming on line, and recommended that staff recognize that they may need to do another RFP in the future. Stack stated that staff will continue to monitor the progress of the committed projects and may issue a new RFP, if needed. Commissioner Melton asked the Energy Risk Manager and City Attorney’s Office representative if they have any issues with any of the contracts. Risk Manager Mary Figone indicated that the financial positions of these companies are not strong, but noted that this is very common for renewable energy developers. Senior Deputy Assistant City Attorney Marybelle Ang noted that there was great rigor to the process in selecting the three proposals through the RFP. Commissioner Melton asked if the terms and conditions of the letters of credit are acceptable. Figone said that the letters of credit will come to her after the contracts are signed and they will be forwarded to the City Clerk’s Office. Vice Chair Foster stated that he supports the three contracts. He noted that all of the best project proposals currently are solar, and asked if there are other types of renewable resources that might be more attractive than solar in the future. Stack stated that no one could have predicted a few years ago how rapidly solar prices would come down, and similarly no one can predict today whether the prices for another resource type will fall dramatically in the future. He also said that if the CAISO ultimately decides to assess intermittency charges on resources like solar then it’s possible that a “baseload” type of resource like geothermal might become more attractive. Chair Cook stated that it must have been difficult for staff to handle the large volume of project proposals that were received under the RFP, and said that he supports staff’s recommendations. He said that these three projects look good and they have great prices. ACTION: Commissioner Melton made a motion that the UAC recommend that the City Council: 1. Approve a Power Purchase Agreement with Elevation Solar C LLC (Elevation), a Delaware limited liability company, for the acquisition of up to 80,000 Megawatt-hours (MWh) per year of energy over thirty years at a cost not to exceed $154 million; 2. Approve a Power Purchase Agreement with Western Antelope Blue Sky Ranch B LLC (Western Antelope), a Delaware limited liability company, for the acquisition of up to Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 6 of 12 50,000 Megawatt-hours (MWh) per year of energy over thirty years at a cost not to exceed $97 million; 3. Approve a Power Purchase Agreement with Frontier Solar LLC (Frontier), a Delaware limited liability company, for the acquisition of up to 52,500 Megawatt-hours (MWh) per year of energy over thirty years at a cost not to exceed $99 million; and 4. Waive the application of the investment-grade credit rating requirement of Section 2.30.340(d) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code, which applies to energy companies that do business with the City, as the three limited liability companies will provide letters of credit in the amounts of $1.4 million (Elevation), $700,000 (Western Antelope), and $600,000 (Frontier) as development assurance deposits, and subsequently in the amounts of $2.4 million (Elevation), $1.2 million (Western Antelope) and $800,000 (Frontier) as performance assurance deposits. Commissioner Hall seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously (4-0) with Commissioners Chang, Eglash, and Waldfogel absent. ITEM 2: ACTION: Staff Recommendation that the Utilities Advisory Commission Recommend that City Council Approve a Redesign of the PaloAltoGreen Program Assistant Director Jane Ratchye provided an overview of the written report. Overall the recommendation is to end the current PaloAltoGreen program at the end of 2013. Starting in January 2014, staff’s proposal is that the program would transition to a local solar donation program and starting in January 2015, a new program would be rolled out targeting reducing greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas usage. Ratchye noted that the written report contained a typo in the second part of the recommendation for the PaloAltoGreen Gas program. The report stated that the program would be implemented in January 2014, but the correct date is January 2015. This PaloAltoGreen Gas program would be developed during 2014. Ratchye stated that the local solar program would use contributions from participants to install solar systems on community buildings. The contributions would be fixed amounts such as $5 or $10 per month. The City would identify potential locations (e.g. schools, non-profits, churches, even City facilities) and participants would select, or vote, on which sites to fund. The collected funds would be used to hire a developer to install the solar system on the facility. The systems would be net metered and will be provided at no cost to the facility owner. The proposed program is fundamentally a donation program with the primary beneficiary being the facility that gets the free solar system. Ratchye stated that the PaloAltoGreen Gas program could reduce, or eliminate, GHG emissions from natural gas use of participants. There is not enough information yet to move forward, but conceptually this program would be constructed similarly to the current PaloAltoGreen program in that the cost would be based on the participant's natural gas usage with the cost on a cents per them basis. The program could use physical biogas from dairies or landfills, but this is challenging and quite expensive so that participants would only be able to cover 20-25% of their natural gas use at a reasonable cost. Alternately, the program could use environmental Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 7 of 12 offsets. At today's prices for offsets, a customer’s entire natural gas usage could be covered under this type of program for a reasonable cost. Ratchye explained that public feedback was sought in several ways, including from the UAC and Council at study sessions. In addition, staff met with Bruce Hodge and Walt Hays, who indicated that the program should target GHG emission reductions. A survey was sent to current PaloAltoGreen participants, who supported both the local solar and the green gas programs and were willing to pay about the same as they currently pay in the program. Ratchye also indicated that some customers may drop out of the program, and depending on the program, others may opt in. Public Comment: Bruce Hodge, Carbon Free Palo Alto, stated that the program proposed is not a true community solar program but that a community solar program would be a good approach and a good addition to the portfolio of programs offered by the City. In addition, over the next 20 years, natural gas usage should be phased out and replaced with electricity usage, which can be carbon free. He stated that there are synergies between PaloAltoGreen and a community solar approach. He indicated that he was not excited about a program designed to use donations, but preferred an all-inclusive community crowd sourced program. He stated that it was a top priority to have a gas offset program this year. He encouraged the Commission to review the paper he emailed the link for by someone who advocates discontinuing natural gas use in the future. Commissioner Melton asked why the community solar program is a net metering model, and not a feed-in tariff program. He commented that since the building owner is the beneficiary, the only facilities that make sense for the program are charitable organizations. Ratchye agreed that the community would be more likely to support such organizations and expected that many people would provide financial support to install solar systems on schools since the schools would benefit by having lower electric bills. Commissioner Melton added that other facility owners can always participate in local solar installations through the CLEAN feed-in tariff program. About the green gas program, Commissioner Melton asked if physical biogas is difficult to find or expensive, are there enough offsets available for such a program. Ratchye stated that the green gas program is focused on reducing GHG emissions and that any products that reduce GHG could be considered for the program. She mentioned that there are different types of environmental offsets, including those that are certified by the California Air Resources Board or other agencies. In addition, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) can be used for GHG emissions reductions and they are available at a reasonable cost. Vice Chair Foster stated that a two-track approach is excellent—both continuing with an electric program, and then adding the gas program. He identified three options: charitable gift program, “true” community solar, and buying power by paying a little more as in the current PaloAltoGreen program. Vice Chair Foster indicated that he had been contacted by the Clean Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 8 of 12 Energy Collective (CEC), which is a true community solar program model. He cited challenges with a charitable program and recommended looking at the traditional notion of community solar. He stated that he was originally not supportive of a green gas program, but now would like to look at it more. Commissioner Hall stated that community solar on schools would be supported, but that he was not supportive of solar on commercial buildings funded from donations. He added that using churches could work, but could be frowned upon by some in the community. He said that staff may want to look at modifying the program in the future, including using a developer for a commercial solar. Commissioner Hall said that for green gas program, the City could look at substituting gas for electricity. For example, air based heat pumps could be beneficial to replace gas using heating appliances. He indicated that the concept was at least worth a paper study or pilot program to be expanded later. Chair Cook congratulated staff and noted that the City has come a long way with this program, and that there is monumental support in the community for the program as the nation’s leading voluntary green program. Chair Cook stated that the goal is to have GHG emissions reductions. He supports the idea of contests to choose sites for the local solar program since it would add to community engagement. However, he indicated that we need to move away from burning things for our energy use and would like to move up the timing of the green gas program. He likes local solar programs since the benefits accrue locally and with a green gas program, benefits may not accrue locally. Vice Chair Foster indicated that he supported the staff recommendation, but wants to work on the exact details to be determined over the next several months. In addition, he recommended continuing with the 1.5 cent/kWh format and not a new mechanism that didn’t depend on a participant’s energy use. Chair Cook asked if current PaloAltoGreen program participants would be automatically transferred over to the new program, or would they be asked to opt in. Ratchye indicated that participants would be asked to opt in to the new program and that there would be outreach to explain the change to existing program participants. Commissioner Hall recommended that staff think broadly about the plan and stated that staff should look at options, including a substitution of electricity for gas. ACTION: Commissioner Melton recommended separating the two parts of the action by the UAC and developing separate motions for each part. Chair Cook agreed with this approach. Vice Chair Foster made a motion to recommend that Council approve a redesign of the PaloAltoGreen Program to support a community solar program to be implemented beginning January 2014, after staff returns to the UAC with program design details or options for further Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 9 of 12 discussion. Commissioner Melton seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously (4-0) with Commissioners Chang, Eglash, and Waldfogel absent. Vice Chair Foster made a motion to recommend that Council direct staff to develop a PaloAltoGreen Gas Program to provide an opportunity for participants to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas usage for Council consideration to be implemented beginning January 2015 and that staff return to the UAC with program design details and options for further discussion. Commissioner Hall seconded the motion. The motion carried (3- 1) with Commissioner Melton opposed and Commissioners Chang, Eglash, and Waldfogel absent. ITEM 3: DISCUSSION: Review of Fiber Optics Financial Forecast and Potential Uses of Fiber Fund Reserves Director Fong stated that there was no staff presentation on the fiber financial forecast and staff could answer questions on the forecast, but that this item is an opportunity for the UAC to have a broad discussion about any aspect of the fiber fund, including the dark fiber system, WiFi, or fiber-to-the-premise. Public Comment Herb Borock said that the City should use sources of funds it has separate from the Fiber reserves, including its bonding capacity to extend the dark fiber system throughout the community. The City should develop a lit fiber utility in the future, too. The net revenue of the fiber fund is sufficient to pay the debt on the loan. Borock suggested that voters could decide if the City should expand the fiber network to connect all customers, or alternatively, a system that offers the choice to connect could be offered to customers. The system could be built by a contractor, or multiple contractors all working simultaneously throughout the City, and revenue bonds could be used to build the dark fiber backbone. Borock also suggested that more information is needed regarding the dark fiber fund. Commissioner Melton thanked staff for the 5-year financial plan. He noted that tonight is a continuation of the discussion begun last month at the joint meeting of the Commission and Council with primary questions being how to proceed and what role the UAC sees for itself. He also noted that following the joint meeting, the Mayor appointed a Council committee to do the same thing as the UAC was contemplating. He also noted that he had a conversation with one of the members of the new Council committee. He indicated to the Council member that he thought contact should be made with Google and the Cities of Lafayette and Chattanooga to gain information and learn about their systems. He said the Council member responded that the Committee has a similar plan of action and posed the idea of a joint UAC/Council committee to avoid duplication of efforts. Such a committee might comprise 4 council members and 3 UAC members working together as one committee. As a result of that conversation, Commissioner Melton said he changed his mind about what should be discussed at the current meeting. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 10 of 12 Vice Chair Foster noted the idea of fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) has been floating around Palo Alto for many years. He noted that his own views changed even over the past year. He noted that whereas he had earlier been neutral on the issue of the feasibility of a fiber build-out, he now supports trying to find a way to make it happen. He supports efforts to develop a recommendation on how to do it including the pros and cons of moving forward. He viewed the PBS report on Chattanooga and see benefits to Palo Alto to offer high speed Internet to community. He noted the need to hire expertise in the form of a consultant and remarked that it would be good to hear from Commissioners Melton and Waldfogel on their thoughts on how it would all work. Commissioner Hall asked his fellow commissioners what the goal was. He suggested the need for a vision and framework. He indicated that he found the meeting with the Council very refreshing. He also said that we really need to figure out what we want and we need a vision for what will be achieved including quantification of benefits and review of financing considerations. Council Member Liz Kniss was acknowledged and invited to speak by Chair Cook. Council Member Kniss explained that she is the Chair of Council’s new ad hoc committee which includes herself, Mayor Scharff, Vice Mayor Shepherd and Council Member Klein. Council Member Kniss noted that 20 years ago she introduced the idea of dark fiber which at the time was extraordinarily unpopular but since has surprisingly made money. She noted her surprise that private individuals are also connected to the dark fiber optic network and they are very happy with the service. Council Member Kniss informed the Commission that the ad hoc committee was so new that there have not yet been any assignments, but she also assured the Commission that the committee will rely heavily on the Commission’s advice. She noted that surprisingly, for the first time there is not a single engineer on the Council. Commissioner Melton said that the Commission’s two leading technologists, Commissioner Waldfogel and Commissioner Eglash are absent from the meeting, and that he would like to hear from them. Chair Cook remarked that the Fiber Fund reserves are projected to grow to $20 million plus, providing the opportunity to use the funds to provide a community service. He noted that it is the responsibility of the Commission to do this well and to spend the funds wisely. He noted his disappointment with staff’s earlier recommendation from the prior year and said that finally things are heading in the right direction with the Mayor’s desire to move to FTTP. Chair Cook noted his skepticism that the community WiFi gets us anything because there is a need for bandwidth. Commissioner Melton noted that Council Member Burt suggested there could be an equity problem where not everyone might be able to access the fiber or sign up for fiber services, but WiFi could be made available for the entire community and for that reason WiFi makes sense. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 11 of 12 Vice Chair Foster stated that there are some in the community who are concerned that the WiFi piece is the FTTP killer with WiFi being the weaker substitute. He suggested that it might make sense to look at WiFi separately from a fiber build-out. However, both projects cost money and, if they both come from the same pot of money, that could be a problem. It was suggested by the Commissioners that the topic of a fiber expansion be added to the May agenda to permit the Commission to hear from Commissioners Chang, Eglash and Waldfogel on the matter. ITEM 4: ACTION: Semi-annual Update of Strategic Plan Balance Scoreboard Report and Initiatives Chair Cook stated that the proposals are incremental improvements to the Strategic Plan. Commissioner Hall indicated that he had several clean-up items that he would pass on to staff via email. Director Fong indicated that she would welcome those suggestions. Commissioner Melton indicated that the City has lost a significant number of employees to competitors (Santa Clara and PG&E) especially electric linemen and are approaching a position that is affecting safety and reliability and is starting to sound scary. He indicated, for example, that the City has 20 lineperson positions, but has 8 vacancies, or 40% of the total positions. He stated that the City's compensation is lower than the competitors. He recommended that the UAC advise the Council about this concern when it reviews the budget. He indicated that he had talked to Council members because this is not in the UAC’s charter, and hear that the Council would be more than happy to receive a heads-up from the UAC on Utilities’’ staffing problems. Commissioner Melton indicated that if the City doesn’t provide competitive compensation, the City could be hurt. Vice Chair Foster asked Commissioner Melton if it was a compensation or a training issue. Commissioner Melton replied that it was fundamentally a compensation issue. ACTION: Commissioner Hall made a motion that the UAC recommend Council approve the recommended changes for the Performance Measures and Strategic Initiatives in the 2011 Strategic Plan. Vice Chair Foster seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously (4-0) with Commissioners Chang, Eglash, and Waldfogel absent. ITEM 5: ACTION: Selection of Potential Topic(s) for Discussion at Future UAC Meeting Vice Chair Foster asked that fiber be added to the next agenda as a discussion item to allow the conversation to continue with additional commissioners. He stated that FTTP is a focus for the Council. Commissioner Melton asked if Council needed to receive additional information on the electric undergrounding issues to decide what to do. He noted that Council voted 4-5 not to have a community outreach effort, but there are several choices that require a policy discussion. The Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: May 1, 2013 Page 12 of 12 current rate of undergrounding one section at a time is at a pace of proceeding for the next 70 years. In addition, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has tied AT&T's hands, so it can only participate in certain types of undergrounding, so CPAU staff has no real guidance other than don't do anything else right now. An option is to continue going into residential districts on own, but how should that be paid for. He would like to have discussion at a future meeting. He said that this could be discussed with no additional information needed from staff. ACTION: None. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None. Meeting adjourned at 9:21 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Marites Ward City of Palo Alto Utilities