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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-11-01 Utilities Advisory Commission Summary MinutesUtilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 1 of 10 UTILITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 1, 2023 REGULAR MEETING CALL TO ORDER Chair Segal called the meeting of the Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC) to order at 6:02 p.m. Present: Chair Segal, Commissioners Croft, Forssell, Mauter (joined virtually, arrived 6:05 pm), Metz and Phillips Absent: Vice Chair Scharff AGENDA CHANGES, ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS None PUBLIC COMMENT None APPROVAL OF MINUTES None UTILITIES DIRECTOR REPORT Dean Batchelor, Utilities Director, delivered the Director's Report. Department of Energy Grant Applications for Electrification Infrastructure Upgrades: Earlier this year, staff submitted two grant applications to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program for electric grid modernization and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The City did not receive the $110M grant or the $400,000 Buildings Upgrade prize for affordable housing electrification. This month, the City will receive a letter from DOE explaining why they denied the grants. Staff will reapply for grants in 2024. New Limited Time Price Adjustments for Heat Pump Water Heaters: The Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) program has limited-time price adjustments thanks to additional funding through TECH Clean California. TECH is a statewide initiative accelerating the adoption of clean water and space heating technology to help California meet its goal of being carbon-neutral by 2045. For a limited time, residents can receive higher rebates and discounts on HPWH installations. If you hire your own contractor, you can receive $1,500 from the City and up to $3,800 from the State for a total rebate of $5,300. The full- service program offers a standard 65-gallon HPWH installation for $1,900 and up to $1,500 in credit toward site preparation costs (including permits). This discounted pricing is available for six months; after that, the City will offer smaller discounts until State TECH funding runs out. To learn more, go to www.cityofpaloalto.org/switch or call (650) 713-3411. 0 Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 2 of 10 Heat Pump Water Heater Day Campaign: October 25 was Heat Pump Water Heater Day, a day dedicated to HPWH education and awareness. Residents were encouraged to take a picture with a HPWH and share it on social media using hashtags #PaloAltoHPWHselfie and #HeatPumpItUp. There is a display in the City Hall lobby. Water Supply and Hydro Conditions: Scientists predict a strong El Nino this year, which may result in wetter weather for the watersheds providing hydroelectric generation and water supply to Palo Alto. October 1 was the start of the water year and staff will provide updates throughout the winter. Energy Prices: Compared to this time last year, in-state gas storage is better. Forward gas prices have decreased to about $2/MMBtu, so staff anticipated winter gas bills and wholesale electric costs to be in the normal range. In accordance with Council direction, staff purchased insurance against higher prices for December through February. Staff will provide more details under New Business. Upcoming Events: Details and registration at cityofpaloalto.org/workshops • November 2: Edible Gardening Online Workshop • November 11: Multilingual EV Financial Incentives Clinic with EV Expo at Mitchell Park • November 16: EV Charging Online Workshop • December 2: EV 102 Online Workshop NEW BUSINESS ITEM 1: DISCUSSION: Discussion of Utilities Annual Report for FY2023 Telecom manager interviews took place today and should conclude tomorrow. The position was in the budget for about six years. The fiber pilot is waiting for CEQA and coordination with grid modernization. The last SEIU contract provided compensation for hard-to-fill positions. The City had four linemen last year. Since January 2023, six linemen were hired. A system operator will start on 11/13/2023. There were five full operators and one operator in training. CPAU will move to 24/7 operator coverage instead of relying on PD’s assistance. CPAU was considering 24/7 on weekends and/or holidays. The new OMS system was working well. The OMS provides operators with outage maps. Dean Batchelor, Utilities Director, expressed his concern about two open senior engineer positions. Approximately one year ago, CPAU hired three engineers from college who have been learning quickly. A fully trained engineer left a couple months ago and staff wanted to fill that position with a senior engineer. An electric manager with about 27 years of experience was recently hired. Staff planned to analyze employee surveys and share the results with the UAC but they are behind in that process. A little over 100 employees (about half of the 210 filled positions) took the survey. Mr. Batchelor addressed the Commission’s questions regarding Capital Improvement Plans on Packet Page 13. In the middle of October, CPAU contracted with VIP, a dock crew from Canada, for the East Meadow Circuit 4 to 12 kV conversion project related to grid modernization. VIP will initially work on 50 poles. Magellan was bought by ENTRUST, an electric design house. CPAU is working with ENTRUST because they have detailed information on our fiber design and can easily overlay it onto the electric design. Related to grid modernization is the replacement of about 1300 wood poles from East Bayshore to Alma due to age or not enough space to add fiber. The replacement of a 60 kV breaker was for an update unrelated to grid modernization. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 3 of 10 About half of the 11 miles of Foothill undergrounding was completed and switched to the underground system with fiber in the conduits. CPAU can switch power to the overhead line in an emergency. Staff expected this project to be completed and the overhead de-energized by late spring or early summer 2024. The lowest bidder to design and build this project was $25M. To date, the City spent $1.3M performing the work in-house and using a contractor for the dirt work of installing conduit. Staff estimated the total cost for this project would be about $3M. Regarding the electricity bill comparison in Figure 3 on Packet Page 14, Commissioner Phillips asked if there were rates for average commercial use to compare CPAU’s rates with PG&E and Santa Clara. Eric Wong, Resource Planner, explained it was difficult to find averages for commercial customers because of variabilities in customer types and sizes. For gas, commercial customers generally paid more compared to PG&E. For electricity, Mr. Wong was not sure but staff would try to include it in future reports. Karla Dailey, Acting, Assistant Director Resource Management, addressed Commissioner Phillips’s query as to why Santa Clara was 30% to 50% less than CPAU. One reason was Santa Clara’s customer base included many large commercial loads that are less expensive to serve and require fewer connections. In response to the Commission’s questions about more outages occurring in 2022 than 2023, Mr. Batchelor replied there were many outages in 2021 and 2022 partly due to less tree trimming. The majority of last year’s outages were due to trees but also some electrical pieces failed. Staff took a proactive approach in 2023 and trimmed as many trees as possible. Commissioner Metz asked about problems with Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) installations. Ms. Dailey explained that Palo Alto had many older and unique homes requiring nonstandard installations. Commissioner Metz expressed his concern that electrification was expensive and energy intensive. Ms. Dailey thought we as a community needed to address it. CPAU will apply lessons learned from the HPWH program to design future programs for whole-home electrification. Chair Segal read from the packet about some of the challenges of HPWH installations (long circuit runs, electrical panels without additional capacity, complex condensate management and water heater relocation requirements). Mr. Batchelor thought CPAU and the City of Palo Alto had ownership to meet the goals they set. The S/CAP committee set a goal for 1000 HPWH and they spoke to Council about some of the challenges. One area of improvement was increasing communication to customers, so a consulting firm was hired that is more familiar with these types of installs as well as some of these challenges. Staff discussed internally about using social media and bill inserts. One idea was to create a flyer for field service representatives to give to customers when they visit homes to relight pilots and check gas stoves, giving representatives the opportunity to talk about the program and answer customers’ questions. At stakeholder meetings with the community on upgrading areas to the smart grid and fiber, CPAU can mention incentives for customers to electrify. Commissioner Croft noted that of the 440 HPWH interest forms, 147 site assessments were made but only 16 installations were completed. Commissioner Croft and Chair Segal related their personal experiences with this process. Mr. Batchelor thought the program needed more installers, although some customers did not proceed with the installation process due to lack of resources or the cumbersome process. Staff was considering changes to make the HPWH program more efficient to avoid encountering the same problems with whole-home electrification or changing out furnaces. Chair Segal Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 4 of 10 suggesting using a flow chart outlining the steps to solve problems with installations or using an installer with experience in addressing these issues. Commissioner Phillips queried if the comparison of gas rates in Figure 12 on Packet Page 23, Report Page 20, included the winter rebate. In FY2023, Palo Alto’s median usage of 402 therms was $1064, PG&E $930. Mr. Wong confirmed that Palo Alto’s estimated bill amount included the winter rebate. Packet Page 17 referred to a letter Mayor Kou sent to Governor Newsom to support the request for a federal investigation and Commissioner Forssell asked about the status. Ms. Dailey responded the results of the federal investigation might take a couple years at least. Commissioner Forssell wanted to know how to respond when asked about Palo Alto’s carbon offset. Packet Page 21 listed the projects. Ms. Dailey replied some people do not like offsets. The program was designed to ensure usage of the highest quality offsets possible. The program adopted California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) criteria for compliance offsets but the City does not require CARB certification. The City used offsets voluntarily, not for compliance reasons. It was a self-imposed program by the City of Palo Alto Council. One example of CARB’s compliance requirements is project types. The City uses three registries for third-party verification of offsets and only buys from CARB- approved project types in the U.S. Commissioner Forssell asked for further explanation about cap and trade mentioned on Packet Pages 21 and 22 and funds from CPAU auctioning gas utility allowances. Ms. Dailey explained that CPAU had an obligation as a gas utility to cover greenhouse gas emissions with allowances, although a tiny percentage can be offsets. CPAU received yearly free allowances but the amount decreases every year. A percentage of free allowances covered our compliance obligation but the percentage decreases over time. CPAU must sell the balance of allowances into the auction. Utilities can use the revenue for sustainability projects or distribute it evenly to customers but cannot base it on volumetric usage. PG&E customers receive a climate credit every year. CPAU does not distribute its revenue to customers. CPAU uses the money in accordance with guidelines approved by Council. CPAU buys on the allowance market to cover gas usage within the boundaries of Palo Alto, which the program has designed to become increasingly more expensive. The electric portfolio can choose more or less carbon intensive sources, resulting in increased or decreased need for allowances. Efficiency and electrification also decrease gas usage. The City works with large customers’ sustainability goals. The City is building relationships with not only facility managers but also sustainability managers and CFOs because they are the people making decisions about changes at their facilities. Commissioner Croft asked about commercial gas uses and targets. Ms. Dailey answered gas was mostly for space heating. Some of Palo Alto’s hotels have large boilers that would require a large, expensive project to change. Mr. Wong commented gas usage was about 55% commercial and 45% residential. Commissioner Mauter pointed out that Palo Alto’s water consumption was below estimates. Revenue shortfall this year was around $6M. Per Packet Page 30, FY23 had 11.3% lower revenues than budgeted because of water conservation. Commissioner Mauter wondered if there was rebound data on water in Palo Alto and if staff expected a rebound. Ms. Dailey replied that staff was working on next fiscal year’s Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 5 of 10 financial plans as well as evaluating rebound over the past few months and assessing its effect on projections in our financial plans. Commissioner Mauter opined the drought as well as incentive programs and mandates to curtail water usage would result in very slow rebound, so she urged staff to be conscious of that when making projections. Commissioner Mauter asked if CPAU would close the gap through increased rates or delayed maintenance. Mr. Batchelor responded that staff had internal conversations a few days ago about saving money. Staff may seek bond financing for rehabbing two reservoirs in 2026 and 2027. Otherwise, water needed much larger increases. Staff does not want to cut back on system maintenance but may spread out the size of the CIP. Commissioner Mauter thought seismic resilience upgrades were important and recommended including seismic resilience in the water utility’s goals. Commissioner Mauter noted that backflow prevention was listed as an area needing improvement and was curious what fraction of customers had backflow prevention devices in the system. Mr. Batchelor replied there were close to 6000 backflow devices tracked in the system, of which 400 to 500 were City- owned, so about 5500 customers had backflow devices. Yearly, around 90% of customers do inspections. Inspections, repairs and replacements were the customer’s responsibility. Some neighboring cities do things differently than Palo Alto. Staff was thinking about charging customers for testing, repairs and replacement of backflows. Currently, CPAU does not perform repairs or replacements. About a quarter of customers have backflow prevention but legislation may change to require 100% of customers to have backflow on their home. Commissioner Mauter thought it was advantageous to make immediate use of any AMI data to improve leak detection especially because water has a budgetary shortfall and asked if there had been any progress in visualization or analysis of AMI metering data. Ms. Dailey responded that staff was working with WaterSmart and the AMI vendor to ensure the systems were communicating with each other and to deploy WaterSmart’s leak detection features as soon as possible. Mr. Batchelor remarked there were two meter read routes receiving data from electric, water and gas devices over the collectors. CPAU read the routes manually to confirm AMI meters were reading properly. About 800 meters were fully deployed and tracked for electric, water and gas. There were a few more water and gas meters than electric because of supply chain issues. AMI would be fully launched by October next year, unless electric meters arrive sooner. Dave Yuan, Strategic Business Manager, addressed Commissioner Croft’s questions regarding the AMI vendor and software. The AMI network used Sensus. Badger Meter endpoints make it AMI capable. The MDM system is SmartWorks Compass and it can track leak alerts. In the first quarter of 2024, customers with AMI meters should have the ability to view their interval consumption by hour in the WaterSmart portal, download data and can subscribe to WaterSmart leak alerts. All AMI data (including electricity) will be available on a one-day delay but leak alerts should be the same day. Packet Page 62 mentioned City wells were rehabilitated in 2013 but needed maintenance. The City was evaluating adding generators for wells. Commissioner Metz thought emergency wells had generators. Mr. Batchelor clarified some of the wells had generators but there was not on-site generation for every emergency well. Staff was evaluating the size of the pumps compared to necessary generation. The pumps for the water system had large diesel generation onsite. In an emergency, those larger generations would move on trailers to emergency wells. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 6 of 10 Commissioner Croft asked if residents could view their data real-time instead of a one-day delay. Mr. Yuan replied that customers could purchase a ZigBee radio and have it installed onto their meter. There is a shortage of ZigBee radios. There is a waiting list for interested customers. CPAU had one test unit but planned to purchase 500 devices. In response to Commissioner Croft’s questions regarding costs for wastewater facility improvement, Ms. Dailey responded that Public Works would study the allocation of costs among partners. Commissioner Mauter was excited to note the water purification facility was at 90% design and wondered when staff would brief the UAC on Carollo’s progress. Mr. Batchelor explained that Public Works was running the project, he did not know when it would be finished but he would get the answer by the UAC’s next meeting. Mr. Yuan addressed Chair Segal’s inquiries about fiber rates and revenue. Revenue was $2.8M and expenses $2.7M. Before COVID, revenue was $1M over expenses. Since COVID, many companies left the city or consolidated connection services. Last year, there were a couple disconnections that CPAU did not have the records of, resulting in a credit back to the date they disconnected. Going forward, staff forecasted close to $0.75M profit yearly if there were no new disconnections and should return to pre- COVID level by 2025. Mr. Yuan thought the rates were appropriate given the amount of reserves but there had not been a recent cost-of-service study. Staff’s focus was on fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP); therefore, they had not spent much time on dark fiber rates. Expenses increased recently from the Magellan contract for the FTTP project. Expenses were about $0.5M to $0.75M higher than the run rate. Dark fiber rates (EDF-3) were set around 2006 or 2009 per Mr. Yuan’s recollection. Fees were a fixed unit amount based on mileage footage to connection points. Commissioner Croft asked if the WaterSmart portal had any effect on control residences’ usage. Ms. Dailey replied she had not seen results from Palo Alto’s experiment but she could follow up with Commissioner Croft on when to expect that information. Commissioner Croft inquired about usage changes from employers remaining hybrid or remote and was interested in the efficiencies they might experience. Ms. Dailey was unaware of data on the hybrid work environment or identifying those customers. In reply to Commissioner Croft’s query if CPAU included smart building technology in its efficiency programs, Mr. Batchelor did not think so but staff would follow up with a definite answer. Mr. Batchelor thought electrical and water usage lessened when commercial and industrial customers were hybrid but staff would have to look at each customer individually to provide a comparison. Commissioner Croft read there were substantial efficiency savings achieved with smart buildings and daylight savings. Commercial comprised 80% of the electricity load, so Commissioner Croft was interested in including smart buildings within CPAU’s programs. Ms. Dailey remarked CPAU had a program for a contractor to perform energy assessments for large customers. There was rebate money available for energy efficiency and electrification projects. Commissioner Phillips found the lack of commercial data concerning, given the size of its electric usage, and asked about increasing visibility. Ms. Dailey remarked that a second Utilities Program Services Manager position was added last fall to focus more on programs and outreach to commercial Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 7 of 10 customers. There had been a Key Account Program for many years with two Key Account Representatives who know CPAU’s largest customers well (VA Hospital, Tesla and Stanford Hospital). That has allowed a lot of visibility into their business operations and strong relationships. Commissioner Phillips requested a presentation on the commercial electricity strategy for different commercial segments (large office, retail, data center). Ms. Dailey commented on the combination packs for electric cooling and gas heating on rooftops. Staff was evaluating ways to reach those customers before they replace their units with another gas unit and incentivize them to switch to heat pumps. There is a ceremony tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Peninsula Conservation Center on East Bayshore for replacing their unit to a heat pump. Commissioner Forssell wondered if fiber was priced to value or cost. Chair Segal pointed out the City recently spent a lot of money in the downtown upgrade dark fiber expansion. Commissioner Forssell asked if the UAC could see a comparison of our fiber rates with competitors within Palo Alto or neighboring communities. Mr. Yuan replied that staff looked for data but it was very difficult because it was a unique business. AT&T and Comcast offer managed service, not dark fiber service. Our fiber utility provides conduit and fiber strands but the customer provides equipment and manages it themselves. Staff could contact Santa Monica and other municipalities with the same business model as ours. Commissioner Croft wanted more initiatives to have EV charging readily available to the public in Palo Alto. She expressed her frustration with charging her EV when traveling. The City encouraged EVs and she believed EV capability should match our residents’ high interest in EVs. The Technical Assistance Program’s goal was 180 to 360 ports but only 15 ports have gone in. She urged staff to move faster. ACTION: None The UAC took a break at 7:42 p.m. and resumed at 7:50 p.m. ITEM 2: DISCUSSION: Winter 2023-24 Natural Gas Price Uncertainty Management Council Decision Implementation Karla Dailey, Acting Assistant Director Resource Management, stated that gas commodity prices change monthly for Palo Alto ratepayers because price tied to a published market index. City Council is the only body that can legally approve rates. In the past, Council set the rate schedule maximum at $2/therm. From 2012 until January 2023, market price remained below $2/therm. In December 2022, Council increased the maximum commodity charge to $4/therm but the monthly price index for January 2023 was almost $5/therm. Almost $2M was taken from the operating reserve to cover the difference. Jason Huang, Resource Planner, presented this winter’s Capped-Price Winter Gas Purchasing Strategy. The CPUC investigation and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigation would take about 36 months. Investigation findings may be available in spring 2026. For December 2023, January 2024 and February 2024, the Capped-Price Winter Gas Purchasing Strategy was to purchase gas baseload volumes tied to a published monthly index with a $2/therm cap. If the monthly index was below $2/therm, our purchase price was the monthly index. If the monthly index was above $2/therm, the City’s purchase price was $2/therm. The strategy applied to December 2023, January 2024 and February 2024 because they were typically the coldest and most expensive months for gas in California with the most risk for dramatic gas price volatility due to winter supply and market fundamentals. Last winter from December through February, indexes were at the highest levels from $1.25/therm to almost $5/therm compared to usually below $1.00/therm. Staff recommended to Council to buy caps for our baseload volumes for Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 8 of 10 December through February and continue to purchase gas without price caps for the remaining months of the year. Council approved the strategy in September. CPAU buys gas supply from November through October. On November 1, customers’ bills will include price cap insurance. Staff was able to purchase 50% of the gas baseload volumes for December, January, and February with the $2/therm cap in place, resulting in $1.5M cost for the caps. The $1.5M total cost for buying caps for December, January and February would be divided on customers’ bills over 12 months, resulting in a monthly increase of about $1.81 in the median monthly residential bill. This insurance policy protects reserves and customers from price spikes, although the policy adds cost if market prices are below $2/therm. Up to $4/therm can be passed onto customers. Staff contacted our major gas suppliers to request a cap and received this offer from one of our largest gas suppliers. In response to Commissioner Phillips querying why the City did not use a financial institution, Ms. Dailey replied that the City’s energy risk management policy forbids us from engaging in financial transactions and Council approved the policy. Commissioner Phillips urged staff to consider long-term alternatives. This $1.5M policy would have saved the City $2M if it were in place for January 2023. Commissioner Phillips suggested the City could self-insure by saving $1.5M, cut out the middleman and use the money to reduce customers’ bills if high gas prices occurred in the future. Mr. Huang remarked that staff considered that option. Ms. Dailey commented that staff wanted to implement something quickly in response to the community’s and Council’s needs. Self-insuring was a possibility. A separate reserve could be created for this purpose after exploring how much money we wanted to keep but it would take time to accumulate money. Fixed price gas purchases could be added to our portfolio but rates needed to change because buying fixed price and tying our commodity rate to the monthly market was a mismatch. A full-laddering strategy was another option. Owning our gas production can control costs but does not fit with the City’s risk profile or expertise. Gas storage can arbitrage winter price spikes but was very expensive because of costs for injection, holding and withdrawal. It was not cost effective when staff evaluated gas storage a number of years ago but it could be a useful tool for reliability and staff can reevaluate it. One of Council’s ideas was purchasing costless collars, a cap and floor on the price that offset each other such that you do not pay any insurance but the downside is if prices fall then you hit the floor price and customers cannot take advantage of falling prices. Staff will return to the UAC with alternatives moving forward or continue passing through market price and taking the chance of high winter gas prices. Mr. Huang explained that gas was procured by the full year or season, depending on volatility at the time. The past two or three years, CPAU bought seasonally for winter (November through April) and summer (May through October) based on the monthly price set before the month started. Ms. Dailey remarked that the transaction was to buy this much gas based on this published index and CPAU obtained quotes for gas at index plus an add-on but we do not know how the price until the month starts. Mr. Huang mentioned there was a daily published index to buy gas on a daily basis. Ms. Dailey stated we buy and sell on the daily market because our baseload was never exactly the amount used. Commissioner Phillips asked when staff would provide a long-term recommendation to the UAC. Ms. Dailey replied that was not on the calendar and they needed to hire a resource planner. Mr. Huang was providing analysis for gas and electric. On the self-insurance strategy, it would take years to build up reserves, so there needed to be an interim strategy. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 9 of 10 Council approved the Capped-Price Winter Gas Purchasing Strategy for one year. Customers will not see it on their bills as a separate line item. The cost was embedded in the commodity charge and the $1.5M cost commitment would be recouped by October 31. Our website will have more details. Ms. Dailey pointed out that the $2M taken from reserves last year also needed to be paid back. CPAU sent communications to advise customers their gas bills were likely to be very high last winter. Commissioner Mauter asked if customers responded by reducing their gas use. Mr. Huang responded no and he thought the reason was December was a lot colder so there was more than average consumption. Ms. Dailey replied no and she thought it was because most people did not pay attention until they saw their bill. Mr. Batchelor thought the cold weather caused higher use, even though CPAU sent messages to advise customers to cut back. Commissioner Mauter saw this as a warning to the UAC around the challenges we would see in transitioning off gas if rising prices, interventions such as heat pump water heater programs and other incentive programs to help customers get off gas did not encourage transition. Chair Segal was troubled by the mixed signals. We are trying to discourage gas use while saying do not worry about winter gas prices, it is going to be expensive but we are going to take care of you. Chair Segal did not want that language in our long-term plan. Having a gas reserve to protect against future prices was problematic because current customers pay for future customers. Rates are per therm, so you receive more of a discount if you use more therms, which Chair Segal thought should be inverted. Council Member Lauing commented that staff should plan now for next year so the UAC can be involved in the process. He urged staff to get it on the timeline. Council approved the Capped-Price Winter Gas Purchasing Strategy in spite of costs. Council determined the risk was too high this year because we did not know what caused high gas prices last winter and to avoid the risk of residents paying high gas prices two years in a row, particularly because reserves were down. Commissioner Croft thought customers would remember last winter’s price spike and may cut back gas usage this year and perform insulation improvements. She saw a Nextdoor conversation about heat pump water heaters. It would be helpful to see a price comparison of energy from electricity versus gas. If electricity was more attractive than gas, we need to make that financial argument. ACTION: None COMMISSIONER COMMENTS and REPORTS from MEETINGS/EVENTS Commissioner Metz stated there was an S/CAP meeting scheduled next week on the heat pump water heater strategy. Chair Segal thanked Dean Batchelor, Utilities Director, for participating in the League of Women Voters conversation about S/CAP. FUTURE TOPICS FOR UPCOMING MEETING Commissioner Metz urged staff to have a 12-month rolling calendar as required by our bylaws. He wanted to include the topic of grid modernization. A Reliability and Resiliency Strategic Plan Update was scheduled for December. Commissioner Metz requested staff to address if the plan included resiliency when the grid was operating or if it also addressed what to do in a major grid failure. Utilities Advisory Commission Minutes Approved on: December 6, 2023 Page 10 of 10 Commissioner Forssell requested a dark fiber utility rate comparison to understand the financials better. Commissioner Phillips wanted a presentation on commercial electricity segmentation and plans specific to the commercial sector. Chair Segal noted it was time for a security meeting on physical and digital security, as either an additional meeting or closed-door session. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING: December 6, 2023 ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Phillips moved to adjourn. Commissioner Forssell seconded the motion. Motion carried 6-0 with Chair Segal and Commissioners Croft, Forssell, Mauter, Metz and Phillips voting yes. Vice Chair Scharff absent. Meeting adjourned at 8:36 p.m.