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07-10-17 CC WS MinutesCITY OF SHOREWOOD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 MINUTES 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS 6:00 P.M. Mayor Zerby called the meeting to order at 6:02 P.M. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Zerby; Councilmembers Johnson (arrived at 6:18 P.M.), Labadie, Siakel, and Sundberg; Administrator Lerud; Planning Director Darling; Director of Public Works Brown; and, Engineer Hornby Absent: None B. Review Agenda Labadie moved, Siakel seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 4/0. 2. PARTNERS IN ENERGY UPDATE Emma Struss noted she is a community facilitator with Brendle Group and is working with Xcel energy on its Partners in Energy Program. She was joined by Yvonne Pfeifer from Xcel Energy. Ms. Struss stated she was present to give an overview of what the Shorewood Energy Action Team has worked on over the last few months and to answer any questions Council may have about the Energy Action Plan that was developed. The highlights of Ms. Struss' presentation are as follows. • Partners in Energy is a two -year collaboration with Xcel Energy to develop and implement the community's energy goals. • Xcel Energy provides tools and resources to assist with community- driven energy planning and implementation. The planning phase takes four months and the implementation phase takes 20 months. • The resources available to support the planning phase include facilitation and guidance, data, and project management. • The Energy Action Plan is the outcome from the planning phase. It is a plan for pursuing the community's energy vision. It is a living document and will be refined when implementation starts. • Resources to support implementation include marketing and communications, data tracking and measurement, providing program expertise, and project management. • Communities that participate in the Program are part of an Exchange; there are six Exchanges. Shorewood is part of Exchange 5. The other Minnesota peer communities in Exchange 5 are the Cities of Eden Prairie, Mahtomedi and Winona. Exchange 5 also includes the Cities of Broomfield and Fort Collins, Colorado. It also includes the National Western Center in Colorado. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES July 10, 2017 Page 2 of 6 • There will be calls each month with experts to help with implementation. There will also be planning and implementation webinars. • Xcel Energy's goals with the process are: to develop a better understanding of the energy needs of the communities it serves; to better align the services and programs it offers with customer needs to save energy and to advance clean energy goals; and, to strengthen relationships with the community. • Shorewood's goals based on its application are: to advance the community goal to improve the impact on the environment through clean energy investment and education; to develop a community -wide energy program prior to the comprehensive plan update; to engage residents and non - residential entities; and, to build on recent work and energy efforts. • Members of the Energy Action Team include: representing Shorewood — Pat Arnst, Jeff Dinsmore, Chris Lizee, Nancy Mulhem, Communications Coordinator Julie Moore, Councilmember Kristine Sundberg, and City Administrator Greg Lerud; representing Xcel Energy — Tammy Gunderzik and Yvonne Pfeifer; and representing Brendle Group — Shelby Sommer and Emma Struss. • There had been two substantial, lengthy planning workshops. • Shorewood's energy vision — Shorewood is demonstrating how a small community can support a healthier future by engaging its residents, non- residential entities and neighbors to promote renewable energy investment, conservation and economic benefits. • Shorewood's energy goals — 1) engage non- residential entities and residents in 500 energy saving programs annually (about a 2 percent annual savings from the baseline); and, 2) engage 300 or more subscribers in Xcel Energy's Windsource and /or Renewable* Con nect Programs by 2020. There are currently 100 subscriptions to W indsource. • Shorewood's Energy Strategies include: ➢ Residential — Develop and implement a tailored energy outreach and engagement campaign for community residents. ➢ Non - residential — Lead by example at City facilities by upgrading lighting and sharing success stories; and, develop and implement an energy outreach and engagement campaign for community businesses. ➢ Renewable energy — Integrate renewable energy messages and opportunities into residential and business outreach efforts; and, reduce barriers for accessing renewable energy through SolSmart participation and solar garden exploration. Ms. Struss offered to entertain questions. Councilmember Sundberg thanked Communications Coordinator Moore for discovering this opportunity for the City and suggesting the City apply for it and Xcel Energy for accepting the City's application. She stated she thought Ms. Struss' work has been outstanding. She also thought the work of the entire team had also been excellent. She explained the team members spent a great deal of time reviewing research while they were preparing the Energy Action Plan for Shorewood. The Plan built on what had already been done by Shorewood. She noted the Plan can capitalize on Xcel energy programs. Mayor Zerby asked what SolSmart is. Communications Coordinator Moore explained it is something the City had applied for quite a while ago. It provides no -cost technical assistance to help local governments reduce barriers to solar energy growth. It is funded by the U. S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. Zerby stated he recently heard that Elon Musk has teamed up with an Australian state government to install a large -scale battery system. South Australia has an issue with regular power cuts and energy shortages. The system would provide stabilization services to the grid. He asked if something like that CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES July 10, 2017 Page 3 of 6 was or could be considered in the Energy Action Plan because Shorewood often experiences power outages during storms. Ms. Struss stated the Energy Action Team did not identify that as a priority during the planning process. Zerby asked if reliability could be helped with a solar garden. Ms. Pfeifer explained she did not think solar gardens would help address the problem. The outages are mainly because the power lines are above ground and because there is heavy tree cover. She noted Xcel has a test going on in Colorado with Panasonic for some battery storage. If that process proves successful that solution would not be ready before Shorewood's implementation phase is over. Zerby then stated it is his understanding that the Xcel substation that serves Shorewood is a long way away and that is causing part of the outage problem. He thought there had been discussion about building another Substation in the City of Chaska; closer to Shorewood. Councilmember Sundberg stated she did not think the Energy Action Plan initiative could do much to improve reliability. Sundberg asked Ms. Pfeifer to comment about Xcel being a leader in solar and wind energy. Ms. Pfeifer clarified that Xcel has been the top producer of wind energy for the last I I years. It is not the leader in solar energy. She explained Xcel started with a program called Windsource in Colorado. Through that Xcel developed quite a bit of wind generation. Xcel then brought that to Minnesota. It then expanded into Wisconsin, Texas and New Mexico. Xcel is positioned in areas that naturally have a lot of wind. Councilmember Johnson arrived at 6:18 P.M. Councilmember Labadie stated some Exchanges have counties participating. She asked if a county's participation means all cities in that county are participating. Ms. Struss explained in Colorado some cities in a participating county may be involved. For Ramsey County in Minnesota they are working specifically with the County's Parks and Recreation Department. Usually a county's participation does not include all cities in that county. Labadie asked if people have ever considered working on an energy action initiative with a large public entity such as a school district. Ms. Struss stated National Western Center in Colorado is a development project. It involves Colorado State University. She explained when the Partners in Energy Program was started the first Minnesota community was the Lake Street corridor (17 neighborhoods along Lake Street in the City of Minneapolis). Councilmember Siakel stated from her perspective when residents think about energy they are thinking more about reliability. Reliability has been and continues to be an issue. She questioned what the City would get out of implementing the Energy Action Plan. Ms. Struss explained that during the planning workshops she heard that the City would be looking at specific programs (e.g., the Home Energy Squad Program). For that Program, an energy technician /counselor would come out to a resident's home for about two hours and walk through the home and identify ways to save energy. They would install things like LED lightbulbs, programmable thermostats and weather stripping for doors. There is a flat fee cost of $100. The Energy Action Team's vision included energy conservation. Councilmember Sundberg stated the Energy Action Plan is very oriented toward education. It is about opening up opportunities for the community to take advantage of, both non - residential and residential. She thought members of the community would be more interested in energy conservation if they knew where to go for help in determining what could be done. She then stated she views this initiative to be CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES July 10, 2017 Page 4 of 6 somewhat like the pollinator initiative. For the pollinator initiative the City was first in the state and third in the nation to adopt a resolution endorsing bee -safe policies and procedures. She considered Shorewood to be somewhat of a leader in being responsible in caring for the environment and energy conservation is a part of that. She commented that Communications Coordinator Moore will help with a lot of the education. In response to a comment from Councilmember Siakel, Communications Coordinator Moore explained she heard about Xcel Energy's Partners in Energy Program from other communities, mainly Maplewood and Edina, who had already participated in the Program. Xcel created the program because of the need for every city to save energy. When she first spoke with Xcel about this Shorewood was one of the new opportunities for a primarily residential district that had been relatively active in being first for other things. Colorado has some smaller communities that are participating in the Partners in Energy Program. The goal overall is to conserve energy and ultimately save money. That is what the City is trying to do at public facilities while encouraging residents and non- residential entities to do the same. Mayor Zerby questioned why the City has not become a Windsource or Renewable *Con nect subscriber Communications Coordinator Moore noted Renewable* Connect is a combination of wind and solar. Councilmember Siakel asked what the City's next step is. Communications Coordinator Moore stated implementing the Energy Action Plan. Communications Coordinator Moore stated the Energy Action Team going forward will bring recommendations back to Council on what it would like the City to do next. She thought subscribing to Windsource or Renewable *Connect would be one of the first things. Mayor Zerby stated he thought there are a lot of things the City can do noting some have already been done. He brought up the idea of having electric police cars. He noted there has been discussion about putting solar panels on public facilities. Councilmember Sundberg stated the City could be somewhat of an innovator while cautioning against being too far out front with radical new technologies. She noted she was pleased Council might be interested in pursuing some of these opportunities. Communications Coordinator Moore stated she thought the reason the Energy Action Team wanted Council to hear about the Energy Action Plan first was so Council would know there had been a Plan to base their implementation recommendations on. Ms. Struss stated the planning process was mainly focused on who the City wants to target. The "how" is part of the implementation process. During the planning process there was a little discussion about community based social marketing. More than 100 residents responded to a survey on energy and what the barriers are to reducing consumption. The businesses indicated there had not been any outreach to them to date regarding energy consumption. How people get information will be used when preparing the marketing plan. Councilmember Sundberg stated her intent of this discussion was to get Council's reaction to the Energy Action Plan. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES July 10, 2017 Page 5 of 6 Mayor Zerby stated from a resident perspective Windsource is more expensive than traditional electricity. That is why he has not subscribed to Windsource yet. He commented he frequently sees ads for LED lightbulbs and setback thermostats. Councilmember Siakel stated she thought the residents' perception of Xcel the energy company is quite negative. Ms. Struss stated one of the survey questions was "who do you trust most to get information about energy from ? ". The top response was the City and the second was the utility companies. Councilmember Siakel stated she was not sure what Council was being asked to do. She considered what has been presented to be more of a concept and there is nothing there that would encourage her to say don't do it. She noted there are not enough details for her to say "she's in ". Councilmember Sundberg stated more work has been done on the implementation side than what has been presented. She then stated she understands Council to generally be okay with the direction the Energy Action Team has taken. Councilmember Sundberg asked when Council would again be updated on this initiative. Ms. Struss stated that is up to the Energy Action Team. Councilmember Labadie stated she thought most residents are very frustrated with Xcel and the inaccurate outage updates it sends out. Councilmember Sundberg stated power reliability is a different issue. Councilmember Johnson stated he did not think there would be a significant cost to the City for the strategies outlined in the presentation. He noted he agreed with the sentiments of the other Councilmembers. Mayor Zerby announced that the Council was going to move to the large conference room to interview a resident interested in an opening on the Riley- Purgatory -Bluff Creek Watershed District Board of Managers. Time Stamp: 6:38 p.m. 3. PURGATORY -BLUFF CREEK WATERSHED DISTRICT BOARD OF MANAGERS INTERVIEW Council interviewed Dorothy Pedersen a Shorewood resident who was interested in an opening on the Riley- Purgatory -Bluff Creek Watershed District Board of Managers. 4. ADJOURN Sundberg moved, Labadie seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session of July 10, 2017, at 6:50 P.M. Motion passed 510. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES July 10, 2017 Page 6of6 RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder ATTEST: Sandie Thone, City Clerk