City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Mayor's Blue Ribbon Energy Advisory Committee, 11 May 2022

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From YouTube: 5.11.22 Portsmouth Energy Advisory Committee

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5.11.22 Portsmouth Energy Advisory Committee

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Meeting of the portsmouth energy advisory committee and I'm going to take the role.

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Committee member samsic here counselor cook here public works director peter rice here.

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Committee member charette committee member o'brien, here committee member d'antonio.

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It's absence absent committee member rooney is absent.

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And I'm john tabor.

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Our business tonight is really getting ready for the june event.

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Great chance for us to build public awareness around community power.

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And peter you may not be aware, but portsmouth smart growth reached out and said.

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They really want their agenda this year to be climate change and they wanted to feature us.

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And have an info info event and I said sure: let's do that, um and so we.

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Talked about using 3s as the venue- um and we talked about lining up some speakers.

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Henry herndon from the community power coalition and we thought.

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Julia griffin would be a good speaker not only because she was in on the ground floor of the.

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Coalition but hanover has set very ambitious climate goals and she very much sees what they're.

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Doing with community power is part and parcel of their their aggressive goals to be carbon neutral.

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And at this point I think our third speaker was going to be sam evans brown, we're waiting to.

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Hear from tom rooney about that, if not, I think another speaker we could substitute in would be.

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The consumer advocate, whose name I can't remember right now, but chris duncan john crease.

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He's got an interesting take on community power.

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So we managed to align on a date of june 29th, which works for those speakers.

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And 3s is offered generously to host a dinner beforehand for the speakers.

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And then we had a little working group uh comprised of tom and and peter and becca, and I.

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And kevin to work on some of the planning and getting the messaging out and.

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We hit on the idea of using the city's water bills, which is a mailing of 8 500 homes.

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To really drive awareness of the of the event and the remarkable quick study and graphic abilities.

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Of becca came into play and she came up with this it's hard to fit on one page.

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So I circulated that as a draft in everybody. I think if you have.

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Comments, you can give them to us and then we could go back and adjust a little bit.

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But rather than edit as a committee, I just thought I'd get any comments that people have.

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I just said two little things that I noticed reading through it. The first paragraph.

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Where the sentence ends their electricity supply comes.

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I think comes from sorry peter say that again, I'm sorry. So that is a sentence that.

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Says community power empowers towns and cities and counties to choose where their electricity.

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Supply comes comes and ends there comes from right. That's probably what we want to say.

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Or just say the source of their electricity right or so or you could say it differently, but.

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Something's missing, ending a sentence with a preposition is something that's up with which.

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I will not put, I will not, I can't stand for it, so yeah we'll change it to source and then I think in.

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The column um on the left, the at the bottom, where it says community power, offers several benefits.

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For residents and businesses, including- and it lists a number of things um above it- we talk.

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About the main components of community power- and we mentioned value-added products and services, but.

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We don't mention that as a benefit yep, so maybe somehow that should be part of the benefit too.

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Move it down, okay, just make sure it's consistent products or services. As one of the benefits you.

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Can get so? Those are the only two things I saw just going through it for the first time.

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Perfect, I had a note from ben d'antonio who said I can he's a little concerned about.

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Promising that we'll always be lower rates. Yes, however, I did learn kevin told me today.

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Cpcnh will not launch unless they're lower than the utility to fall yeah and I think.

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That's that is their their goal, but that doesn't necessarily mean steady state they're going to.

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Be lower, so I think we have an opportunity to tweak that a little bit here, but kevin is that.

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When they say they won't launch, unless they have a lower rate.

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Is that for equivalent power? Yes, so if they get, let's say a green power proposal.

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That's maybe a penny more that wouldn't be enough for them to launch. They would have to get a.

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Dirty power quote: that's lower than the regular utility.

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My understanding the same renewable content, which is whatever twenty to twenty three percent, um the.

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Equal content, the comparable to the default rate would for go live they would they wanted to be.

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Lower but I I agree with ben that I'd be careful with the wording here. I would, and I have a few.

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Comments but I'll get whenever you when you're all set yeah, but that's all I'm going to ask you about.

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Something maybe like striving for just to sort of couch it and like we're, aiming for to be lowered.

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Default but striving for something like that yeah, so I'm finished so and I think ben also had the.

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Thing around it being a voluntary program, so just starting there. I I um it technically is voluntary.

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Because you can opt out, but I think you know I think most folks voluntary means you know they.

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Would have to take steps to participate and we know that that's not the approach. So just you know.

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A potential way to word this would be that fort smith, scratch that this is a voluntary program and.

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Start the sentence portsmouth residents can take advantage of this pooled supply or opt to stay.

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With and I don't I don't think we need to say current utility for portsmouth, it's all eversource.

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I think we can stay stay with eversource, and the other thing I think we need to tack in here is.

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Or their existing third-party electric supplier, because well, while there's a minimal number of.

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People that are with a competitive supplier right now, they're, not all with eversource.

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So again I would say: portsmouth residents can take advantage of this pool uh supply or when you get.

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The word opt-in there opt to stay with eversource or their existing third-party electric supplier.

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Because I think that's a little more honest and accurate than saying that it's yeah we've got.

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To be transparent, yeah we could also replace the voluntary with portsmouth residents. Will.

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Be offered an opportunity, you know or stay with what they have so then there are another way of.

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Phrasing, it yeah. No, I think um I I think kevin's kevin's got the yeah. I've got just one comment.

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The work can implies again it's a it's a vol. It's it's, not it's an active thing. You can do it not as.

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You would, you know personally, will yeah or you can opt out yeah yeah yeah. I think we're.

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Definitely gonna have to layer on more. um You know discreet language as the education program.

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Rolls out um so I think we can build. You know on it, but so I agree with you peter, but it it.

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I just wouldn't lead with it's a voluntary program because yeah that was uh yeah yeah for most of us.

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That's like volunteering to get blood choice, basically yeah. That was a great calculation.

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The only other comment I had where in the sub bullets down below, which is the benefits.

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Instead of saying lower cost, I would suggest we say competitive and stable rates.

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Because there is a reference to lower under lower cost in the in the table in the chart.

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But it says that was specific to what mass new york and california.

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Demonstrated so it implies that there's examples of lower costs in these other states.

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But I think we'd be safer, saying competitive and stable rates as opposed to the benefits or lower.

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Cost because who, who who's not going to want lower cost? If that's a guarantee from community power.

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And because my concern is they're, going to go, live with they're not going to go, live unless they're.

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Lower than default rate, because they know what default rate is, the utilities are going.

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To publish it in december, they're going to go out to bid they're going to make sure that it's going.

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To be lower, they're going to go live in april all right. The utilities then set their summer.

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Rate and and the and the utility summer rates are always lower than the winter rates, so I would not.

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Be surprised that that they go live with a rate, that's lower than default service, but only three.

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Short months later, the utility rates are going to be lower than the coalition's rate, because that's.

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The winter rate in between yeah they're going to beat the winter rate. So every six months, when the.

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Utilities reset for august through january um or july, through whatever july through january,.

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um I think there's a probability that they're going to fall above um above.

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The uh the utility rate- so you know it's going to kind of do one of these yeah, but.

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I think what their goal is, that is that, over time, they will always be competitive.

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With default service and stable, um albeit they want to go, live with a lower rate to.

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From a, I think, from a marketing perspective, they want to go live with a lower rate.

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So I just, I would just think, there's a what if we just said competitive rates, competitive rates, yeah.

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Yeah shorter, okay, yeah, perfect and then the only stability is really critical too, especially. You.

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Know now, where we see, although fuel prices are so so dynamic all over the place, uh offering people.

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Some stability in that is is also a a marketing uh plus because if, for example, if you can lock in.

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A summer rate for three years that that gives you some stability, even if the rates go up and down.

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So we're I think we should be shooting for some stability for people, because that's a.

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Real selling point, as well as the price right you know, I think they intend to use. You know one.

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Of the things they want to build up a reserve um and that reserve would be used for you know.

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Unexpected costs and projects, but I think they're also they that communities could use their reserve.

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To potentially soften what would be a rate increase stabilize the rates to stabilize.

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Kind of soften it over time. I think that's one of the objectives of the reserve that they plan to.

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Develop, oh, but that would be over time. I mean the reserve, isn't going to.

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Appear out of out of you know the air it's going to it's going to take time to build up yeah. I.

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Mean right right now, any near-term purchases starting up is, is going to be really expensive.

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I mean there the markets right now are what 40 percent above last year's.

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They've gone up in the prediction predictions I've seen for you know: buying future energy for 2324.

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um You know are 20 to 30 percent above yeah, and you know so my heartburn as I've expressed to.

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You is all about portfolio management. How are they how they manage risk? You know when you talk about.

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Stability, um that means you're buying future, um and you know how far in advance, if you're buying.

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Two years out, you don't get that power into two years. So what are you going to do in the new year?.

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Term yeah, um you know if you're buying today's market you're it's going to be really expensive.

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Maybe just stick with competitive rates: yeah yeah.

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You might have to unpack all that yeah yeah and it's hard to unpack, even the costs when you're.

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Talking about unequal content, you know yeah, so so we're going to get into that at some point too, but.

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We start splitting things up too yeah like people will get confused. I just don't want.

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To see a resident six months from now nine months from now, you know pulling this out.

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Hey lower costs, you know, lower cost yeah you guys and ben has the same concern. Yeah.

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And then the only other two things that in the make your voice heard, it says that.

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That we're working with the city and a variety of community stakeholders to formulate a plan.

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Should we say something about and also something around further educating right, because our.

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We're not just developing a plan but we're we're going to be taking steps over.

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The coming months to further inform further education, you could say something like over the.

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Coming months, community engagement, education, as well as formulating the aggregation plan.

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Something like that yeah, I think your sense is great, but it is working with the city in a.

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Variety of communities to formulate a plan and to further communicate with portsmouth residents or.

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Something like that and continue the dialogue continue, dialogue, yeah and then the other. It.

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Seems like we have a great opportunity to link to the web here. Well, that's the that's! The you are.

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That goes: that's the link to the portsmouth web city web that is shot of a blank qr code that.

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I took an example right: real qr code, stephanie's been great, we've got some, we've got some questions.

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To be answered before perfect, so this goes well. Maybe we need some language, though, because this is.

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Pointing them to sign up for this event go to this qr right, but maybe for more information to visit.

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The portsmouth web, where we have faqs and whatever else I assume you'd, use that to sign up for the.

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Event too, so it'd be a combined one. I was thinking I'll be on one page yeah, one landing page, yeah and.

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We always put the url in as well for people who don't do qrs. You know to get more information as.

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Well as to sign up for the event, yeah go here yep, so that is, that would be the the intent. Was that.

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Link brings us, brings you to the community power page, that's currently on the website right and it.

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Would be the same qr code at the very top of the page too, so that, if yeah but of the 8500 folks.

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I think the majority unfortunately aren't going to go to the event, but they might still go to.

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The landing page to find more information out about community power, you know good and we've got.

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A link for mayor's blue ribbon portsmouth energy advisory committee- um maybe we just put in.

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um Url url yeah because we're not because this is hard copy, yeah. Well, I I know you've had to.

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No no drop back 20 years; no! No! No! It's fine! It's funny! When I copy and paste from a url.

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It puts it in the it names what it is okay, so I have to just right click and say.

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Tell me exactly where to go wwl and then we subscribe to that landing. Page yeah feature.

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Perfect, I'm kind of always a stickler for making sure that any kind of announcement.

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Or anything that we want participation and has a phone number too: okay, because some people are.

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Still old-fashioned and it's not nothing like picking up the phone and talking to somebody.

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And asking questions instead of looking at a website or something and getting confused, so we.

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Should try to have as many ways of communicating as possible and that should include a phone number.

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The other thing is, and I don't know whose phone number would it be? Well, I'm not suggesting peter.

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No, I'm not suggesting any number at this point. I'm just suggesting that there be a number that.

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People can call if they have questions they want to talk to somebody about it specifically.

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And then the second thing I was going to bring up- and I haven't gone through this thoroughly.

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But I think we need to avoid um jargon that not everybody knows what it is like, for example, load.

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Not everybody will immediately know what they're talking about.

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I mean people who are involved in this kind of stuff. They know what they're talking about.

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But but we should make sure that the language, uh if it contains uh in the technical terms.

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That we give also a simple definition or or or in brackets say yeah, you know, usage usage or.

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Users or whatever, but something that's very simple to understand, so we don't want to get caught up in.

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In the terminology, as much as as the idea most of this seems fairly yeah, most of it is.

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Plain plain, english. I think, though, that's a really good point when we're talking about building out.

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Our faqs, like there's other towns and cities across the state that have come up with you, know.

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Like I'm thinking of lebanon, for example, that have come up with faqs, but really scan them and.

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Say: okay: these are great faqs for a town that is already sort of established right and in on their.

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Path and then back up and say, and just do a scan for language that people might not understand yet.

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And at the very top of our faq say what is load you know. What's the difference between aggregation.

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And yeah, something you know a coalition or something yeah. It's part of the faq yeah yeah.

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But it's a great point just back up and just make sure all of our our terms are defined. There's so.

B

Many terms like this in this kind of business, absolutely that it's very easy for people who.

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Are not familiar with it to be overwhelmed by it? What level of content will we have on the web when.

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This goes out, so if someone goes to the web to get more information, should we turn to that? I think.

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We've got our input on this, I'm sure yeah and stephanie. Thank you. So much for stephanie's been.

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In contact with the the folks that are responsible for printing, so we still need to make sure that.

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We're almost positive, we only have one side, not two side, um and it's not clear. Yet if we.

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Can do it in color, but I think it'll be okay to print out in black and white if we need to so.

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If we pay for it, so the printer is getting us a price. Okay, okay sounds good. Oh.

E

So just add a button to the cheats, yeah.

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Committee's budget, if we're, if we're you know, what does that mean.

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Because we're already jumping we're already piggybacking on the.

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I'll deal with it, it's not a big deal, we'll figure it out. You want me to talk to karen.

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No we'll figure it out I'll forward the email from judith runoff to you, okay, yep.

B

Well, I do think that having it in color makes a better impression.

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It looks visually much more inviting so whatever we can do to invite him.

C

One thing that is the enabling legislation- I don't know if we are able to alter this, but it's so tiny.

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I don't know if ultimately it'll be visible in the insert. Well, becca's got it up in the top paragraph.

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In new hampshire, rsa, 53e yeah, I think this was a url, tiny.

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We can crop that if you can't, if it's not effective, we could scratch it. You know or.

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Maybe it's just my old eyes. I can't see it though it's hardly visible. It's pretty it's about six, but.

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Folks can go to you, know the landing page and get additional information so yeah, if it just.

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Gets their attention and takes them somewhere, then there you go, it should be good yeah, so technical.

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um What jesus said was that the bills go out on a kind of continuous basis, so they don't all hit at one time.

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So it will be rolling all through june, but before the 29th, which is the critical date. So I.

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Can get anything you like on the website whenever you want okay? Well, I think you should shoot for.

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The end of may.

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In terms of content, I thought the stuff that you shared with us kevin was was pretty good.

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Get your source for that this, the lebanon one yeah, was it the letter. That's great yeah, yeah becca did.

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You look at some others. This is the one that um I agree. I really like this lebanon community power.

D

One, the thing I guess I'm struggling with right now is: how much are we straddling.

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Describing what community power is and then getting in also to the benefits potentially of of.

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Being part of the coalition, or do we kind of keep it very like we are shooting for community power.

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We may or may and I'm stealing your language kevin. We may or may not end up purchasing through the.

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Coalition, probably will, but I don't know so, how much do we just sort of keep the faqs quite broad.

D

About community aggregation because- and I asked that because the lebanon one it gets.

D

You know number eight they get into what is community power coalition of new hampshire.

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You could, um let's break it into two parts where you just talk about.

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You know what is aggregation, what are the benefits and then a separate one which you.

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Populate as questions arise and just say you know what is it? You know the c c, p c and h, because this.

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Is so you know appropriately high level for the insert, but we may just pick like three or four.

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Of these q and a's for the initially in the website, because some of these are a.

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Little more because lebanon is further along around, what's their plan entail, and what about.

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Net metering and clinton is deep into it: yeah yeah, so yeah they're far down the road, but just.

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You know, because we're only giving very high level summit, but if we had you know what is community.

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Power and have it be beefy, you know um uh I've already stolen language from that one anyway,.

D

Will everyone be required? What's the role of the utility, what are the benefits? I.

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Think, there's probably four or five of these q and a's right now that you could.

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Get out on the web yeah to have more substance for folks that click over to our to our website. It's.

F

Just as opposed to all of them check what we have on the page, because it seems to me that we put the.

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Original, what is community power presentation that was made to city council on the web page.

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But let me check um because in general, I'd like as public information officer to have stuff be.

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As portsmouth specific as possible, um instead of just lifting lebanons, but that's that's just me,.

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I am, I am a spear carrier here. I do what I'm told well. Some of these sections aren't specific to.

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Like lebanon, they're more specific to what is community power and the benefits, etc, um you can.

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Ask a like sort of an administrative I.t question for for our page, our for the website city site.

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Do we have the ability to do like accordion style? You know when you go on and you click.

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On a question, then the answer you know populates or would be be putting together.

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A pdf that would be you know, so a user would go on and double click it or download it.

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We have a variety of options, one of which is to load the content on the actual page, on a specific.

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Faqs page because, as it changes and as this committee is really evolving, there will be lots.

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Of changes and to do the the pdf requires the word document turn it into a pdf upload it as a pdf and.

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Then link it instead of just going in and editing the page, okay, but both are possible, and so the.

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Way our pages work is that, as you've got content on a page, you can have a sidebar directory. That.

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Will lead you right to that section of the page or you can have a drop down menu and have some pages.

D

That's an option: okay, let's see what we have here yeah, I don't think we want to do a pdf, because.

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We'd be frozen in time. Yeah just have to keep it updated, but to your point to having the headlines.

C

Like what is community power, what are the benefits? You know? What's the role of every source and then.

C

You click on that and then it opens up and gives you the further that's the accordion style is.

C

What you yeah, um but it seems like there's four or five of these, that we could put out.

C

Quickly to have for folks that you know go over there from this insert, so what the page has right.

F

Now- and this is the bottom of the page- is a link to the community power website, a link to the work.

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Session that was presented to city council and then at the bottom. It has the community power faqs.

F

So that's the generic and then we can put anything you like and um you can't.

F

See it as well, on the right hand, side is a list of all the committee members.

C

And those faqs were what the cpc gave us at one of their early presentations. Oh right, okay,.

A

So stephanie, where only one person is online um yeah, you want to just pull it up on the.

F

um Where's that you do that you just collapse it down and then.

F

F

F

Lost in my own brain here, counselor taber, I had a question for you. Sorry, I'm going back.

D

To the event now, with smart portsmouth, smart growth, um clearly there's a cap.

D

Right for a number of people that can attend that event, so I'm wondering when we.

D

When folks go to their community site to either like reserve their spot, I'm just wondering if we.

D

Should add some language like reserve your spot or sign up clearly there'll be a virtual component, so.

D

Folks can't actually get there in person or don't want to um so I'm just yeah, I'm assuming those.

D

I mean if we're at the gills and people are flowing out the back. That's not the.

D

Worst thing in the world, but it's a good problem, that's a good problem, but so this is.

F

This is what's currently on this on the okay.

F

That's dated june of last year.

C

I'm just wondering initially do we want to have our you know? Have it.

C

Be more of a portsmouth content with our right community power and the benefits, as opposed to.

C

Allison, as opposed to a cpc document, can that be archived to that document. So it's there for.

D

A resource, but then is that properly filled out, if you back, if you go backwards on that.

E

I actually hate the micromanager, but can you can you blow it up, so it meets fits full screen.

E

So if you go back, if you go back to the web there you go.

E

So that's, what's our that's, what's on our site right now, so that faq lives there.

F

And then we've got the meeting videos and what some other pages have done.

F

um Is to have buttons.

F

Show you what well it's exactly like the home page, so we can do these and have.

F

A resources button you could have a link to the cpc's website as a button. We can have a.

B

Q and a's yeah exactly so, it's you've got various options in how you format it on on the page.

F

And we just add in a bar here for my money, if we did have.

A

Right up front um four or five very relevant faqs, yeah kind of the foundational questions.

A

Because we know we're going to be driving traffic in two weeks yeah. So I put the cpc.

C

Nh document into kind of a repository of other documents, as opposed to that's our q, a source.

C

And lebanon has no like authorship to these. These are, I think, generic yeah questions and.

C

Answers that we can pick, which ones are high level and generic enough for portsmouth's needs.

C

Out of the gate, so how about stephanie? If you take that and pick the most relevant faq items.

A

Localize them and and then maybe we can get on a zoom and look at okay. It sounds like maybe you.

F

Did some of that already? I don't want to speak for the committee, but I'm happy to take basics.

F

And share it yeah, just this lebanon, lebanon faqs, and I was thinking I'm sure if we looked.

D

On whatever rye or exeter has put together, it's probably very similar to this too, but.

D

No work done on my part on that. Are you comfortable with that sure sure.

F

I suggested a couple of links. There are a couple of epa sites that I think.

F

Are really good explanations and I can forward those to you.

A

So if we have, we've got a couple of weeks to work those up.

A

Ready for when the traffic lands.

A

It would, I think, some follow-throughs I have with.

A

For some smart growth.

A

Will be, how are we going to do deserving tickets? We will use 3s reservation systems.

A

I assume the city can't do off-site zoom.

F

Not at a non-city property, we just now have the capability of doing those we're doing well,.

F

A bunch of sessions aren't, but we can do just for everybody's information. We can do off-site at the.

F

Senior activity center, the middle school and fire station number two out on lafayette road right as.

F

Well, as heroes, well, peter van der marke said: can you guys do the zoom and I I did a quick heisman.

F

But 3s I have to believe they have the capability, but I don't assume I will say that they were.

F

Like a former strawberry banquet, when we were doing a cooperative program with them,.

F

They did everything ticketing, it was a becoming american series of films and they did all of the.

F

Ticketing, they did promotion to all of their own members. These are different times than.

F

Now so it's a question of bandwidth for staff, but they did a really nice job as a partner.

A

I think that's the arrangement that christmas, smart growth has but I'll I'll verify.

A

Because we'll need to put that to bed to have you know this flyer say how.

A

And I think, with the mailing, we'll have very good attendance yeah I mean that's a tremendous.

C

Opportunity to be able to use the water bill um what a great way to get it into the hands of.

C

8 000 people and I just talked to peter brits and he said that he thought the city did have.

E

A booth that market square day and that that would be another opportunity to advertise the event.

A

Oh yeah, we could have our faqs at that, and our flyers.

A

A

Okay, so the tasks ahead are drafting our faqs four or five key faqs.

A

Already the web, the landing page and uh verifying zoom for the event on the 29th.

A

And checking into how tickets will be managed or whether it'll just be first-come, first-served.

F

I I think that, from most of the sites that I've attended, zoom meetings, there's usually.

F

A registration that you have to go through, so you would, they would have a registration page.

F

First and then you would get a notice with a link saying that you have registered and.

F

This is the zoom attendance, so I don't know if that's what they have, but okay I'll I'll ask.

A

Do stephanie do we ever have a feature on the web page that allows the resident to ask a question.

F

Yes, is that something we would want to consider.

C

You know just to start gathering what questions people have or is that a.

C

Is that a uh a hornet's nest, so there are a couple of different things. One is that um this.

F

The committee's page has a give us your email and we'll keep you informed, but what some other pages.

F

Have, in addition, is a form that lets you direct a question to the committee, or we can simply refer.

F

Anyone with a question to the email hotline at city of portsmouth, all which come to me and then I.

F

Distribute them either either answer the question or distribute the questions to whoever can.

C

I mean that could potentially inform future faqs in terms of what people are interested in.

C

But I don't know it might create them on the page so that it's well, we could try it and if it.

D

And does allison know that we're putting her phone number on the.

C

Looking red light.

A

I have to play time cop because I think this room is used at six thanks. um So.

A

I think we've got our takeaways for this.

A

And we may have a working group meeting after the faqs are done and just to check in.

A

But we should turn our attention to.

A

The timeline for actually going turning on the switch for community power.

A

Just a context to frame it and kevin jump in if I got it wrong.

A

Things are really starting to move with the coalition.

A

They drafted an initial timeline for the eight communities that.

A

Already have aggregation plans and.

A

That timeline is that their energy aggregation plans, which are 30 40 50 page documents, are done by july.

A

um And the reason they have to be done so early is that they then have to go to the puc.

A

And be reviewed um so kevin and I talked about. Is there any way we could be in the first wave.

A

March of next year, but it's really it's really tough- to see us doing an energy aggregation plan.

A

By the end of july,.

A

Because what's involved is the sections are mandated by statute.

A

We have to start with existing conditions, which means getting our.

A

Load information from the utility which can take a long time.

A

Drafting the document it has 10 or 11 or 12 sections and.

A

And then there's a public hearing requirement.

A

It has to have two public hearings and it has to be approved by the governing body.

A

And, of course, the council has only one meeting in july, so the task of pulling all that together.

A

Is daunting and the coalition has slotted us as not in the first wave they've, never seen.

A

That as realistic and we and dover, and some of the others are looking at at later than that.

A

A

When you do a gut check- and you say, could we do all that by july 11th.

A

I I think we would be biting off more than we could.

A

Alice- wouldn't it be actually advantageous not to be in the first wave just to.

F

Just to see where people have gone wrong or gone right or whatever know, and not reinvent.

E

The wheel, maybe yep and see what how good rollouts are and how uh tricky rollouts are.

C

This is it's very complex and they're standing this thing up and it, as the counselor said,.

C

There's eight communities and they're not completing their plans by july they're done.

C

They just need to tweak them based on some puc feedback from when they had submitted four of.

C

Them had been submitted, so they know three or four things that needed to get adjusted.

C

So eight of them have been at this, for you know over a year plus and then there's another three.

C

Or four that are very far along and so they'd be in the in the first and the first wave.

C

I did ask a couple of the communities how long kind of it would take from beginning to end if.

C

We just kind of went at it and it was like in the five month range from starting drafting. You know.

C

And- and the other thing too, we were talking about education here, I think, to do the right.

C

Thing we need to educate folks before we start having public hearings, because you know it's.

C

Like putting the cart and the horse in the same spot, and um but and they have so much going on.

C

The reason they need these things completed by the end of july is the rules are supposedly going.

C

To be adopted by the puc at that point in time, and the way this plays out is.

C

Once the puc rules are adopted, these plans can be filed with the puc they can't be filed prior to.

C

And then the puc has 60 days and until the puc approves all these communities plans.

C

The communities can't request from the utilities they're detailed.

C

Load data right now we can get that very high level by class residential commercial industrial.

C

We can't get the confidential customer level data until the eaps are approved by the puc.

C

And they need that data to then turn it over to the procurement consultants that they haven't.

C

Even identified yet in the fall to then begin, the process of procuring load later in the fall.

C

Once they know what the utilities rates are going to be, which aren't until december.

C

And so this whole cascading event to go, live and by april first backed them up to say: okay, the the.

C

Communities that are going to go live on april 1st. um You need to have their plans all buttoned.

C

Up through their governing bodies by july, because then that sets off a series of cascading events.

C

That all have blocks of time and- and you know we talked about at our meeting the other day-.

C

Peter and counselor cook weren't here, but there's this huge request for proposal.

C

That is out on the street right now that went out april 25th for a whole raft of services.

C

Most importantly, the procurement process, but all sorts of services, basically the whole the whole.

C

Mission, the whole kit and caboodle. You know, because there's going to be a few people on.

C

Staff but the operation is sourced and that'll all they're looking to have those vendors selected by.

C

August september and then stood up by october and then they you know, a part of that team will.

C

Handle the procurement process, so that's why they're they're saying you know this is.

C

You know, while april first sounds like it's a long way away the the series of.

C

Events that need to play out um are substantial. Is there a documentation regarding those series.

F

Of events so that we can sort of figure out a timeline ourselves sure yeah yep, the document.

C

In the that, the counselor sent out today was from a meeting yesterday that talked about.

C

The critical success events- and this is really focusing on the on the towns and cities that are.

C

That are going live to. Let them know we need to get busy to get all these things done.

C

So that the events are in that powerpoint presentation. But for us as portsmouth.

C

While we're working on the education starting to get that off the ground,.

C

The the next step is for us to request from eversource our high-level utility data.

C

Because we put that into the ap and then we need to start working on our energy aggregation plan.

C

At whatever pace, whatever speed we you know want to, and and then once that plan is developed.

C

Which a lot of it allison is kind of plug and play. You know they. They gave us the template.

C

It's a you know, I don't know 40 50 pages, you know, my guess is probably 80.

C

Percent 90 of it is a plug and play putting portsmouth data into it, but then we got a there's.

C

Stuff that we would tailor around our goals as from a city but but and then once we have our eap.

C

As we were saying is then public hearings and then approval, and then we file it with the puc.

C

So the next kind of critical path activity, the easy one is to request the data from eversource.

C

That's just a form letter that has to be signed by the counselor or karen, but then is to to start.

C

Working on our on our aggregation plan, at whatever pace we want to and leading off the aggregation.

A

Plan, I think the towns who've done it right have taken the time to say these are our goals.

A

Yes, yep and and those guide the the aggregation plan, so I think that's a discussion. We as a body.

A

Need to have, I think, drafting the document. There's a lot of language that.

A

Cpcnh can provide, we can also look at other towns. I think that's.

A

You know: rye's got a nice one, lebanon's got a nice one, but deciding our goals.

A

I think this is our our step yeah, and I think that those goals.

F

Would probably feed right into the city of portsmouth's climate action plan right right.

A

And we should, we want to be sure to align with that yeah. That's very important and there's four.

C

Critical documents that they're going to be looking to the consultants that they bring on.

C

Legit advice like september to work on one's the cost, sharing agreement.

C

In terms of how the cost of this operation is going to flow back to all the communities, the risk.

C

Management, which is all around procurement, there's a big policy around building up the reserve.

C

And then there's a fourth that slips my mind, but those don't even exist right now and those are the.

C

Operational underpinnings for this organization that are going to get developed in the fall so.

C

You know to your point: allison there's, there's some beauty to being kind of a fast follower to.

C

This exercise and not be you, know the leading bleeding end. You know if we, you know, you know.

C

Chat a concert if we, if we were at this for the past 12 months, I think we'd certainly be all for.

C

Getting in the first wave and taking our lumps well cliff has probably been at it for years. Yeah.

B

But but I was also going to underscore exactly what you're getting at is that the initial eight.

B

Towns that have prepared for months now or maybe years, the puc has never done this before either so.

B

Once we see the whole process with the puc and how they're going to adopt the rules from these.

B

New bills that they were passed, that's going to make it smoother for everybody else later on then.

B

They'll have a routine they'll know what they're looking for they'll have some experience with it.

B

Whereas the first eight towns are the guinea pigs and it's going to probably.

B

Take longer for them than for other towns, just because the puc has not done it before.

B

So one thing peter I wanted to mention to you: is dover, while they've been at it for a long time.

C

They've decided at least a week ago, their deputy city manager, chris parker, mentioned.

C

That they're not planning to go, live in the first wave because they have municipal power contracts.

C

That are go out for another year or so, and they didn't think it was the appropriate thing to.

C

Say: okay residents of dover, you guys join this aggregation, but the municipal accounts.

C

Are not going to join until at a later point in time, so they want to sync up their municipal.

C

Contracts and their and the rest of so kevin. That's a really good point um and you know.

E

We are getting ready to go out to bid for our power procurement for future. um You know we're.

E

Currently, locked in uh for the 23, what they call 2223 period and we're very fortunate.

E

We locked in two years ago, uh because you know the prices are now significantly greater than we.

E

Would have gotten clobbered, um you know my concern about tying our our procurement to.

E

The the cpc nh schedule is that their schedule for procurement is not consistent with our budget.

E

Development, so you know I I think over time you know we can achieve the same goals with procuring.

E

Outside of of cpcnh and outside of the aggregation approach by council, just being clear that this is.

E

What you know, either through through um policy, the credit the? um What are they wrecks, wrecks uh and.

E

What type of wrecks- and you know based on that? We, we would purchase those and we can purchase those.

E

Independent of our power purchase, which is still the 22 percent mix which is mandated by the state.

E

I you know, given the energy markets and the the pressures on, as you know well as.

E

You may know electricity is mainly generated by natural gas uh in new england, the natural gas.

E

Is an international commodity, it's not a local commodity anymore and the this what's going on.

E

In europe at the moment is is creating you know over. I think 40 percent of our natural gas goes.

E

Abroad, right now uh and they're looking to increase that amount, so we're competing.

E

In that market, what you know so what does that say? It says that natural gas prices are going.

E

To continue to go up, which means the bulk of electricity generation is from natural gas.

E

Select natural, the electricity prices are going to continue to go up. It really, you know, makes it.

E

Competitive for solar and wind and stuff like that, which is great because there's incentive.

E

To to drive in that direction, but in the near term you know being responsible for municipal.

E

Power procurement, you know, I'm I'm doing multiple things. You know I'm trying to to keep budgets in.

E

Line and unfortunately, this year we're not getting a major hit as a result of this, you know we're you.

E

Know we're very appreciative, but what I want to try to do is set it up. For next year, 23 24, 24, 25.

E

um So you know that gives us similar to dover. It gives us a period of time where we would.

E

Let other things play out and the question of whether municipality ties to this as well.

E

Is a question you know, I I don't anticipate large um commercial um or industrial users to.

E

To participate in this because they they play the market if they can save.

E

Money they're going to opt in and they're going to opt out and it's going to ruin the cpc and h model. If you have people popping in and out it's really about stability and.

E

Predictability for the procurement side of things, because you want to be able to sell that constant.

E

Load yeah, I think it's residents and small businesses, yeah yep the people who.

E

Are you know tied that aren't in the market already, so I understand what they're doing.

E

I've you know, obviously I spend a lot of time thinking about budgets and I get anxious. That's.

E

Why you know above risk management when we started talking about that and how they did the procurement? I was like, oh god, this is the you know how they're going to buy stuff ahead of time and.

E

Then have that power available now you know they they're not buying in the future they're buying.

E

Real-Time power, if they want to stand it up within a short time frame.

E

And when you enter in the market in that short time frame, you're at a you know, that's a premium.

E

So the april market is better, but you know by that time we've locked in our budgets.

A

So but I think our next program of work is to start that five-month process.

A

Of doing our aggregation plan- and it seems to me the logical place to start is for us.

A

As a committee to meet and set our goals or work on the goals that we want to drive.

A

That plan and we should get input from the sustainability folks and maybe even the council.

A

A

Get the load data, which is a key element of the plan.

A

And then go through the step-by-step process of writing. It.

A

I'm wondering peter and kevin if you guys could just.

A

Write down, what are the milestones in.

A

In doing any uh an aggregation plan and and what kind of timeline we might see for that.

A

And that could then we could meet and talk about the goals. Having that you know rough timeline.

C

As far as the the timeline to to pull the aggregation plan together, yeah yeah.

A

Just frame that work, okay,.

A

And uh you know we could we could meet again.

A

So that we could hear from you guys, what do you think the time frame is what's the best.

A

Use of our resources to do that and have a session working on our goals.

C

And that would be going at it at a pace. That's like a reasonable because you know cliff or.

C

April or somebody from the cpc would say, if you know we work day and night, we could still be.

C

Get it get this done quickly, um but but we're saying go at it at a reasonable pace.

C

This this summer summer and fall yes yeah I mean getting to be able to submit to puc.

C

As soon as the rules are ready, then the rules are supposed to be ready in july.

C

If we were ready in august or if we were ready in september at any point in time,.

C

Once the city council signs off on on our eap, then we can submit the plan to the utility.

C

But we would then we're not in the life cycle, though, of going live, because the if we're going to.

C

Go with cpc for supply they're, looking at at like april may or then I think it's september october.

C

So because there's two sweet spots during the year, given how it ties with the utility purchase, they.

C

Need they want to know what the utilities rate's going to be for the next six months?.

C

Before they set their rates to to uh beat it right, there's no guarantee incentive. The poc is going to.

B

Do it in july, right, it might not be the poc is in is in this disarray right now, because of this.

B

Integration with the department of energy, so we used to have apuc. We used to have department of.

B

Energy we used to have no no department energy. We asked the department of environmental services and.

B

There was no department of energy, the department of energy is still restructuring itself right now,.

B

And it wants to absorb the puc within itself, and it was clear before and.

B

Don creese, the consumer advocate was part of the puc, but but they were their regulatory agency.

B

And the policies were set somewhere else, but now because there's a department of energy, that's.

B

Being given all kinds of responsibilities and it's trying to absorb some of the puc functions,.

B

Like I said, I I'm not as sure I'm not that confident that they will actually do what.

B

They think they want it to do by july, just because they're not very organized right now, so that might.

B

You know it might drag on a little bit yeah, it will happen, but.

B

I can't even get an org chart of the department of energy and and I'm on the science technology.

B

Committee, that's an insight and we can't even get the responsibilities who's taking what.

B

Peter did my skeptical self says the reason they wanted to do. That is because of revenues.

E

That they could pay, for, they could generate revenues to pay for their their operations.

B

Yes, they're doing that too they're they're shifting around the expenses and their revenues as.

B

They do this classic new hampshire government and really and you're already hearing complaints of.

B

People who are saying our department's not going to get enough funding for what we're supposed to.

B

Do so that's why I'm just just saying it's nice if they could do it by july, but they've made.

B

Promises before and are we off the mark- and this is now in a condition where they're just sorting.

B

Things out yeah. Well, that's another reason not to kill ourselves to do anything. Yeah. That's very.

B

True, we should just stick to our own plotting ways. I think the question we need to answer is.

A

What are the steps in doing any eap and, and how do we see those falling on the calendar yeah.

A

Yes, I can take a shot at that and there's an election coming up too, which doesn't help.

B

The governor is up for relax, for example, peter your thoughts on that on what on.

A

Figuring figuring out our next steps with the. If, if kevin, is gracious enough to take.

E

A stab at it, I am, as you can imagine, buried um it's budget time, but it's not.

E

Just budgets, construction time: it's you know we are yeah. You're stretched very thin, yeah. Okay, I.

C

Can draft stuff up and bounce it off you yeah? We then we can submit it yeah if you guys can confer.

A

I think that would be. That would be great, but on your way to your next cpc nh meeting in the car.

A

Okay, well, I think that's our next, our next program of work and and we've got this.

A

Sounds good? We've got the last turn on this to do and and a few tasks to follow up on, but.

D

We'll edit that as quickly as I can we'll circulate it and then have the portsmouth.

D

Smart growth group look at it and make sure they're okay with how we've I've, given them.

A

Giving them one look at it perfect and that's when they said. Oh, we gotta do zoom. Don't we.

C

So the one thing that we do have to do- and we have plenty of time- is the.

C

The joint powers agreement they they made a modification to that at the annual meeting.

C

And they want all of the communities that are that have already signed off on the jpa, to bring it.

C

Back before their city council for uh re-approval, okay yeah, I can put that under my name and have.

A

Do a legal review and yeah okay? Is it a minor yeah, it's mine, they had.

C

Language in the in the jpa, that said, they could only make changes to that document at their annual.

C

Meeting- and they said that was there's no basis for that, so they they have language. That says.

C

They can make changes to the jpa um anytime with board approval and they suspect, given everything.

C

That's going on right now, they're going to want to make some changes here and there, so they.

C

Didn't want to be locked in that it was only on an annual basis. They just changed some text, but.

C

Even something that benign apparently has to go back before all the governing bodies to approve.

A

um Next meeting, I think our next meeting is.

A

Quite far off the way I set up the calendar, but my thinking is.

A

If you guys outline the next steps and have how they would fall on the calendar,.

A

We could convene this committee to work on goals.

A

A

That might the best after the june event.

D

A

Maybe first well, we don't want to do july 4th week, but maybe the week after july 4th something like that.

D

One thing counselor, I don't know is to we might want to formally elect cliff.

C

That we're I like not anticipating to be in wave one tell them about the event yeah.

F

So we might, I think he might push back on it saying you guys, could do it if you really tried.

C

Like reading the tea leaves but uh he'd like to yeah, well, they want our load. I don't think.

C

They really care about, they want, they want our load to be in the procurement. That's.

C

Yeah, which I understand yeah, but um I think they're still, you know.

C

It's not nailed down that we're we're considering to be in the subsequent wave one of the rfps.

E

Coming in they're due june 15th.

C

That's going to play out over the summer and then they're also.

C

Peter and counselor cook they're looking to hire a ceo or an executive director by.

C

Sometime later in the summer, I think to have them on board. He or she on board.

C

To help oversee the contracts when they get implemented.

C

In the october time frame that'd be great yeah.

F

I can't even imagine trying to get any of this getting it in place.

F

Rest, but I cry I just can't I can't imagine meeting that schedule so no.

D

Plus, all like the stakeholder engagement, we've talked about wanting to do, and you know apart.

D

From the things that we have to do with public hearings and putting together the plan itself,.

D

But then all the sort of other people we want to bring along with us, you know yeah. I think we've.

A

Got to have the information, the awareness level come up, the top of mind, awareness.

F

Has to be built up so that when we talk about this and we go out for hearings, we.

E

Also talked in addition to the market square, we talked about the farmers market trying to help.

E

You know get news out through that as well, so that's something that the managers there monthly.

E

Okay, but they've indicated that you know there's stall space for other types of activities, great.

F

So the printer is printing out a certain number to go into the mailing, so we should.

F

Have additional, we could add yeah, add this yep karen could hand it out if she wanted it.

A

Yeah farmer's market, so, if it's in the budget can we have more printed, I'm not sure how we.

E

Were planning on paying for it, water, sewer and better to just take the same pdf to southport.

F

First, okay and have them printed because I think the way I'm cons, I'm imagining the.

F

The bill is that they print the bill, and this page so you've got this long strip of bill page bill.

F

Page bill page and then like slice, that could be imaginary, but I think that's how it works.

F

Yeah, okay, that makes sense all right, but I will ask that question thanks. Stephanie.

A

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you um and I'll get back to everybody with a date in july for us to.

A

Be in and work on, I mark your calendar for june 29th yeah.

D

I'm getting ready to answer the phone and yeah.