EWEB Board of Commissioners — February 7, 2023

0:08 call the Eugene Water and Electric board meeting to order first up I'm going to do a quick facility and safety awareness meeting Logistics briefing thank you all for attending this evening's board meeting the e-web management and sub subject matter experts are here with us in the room and vertically during tonight's presentations remote presenters will appear on screen please make sure to speak loudly clearly so everyone can guests are invited to sign up at the table at the back of the room if they wish to provide public testimony your access is limited to the board meeting room and restrooms restrooms are located throughout the floor exits and down hallway in case of an emergency such as a fire alarm exit through the glass door in the

0:55 back of the room here unless it's not safe to do so the alternative is located the building just beyond the restrooms um during evacuation follow staff's instructions and stay together for safety tonight's meeting will be recorded the recording will start when the meeting is called order so it's we'll continue until adjournment meaningful room will be muted during break aside from that period virtual participants on the screen and the public audience will be able to hear conversations in the room until the meeting is disconnected okay that is the public awareness briefing now we'll go to agenda check any 10 items

1:43 okay seeing none we will go into items from the board members and general manager would anyone like to start okay a couple things thank you um thanks to staff for getting back to me again about uh the status of getting that repeating off that brand new club station wall that we've spent so much money on it's been six months and I understand it's still ongoing but if the neighbors are not happy and it's we're doing that so thank you very much and just I forgot to mention um something about the web staff and things at the end of the year the old analogy time kills deals well there was trying to get a gifting of a part of the old laser days mobile park on the McKenzie and it had like 14 17 things on it and time was killing that deal and

2:29 staff stepped up made it happen without it in the ownership of either eweb or McKenzie river trust but we prevented it from going into and being developed and things so thank you kudos to the staff and to the general manager for doing that because it was on the brink of not happening and uh they got it done thank you um now I can't remember if this was just in the past month or the month before or if I even mentioned it last time if it hadn't left before but um I just wanted to thank staff for working hard with the um by the community center to help them make up their budget shortfall and

3:16 rebuild building a new community center there they had um larger than anticipated cross electrical and the staff did a really great job uh again I can't remember if I mentioned this the last month or not involvement but uh I did have the opportunity to tour the new water and store the facilities that formed it and uh Donald it's coming along quite quite nicely there big cakes up there I'm going to encourage people that even if you can

4:01 just drive up the end of the street but if you have the opportunity to make a tour of it it's it's pretty impressive the things that they're doing to help mitigate impacts to the neighbors our uh well he did it's a tough it's a tough thing having a project that figures close to you are and I'm proud of the staff and the and the contractors have been able to do up there and secondly I just want to mention that that the parts that were not work session the thinner that we had as a as a common student uh was very productive you know we didn't deliberate on anything like that we just kind of got to know each other a little bit better and kind of what where we

4:46 feel that we can lean into certain issues and topics and so I thought it was very productive meeting and I appreciate him to do that yeah um uh the last couple weeks was able to attend a couple of um neighborhood mates with the downtown downtown neighborhood association and then the friendly neighborhood association and uh staff fielded a wide variety of questions about almost everything and uh and professionally and well done so appreciate the staff effort and setting those up attending them and and uh and being there completely thanks thanks and I also appreciated uh We've

5:31 Frank and I attended the Whitaker meeting earlier in January and I think that went really well and I appreciated feedback on that meeting as well and I also wanted to note that the El Cog dinner the appreciation dinner is coming up on March 4th it's at The Cottage Grove Armory and I sent out an email earlier today with the information on nominations or the there's a number of different Awards so I would love to have your feedback nominations to help recognize those in your community who are doing really great things so please get those in it's due on the 17th of February to I hope all of you can attend all right that's what I have so Frank you're up uh yes uh good evening Commissioners

6:17 just a few announcements so I think previously Commissioners had asked for some talking points um regarding the funding request for the second water treatment plant uh what you have to tonight is some talking points as well as a leave behind this is sort of our first draft for use uh when you're talking with public officials or or people who may be in positions to help with that I did want to to thank our communication staff our water staff and and Jason and others for putting this together I think it's really nice leave behind on on the subject so that people remember what you were talking to them about the other thing um certainly appreciate the downtown

7:02 neighbor opportunities to meet with downtown neighbors friendly Street Whitaker there's there's more on the list and and more to come um in particular the friendly area neighbors uh was a collection of Staff doing different subjects and kind of a quick hitting format so I I definitely wanted to to thank them for that um and that Fielding like like Commissioners had a series of questions I also wanted to to make an introduction we have a new cheap energy resources officer who's joined us um Brian Booth who's behind me and um comes from uh Snohomish PUD up in Everett Washington and so um you want to

7:48 just say hi or you know good evening Commissioners um inspirational speeches aren't really my thing but I did want to say that I've come here for an awesome position at an hospitality and also that I wouldn't have changed if I didn't know that I had a supportive and friendly board not every utility can say that much so thank you very much I'm happy to be here right they just look friendly I'm not sure if they're especially if they think but anyway um Brian will be responsible for the power trading and the power planning function at eweb as we go forward and and as you know we have probably two and a half billion dollars worth of decisions to make in those areas over

8:34 the next five years or so so there's no pressure whatsoever on Ryan but um anyway that's it uh president Carlson thank you well shoulders instead we will move on to public input I have two by phone and it's 20.2 in person maybe just three so we will start off with the people on the phone and first up will be William Smith followed by Joshua corn and then we'll have the person in the room William Mahon yes there so let me read the public input procedure and input so just you have information here

9:19 when your name is called please come forward and clearly state your name and optionally your address reward each speaker will be offered three minutes to present their testimony please could keep track of time by watching the timer at the front of the room or by listening for an audio notification when three minutes flies elapsed if you are participating by telephone remember to unmute your call press star 6 if calling from a landline or simply use the unmute button and calling from your cell phone after all testimonies heard each commissioner will have an opportunity to speak if they choose although by policy we do not engage foreign ER to speak shall not be construed as supportive or opposition any speaker that's right if a question is presented by a speaker and the board does not provide an answer and UF staff member will be in contact

10:04 with the speaker so the question can be addressed at a later time thanks that is all we need here so this is what we're going to do I'll call William we'll give him a few minutes and then we'll call the next person up so William Smith are you ready by phone there we cannot hear you yet give you a second to unmute okay can you hear me now great thank you William Smith Ward one following up my public input from the last two or three months uh on what eweb might learn from

10:49 the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga Tennessee and there are 2.69 billion dollar return on investment uh on their community-wide fiber optic Network and I also talked about what eweb might learn from the successful ongoing roll out of the community-wide fiber optic Network in Hillsboro Oregon which is the fifth largest city in Oregon at 108 000 people uh the uh Hillsborough rollout is ahead of

11:34 schedule it's been so successful originally the timeline was from 2020 to 2023 and you can see the seven different major sections of the city one by one being fully implemented but they're two years ahead of schedule everyone knows about the program in the city they have a dedicated website and they have seven staff dedicated you can visit the website and see them they hired somebody from the telecommunications industry with leadership experience and he's running a team of seven staff a diverse team and it looks like they're very enthusiastic and I think um they probably know about Chattanooga I think that's probably why they're

12:21 investing people in this program uh because the widely known Chattanooga study that showed a 2.69 billion dollar return over 10 years and their fiber optic community-wide network with Benefits widely shared economic and social benefits so I'm hoping and the number of us that I've been talking with here are hoping that eweb can not unless it's not reinvent the wheel but follow the example of of Chattanooga and Hillsborough and um and the service that Hillsborough is offering is at 55 it's 55 a month for one gigabyte per second uh broadband

13:08 service and for low-income people who qualify it's ten dollars uh and fiber optics uh it's if you look in and you probably know the economics it makes sense that that Hillsboro and Chattanooga can help people save thousands and thousands of dollars over years and which they can reinvest in the community fiber optics allows that um so I hope you'll consider it thank you thank you William uh next up Joshua corn

14:01 are you there I guess I muted myself and now I'm unmuted can you hear me now okay Joshua corn award two um back uh years ago before eweb rolled out the smart meter program as you call Ami Advanced metering infrastructure a number of us eugenians came out and expressed Our concern over the grave dangers of implementing this technology then a few years after that uh well and and you you listened to us and we we appreciate that that you listened to us at that time and and

14:48 um actually implemented the first opt-in smart meter program in in the country I believe at that time and um Maui um Hawaii has uh it has implemented a similar situation with an opt-in smart catering program well unfortunately what what was what happened a few years after that was that that you realize that we don't want this no one wants this and um and and the community never opted in for it and so you recanted that decision and and started to to basically implement this all over without question

15:33 and um force people to opt out if they didn't want it um I I want to reference a recent article in the children's health defense uh def the defender from Robert F Kennedy which I've emailed to the to the administrator and I'd like that entered into the record of the minutes for this uh meeting and uh I want to point out a few points from this article uh including uh in 2021 researchers including uh Beverly rubric Rubik founder and director of Frontier science uh reviewed over 250 peer-reviewed research reports on uh

16:22 on radio frequency Wireless radiation including and concluded RF radiation may cause morphologic changes in erythrocytes including uh a kind of site in roulette formation that can contribute to hyper coagulation and impair microcirculation and reduce erythrocyte and hemoglobin levels exacerbating hypoxia amplify immune system dysfunction including immuno suppression autoimmunity and hyperinflammation increase oxy acellular oxidative stress and the production of free radicals resulting in vascular injury and or

17:07 organ damage and and I could go I could all these injures but the point I want to make here today is if these are the case why then and you know a part of the World Health Organization classified radio frequency radiation as a 2B possible human carcinogen why do some people get sick from this and others don't and the reason is is that some people are contributing person some some it all right I'll continue next time thank you

18:08 well uh I'm William McMahon from 4665 Highland Oaks Drive not sure what word that's in um anyway I'm um a big proponent of hydroelectric and I've recently become aware that the hydro or the Liebert Hydro project is not generating any longer because of a canal issue uh and I guess I was just here to try to uh drum up support for rectifying that if my numbers are correctly you know that that facility generated I don't know eight to ten megawatts on average and that's like five or six million dollars a year in revenue and I just can't see why eweb would step away from that kind of a revenue stream just because the canal needs some maintenance so I'm just here to encourage both staff

18:55 and the board to pursue repair and getting that facility back in operation so that the citizens of Eugene can benefit from so cash flow thank you next up is Jones greetings board and staff I'm Chris Jones I live in South Eugene this is a comment on the draft greenhouse gas principles that were provided as part of the board memo on the draft climate guidebook that Kelly and Jason will present on later

19:42 um surprisingly to me I only saw one opportunity for improvement some of you know that I'm very detail-oriented and like to offer lots of feedback in the distributed Generation section there's a sentence that says eweb supports pricing mechanisms that fairly compensate customers for Surplus electricity that they generate and uh that I thought that that statement could benefit from an update given some changes in technology that's available the Advent of Home grade battery storage systems from companies like Tesla the powerwall along with vehicle to grid technology allows customers to supply deliberate controlled blows of electricity back to the grid from their

20:28 homes and businesses without an on-site Generation generation Source like a fuel cell or solar panels or generators these controlled sources similar to the controllable demand reduction programs that have been piloted by uweb could be very valuable to UF during times of peak demand and so the customers who could be supplying this peak power I would think would be expected to be compensated accordingly and included in that principle so it could be that some updated wording could recognize that controllable distributed resources not just generation could be a valuable resource to eweb not just a source of potentially

21:14 undesirable Surplus electricity and so I might suggest something like eweb supports pricing mechanisms that fairly compensate customers for Surplus electricity that they supply to the grid so a small wording change I can hand this off to Kelly and Jason if that's all right um since I got 50 seconds left if any of the board members have any questions about the decision to go from opt-in to opt out on smart meters I'd be happy to talk with you at length about that 2018 decision rather leave it in the past that's okay too so thank you for your time and for your continued board service I really appreciate it thanks

22:05 yes okay that is the conclusion of our public input period we will as well as the pictures and trying to give any comments should anybody choose to where okay start and say thanks uh for coming and sharing your thoughts and those on online as well appreciate you taking the time to uh share your thinking with us um I appreciate the comments Chris uh and it'll be interesting to hear the discussion tonight you know sit around if you have a chance um and Mr McMahon um it was a hard decision but I think when we looked at the uh that the calculations associated with Lee Burgers uh it's just more expensive than any of us would have hoped to put that system back

22:50 into use so there's a significant amount of information online and if uh if that doesn't shed some light on our decision making process I know the staff here are are always happy to you know to help folks understand where we're going to apply yeah thanks so agenda item couple of consent calendar anyone wants to kill anything

23:35 okay John Brown number two the prank call Frank Brothers Aaron it was a great explanation but I still need some more from Frank thank you would anybody like to make a motion to approve that's the remainder of this okay all right second second okay all those in favor say hi hi how's your day let's go to Collision so okay so the contract didn't correct me wrong so so I know what it's a four million dollar contract but Frank Brothers uh a bid 633 600 but they didn't bid all elements of it but

24:22 and so we're authorizing this contract to bring brothers or even with TBI and Forest restoration but their bids that appears that they've been they all bid the entire project that there we have a million four million five so into the Kimberly total exceeds for them did like Oregon woods they did all the elements of this bid package or that they just also bid partially like three brothers I'll have to defer part of that question to Quentin and Gina they're online but part of that is what we're trying to get is capacity and it's as needed so they will control the actual scope of order for each of those contractors in terms

25:07 of what they're asking them to do so let me ask um Nina and Quentin if you can answer the question what did each contractor bid on yes so Commissioners I'm online here I think Gina could actually speak to that she's the project manager for this project she has a better idea exactly what they did but I do know that they each um there was multiple lots that they bid and not all of them like like you said that the one contractor only bid a portion of that um so I guess if you're looking to like a lump sum table they would look like they're a lower bid but not necessarily they would be they wouldn't necessarily be low if they're doing the same amount of work they just didn't bid all the aspects of that work so Gina you might be able to

25:52 explain that a little bit better that's correct um so when we put the solicitation out it was uh we already knew it was going to be a multi-order bid um and that they could bid on different Lots so that we could also award per lot rather than the entire contract the reason why that we have accepted four of them to do work up the river at a million a piece um is because we are looking for that capacity so the money that we're asking to be approved tonight may or may not be utilized in full but what did attract me about the Brinks bid is that he's got some larger equipment than the other contractors and there has been ask from the program managers on the ground to be

26:37 able to have larger equipment come in to masticate blue blackberries and such so they can get in there and get a better planting after it's been sprayed and site prepped does that help answer well just so I could understand it so Brink Brothers is a contractor sub to all these other people or we're going to do four separate contracts because this indicates to me that the contract is to bring brothers and they were only 658 000 but the contract for four billion I understand it's four contracts is that correct Gina yes I'm we're awarding we're hoping to award four separate contracts so he will not be subbing under them [Music]

27:27 four million dollar contract I'd like to understand it section says asking the board to approve four new contracts and then list them all so I wonder if it's down at the bottom that we have a typo saying one the action request it says for contracts okay so the kind of so the contacts with great Brothers for a million and yeah each one of them gets a million bucks not to exceed and it's as needed okay and when they bid a million 459 for that was for the entire package is that correct Gina that's correct um had we gone with the actual awarded amounts this ask would be over seven and a half million dollars

28:13 um which I don't feel that we're going to expend seven and a half million dollars so in talking with my buyer and and um the washer the water restoration group it was more Equitable to offer one million dollar contracts to each so when TBI said they were going to do the full project for a million 447-152. that was they were going to do everything for a million over five years five years yes okay so one contractor was going to do everything for a million four well you're saying no and you're saying yes so I'm getting mixed messages I don't understand it four million dollars or a million five to do this project

28:59 explain that better I'm sorry absolutely no it's it's okay I understand where you're coming from um so if we would have went first of all the contracts upriver are much more complicated than a typical contract so we don't always go with the actual awarded price um sometimes we're looking at the funding rolling in uh sometimes we um do what we did in this situation I needed capacity up there more that I needed one more contractor so I was very specific that the solicitation would allow a multi-award and that it could be by lot um in the hopes that somebody could um help pick up the different areas that we need help with up there right now we have one contractor that is at capacity

29:49 thank you I'm going to approve I'm going to vote to approvement but could I ask for a follow-up on this a year from now and see what each category is spent I'd just like just got attract this because this was not something that I've I've seen in many many years I just wanted to see how it works so thank you if you could follow up with me you can hear from now just let me know how to my questions are done I'll move to uh adopt uh item number two I can send that one today thank you all those in favor say aye um moving on to consent calendar to be and if you have anything

30:45 all those in favor say hi okay also passed next up we have the eweb City of Eugene joint initiatives agenda moderated by me so who knows anything else you want me to do a quick introduction okay that would be great go ahead with the the next slide this is uh this is a discussion that we initiated last year and part of the formal process for our leadership president Carson this year and vice president borofsky to get feedback and guidance and direction from the board as to their liaison role with

31:30 the City of Eugene and if there were specific subjects or positions that they needed to communicate on behalf of the board and so we started developing a roster of initiatives or topics really as guidance for the president and the vice president representing the board with the City of Eugene and their leadership meetings these these can be as simple as sharing information soliciting support asking for feedback or taking positions that it's it's really a board discussion and I've pertin it up that way I'll turn it back to you president Carlson to delete that discussion

32:20 I would like to give some thoughts okay that we've talked about them last two three years without four years that we've been eating with them is um how we can partner on the weatherization of rental units and so we just seem to keep going around and around and around on this topic um but I think that's something that we should lean into more particularly a great way for us to partner and um I know that their um their Representatives change just like ours do they have different um different council members but the mayor has been there from the beginning so she might have to remember that we've

33:06 talked about this before so that would just that would be my suggestion all right well I'll just jump in and Echo that and I know in the past we've also talked about ways that we can coordinate on resiliency and I know staff do a lot of that work too but it would be helpful to maybe have an understanding of maybe if there are any gaps and that works so that we can work with their with the council specifically their inferior sort of things that could work so a couple points I watched the council's deliberations last night weatherization was big in a conversation it was very big and incentivization to go off of

33:53 appeals there's also and so I think we'll have a role to play in all of that so I would really support especially whether it was a rental poll because we're gonna have to step in and do it and like I said before I I had a nwppa conference Sacramento Municipal utility districts fund they apparently had a very very successful program in weatherization of their rental pool but I don't care if we plagiarize somebody else or whatever but if somebody else has already blocked point on this let's do it and and not just talk about it but I would really like to see some action done uh especially on that particular topic as a side topic that you know this is kind of getting like base level storage and treatment plant but Frank why don't we

34:39 decommissioning uh River Road the the water the water reservoir it's it's in the plan to go I think and when is it going to go out yeah I think we're actually evaluating the timing of are you talking about Santa Clara yeah Santa Clara yeah I think we are the engineering in their Capital planning this year is looking at the timing of that relative to the other base level reservoirs so I think it's still open to the exec schedule Mike but the only reason I bring that up because it's kind of we're going to have to get out ahead of that because we don't need that anymore we declared Surplus the city is going to want it there may be some land use things there because it's a huge chunk of really nice residential development land and uh if we could help

35:25 uh you know put that in the buildable lands inventory I'd like to make sure that we make sure that we don't get you know sideways with land use and things like that yeah I think we're still talking a number of years off is that correct yeah we've got some meeting um Bike Masters water operations manager for the record uh got some meetings coming up later this month uh it's kind of plan for the for the future of Santa Clara um you know we'll be working on the new Master Plan next year as well so we understand the critical component of the timing of those reservoirs so maybe maybe by next next month's meeting we'll we'll have some more to say on it but just knowing how

36:10 long some of those take to decommission and repurpose and we have two metro plan amendments and things I just wanted to make sure we kept that on our radar so we didn't fall by the wayside because it's a big chunk your point relative to this discussion commissioner is to start coordinating and sharing with the City of Eugene thank you thank you um yeah I think I would like to just kind of Echo what some of the other Commissioners have said regarding weatherization and how that affects our climate goals the city's climate goals our rip goals uh a lot of those

36:56 things and I I really hope that we could push forward Beyond just coming up with talking plants saying we we think we should do this I think it's important uh for us and the city to really lead into this and if that means that were the more functional person in the room so be it but I think if we go in there with positive energy in this in this meeting and expecting that the next time we meet that there's progress on it not just oh that sounds like a good idea and if if our staff needs to lead on that I think that's important one of the other things that I think is that I hope we could touch base on this kind of came out of

37:41 what is your problem was talking about last night when they were talking about um leading into incentives and stuff like that you know making sure that we are able to leverage everything that's coming from the federal federal uh on down with the inflation reduction act and some of the other policies that have come out of Washington to make sure that we're standing in line and ready to do whatever we can as a community and as a utility leverage those dollars to do the positive things that there were intended to do so if we put I think if we put under other the the weatherization and incentivization on

38:28 heat pumps uh keep up water heaters and uh weatherization as a as a I think I'd be happy to see that and put that forward so I just one do you mind if I jump in thanks I'm sorry sorry just just a point of clarification that I'd like to get from Commissioners given that this this is about a meeting with the City of Eugene yes is that we have all those incentives that you've mentioned and we have a pretty robust weatherization program so in in response relative to the City of Eugene I'm just and by the way I I will make sure that the results of the various

39:14 components that that get in the year-end report so we can see how much is rentals how much is is um is uh owner occupied and those kinds of things but I'm I'm curious what the ask is for the City of Eugene as far as I know they have a pretty significant budget deficit we're talking about incentives and is that just us going oh we're going to incentivize this more which then has some other budget implications so I'm I'm trying to clarify what the the ask is of the City of Eugene because we you know granted there's ways that we need to progress these programs and and those are going to be really important decisions that we make in the context of things like the IRP

40:00 that you mentioned and some of the other things so what is the cost of that what's the opportunity cost to do other things um but you know relative to this this particular subject I guess I'm would ask for some clarification really for president Carlson and vice president barovski what to ask is so so for me what I would hope to bring out of this would be leveraging that partnership saying okay we have these programs in in place how can we leverage that to get more funding to these programs whether that's from the City of Eugene whether that's working collaboratively with them and

40:45 saying you know hey a percentage of our silt increases could go instead of just going into the general fund and being split out could be dedicated to uh funding more of these programs letting them know that we would be willing to take on the administrative part of it since we are already doing it but that we can make them aware of those types of things so that they can bake that into their climate reduction goals and so that to help them meet their targets saying hey we want to help we want to meet the targets we want to help you meet the targets part of that's going to be Financial we're already doing some Financial things if you throw us a dollar you don't have to set you don't have to begin the wheel all over again we have

41:31 these programs in place and we can help do it and by using some of your money we can leverage that to go a lot further that that's one of my ideas I don't know I know what I don't know and I'd like to find out how Spud did it they did it I mean I you know I I'd like to because before we turn around and say okay we don't know how to do this really we have a great weatherization program but if other entities have been able to crack that class seedling about getting money into the rental group good job and it's already been done that's good but I I'm not aware about it if they've done it if they were successful I was told it was a very successful program and so check out some other utilities and see what the trend

42:17 is and see if we can learn from them before I say be able to sign all the cities got a challenge it's been interesting but can't just ignore this speed um so is that something that we could do reach out to SMUD and have a oh sure you can or could we do that before our next when are we set up to have the meeting first okay so we won't be I don't know about the Mars first I I do know that I mean it's at the table though at March 1st we have a good relationship with SMUD and we actually invited them up here I think some of the maybe you were involved with some of their discussions with our staff a few years ago

43:03 specifically around limited income programs that's that's where we had but we have contacts that said we can reach out that's on my list of action items to go through so if this is like screaming too big or overstepping our bounds but I I would just like to work with them collaboratively like ideas that have been floated out there before are kind of making it so that um when you advertise the price of rent for a home or an apartment that you have to include the average price of the utilities and that's not something that we could do but the city could enact something like that so that when renters go to rent a place they know how much the utilities cost and then perhaps that

43:48 would put a little bit more pressure on landlords than to opt into some of our incentive programs and weatherization so that's like one thing that the city could do I don't know what the other things are but maybe to kind of have that discussion to think creatively what could they along that point is there a way so I'm assuming that somebody would call and ask for the previous months or maybe that an average usage over a certain time period is that available to as a service that we provide yes so they could get that pretty easily and then post it

44:33 it's not a requirement though or else I know the city has had a number of discussions about home energy scores and potentially requiring that I don't know where they are in that conversation and do we still support the score program because that was actually my next question you know they had home Audits and that was kind of done in a partnership with the city and so that's that's fine but like when people are looking to rent a place like actually dollar amounts I think is pretty useful yeah absolutely I was just curious kind of separately if they still support that program if that's something that is happening foreign

45:20 we have these items we can kind of give updates on but really we want to focus on those we've got some really good ideas thank you Commissioners for the specifics because that's that's what I see when we've had these meetings in the past we say we'd like to work on this and then we've kind of had a couple of things and then like oh yeah that's great but then it's not it's not specific enough so I really appreciate the conversation tonight around one specific asks one thing and I may ask Frank about this says how there was a council motion last night to ban through gas infrastructure into new residential is that something that I mean we can just put that out that they're that we're a a resource for data and information on the energy sector or what I don't know I mean it's it's a

46:06 community interest I think it's going to start boiling up a little bit more now that that that that ordinance passed so again what's your feeling on bringing that conversation into the liaison for our role in that um I think what we need to make sure that the city is constantly aware of is that we are a resource for them and have an area of expertise that they don't necessarily have and and they have expertise that we don't have as well and I think reiterating that is is important uh I would leave it at that I think that that's good just letting them know they can pick up the phone

46:51 and get an expert I have diluters I have six action items walking away from this conversation just just so so you well know so um close this conversation wait this was supposed to be an important discussion thank you very much um so there's there's a few things um that are that are actually very timely these are not action items we were you know separately um next month um as part of our initial release of the climate guidebook there will be an update in that as to our contribution to cap 2.0 and so what results are we responsible for some of the the graphs that have

47:36 been reported on the cap 2.0 in the past we're working with City staff to get those updated with our data because those are those deal with Energy Efficiency and some of those other things so that's that's coming um next month um as well as our end of the year report which has results from all across our Energy Efficiency and limited income programs so you'll be able to dial in and see I mean I can tell you historically rentals has been 16 to 18 percent of our residential Energy Efficiency that historic I don't know where we finished the year but that's the kind of data that that you'll see next month so this is this is very Timely the um we will reach out to SMUD and and

48:23 compare notes we have a lot of contacts there we're also as you know in the midst of the IRP and we've had some discussions around um various sensitivities associated with the IRP one of those is accelerated electrification and so when when one of the messages really is you know relative to that particular ordinance is we are going to test what that does with our selection of resources um you know it you know accelerated um that type of electrification you know we have to dial in the kind of consumption that that's going to be which is which is a heating load so um and we've got a number of discussions

49:09 what are the details of how you model that but but these and then also I'll I'll get with our grant Clearinghouse group relative to Opportunities associated with the iija and the IRA that you mentioned as far as additional funding so I think we're doing a lot of those things these are very timely all these action items are things that we're doing anyway and hopefully they will I can stage this in a way that helps the president and the vice president communicate with the city I don't think I missed anything uh so just uh feedback you said you're going to talk about circles mud and and error notes there I'm hearing interested at the board level and hearing from SMUD

49:55 am I hearing that right I think somebody's just having them I remember was you um have them come in and talk with us is that something we want to do at the board level or are we just thinking staff compare notes I'm just checking I thought that's what I heard from you yeah we've had nods for that so you want us to invite some to sorry stop SMUD they're a lot closer I think that would be valuable I I don't um I think it's as we as we work into our IRP and we're thinking more about additional need for conservation or new power probably there's a bigger conversation about what kind of

50:41 conservation we aim to acquire so I don't know if that has to happen next month but perhaps from my perspective as part of our conversation about the IRP over the next six months I think that'd be valuable where it does flow in well with the IRP is that the July or or the the first release of the IRP will have a series of actions associated with that and I I could see actually that being one of the actions to do some assessments around that you do your Outreach because you speak at this level and probably at this level and then we could have this you know and we could if we have questions after what you get we could we could actually question the people that are giving us a

51:27 presentation and you know given the technology available we could you know that way we could interact with them and say well what about this that would be maybe there's a question that we have I think that would be a good use of 15 to 12. yeah I think there's multiple ways we can do that done in the second all right great we will move on to the climate guidebook draft principles ready I just realized that March 1st is when our time's supposed to be but I will be with Jason in Washington DC so

52:14 foreign policy and government Affairs director at eweb I'll let my colleague Kelly introduce herself Kelly Hale and the climate policy analyst and advisor here at eweb all right it's great to be with you all this evening to talk about the proposed draft principles for inclusion in the

52:59 upcoming proposed climate guidebook that Kelly's been so hard at work right now um first slide uh just a Scene center I just want to give you a quick refresh of the elements of the climate guidebook uh it's a reference reference documents to articulate all the activities that uweb is involved in with climate change think of it as the One-Stop shopping center for all the information you could possibly need about all of the key core areas initiatives we we have at eweb on climate change and as you know you'll be getting a first look at the initial draft of that document at the March 4th meeting

53:44 uh again in the refreshment Department quick rundown on the elements of the climate change policy sd-15 that the handbook will be focusing in on core areas including climate policy power supply and transmission customer decarbonization resiliency and carbon reductions in the UF operations and this slide just further elaborates a little bit with the evolution of that document and I think this demonstrates these principles are a lens through which the work on the meeting the goals and the climate change policy can be viewed through these principles can provide guidance alignment consistency Evolution and transparency towards the

54:31 Fulfillment of the goals in the climate change policy I want to talk a little bit about the purpose of principles what are they for uh I think the staff that worked on them we all agreed we think of them along the lines of a North star a framework of sorts not really a rule book but that kind of North Star um that lets you know if you're moving in the right direction towards positive changes charting that right kind of course those principles also assist eweb in assessing whether programs and policies are in a lot aligned with aspirations if alignment is lacking the principles can serve as a guide for us to determine

55:17 what kind of barriers are in the way how those barriers might be solved and what's a reasonable time frame to move towards alignment and I I think I would say uh well let me pause for a moment just real quickly the the topic area is for the principles that are before you tonight are here carbon policy and ghg reduction distributed generation green hydrogen and these may not be the last principles um it's very possible there'll be future iterations of other principles we know the energy World electricity the electricity sector is constantly changing it's very much possible there'll be other sets of principles that we may find helpful to guide us through that uncertain future

56:07 and um let me back up from for a moment I I think one thing I would like to point out is uh what you see in front of you I don't think there's a lot that's new and by that I mean some of these uh elements in these policies I haven't refined a little bit but they draw upon documents the board has adopted in the past usually through our annual adopted legislative agenda for example the carbon principles certainly are things that should feel pretty familiar to you because you've seen them in our legislative agendas they've been the operating instructions you've given me as I've marched off to sail on to be part of the work groups on things like cap and trade for example uh I think maybe that's a more explicit example uh of these not being new

56:53 um there's also maybe a an implicit example of things that are not due in the distributed generation principles um I would say what's in those principles for example uh probably encapsulate conversations that this board the general manager and staff have had for as far back as 15 years when we first started to see customer interest in self-generation and so uh it's not new it's probably the first time it's ever really been written down in a single place what would be how I would describe that and um some of the other elements might be a little more decent but there's quite a bit quite quite a few of the elements in these draft

57:38 principles is not new stuff uh the first topic area draft carbon policy uh I will probably spend the least time on this one because again I think this one probably is the most familiar to you there's multiple principles I won't read them all but to be a great to concisely encapsulate them typically we've supported things that were technology neutral economy-wide and Market based and the least cost policies for reducing carbon at the goals scientists tell us are necessary to arrest and reverse climate change and I would say we also have not done this stuff in a vacuum we have had great

58:23 Partners in the utility sector I think there are a lot of like-minded utilities that we've collaborated with on best practices for decarbonization some of the examples of these utilities include Snohomish PUD we've just been fortunate enough to get one of their employees now down here in Eugene Seattle City by Tacoma power in fact we've collaborated with those utilities on some deep dive analysis into decarbonization policy you'll recall that we were co-sponsors with those utilities as well as other members of the public generating pool a Consortium of public Beyond utilities that owns some of their own generation we made Investments to bring on top a top team at the E3 consulting firm which

59:11 they conducted a these cost decarbonization policy study as well as a decarbonization reliability study for us so we consulted with other utilities on best practices and we've also put investments into analysis that I think is pretty very valuable for us and there's Lessons Learned From that analysis that are encapsulated in these draft principles uh distributed generation I I I've talked about this already a little bit I think that this encapsulate a lot encapsulates a lot of institutional memory uh about how eweb has um approached distributed generation uh we have a lot of enthusiasm at this

59:56 organization for customer choice to support customers that want to self-generate and we also have a lot of enthusiasm for fairness in recovering the fixed costs of the grid and the utility and I I think I I'd probably by benefit of being at eweb for the last 15 years was able to I think capture that institutional memory but to ensure this wasn't a dated view I did convene a work group of eweb Staff including new people uh fresh blood fresh perspectives and we actually walk through these principles and it's not just a history lesson I think people felt like the principles were very sound and totally up to date

1:00:43 for our contemporary approach to customer generation oh and I I just did to put a finer note on this I also wanted to point out that a lot of what you see in the draft principles on distributed generation formed the testimony that I've given in the past in Salem when there have been legislative efforts to preempt local decision making on distributed generation for example there was a bill I believe probably 2015 it created a Statewide one-size-fits-all standard for net metering I had some other attached policies on there about what customer what utilities would be mandated to do as far as handling

1:01:30 distributed generation on their system and these principles I think pretty much encapsulate the testimony I provided to give the legislative Committee in Salem confidence that our local elected officials are best situated to determine the needs of the communities and balance fairness and supporting customer choice but also supporting the Equitable cost recovery from our from our customers and I have to I think the community found our testimony very compelling I think it inspired confidence that local control has been balancing those interests the next principles green hydrogen principles these are slightly more

1:02:16 nascent I would say that makes sense because it's a nascent technology it's probably a good time to discuss principles on hydrogen because there's recently been a community conversation that has bubbled up asking questions about what is the best use of hydrogen in various sectors of the economy and whether or not it's an appropriate fit for the gas sector so it's an appropriate time to identify some starting principles and very likely it could be subject to Evolution as we learn more about the technology of hydrogen again it's a very nascent area and I think that concludes my remarks um our goal tonight was to inspire a

1:03:02 conversation uh between Commissioners we hope this uh jump starts a conversation that provides feedback for staff we're going to do our best to listen and very much welcome you to have that conversation with each other about these principles how you feel about them and whether or not they feel very representational of the organization and I'm sorry I do want to just pause um I the benefit of having a buddy up here is that if you've missed something that's really really important in the presentation and you've got uh a buddy who can point that out um Kelly was there anything you wanted to add or anything that you think I might have missed you did a group excuse me you did a fantastic job I would just say that I'm excited to hear the conversation

1:03:47 tonight um you know the board's governance role is to set the values of the organization we hope we captured the intent of those values and these principles and we know that we seek to include these in the climate guidebook we want to wanted to give you a preview of that and and hopes to take any feedback back and make those revisions by the time you see this again in March so all right great thank you I can jump in oh okay um I was a simple thank you um and I'm excited that we're going to have this climate guide book um I would say what would be helpful to me is pressure or tutorial specifically on um

1:04:34 distributed generation also based on Testament public testimony tonight about how there might be new types of distributed maybe not generation but storage and what what that would look like um and also on green hydrogen so I know that these are things that we've touched on in previous meetings but as somebody who this is not my everyday world I'm not up to date on everything and I think it would be really helpful to have just a like a yeah tutorial or something or just information presentation on YouTube topics so that way I can but

1:05:20 um the area where I need more information oh okay you can help me with this the last bullet point that incorporate concepts of environmental justice and equity and to avoid negative impacts to historically and currently disadvantaged um can you help me understand who makes that this to what is a disadvantaged uh Community I mean defines disadvantage and who defines community and the difference between historically and community and currently all right and so that those things contradicted for me but I just want to know how we're going to adopt a policy that that goes and make sure that we

1:06:06 address that I need to know what we're addressing so it you know rather than a general statement I understand the concept but it is you can help me understand that that would be very helpful thank you I I don't have the definition handy do you want to yeah so so the intent behind including that bullet on each of the principles is to bring concepts of equity into all of the work that we do as as the utility right and I recognize that those words the keywords that are included in that bullet need definition and that's what we plan to bring to you all in the April work session so there is a plan to bring a longer discussion

1:06:51 of that but the intent behind using that particular language is that that's how the federal government is defining that Concept in terms of how they're assigning funding under the inflation reduction act so there's an initiative um but spearheaded by the federal government called the justice 40 initiative and it has a specific definition for a disadvantaged community at DAC and that is how they are defining this concept of equity and looking at how some impacts from Project level work has impacted certain communities more negatively than others and so um the federal government seeks to have 40 of the IRA funding flow to those historically disadvantaged communities

1:07:37 and they have specific definitions that are associated with that and so the language used in these principles will provide we will bring additional education on what that actually means and and we can discuss that as part of that potential development for an ew Dei policy diversity equity and inclusion policy but the the reason that that language was included this way is to be in alignment with that Federal um program thank you okay I'll jump in so the principles the the first one um to me about is really about policies second one seems to be about empowering customers and the third one

1:08:25 somehow stands out to me I mean just it's it's focused on one particular piece of technology we think about our IRP we have battery pop pop to the top not bringing hydrogen so it kind of feels strange to me that this is one that's now a principle when to me it would feel like maybe it's our own mix of energy and maybe you know how we think about the mix of energy that we have and maybe green hydrogen is a part of that but all the work we've done with the IRP you know with the with battery storage and some of the things that are popping at the top where um fuel switching I mean fuel switching is a big part of what we've talked about and when I go out in the community um you know putting money into infrastructure and incentivizing

1:09:10 more EBS um that's been more of a part of what I think of so I don't know for me the the green hydrogen seemed sort of out of place so if you could describe to me why that one was a principle above all the other ones um that would be helpful for me to understand okay I'll take the first step at it and I think Kelly can fill in uh there is definitely a conversation I think both locally but also at the Statewide level um about what's the most efficient way to use hydrogen and uh where can it be used earlier than other places and there was even a presentation um that the house energy Committee in Salem a few days ago where the Oregon

1:09:56 Department of energy shared some information from some of the the national subject matter experts on hydrogen and I figured was it the wheel of hydrogen or the ladder of hydrogen there are both but a particular one that I think you're talking about build that hydrogen bladder that certain applications are more appropriate you know that's in the IV of the beholder there's people who can argue that but some people say that there are some uses of hydrogen that are um fewer Alternatives and therefore should be of higher priority as we look to decarbonize okay we cover it very well essentially I think there's a question um uh about again how much hydrogen can be scaled up it's

1:10:43 obviously still very decent what's the best place to use it early on again there may not be a good Alternatives it's difficult to directly Electrify so I think these principles are trying to get at that and again I will stress these are definitely the most basic I think it's about the third time I've said they said in regard to hydrogen this is a starting place and it wouldn't surprise me for these principles to evolve in ways that the other two might not which I think are probably two more subtle sense how are these principles being used then as this uh is this something for you to use as you go to Salem or is it something that you know we are developing a guidebook like how are these going to be used I think

1:11:29 that's so conceptually if I can if I think I understand the concept behind your question right you're asking these three things are not all exactly the same right you mentioned policy you mentioned empowering customers and you mentioned this brand new technology right and so conceptually the way I'm thinking about principles is these are an articulation of why eweb is involved in that topic right so they are going to be different they're not all policy even though you'll find them here in the policy section of the climate guidebook but they're all related to climate change which is why they're being included in the guidebook and they all are um principles that to help us all get on the same page of why eweb is involved with them right and so it's

1:12:15 really just setting out a list of this is why eweb cares about this topic and these are the directions whether it's advocating for a policy in Salem OR you know even with the federal government or in a completely different case how is euf going to advocate for a particular technology and why um and what are the guiding sets of principles that we want to follow as we think about how does hydrogen relate to an electric utility right and where does it fit in and how do we think about that conceptually or how do we set a solar program for example when we get a lot of questions what are the the principles or The Guiding North Star Concepts that we want to make sure are represented when

1:13:00 we create a program or something that's related to a particular topic so they're not all related to things that Jason's going to be advocating for in Salem OR in Washington we've seen they are all topics that we care about as a utility that relates to climate change and that we need to list out why we're involved in them and make sure that from a values perspective the board and stuff are in alignment and it helps articulate then to our our customers um why we're getting involved in that or why we're not potentially does that make sense yeah yeah that answer your question does I mean for why are we doing principles specifically um well I think I still would like to maybe have a discussion with the board about are these the right principles

1:13:46 well that's that's a question for me one other concept I think was really a cheer question these are not designed like the fact that we picked these three topics first doesn't mean they're more important right it means that these were areas where we wanted to start we are where we had already started articulating some of these things as as Jason was mentioning you know we have already been following the the carbon policy principles in many ways he's already you know advocated for for policy importance with these and we've already worked with other like-minded utilities um in some of those areas so this is just really an articulation and a place to have them in a common place so that we can all refer back to them hydrogen

1:14:32 is new and because of that you know uh there are some people who are asking questions about our involvement in local projects or other uh areas of potential opportunity for us and so we thought let's start there and just get something down on paper but it's certainly not intended to say this is where it's going to stop that concept of future topics there can be a lot of additional topics that we could add over time if I could just add it I would say I I think the principles for me they ultimately are a basis upon which we make decisions about positions uh certainly in my way in my vein of work um and I think that's really important because it lends consistency to the positions we take and and I think consistency is a really important part

1:15:17 of The credibility of our advocacy it helped us a lot uh be effective with external audiences I mean I guess calling it a principal um from especially on the green hydrogen side it feels like we haven't come around to have a food that would would necessitate a principle so that's where for me calling it sometimes not information on this topic it's kind of distinguisher there but maybe I'll let Frank and then I'd like to hear from the other board members thanks president Carlson that was going to to elaborate a little bit more on the on the fact that with sd15 the board directed the utility to take a

1:16:05 position on policy that helped improve our greenhouse gas position we'll just I'll summarize it that way the the next step is what's that look like what's what's that mean and you know Jason for example is applying some of these already and he has to go into this and and you know for consistency we do feel it's important that we have some basis to to answer that question what's it mean for carbon policy what's it mean for some of these things with which are emerging um you look local state federal hydrogen is a topic you know it's part of the the funding mechanisms you know what's what's our our position why are we interested so

1:16:51 um these are these are met as as guideposts to answer that question because as as a board you've said you know go out and advocate for policy that supports um a reduction of greenhouse gases so I mean so that's that's part of developing principles the opposite principles is to just get into every single piece of legislation or discussion that ever happened and that that will just that that will be really unproductive and and it will drive us all crazy because there's so many discussions going on at the same time that these are meant to provide a sort of a Guiding Light Light to that there will be all kinds of other

1:17:36 principles that we talk about relative to to The Climate guide book I was in a meeting all day Friday on nuclear technology you want to talk about I think something where we would have to develop some principles around that's probably one of them um so you know that's um and I you know what's our position on Snake River dams I mean there's there this is the beginning of some that we felt like were in use at the moment and made sense to start with but it's not where it's going to end okay well so first I want to say thanks for engaging us at this level of conversation I feel like the principles is exactly where we should be operating

1:18:23 um and and the thinking that's here is familiar and makes sense to me um the I share your thought about the green hydrogen piece in terms of being kind of it's very different right than the other two um and in fact there's almost some kind of nesting quality to them they're not necessarily all the state right um it does feel like there are a handful of kind of overarching principles that apply to all three of these um that I would propose and one is the desire to leverage state and federal funds to the greatest extent possible but I know we all want to do that and I think having that written down would be useful I think anticipating and supporting an increasing proportion of

1:19:09 electricity generated by intermittent Renewables right I think we're going that way and if we want to just say that like we're going to anticipate and support you know those things that help us go that direction but I'd be interested if there's other thoughts among the board or staff on that um uh Technologies are investments that anticipate changes in climate I think again like I think we're all on board for these things I'm just saying that maybe they'd be useful to have as principles as well and lastly anticipate and support growing rates of electrification in buildings and transportation again it's all consistent with what we're doing but could be useful to write down um and then you know I have I have a

1:19:55 handful of thoughts in each of the the different categories that I'm happy to share that maybe I'll stop there um just just I'm gonna take out with Mindy about the need for education of a green hydrogen So when you say green hydrogen does that means generated for methane or natural gas is that what being part of green hydrogen beads little fossil fuel fossil fuels okay yes there are evolving definitions that are coming in state and

1:20:41 federal policy but generally the concept is that you would use Renewables and you would have zero carbon emissions from the energy that would go into the production of the hydrogen and that's different from the way 95 of the hydrogen made in the United States is today which is based on fossil fuel so yeah I think being able and that's a long explanation and and green hydrogen and I don't want us to get into the same thing that happened when people started talking about renewable natural gas and and the stigma that came with that

1:21:27 you know I'm all in favor of electoralized hydrogen right and using Surplus Renewable Power to create hydrogen I wouldn't be leading into using natural gas make hydrogen to burn so being able to articulate that in a way that you know when we say Greek having a little asterisk or a uh but no as to what green means when you're referring to Green hydrogen would be helpful so that people understand that because oh like say if 95 of the hydrogen that's being made today is being made using

1:22:13 using fossil fuels that people will just say well you're just changing one fossil fuel into a different type of combustible Fuel and so actually for that exact reason that we developed these principles is to dehydrogen generally towards something that actually is cycle carbon impact right and that's the the first bullet under the question principles is to get at that we're trying to stay technology agnostic right because just because there is a particular technology on the market that usually today that results in the lowest life cycle carbon emissions it doesn't mean it's always going to be that way so we're just trying to say we want low

1:22:59 carbon hydrogen and that's what we mean by green and there are policy definitions that are coming out about what that actually means but we're trying to say that for the purposes of eweb we want to if we are looking into hydrogen we want to support low carbon hydrogen and then the other thing Commissioners Brown's cabin made me think so if if compacted Community has the definition of the federal government how how much how many impacted communities do we have in PG experience because you know let's let's say that uh I mean is it economic is it racial is it I mean

1:23:44 how is that defined because we're gonna I'll put it out there we're in a white state right and if economically impacted these people of color or those types of things 40 of the uh that money is going to go in communities so I'm just wondering is it a census tract thing that we use so I mean I know that the census tract for God is it in line with that or so there are tools and the justice 40 initiative has a mapping tool and actually select different criteria so it could look at economically disadvantaged it could look at racially dissipated she could look at overburden from pollution and there are different

1:24:30 criteria and you can look at those different criteria and look at where those populations live in your community and then if you're doing a particular project or asking for funding for a particular Grant you can explain what you are doing and how the funding is going to address those historic communities that are disadvantaged in different ways does that make sense it does and it just would be interesting to see where we land as far as how impacted our community is as opposed to Nationwide you're sorry just to get into the Oregon Department of energy and it's a community energy and resiliency uh program renewable energy resiliency program and they recently made an award up to the City of Salem and part of the film's application

1:25:16 and included criteria as it benefits to disadvantaged communities and so I would probably could pull up and ask the City of Salem about their application because I would say the City of Salem is not radically different from Eugene I'm sure it's a little different but it's a similar sized city in the Midland Valley it's very possible we might glean some insight comparable Community one of the areas you were speaking earlier about where can we partner with the City of Eugene this is actually one of the areas where I feel like each individual organization in our community should not read about this wheel there are tools that are out there and there can be coordinated uh adoption of different definitions and how we want to think

1:26:02 about it there is a group called the equity and Community Consortium in our community that you have as part of as well as many of the same uh Eugene climate collaborative members that are part of the city's cap 2.0 process and there could be work done to educate all of us on how are we thinking about these Concepts how are we adaptive definitions and how are we not Reinventing the wheel so that everybody has a different definition but having Community alignment on how we're talking about these things and how we're going after Federal funding thank you Frank Edition I was just going to add you know that what we we can get into the definitions and I think there's tools to drill down in that I think when you're talking at a

1:26:47 principles level the goal there is to ensure that the positions that we're taking are not having unintended consequences or excluding certain parts of our customer base and I think that's that's why you have these in principled is to make sure you're looking at your customer base holistically and so um you know using some of the terminology that's that's going into Federal language I think helps to kind of Ensure and go to the next steps but but really starting to include this kind of language and is is a way of saying we want to be conclusive in with our customers and ensure that we're not taking positions that that leave people

1:27:32 behind for a particular reason thanks um so on the green hydrogen principles uh in the greenhouse gas reduction principles one of them is to be technology agnostic and I would suggest that perhaps for the hydrogen I I think most of our interest in hydrogen is really around storage right I mean we're not if someone's making hydrogen for transportation uses or otherwise like they might use our water and electricity but we're not really doing that at least not yet right it's part of it maybe I'll just finish my thought and then and then which is that I think that with the

1:28:18 green hydrogen really what we're talking about largely is storage and I think if you change took out the word hydrogen and put into storage for all of those principles then it to me it makes more sense in terms of being more comprehensive less selecting an individual technology um that I mean I have every reason to believe that hydrogen is going to be an important part of us skating off of fossil fuels but it's not clear when and how and exactly at what level it gives you the mix and I think if we thought about storage more broadly including green dehydrogen but also looking at other storage it might be a more comprehensive set of principles that might be more flexible and get us where we want to go at a lower cost while we're on the system into storage if I could uh Mr I will point out when we had the staff work group that bed the

1:29:04 principals uh we actually did get to Chris and Chris's Point uh earlier on storage uh we did say you know these kind of focus on customer generation and we probably do need to make these more inclusive of a future where customers will have not only on-site generation but also some of their own storage and uh there's actually some interesting things to learn from Portland General Electric which has a Smart Storage program for customers so we've got some people in the region we can help learn from there I think that's probably an area where there might be a little over a payment to make the distributed generation principles a little more inclusive of storage which probably is a battery just add that under the hydrogen we are getting a lot of questions from our

1:29:49 customers about how can hydrogen help with resiliency to disasters how can hydrogen help with customer decarbonization especially among the industrial sector where they're looking at you know hard to decarbonize Industrial processes and fuel switching we're getting questions about what is the web's role and why would we get involved in in different projects and we're getting a lot of questions and you all might get questions from the community about our role in community Northwest Natural project we are a water and electricity supplier in most of these projects there might be opportunities for us to collaborate at you know a next level higher

1:30:35 um in some projects with the Northwest Natural project that was previous that has now been tabled but previously we were willing to look at property and providing property in that particular instance there might be other opportunities where we could collaborate and there might be additional benefits for the utility to get learning on a new technology and find out how the technology could support other eweb interests related to use of intermittent Renewables storage uh customer decarbonization and resiliency specifically so that's why it wasn't just focused on storage but it was trying to get at the technology and its place for an electric utility slightly more monthly than just storage yeah interest thing yeah so maybe there's some other principles around storage

1:31:21 there are isn't going to be looked at in the in the next round I don't know I think those feel like I hear what you're saying like there's opportunities there it just feels like most of our engagement there is more around the storages water and electricity but like are we thinking about providing becoming a hydrogen provider is that something we would contemplate there's two categories I think sort of broad categories of why we would be interested in hydrogen one one you mentioned is storage and storage facilitates the resiliency piece that Kelly talked about and also what I would call local grid support where as a form of distributed generation demand

1:32:08 response however you want to use it that that's a use of storage the other really big category I think is going to become more and more important to the electricity sector is it creates a secondary Market when you have when you have Renewables on the market producing and you don't want to curtail them you know what do you do with that energy and and one of the really um one of the opportunities is to is to create hydrogen both as a we as a means of actually facilitating investment in more Renewables so it helps the electricity sector but also helps other sectors and we could look at it in a number of ways where we could actually produce hydrogen potentially for our own

1:32:54 local grid support or for a third party use and that's that particular reason probably a ways down the road um there's there's some other things that would have to happen uh in the meantime which is really driving the economics of it um it's not something that you would probably see in an IRP today because of that but the way scale works and the way that a lot of these these um opportunities are being identified federally especially is designed to drive the economics so storage is one and secondary Market is the other solid classified us I know that we're out of time but we're still ahead of schedule so if we'd like

1:33:39 to extend it it seems like there might be a couple more I just want some head nods if we want to keep going okay let's do some head mounts okay we'll keep going so just to reiterate my requests for more information for the board and also a general look back um maybe not just for this climate guidebook but when we look at the IRP and we talk about basic technology that it would I think it would be helpful for the board on that technology so that we're we all have an understanding of what we're talking about before we're asked to get behind something and not that we're trying to get into the leads but I just think too it was all for us at least understand the

1:34:24 terminology or the scale of what we're talking about friends regarding the hydrogen alcohol for sticking with what we have because we've got a byproduct we've got more water we know what to do with we have renewable energy that we give away at night we should be performing all from California for the wind farms we've got a site next to a high transmission line we go side next to a gas line I you know I I don't want to not identify that because even if it doesn't produce electricity or byproduct our byproduct can reduce the transportation sector especially the diesel and the heavy trucks and the buses and things like that so I'm all for sticking with what you have and not a different way I I like the specifics

1:35:10 of it because maybe we don't generate electricity or serve our customers to buy product of what we have instead of our shipping our wind power into California and giving it away let's use it here and make hydrogen and cut the diesel out of the open sectors I think it's it's not just everything we do doesn't have to benefit on the website here it can be somebody else's Ledger and help reduce the carbon because we know where transportation is it's the you know it's right there local and we can help knock it off let's knock it off right my last comment I mean kind of along the storage line I was talking about think about benefit of hydrogen is actually enhancing Renewables how do we

1:35:55 make removals that are more variable into a more viable usage for us to fill in those gaps and and make that line more predictable so we can match our needs you know our our energy needs to it so for me it's it's kind of an extension of how along those lines if we're thinking about storage how do we use batteries to make Renewables more usable for us I mean that's that's how I think about it but anyway okay yeah thanks and I know we're trying to wrap up here um so just a couple more thoughts on the overall the greenhouse gas reduction principles

1:36:40 um one of the principles that I think would be beneficial to add is um in prioritizing policies that have a positive impact on bills regardless of rates right we often get sucked into the rates conversation and I think be valuable for us to continue to remind ourselves that we're thinking about bills and not just grades um when you say that are you meaning customer bills or yes okay yes exactly yeah so the next thing about greenhouse gas reduction we're not just focused on how the Investments or policies we've been looking at are affecting the rates but we're thinking also about or especially about how it affects customer bills overall um and then uh

1:37:25 on the the statement around um incorporating contraceptive environmental justice I appreciate that you're connecting that to the federal language around this and I think that's super valuable and thank you for doing that my sense is that in our territory and and especially with what we're providing that really we're looking at lower income households and rentals primarily as as as the populations that are most underserved by our utility and and um and and left most vulnerable so I guess I I would suggest that perhaps we include not only that we're trying to protect from negative impacts but also that we're making targeted investments in homes occupied by families that are Global income you know I'm documented by

1:38:11 inventors which again they're things that I think we've all talked about but to me it would be valuable to bake into principles and then just a point of clarification I certainly wasn't advocating to get rid of not pay attention to hydrogen or not invest in that I was just looking to kind of broaden that category a little bit to include hydrogen but also other storage foreign thanks right thank you very much appreciate it moving on to McKenzie Valley meeting planning

1:38:56 where we landed on that one that's gonna we will well uh we'll talk about it and see where we where we go with that one okay we think has been recorded I I'm I'm glad because I was taking no it was pretty feverishly so thank you president Carlson good evening again Commissioners um it's an opportunity to engage your input on an upcoming annual event that we have typically in the spring sometimes it's been in the fall and wanted to get uh and facilitated discussion with you around um kind of desired response outcomes goals

1:39:42 we wanted to talk about the objectives of the meeting topics of Interest the format the responsibilities roles and responsibilities and how that's that's going to work this year a little bit ahead of time is May 16th so we wanted to have the opportunity to work with the board over the next few months to get ready for that to make that valuable for both you and the the people of the McKenzie Valley won't talk too much about this um other than there's various ways that we can look at the outcomes and the purposes whether it's to share information build Partnerships look at developing plans or decisions Gathering feedback there's a lot of

1:40:28 different reasons that that we go to the Mackenzie Valley and and work with the people up there who are our customers that have been really throughout our history someone asked me the other day about how do we get a territory up there and that it actually started up there um you know Eugene all the way connected to the Mackenzie Valley was eweb's territory including Springfield and then um splintered off a little bit but that's that's been our history um what that with the people of the McKenzie Valley as well as we as you know we have a lot of infrastructure McKenzie Valley and you rely on the MacKenzie River for our drinking water source a few potential topics of

1:41:14 Interest some of these in fact all of these I think would probably be familiar to you and the people in that part of our service territory but really just wanted to facilitate this discussion this evening around what you are looking for out of that meeting what you think the people of the valley would would want to hear about um and get your feedback on responsibilities your roles and responsibilities as well as staffs and meeting format and things to make this the most productive engaging meeting that we can with that President Carlson just turn it back to you and and listen okay

1:42:03 um so for our desired response what do we want the customers to learn or know I think ahead of time we should ask the upriver reference what they want so let them know um and reach out through a variety of different people and organizations to ask them what they want from us um I don't know if we've done that before but um I think that could be really helpful also uh maybe messing with uh the county what they're hearing from up there just to get more information so that not just us talking to people but that we've solicited

1:42:48 um their what they want ahead of time I think that that can be helpful um I feel like sometimes I know that staff does a lot of preparation and all of the PowerPoint presentations but um it just feels a little formal or stiff or something or cold and I I think part of what we're trying to do is connect with the upriver residents and say like you know we we know that you're here and we want to hear you and these are the things that we're doing up here so I don't have anything specific but maybe if it's I don't know it feels a little academic I guess with all the PowerPoint presentations

1:43:34 um I don't know what the answer but I'm just throwing that out there I'll stop for now and let somebody else answer it if I have something else I'll okay um I'll pick up on you know your point about presentations I think uh to the extent that we can program in kind of open conversation time on the front and the back end of the meeting so there's less formal opportunity for Less formal conversations with the attendees I think that helps us reduce some of the kind of stuffiness that can come if it's all very formal presentation and then in terms of talking of interest um my sense is that um there's a recognition that we've made a

1:44:19 fairly significant decision here and I don't think I'm sure there will be we'll hear some frustration and expect that but also I think people are going to be interested in knowing how like what what are we going to do to address the impacts that come with that so I think um you know we're not going to have all the answers but to the best of our ability you know coming to prepare and prepare to talk about Road access you know where where the dam currently exists and what we think we might do with the space that's currently occupied by the canals things like that are going to be on the list but I appreciate Mindy suggestion of reaching out I bet will could tell us the whole agenda right now um anyway so yeah getting some feedback from Auburn is a great idea

1:45:15 you know just make sure we have a table that you know we've got three and a half million dollar septic program that we just got granted I understand make sure people are aware of that new program up there because they could take advantage of it we still we still have a generator program where we'll help with people buy generators make sure that the tangible stuff that we that we do that they're aware of because I got to feel a lot of people aren't aware of that and then maybe I wanted like really emphasize that the significance of pure water that four million dollars we just approved was for 232 pwp members of 16 000 bucks a house for four station vegetation management things like that that's an incredible benefit and uh let people know that there is a really good positive by joining up and helping do things like that so make sure

1:46:00 that we we you know get into the weeds and some of that stuff that can really benefit them and that we are um we're trying to do the best we can with what we have that was standing the decision that he made up Lieber I think that we have probably the best um positive recognition from the work to be done up forever over the last few years I think with pure water partnership stuff that we've done for the holiday at the Holiday Farm fire uh the Partnerships that we've had with the McKenzie Waterson Council and

1:46:47 the engagement that we had up River for the two years to make the decision on Lee Burke I think has has put us in a position that I think a majority of the people of the river feel very positive about it about our utility at least that's the feeling that I get um as far as meeting format it might be good to see if Jared from Mackenzie Watershed council could be one of the speakers on the some of the good stuff that we have helped fund and put out there rather than having having staff eweb staff presenting it have have people from The Watershed Council that cons that are up there on the

1:47:34 ground and have them talk about how people worship or being what I'm talking about that the the Flood Restoration you know the the work that we've done with the trust if if they see the people that they know that are coming up there on the ground doing it as opposed to an UF staff member doing some of the presentation that may also help Garner support for what we're doing you know because those people are they're trusted they know they see them they see them in the river they see them planning things they you know one of the things that that we help do and that they've done is I give away fire away you have a white fire went to people up there firewood

1:48:19 that came from the from the virus The Watershed Council chops it up and believes it in the in the school's parking lot and people can just come and pick up firewood to help get them through the winter stuff like that really touches the people that are up there and so I think that that would be helpful if we could get some of our partners to helps tell the tell the story rather than just us safe we spent this much distance we planted this many trees yeah that was something I think would be helpful go back one [Music]

1:49:06 back one second so on the topics I mean I actually like some of the upfront presentations because I think that there's a lot of people go there to get some education about the items and I I do it back and forth but I'm sure that these presentations answers a lot of questions and it also gives them topics to ask more about during the discussionary period I don't know if there's maybe something we could do to focus a bit more instead of having So Many Items um because I know there's a lot of I mean when I look at these they're all very important so that that makes it hard to to do um but I like what John Brown said about you know making sure that they have an

1:49:51 understanding about these other programs that are available to them too and I know we don't have that as a kind of a topic item but if to the extent that we could say you know we have this information available but we're going to focused on these kind of big topics I mean Lieber is going to be a major one that they're going to want to have okay you made this decision now what um and we're going into Wildfire season siege that season so I think that you know might be on the kind of top of their minds too because we're at that point going into summer time what else are we doing to make sure that you know the carbon lights are safe and are we doing more of the helicopter trimming um some of that work so really making sure that we're kind of

1:50:36 giving the updates quickly and providing that kind of key message but allowing for the a more robust discussion um so any of those that we think are going to be like big topics that will require questions maybe let's try to preemptively give a presentation on that but then um you know just say we have more we have we can talk about these other topics too or anything else that you'd like that would be my recommendation to Extended and then we've given you differing differing structures here so I mean I

1:51:22 don't know if there's head nods there or if we want to you know really just go back to limiting um you know having presentations versus not having presentations we should probably give clear proposed to presentations at all I I just think that sometimes like when you have them like one right after the other I don't know some of them some some of them could be maybe shorter maybe a little less formal about the Powerpoint stuff I don't know maybe maybe I'm wrong but um there's just so many things and it just feels like a little overwhelming actually to look at that that's a really big list so I guess I go back to um maybe let's check in with the community

1:52:07 there and see if there's some things that rise to the top and um figure out a way to whittle this down a little bit I wasn't proposing this list this was a hey here's but here's a potential so I've heard a few things that I think um first of all some Outreach to the community to to see what their interests are I think that's that's a good one so listen it's a community support I do think there's some balance between I'll call it sterile versus organic instead of you called us stiff but that's okay um something a little bit more organic whether that's the flow you know making having some more formal or informal mix

1:52:54 um that was referred to and then having a balance I think between areas where people can go for a specific interest of theirs making sure we have information on programs you know septic programs generator programs emergency individual emergency preparedness I think having stations and the ability and time to interact is is good but then maybe balanced with a little bit of information that we think is more General so we we know we're going to be asked where are you at with this Libra decision you made the decision okay where are you at with developing the action plan and how is that starting to come together but I also agree that those are not long presentations I think one of the things that we're starting to get better at

1:53:41 um with some of the neighborhood association meetings is getting into these points quickly you know it's really hey here's what's going on with this here's what's going on with this next subject next subject enough to inspire questions and interaction well with with our customers out there and then potentially even having some some guest speakers or hey here's some things to to break it up a little bit but a couple times in the past we've had guest speakers that sort of took I'll say move to the meeting away from the value that the board was supposed to to get in the community was supposed to get so we'd have to do some pretty good coaching with that one that's that's kind of what Harry does that uh

1:54:26 assistant it's a suggestion if I was trying to tighten up the schedule I've probably combined one or two in one topic but I'll probably take three and four maybe I'll often put those table topics and uh knowing that the majority of the people that are going to attend this are from the Lower River that's where we're going to have the greatest impact in the next five to ten years um kind of do it that way but still have information tables for Wildfire mitigation emergency preparedness of Carmen Smith um but I think the topics are going to be number six

1:55:12 yeah so we'll talk we're actually going to talk about pricing in April so right before that um thank you um I also I will plan to reach out to some key residents um get some feedback um also uh potentially Lane electric who also operates up up in that area to see what they're hearing and the county I think is a good one so I appreciate the feedback and what are those I'm not going to be there at the next Mackenzie Watershed Council but we're presenting so maybe if you know when when we're there just ask ask them if there's anything specific got staff there that's presenting outline a bunch of different things at least I think laces

1:55:57 so that's an opportunity there's a lot of people in that room that touch the room if there's anything else that comes up between now and over the next month or two and save those for our check-ins or just Reach Out feedback did you move good I'm gonna go to correspondent support agendas misters I'm going to start with the uh what the board agendas

1:56:44 of there are a few things coming up outside of of General monthly board meetings we do have a town hall the integrated resource plan on the 21st prior to that we have one with some environmental groups um the week before that is as well this one on the 21st is for the general public it'll be it'll be here we're starting to fill in a few things one of the things that I did uh mention is that we're likely to pull up a pricing discussion into is that April and the Liebert

1:57:30 lovelyburg to start having some discussions with you on whether we want to pre-fund some of that work or how we want to look at the pros and cons of when we have to start paying for for that bill so um that'll that'll be in April um and so and the rest of it is is just starting to fill in and we're starting to um have a work session here as well any questions on the agenda I also kind of wanted to take this particular time and and we've started to do a weekly and I think

1:58:15 commissioner Brown provided some feedback around what's going on in the media and making sure that Commissioners are up to speed on that we're starting a weekly summary as a sort of hears all the things going on some of those are very specific Outreach from ewebs some of them are um externally driven coverage if there is something where it's we feel that it's of immediate attention something's coming out we don't uh want any of you to be blindsided we will do it sort of off cycle to that if there's something in the middle of the week that thinks important we'll get that out in the middle of the week as a just a board FYI but felt it's it's pretty useful to have one you know one place you can go once a

1:59:01 week and say Here's here's all the different subjects being covered in the news and through media and others so that um if that works for you then um or if there's suggestions just let us know let's see on the just a second here there were a couple pieces of Correspondence one was about a Community Care Program which we're piloting with some organizations um let's say organizations not individuals but organizations that help out with um homeless shelters specifically and then the other piece of Correspondence

1:59:46 had to do with the view of the people of bylaws that were back to the board and if there was guidance that was really just to trigger that you can provide feedback or guidance or thoughts on on that either tonight or in our Tech uses for that let's do correspondence items received so I just have a question on the um pilot program for the community I think it's a great idea so basically it's it's helping non-profits that using the the money that we have to help sell support to plan you know your

2:00:34 energy bill for those I guess the question that I would have on this is who I mean it's fairly Vegas to who the nonprofits are um it's just you know a 501c3 that primary function is providing assistance to unhoused populations so to me I I can I'm thinking in my that's who that is you know I think that you know say Danny would be one Catholic community services would be probably be one but are the big housing providers are are those who be part of it too I mean is is homes for good or is and and and my question regarding that is is I'm wondering if there's duplication so if homes for good is getting

2:01:19 supplemented on this and then we're also supplementing the people that are living in the properties that homes for good are we are we going to get double dipping and I just wasn't sure um about that who the who these people are uh or these organizations are because I think the goal is very laudable but I just want to I'm a little uncertain about it yeah certainly the goal is not to double dip and to ensure that we're working with organizations that are doing this in bulk so if homes were good had an individual that was that that would not qualify under this under this program so um yeah now that said I'll work with Julie

2:02:05 and staff to get get you a little better feel for what organizations in fact we could put that in our quarterly reporting for the board um and better be on the lookout for that um I think like I understand what I'm hearing let's not do the individual and the organization um yeah I mean I like I said I you know if if we're giving it to Saint Vinnies because they're doing Dust to Dawn right and they've got 70 people that are you know and we're helping with their energy to go but if if we're giving it to homes for good and they're upsetting their bill and then the people who are in the now or whatever one of their complexes are also getting their bills reduced I'm not sure

2:02:51 we'll double check that that's going to have to do with how the account holder situation is structured yeah I follow up with staff on that and there's a there's a cap so it's not like you know they're going to get 25 000 dollars for 501c3 it's it's a small amount so I'm not it's not real word it just wasn't clear to me how that worked right I think it's a distinction between housing and Sheltering homes for good does housing apartments Etc and we're talking about Sheltering facilities right where people are probably living in tents or other non-housing like non-full service living situation so I well I guess if there's not the Warren it says a 501c3 status whose primary

2:03:36 function is providing assistance to the unhoused population so homes for good is uh you know wouldn't would fit that definition um so you know so I'll just follow up with Steph and make sure that that we have them I'm not picking up bumps for good I'm sorry they're in Korean organization doing great work yeah and uh thanks for clarifying on that I don't want any further there um it says it's ten to fifteen thousand dollars total we're spending here uh customer donations right yeah this isn't like ratepayer dollar and it's not a huge Summit in fact um my question is mighty web put in some of our own repair funds to make this a larger sum of fun I

2:04:22 don't know what the total demand is I will say I was contacted by one group that was doing Sheltering that was looking for support from eweb to help with a facility that had a large indoor facility that could provide some Shelter From the rain but they were looking for lighting and as it gets expensive pretty quickly and so they were looking for our help with that so my guess is there's more than fifteen thousand dollars worth of demand for this and if there is I think it'd be worth us talking about how can we support that using great payer funds not just the customer donations there's there's a couple things too to put into that that process one is um

2:05:11 this is a pilot so we'll we'll have to gauge and see what what kind of organizations we're getting what kind of response and demand we're getting and that's that'll be part of sort of that side of the equation um the other one will uh will be you know how do we so rate payer funds are different you start to create other tensions um and one of the things that we'll continue to do is to take a look at the the energy I'll call Energy I'm not going to call it energy burden the state of Oregon refers to energy burden as those who spend six percent of their obedient income on energy and that could be natural gas electric or whatever we have utility so we have electricity in water but there is a certain percentage of our

2:05:57 population that falls in in an income range where I think we need to periodically go look at our customer care program and see are we are we funding the level of support that we think we're finding in the community and that weighs into that equation because at some point the the best help is to keep all rates low but then you also want to make sure you're serving this utility burdened population as well and that that balances in with the homeless assistance program so I think I guess what I'm saying is these have to be looked at sort of holistically and but the goal of the pilot is to check and see what the response is so yeah I'll be curious to

2:06:43 hear what the response is I would love you know report back if there's an opportunity to do that at all um I think Target and I see Julie's on the call but I I think I'll Target maybe something around mid-year that we can do a check-in and say okay here's and probably the meteor quarterly report is something that we'll just plan to give you an update on it and just one last thing I think once you identify who the target audience for this is communicating it out to them is going to be an important part of it as well what's the communication plan to let these agencies know that this assistance is available so that it doesn't get all so that it's doing what we hope it will do and that's part of that is is the

2:07:29 calling them up and saying hey you guys are knowledgeable topics I really appreciate the media Roundup so thank you for that I didn't have anything else I think that's it then well we will move to board bratha does anybody have anything yes I did I forgot to mention earlier I'm going to attend the lane electric uh board meeting on the 22nd because I'm nearly age 11. I want free lunch and you know um but also we've got beat up pretty good in the weekly about totally disregarding the historic significance of Labor Powerhouse if any of you read that article it pretty much chastised us

2:08:14 and told us we're insensitive we're going to clear-cut it and maybe we weren't like a kind of a letter of saying no we don't tear it down we do intend to respect the Integrity of the historical significance Etc and just kind of let them know that I mean since we're kind of media starved in this community and let somebody know that no we're not going to tear it down we are going to respect it I'll get with Steph and get back to you uh commissioner on on that particular subject um maybe when we check in next week that's great the building they took a picture of is is not the dam so they took a picture of the powerhouse um what was the PowerHouse I think they wanted because of the the Art Deco on the outside

2:08:59 and I don't know what the plan is for the PowerHouse at this point so I'll follow up with you it would be nice to know because I certainly would have a very strong objection and we did anything other than that would be my own personal preference I think it's the steps of the historical significance so put that right after Steph is listening in right I don't I've already got I think I'll wait for cards so we could go when sitting for after that thank you one last thing I'd like to welcome Brian Brian it is I'd just like to welcome you and it's it's a uh good luck here at eweb it's a great organization so uh I

2:09:44 think you made the right decision thank you I'm happy to be here and I hope we won't need too much luck okay okay all right thank you everyone