EWEB Board of Commissioners — November 7, 2023

0:02 we're going to call the reg session of e to [Music] order we have an agenda check see no changes I will move on to items from board members and general manager and let's start John Brown not really too much I attended the Northeast neighborhood meeting with Frank Eugene Eugene Eugene and that and then I just like to complement um eweb as a whole organization they City's had downtown torn up for almost a year it's been a disaster for people on there but when I

0:48 see e web Crews and compare them to the other Crews professionalism way they do things that they put on the trucks light you're ahead of everybody else I just like to make sure that those people know that it stands out and it's a it's difference you just sit there and look at the difference between me crew I want to bash any other crew but they're just light years ahead in every aspect of the construction projects and so um kind of makes you feel good to know part that organization so that's all my Commendation thank you um I just wanted to note that the EB run to stay warm is coming up on the 19th I

1:37 believe um I attended the Kenzie Washton Council me last month uh there's another one this coming Thursday it's in the at the International Paper headquarters building in Springfield um progress is being made on cours Creek uh stage zero Reclamation they built the bridge they've got the they had to replace a bridge up there in order for to have it be able to go wide enough that bridge has been put in and it's driving C so the work between the council and the trust is moving that project forward um uh finrock they finished stage three I believe so

2:23 that's really good they did a bunch of work this summer completed majority of that project up there and they are seeing a whole bunch of Reds they used to have a handful that are 50 or 60 in in the area that used to have four or five so things are working up par things that you have other part um I had a lot of fun presenting to the poster winners at oara yes on yeah I got to do that as well and I think so you did

3:14 anything I want to take a quick jump back and just do the facility and safety awareness shorten that title all right thank you for attending this evening's board meeting eweb management and subject matter experts um are here with us in the room and virtually during tonight's presentations remote presenters will appear on the screen please make sure to speak loudly and clearly so everyone can hear you yes are invited to sign up at the table at the back of the room if they wish to provide public testimony visitor access is limited to the board meeting room and the restrooms the restrooms are located on the first floor through this room or through this door right here in case of an emergencies such as a fire alarm um exit through the glass door at the back of the room unless it is not safe to do so the alternate emergency exit is located at

3:59 the rear of the building just beyond the restrooms through during evacuation follow staff's instructions and stay together for safety tonight's meeting is being recorded the recording began when the meeting was called to order and will continue until adjournment if there is a break during the meeting the room will be muted 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 that aside and we will jum on to the next item which is an update um from John brovsky and Frank and I on the C [Music] of I have just plan on kind of quickly going

4:45 through some of the items we mostly did an update to the city staff on what we're doing we covered topics such as the headquarters building purchase um city of or billing for the city vene uh the eweb climate guide book The Hillard water treatment transmission line College Hill the secondary water source um coordinating with the city on the upcoming water transmission line between Riverfront Park crossing and nicara bridge and then 2024 rates

5:31 forecast any other comments that you um I think it was it was just really a positive meeting the the overall VI of the room it was it was the mayor and uh Council presidents which is Randy grov this this time um manager Sarah madere Frank us and it was just a good you know we got to let them know where we were on a lot of things that may impact theirs their things and they asked some really good questions and we learned a lot we learned about marks on fire hydrants that we didn't know about from Randy grow uh but I think overall I think it was a very positive thing and I think it's something that they want to move

6:16 forward the future I think they see the value that that we bring to both to both uh leaderships I couple things just to to add we did um stress to them the importance of keeping the public Facility Services plan progressing City of Eugene City of Springfield and and Lane County that's a little bit behind schedule and so um anything that can be done to help keep that moving was was our request to them that's important for our work um with the alternative water source um they talked a little bit about some of their budget constraints I know they may uh approach eweb again on um

7:02 potential billing mechanisms for some of their fees um if that occurs then I will the board um on any request that that comes to that um comes in that form and there was some discussion around fire hydrant and the fact that in in many cases and I know we've we've had U some interest in actually owning the fire hydrants uh most water utilities do own the fire hydrants um we do not here I suspect that we'll resurrect some of those discussions um the city so um there's there's reasons that water utilities like to do that first of all um when you're testing fire hydrants a

7:47 lot of times that can be very disruptive to the actual water lines and water fracture itself so um there are some reasons that we have an interest in that as well and we know the city does a matter of if we can come to terms with on that I think I would add thoughts all right well then we will move on to the next item on the agenda which is correspondence yeah president Carlson by the way the the one thing I did want to mention on the last subject relative to the city I just wanted to let

8:33 Commissioners know that at a management and staff level uh the city and EB are working really well together um that um there's a number of things that we coordinated on and we uh rely on each other for and um city manager Mader U and her staff have been great partners for eweb and our staff so I want to thank the e we staff who helped make that happen and also the city staff and that that just became very inherent and it was I think part of the positiveness of the meeting that that we had so I forgot to mention that that's probably the most important thing I could have mentioned um but thanks to everybody for making that happen I think that was what you opened with in the

9:18 meeting that it it was perfect to set it up as well stage I did and I forgot it now so it was my fault um you had three pieces correspondence um the first one um was was less about positional and actions and it was really more of a um followup for Commissioners um from when sacrum Municipal Utility District or SMUD presented some of their um products and services in particular around Energy Efficiency um we wanted to go through as part of that and do some comparison and contrast with some of the work that we do there were some areas that that we do

10:03 that they don't there are some areas that they do that we don't um there's some certainly some opportunities that we see going forward um there's even in that where we have certain planned work going going ahead that was more informational than it was a request um of the board um but I wanted to compliment Julie M Anna Wade and and Connors for putting together that format because I thought it was really a useful way of of getting a reasonable Benchmark and some detail in that bench marking to thank them um the the second piece um was a recognition that we do have and we will bring to the board in

10:48 December the legislative um um position and update uh agenda for this next year it is a short session in in Salem I know Jason is on the line we don't expect a lot out of a short session but we're in the in the midst of some rule making which always which always takes place and uh he identified in his sort of preemo for next month some areas that we're keeping track of and then the third one was a followup to Commissioners when I believe it was commissioner barovsky was asking about some of our process Rel relative to how we go out for bids and so um Hart and quen fur put together some of the history around how we do different types

11:35 of bids whether that's a bid or a proposal uh what the thresholds are what the regulatory requirements are and that both that was an informational item as a sort of a I'll say it's a voluntary followup I don't know that the board asked for that but it was certainly one that that we noticed and thought it would be useful um all of the people who put together these correspondence items I believe are available if Commissioners had comments or questions be happy I would be happy to deflect those to the right people um who are probably in attendance um I just want to say a big thank you

12:24 um document was really great I know when they came in and gave us that presentation us with all the great things that they're doing and made us start questioning like why are we doing this but having those side by side comparisons I thought was really helpful um to see what we are doing here is we're planning on doing things um and I was surprised to see that um the uh our products we for our retail Revenue that we invest in more percentage wise than what they do okay thank you very much for that report to read

13:14 helpful thanks for all the reports the question I had this may go back to predate my time on the board but in the in Jason's uh report he talked about the federal limit power generation deauthorization still um the fact that there's 13 dams on on the wamit that don't bu a lot of power out and and it says that we are we've been partnering with the PPC for that was that a board decision to do that and if that was the case that was before my time I'd like to learn a little bit more about that decision by us to back that I mean I'm and this is

13:59 just anecdotal stuff but I mean I've seeing stuff that's going on with drawing Downs of dams you know Foster Lake when they when is a mud pit right now because of Green Peter fish dies Lookout Point you know there's there's more to a dam than just the the power that it generates and so by ask advocating for that I don't know if that was a prior board decision to do that and if it was so is that something that we may want to revisit I'd be happy it was not a prior board decision um and the deauthorization um doesn't have much to do with how the dams are actually operated um for quite a number of years

14:46 I think the Public Power Council of which we're a member and they as a group of utilities have taken a position that two things um one of two things should probably happen because these are multi-purpose dams they have flood control for example as as one of the other purposes um we've felt quite for quite some time that um too many of the ongoing operating uh costs and capital costs are assigned to uh Power customers as opposed to general purpose um for general purpose use and so some of this is around how those costs are allocated and that's been the the big position that we've taken is those those are you're assigning costs in a very regressive way that appear on people's

15:32 utility bills as opposed to using other mechanisms such as Appropriations to pay for that um the the other side of that is is when because of those cast allocations these U dams from a power generating perspective and a cost for level levelized cost of energy is really the the worst in the fleet and so um the other option which we've been supportive of as well has been um at that level of cost that um their continued part of the the bonal fleet should should be considered and and potentially removed so and that that I don't believe historically ever came to the to the board I think that was a a PPC um

16:17 recommendation and we were uh supportive of that recommendation as one of I don't remember how many PPC members there there are but um it was really around the cost allocation and the cost D so and I'm just going to one qu a question that so if it's a core Dam that is generating power and they decide okay it's just too expensive to generate power and for the reasons that you just stated are they do they need to go through firk and do all the delicensing and that type of thing that it cost them I do not believe that they're B jurisdictional but J Jason way into this a little bit with Jason I don't believe they are um

17:03 they're they're regulated differently okay I mean they're regulated if we say we want to stop generating power at leberg it's going to cost us $200 million if they say they don't want to generate power at at Dexter they it doesn't now there there would be costs associated with decommissioning um however because they're multi-purpose dams they the dam itself and the INF that part of the infrastructure would probably still remain um the cost would then get transferred to some type of governmental Appropriations process J did I get that right uh yes that that's correct Frank U these are not they're not frck licens dams um Al also um you're also correct that uh to the extent power users were

17:50 no longer paying their um disproportionately large cost share for the operations and maintenance as well as the um upgrades for ficial wildlife um impact mitigations uh that those funds would be um recovered through the federal Appropriations process the federal budget um and and the taxpayers instead of uh Power users and uh what maybe one other thing of note uh technically it is still on the table that the study could propose a different cost share for power users so it is not completely the table that power generation would continue but the cost share could be reduced and uh and and it

18:35 could even be uh Dam specific it doesn't have to be all the generating dams in the system All or nothing they can make determinations for each individual power generating dam in the wamit system I I think of the I think it's six at least six of the 13 maybe one one or two more but they can make individual determin minations at each Dam some dams they could deauthorize generation other dams they may keep generation but uh reconsider the um the cost share to power power generation and this is federal Lobby that state then right

19:20 Federal did you get your question yes thank you U yeah that was that was definitely part of the conversation we had when we went back to Lobby the Congressional Delegation and it was the last time I went four years ago so we'll probably continue being on there for some time I had a couple of comments about um the correspondence as well I also appreciated the um SMUD comparison that staff did although a slightly different view on it because I felt like a little bit of a wet blanket last time and so I felt somewhat Justified anyway thank you for thank you for doing it I mean it

20:06 goes to show that UAB is doing a lot already um we're at you know plus 90% and we've earned it through a lot of years and so I I appreciate that look and that confirmation that we're doing the right thing as a whole to make sure that we're doing conservation and reduction to the most that we can so um president Carlson could I just inject one thing I I I do want to note that what I think this shows is there are opportunities still out there um and what it really doesn't show which we're going to try to put a certain amount of attention into our our year-end report it says what we're doing but it doesn't say fully what those results are and so as part of our year-end reporting we

20:52 want to really report out on these programs and um what's their result do do we feel they're successful or not um and um so it doesn't really say how we think we're doing with those um although I you know I think we're doing well in some areas I think there's other areas we probably see opportunities so this kind of said what we're doing is kind of an interesting side by side but it doesn't answer the full question and there'll be more to come on that excellent love it continuous Improvement I one thing that did come out of for me I noticed on our report of our incentives for Windows and water heaters that the incentive was actually smaller for the rental own or the rental

21:41 occupied versus the owner occupied it was uh $20 for an owner occupied versus 10 for renter occupied and uh for the window per Pane and then it was 1,700 versus a th000 for the water heater incentives and I was just curious what the why there's a difference there what the thoughts are and if you don't have that now I just maybe later but I don't have that now but I don't know if if Anna or Julie would want to weigh in on that I don't we can follow up if need to I don't have that off the top of my head but Anna or Julie yeah sure so there's not going to be a super straightforward answer to that is as we've talked to you in the past we have a myriad of different kind

22:27 of guide post that we evaluate when we are assessing what our incentive amounts are um we have raised several of our limited income uh measures this year fairly recently um when it comes to Windows we want to be mindful about incentivizing Capital upgrades um because this this is an asset that is owned by an individual you know that that that owns the real estate so we really try to focus our most generous incentives on areas where we see the greatest amount of conservation and we see the greatest um impact to comfort at home and so that's why deckless heat pumps like that's something that has a very positive impact for the renter um it does improve

23:14 like the home for the landlord as well um windows can be really helpful but really we just don't see the kind of savings out of Windows measures as we do for some of our others um insulation is a great one that's one where we feel that um there really isn't an an outsized uh kind of equity outcome when we apply those funds uh but it really does have a huge impact for the tenants that are living there uh so we really try to strike a balance between you know what is the ultimate impact what are we subsidizing where does the value lie thank you yeah it just it only struck me because I know that this board has put out there a number of times that we wanted to really work on the rental

24:01 pool because there's that disconnect between the the owner and the occupant and who pays and so I appreciate the uh the thinking behind it there oh yeah can I just ask a question for future answer I you so somebody explained to me how conservation is different if it's owned by somebody versus rented by somebody isn't conservation conservation so if we put a window in a rental unit versus a occupied unit what's the difference so I'll just put that out there for food of thought because um I would like to see us incentivize it I don't care if they R it or on it's we're going to conser going to conserve utility consumption by installing it so I would hope we can have some Equity there but that's for

24:47 another conversation okay and I'm just going to throw out there if we had somebody that was getting the incentive that owned 20 units and they lived in California for example is that the same level of equity versus providing that to current residents and it it may or may not be that's exactly why I asked the question so as we contemplate that let's um think about that aspect too um okay and then the last the last question I had on correspondence was on the um procurement process and I know that a number of years ago so we were lobbying and salent so it's kind of the legislative policy and the procurement

25:33 process there was discussion about the QBs process and that was kind of hanging us up and I just while we had Jason here did that get fixed that issue did the challenge that we were having that we were lobbying on or is that still out there um as a challenge for our procurement process uh just a moment I'm moving from the basement minute back to a presentable spot all right commissioner the QBs was addressed I think gosh I want to say in the 2019 session and uh as I recall we didn't get a total win but there was a compromise where um we were allowed to consider price in a

26:18 limited way so um the the QBs some of the fundamentals of what people like about qualification based selection remain in place um but we were able to give some weight to price um I'd have to go back go back and look at my notes to give you details so I guess I hope this answer will suffice we did get partial relief in our ability to be stewards of the bottom line and get value in uh the QBs process but uh the some of the some of the uh architecture of QBs remains in place it probably ended up really as a a pretty good compromise I can definitely follow up um maybe in the next board run if you want a more detailed recap of

27:04 what relief we received in the 2019 session it's not too much trouble but if not it's fine thank you okay that's what I had in correspondence anybody else okay then we'll move on to the next which I believe is public input and we're a little bit ahead um 6 5 5 but let's start the process and if we have others that join that want to attend we can come back to it 65 so I am going to read the public input um here so the board values relevant Community input from diverse perspectives and requests that all

27:49 persons share their views and opinions in a matter that is productive respectful and not disruptive speech of any kind that is disruptive will not be tolerated anyone who fails to make the standard may be muted or removed from this meeting when your name is called in person speakers are invited to stand at or sit next to the table uh clearly state your name and optionally your address or Ward each speaker will be offered 3 minutes to present their testimony please keep track of time in person speakers can watch the timer at the front of the room all speakers can listen for an audio notification when your time has lapsed and we do not have anybody participating by telephone okay skip that part after all testimony is heard each commissioner

28:34 will have an opportunity to speak if they choose although by policy we do not engage in a back and forth dialogue please note that a failure of commissioner to speak shall not be construed as support of or opposition to any speaker's testimony the board May request staff to respond to specific questions or comments posed by the public those responses which are for the public good may be posted on E web and we have um I will note that we had one person we have one person signed up to uh speak in person and then we also had five uh written testimony that was submitted and provided to the board so I will call up Curtis blankinship and feel free to stand or

29:19 sit at at your thanks hi um I'm Curtis blanket ship uh Springfield Oregon um I used to own 10 acres out here on line Highway a long time ago um I'm a been a lead certified designer since 2002 and have studied sustainable design basically since I was 18 years old and experimented with it here um so what I want to talk about is rooftop solar um there's a a book by Buckminster Fuller called critical path in there there's a diagram it shows all the matter that has been on the earth as a little Dot and then all the matter that has that the Earth is made of and then all the matter that has ever been on Earth is this giant Circle right next

30:06 to it what's missing from this equation is sunlight that is where all your energy is coming from so I don't feel that you guys are doing due diligence enough in exploring rooftop solar um and especially I just was coming from The Forum at the at the UFO here where they're just not even looking at rooftop solar and they're telling me what they're telling me is that there isn't enough it it drops drastically in the winter but there's there's plenty of ways to supplement that you're just talking about um uh of hydroelectric but also you know you can they're they're right at The Cutting Edge of thermoelectric generator technology you could take the waste heat from those buildings and put a thermoelectric tiles on there during

30:51 during the winter when you're trying to get that gain that extra amount of of energy but better still you have all these parking lots and all these I used to grocery for 12 years the refrigeration alone in these grocery stores as you know takes a huge amount of energy you have you have all these parking lots that are creating a heat island effect put some put covered parking lots on there and get more solar panels that way uh here's a radical idea for you I went to newy Institute in Massachusetts uh back in 94 and this lady had a greenhouse that was heated with angor rabbits okay cuz angor rabbits have a 108° body temperature this is how far you could think outside of the box let's have uh animal husbandry to supplement your solar heat

31:36 and let's see uh the UFO created an angora sweater bring back the angora sweater we can have yellow and green Angora sweaters and save the climate and the world at the same time thank you thank you appreciate you taking the time and I know that you came early for the meeting and had to sit through the executive session so thank you thank you for waiting all that time to provide your testimony okay um any other comments fromers okay um so and you let me know if somebody else joins at 655 signs up otherwise we will I close I'll close the public hearing but I can reop another one so

32:21 closing the public hearing anybody else signs up we'll open it back up next up we have the approval of consent calendar uh consent calendar a does anybody want to pull anything from the consent calendar move to adopt consent calendar a second okay any comments discussion no right all those in favor of consent calendar a raise your hand say I okay passes unanimously next up we have consent calendar B does anybody want full consent calendar anything from consent calendar B adop calendar second okay any discussion all right any

33:06 opposed up no all right unanimously wow all right uh we will move on to the upcoming year proposed budgets and

34:06 okay ready I think so take it away all right well good evening president Carlson and Commissioners for the record my name is Deborah Harden I'm the CFO with me are Aaron Balmer the interim finance manager and Alicia bores the budget and rate supervisor also here in the audience are Janice Lee Daniel Davidson and Adam Ru who were all part of the team uh who helped put this together and would also be available for questions so on the screen behind me is an overview of the stages of the financial planning calendar we are in November very much in the midst of the process last month we reviewed the updated long-term Financial plans and sought direction from the board on the

34:51 2024 draft budgets this month we're here with a detailed draft budget document along with refined price proposals uh that include impacts to each of the customer classes following Direction this evening we will be incorporating any feedback and returning next month to seek board action on the 2024 budgets and price proposals there are a few opportunities for public hearings uh several points along the way one of which is on the agenda for this evening following the presentation uh so with that I'm going to pass it over to Aaron thank you Deborah good evening Commissioners all right so board policy

35:37 establishes that each utility shall have an operations and maintenance otherwise known as on andm and a capital budget each budget is the maximum level of expenditure authorized by the board in the planning process on the slide is a grid representative of these four budget areas figures noted on the screen correspond to line items for totals in attachment one of the 2024 proposed budget document so rather than inundating you with numbers I'm hoping to highlight a few of the initiatives priorities and projects Incorporated in the proposed budgets the water o&m budget reflects

36:23 ongoing services to provide clean healthy water through op operations at Hayden bridge and regular maintenance of the distribution system it supports drinking it supports initiatives in drinking water source protection including continued Watershed recovery efforts following the holiday Farm fire the budget also continues efforts to promote public awareness and stewardship of a healthy Watershed through the targeted actions and programs including the water quality monitoring program there are efforts to update the water system master plan plan that are also supported through the 2024 budgets this required update uh will serve as a road map for developing future uh water system Capital Improvement plans as well

37:08 as reinforce a foundation for safety and reliability the water system for decades to come de's commitment to affordability is also supported through bill assistance programs such as customer care and we continue to offer comprehensive water efficiency programs along with voluntary programs to help customers Finance projects that benefit the environment the 2024 water capital budget reflects upgrades to drinking water storage tanks at College Hill and Shasta and also includes work to install distribution and transmission Mains including pipes needed to connect the East 4th storage project the 24 budget includes planning

37:54 to build a water treatment plant on the wamit river to improve the resiliency of our water supply and there are ongoing Investments to upgrade meter technology to improve Service as well as efforts to upgrade our Legacy it systems with season one of ewb Enterprise Solutions slated to go live in the fourth quarter of next year a final highlight to the 24 water capital budget is noting uh the Burleson Expansion Project which will provide a flexible adaptable space for current future storage and operational needs switching to the Electric Slide here the electric onm budget includes

38:40 funding for purchase power costs including Rising costs of power supplied by Bonville power Administration this supports broad Community Services through contributions in L of tax payments made to both the cities of Eugene and Springfield there also also supports work to assess our Readiness for regional organized energy markets addressing our approach to energy imbalance markets extended day ahead markets and the Western resource adequacy program it furthers programs for Wildfire safety and prevention electrification Energy Efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction as well as supports e web's commitment to affordability through bill assistance programs again such as customer care the

39:26 contain ains funding to address structural vulnerabilities of the leeberg canal and supports continued compliance management efforts related to Public Utility Commission standards and nerk reliability audit preparations it also includes staff training both utility wide and role specific to support Workforce resiliency and the future skills needed to deliver electric services to the community the electric capital budget for 2024 supports needed Investments to upgrade the Carmen Smith hydroelectric project and rebuilding of substations to increase capacity and improved reliability Curran is planned to be recommissioned in 2024 with further construction at the jessen substation

40:12 and design work beginning for several others there are underground cable Replacements uh that will increase reliability and help with Wildfire prevention and leeberg shows up in the capital plan as well for 24 as there are land improvements necessary for future storm water conveyance as with the water system there are ongoing Investments to upgrade meter technology to improve Service as well as efforts to upgrade our Legacy it systems and also the Burleson Expansion Project which again will provide a flexible adaptable space for current and future

40:58 needs so planning for 2024 resulted in an overall Revenue requirement increase of 7.8% for the water utility and 5.7% for the electric utility there are distinctions in the overall Revenue requirements and pricing impacts among customer classes as we'll see in just a moment and in evaluating price proposals for both utilities increases were applied across billing determinants in order to meet the overall Revenue requirement increase for the electric utility slight waiting in proposed prices was placed on the basic charge for most customer classes as the cost of service analysis indicated a higher basic charge necessary to recover the fixed costs of the Electric

41:43 System also of note uh within the price proposal documents there are proposed updates including minor changes to policy language for market-based products and the environmental product lens and with that I will pass to Alicia to talk further on the presentation thank you Erin in 2021 staff presented a multi-year cost of service analysis or COA based on the projected information at that time the intent was to employ gradualism for each customer class over a three-year time Horizon 2024 was year three of that analysis we have since updated assumptions as well as revenue

42:28 and expense forecasts in both utilities long-term Financial plans the graphs on this slide lists the largest customer classes for each utility and compare the compounded rate increases initially proposed over those three years to the rates implemented in 2022 and 23 as well as rates proposed tonight for 20124 the initial analysis is indicated by the softer color bars and the actual and proposed rates are indicated by the Richer colored bars the gray bars reflect the difference between the two the graphs include a three-year historical inflation Benchmark on the right corresponding to the type of service Water Services inflation for the

43:14 water utility and Electric Services inflation for the electric utility the graph on the left shows uh figures for the water utility and when the initial threeyear rate traj was presented to the board staff was asked to smooth the rate trajectory to avoid double digigit rate increases this graph is reflected of those efforts as indicated by an 8% lower overall Revenue requirement the water districts are approximately 5% of the water utility's overall revenue and any changes in consumption forecast can cause greater swings which is what you're seeing here both the initial and actual Unos poos compounded increases were derived from long-term Financial plans that

44:00 accounted for significant investments in water storage and treatment the overall Revenue requirement inclusive of these Investments is higher than the water services incl Benchmark the graph on the right shows figures for the electric utility with larger custo customer classes represented as well please note the overall Revenue requirement includes contract customers reflected here the difference for the larger customer classes between what was initially presented and what was implemented andos tonight is due to the additional rate increase in 2024 for prefunding the lber risk mitigation and decommissioning work the overall Revenue requirement is

44:46 in line with the initial three-year cost of service presented electric rate increases inclusive of the 4% leberg rate increase in 2024 are lower than the Benchmark reflecting the efforts the utility has made to control costs while still providing essential and reliable services to customers as this is the final year of the three-year rate proposal we will present a new three-year rate proposal next fall next year we will also begin the work with the board on rign to determine rate increase say revenues at current rates are compared to the allocated Revenue requirement for each customer

45:31 class this slide shows the customer class the water utility the top row reflects the cost of service analysis results based on the proposed draft 2024 budgets the bottom row represents the proposed price changes that incorporate the principle of grism for the water utility price proposals correlate to the results for retail customers and for wholesale customers price proposals correspond with the updated results for contract terms tables with further detail can be found in proposal document propos changes for residential and general service are the same as differences in the cost of service analysis were not distinct enough to Merit changes among these retail

46:17 customer classes the two contract customers negative Revenue requirement had factors that more than off set the overall increased costs based on the 2024 sales volume forecast these customers had a lower share of the overall forecasted sales volume and overall Peak excess demand and therefore received a lower re Revenue requirement allocation I also like to note the rate base for these contracts incorporate existing plant and service values as opposed to the retail customer base which incorporates current year Capital spending in other words these Surplus contract customers don't pay for Capital until it is

47:02 commissioned we have significant investments in storage that will go into service by the end of this year which will impact rates for Surplus customers next year for that reason we are proposing to keep great flat similar to the water utility Slide the figures in the top row reflect cost of service analysis results based on the draft 2024 budgets again the figures in um the bottom row represent proposed price changes please note this table does not include contract customers whose ra allocated expenses from the cost of service

47:48 analysis EB uses the industry standard of within 5% plus or minus for each non-contract customer class to get by the decision to recommend price adjustments and as there was not a significant deviation among our general service customer classes we are proposing rates that smooth impacts among the entire general service category with an eye towards the affordability principal we are proposing to increase Street lighting uh below the results derived from the cost of service analysis as well as proposing to maintain current rates for private Lighting in anti in anticipation of the need to implement gradualism from the next threee C of service analysis to be completed next

48:41 year as this and future years finantial Outlook signal rate increases commitment to affordability is even more critical The graft on the left hand side of the slide assesses affordability showing a comparison of the average Water and Electric bills for Eugene residential customers and comparators for EB customers uh combined electric and water bills equate to 3.5% of medium household income this measure has shown improvement over the past 7 years indicating increasing affordability for customers the community has seen an increase in incomes while utility bills have remained flat for most period turning to the two bar graphs on the right hand side of the slide for

49:27 Water and Electric um among comparator utilities uh though these graphs reflect current pricing as of September 2023 and not proposed prices we expect that other utilities will raise rates this year as well and have seen news reports that at least one of the comparatives is looking to increase rates in 201 17 for eweb currently electric leads to the right at the middle of the pack while water shows Headroom on the rate increases proposed here tonight would result in $110 increase on the electric bill and a $39 increase on the water bill given the economic

50:12 pressures facing so many of our customers we will continue to look for opportunities to control costs and operate efficiently continue for the public hearing okay signed 7:4 I'll leave it open to come back to the public hearing go to Direction and give her items and come back to the public hearing so can I open a public hearing and then close it or just okay I'll open the public

51:02 hearing close the public hearing and 45 if somebody shows up to testify will reopen okay um so then we'll go back to Direction and questions from board members you have anything else on Direction wise questions or go ahead I have just a clarifying question if we go back the the last slide that had water yeah that's it right there thank you sorry um so looking at the average monthly water bill can you remind us does that include the sir charge for Watershed restoration and and at what point does that end like what do that when does that end and what does that

51:47 look like in regards to the average bill so it was approved for 60 months and and that falls off yes that is in this chart and I feel like you asked one more question oh so in terms of how how is reflected it's actually like a fixed charge per meter isn't it um is so it's like three or four doar so we would expect to see that drop off a few years down a couple years down the road

52:33 okay just interject one thing when we go through the in March we're going to go through and give an update on the status of state of the Watershed report um and as part of that uh we will report back to the board where we are in the list of projects that that was scheduled to fund um it was scheduled for 60 months um it doesn't mean that the board couldn't send it sooner than 60 months uh and it is $3 and it is scheduled to come on in 2025 but um depending on where we are in state of those projects it could be adjusted I need to correct that it's mid 2026 okay yeah that makes sense thank

53:21 you yeah um just philosophically I've been doing this for a long time and we we had it used to be the board that staff would come and the budget and then we'd raise the rates to meet it and then we decided we're not going to do it that way anymore we're going to tell you that we wanted keep great increases with that inflation and so we would and then you would come in and back into it that way it seems to me we're getting away from that I know we got a lot of grills and living rooms so to speak but um affordability and reliability are my two main points here and I'm looking where we used to be way over on the left on electric and now we're way're ining up there to the big big people and um and it's concerning because uh uh you know how do I tell my neighbors they own one of those people they own W water company it's a private company and my

54:06 rates are going up but theirs aren't and you know water is water and same thing with you know with vita you know that Costa thing is just just the Optics of you know the River Road water district and all of these private water districts we sell to are we giving them the the ability since we didn't charge them more then then they get to move their rates up and and make more of a profit um because everybody else's rates are going up uh I mean I just don't like the Optics of of my water rate going up 8% Subs are going up 8% and and I think their electric is three but just the fact that some people are getting the rate and others aren't um it's hard for me to explain that to the late people we'll fail that so go ahead yeah

54:53 I I you know the the real simple answer is is that we're making investments in the infrastructure and this board and staff have decided to smooth that over a number of years those those customers do not pay for that until it goes in into service of which if we do a you know a gradual they're they will have to pay the piper at some point and it's not going to be a gradual it's going to be a step function so at some point they will what's that example of that well for for example the water tanks um and in our kosa we're raising the rates you know we say 4% 4% 4% when those go into service and that Capital hits hits the

55:40 contracts they might be at zero now they're going to have to they're going to jump to 12 or 15 at that time so the big difference with some of those contracts is that that we are paying for Capital up front while we're doing it and and they don't pay it until it goes into service and so they will have to pay the piper at some point okay thank you and then and I'll jump in do those um customers I they selling to that are reselling are they aware of that jump coming down below yeah so the wholesalers are aware of that how that translates to their

56:25 customers uh I cannot speak to uh we've been actively engaged in conversations particularly around the second treatment uh facility with the water district so that they could understand that that um as soon as that went into service they would be looking at a large increase and it's been a while since I've had those conversations with them but at one point they were working on their capital reserve so that they could help manage that so will we I'm sorry jump we will We recapture our prefunding then because right now we're raising water rates to pre fund Second Source and so 5 years from now when we get it up and running we will have prund it with our rat so we're going to not only stick them

57:12 with the cost but then we're going to go back and recapture what we're refunding right now because our our Gene residents are paying for something that people in crestwell and Bonita and Cottage Grove they're benefiting because they're getting our water um we will go back and we capture our prefunding effectively yes so when we so when we set their rates there's a rate of return when we do do this on it it's called the utility basis as opposed to the cash basis which is how uh how our customers pay uh and how they pay for things as we go so those contract customers uh their rates will include a rate of return on those assets that our customers have paid to build have either

58:01 prefunding the debt for while we're building it and we'll recoup those costs or the portion that belongs to those contract customers after they go into service thank you's another way of saying that is that when we're paying for something up front there's a cost to that financing and the cost of that financing eventually gets passed on through the this rate of return that you're you're speaking is that another way of saying it mhm zero districts and water so is it different because the city of Venita has a different contract that allows us to pass that on before

58:48 the so um that's not what Drive is driving Bonita's rates um so with the water districts the reason why we're not doing anything is because a very large capital investment is going into service at the end of this year so that's why we're proposing that we hold those steady knowing that we're putting into Service uh a large investment or large Investments that we expect will swing their rates upward but um Vita's rates are going up describe it better than me they are an interruptible customer so

59:35 they they have a we so the water districts um we we Supply them based on their excess demand as well they're not an interruptible customer where city is not allocated in methodology they are because have that Peak demand that we allocate costs to them sorry if I didn't explain that very well I don't know Adam if you wanted to jump in and explain that sure maybe a familiar face um Adam R is our new rates manager he just started uh and he's reviewed some of

1:00:20 this work yeah so the Bita contract is much low lower rate because it is the Surplus nature of the contract so it's interruptable and they're only allocated a portion of the cost I think that's what Alicia was saying but they're allocated maybe a much lower portion of the cost so when there is a cost increase it creates a higher percentage even though it's off a lower base if that makes sense and so and so the the water districts and lamit water they're the ones that were holding off for the the source to be put into place and then once that's active then they would pay for the okay I didn't realize that c Vanita was in his completely different Camp okay down um and then I had I had a

1:01:06 couple of just questions on the numbers I'm just trying to figure out which number is where um so in the summary it says that it's an average price increase of 7.8 I assume that's across all customer classes um that that 7 8 is because otherwise I'm seeing the residential on some of the slides say like 6.25 and some say others but that that 7.8 is across all of the rate classes correct okay and then if you go um so this says residential is proposed at 88.3% but then in our packet and this is oh this is water okay so go back to go

1:01:52 back to the previous slide side uh one back again the one that's electric okay this one uh yes okay so residential it says 6.3% here proposed but then in the table on page um 16 okay it's 6.25 okay so that's fine so then go back to the the water I guess it's between the the two water ones so this say 8.3 but then the one right before it on the water side said 7 something 7.4 7.8 what's the what's the difference

1:02:37 between those two what values are we looking at what what's 7.8 versus the eight I that's the total revenue requirement across all of the classes oh that's the average again yes okay so if this is average then on the electric why does this say 5.7 when in the summary it says 7.8 does 7.8 should be the water overall reue requirement okay oh that's okay that's where I was was like there's too many different numbers here and I'm getting lost in them okay we tried to put fewer in the slides this time um okay so 65 so the number that we're looking at

1:03:22 raising for residential rate is 6.25 is that correct that's was on that slide yes so on the threee kosa that doesn't have this same number here the 6.3 so that was looking across the three years and what the change is this is only the the change for this particular here okay thank you I knew it was me I just needed to go through the the the steps there to make sure I had my number right so when somebody asked me how much raising rates and their residential customer on the electric side is say 6.3 got

1:04:11 itk okay any other questions okay John Browski yeah what would a budget be if he didn't read through it saw you making notes so yeah I mean waiting so okay we'll start with the notes and then we'll dig into the into the any gritt so what I'm taking from this is is that we're starting to implement COA into our radio Val um and does that mean that we're imple we're going to have a diff and and we're doing that through the basic charge is that where we're implementing COA so the so we're implementing the coasta results across all of the classes in the amount of the increase that that that they're bearing uh but what Alicia had I think

1:04:58 Alicia maybe Ain had mentioned was that the Coosa results did indicate that uh we were not fully covering our fixed costs and so we are putting proportionally just a little bit more recommending that we put a little bit more towards the basic charge uh we do anticipate more discussion next year with the board about rate design uh as we work on a new three-year kosa so then that that leads me into so we're kind of starting to put COA into our our rate but we're going to have a further conversation on rate design and what I'm getting to is is there's always been the talk the talk about the U River class so did up River class

1:05:43 get is that going to come in the rate design uh um discussion or was that embedded in this kosa uh basic charge costs so the upriver group of customers is folded in with our residential and our general service and and so for the purposes of this fre proposal are co-mingled okay uh but we'll be prepared soing those out again next year and share those results with the board okay all right so now I'm going to get into minut ready um just so that you know I read it you know what what would what would a a budget be if you didn't so I learned a new term this this time

1:06:28 wheeling and we spent $12 million on wheeling and I had to look that up and it and it was like this ninth thing down on Google you know when you started do Wheeling there's all kinds of things that have nothing to do with power um but I learned that so that tells you that I read the read the document but one question that I did have on this and it's um it's on page 63 of our our packet and it's the customer service operation and maintenance budgets um the wages and benefits on that one went from 6.9 million to 9.1 million um you know all across all the other classes it was it was pretty

1:07:14 steady the rate increase but this is a 23% increase in wages and benefits are we hiring more people in there what what's driving that 23% increase in that specific department so um yes we are hiring more individuals there's a temporary uh increase in their Staffing to help us be prepared for EES and that implementation so not just that we need more uh customer service folks answering the phones but they're also providing for backfill across the company as we open up opportunities so uh there are more folks accounted for in that budget

1:07:59 than in previous years so it's an increase in FTE basically that's driving that above and beyond what everybody else is it's a little it's a bump um that I was going to say this is in that particular Department we're we're looking at a pretty significant amount of sort of the wave this this next year okay um I mean that just one one the when they jump that much I I I noticed it um and then lastly thank you for putting together in such a cohesive budget I guess what I what I'm going to want as a commissioner that these types of rate

1:08:44 increases is a hopefully a good communication uh effort going out to the community um to help us justify that um I think we need to reach out to I mean obviously our reporter is not in the room but hopefully he's in his pajamas and just watching and can understand why how and why we got to this and the fact that that this is not just us alone doing it we saw the the PG going up 177% uh we going up 8% but we need to be able to tell this story to our residential customers to our business customers uh all across the

1:09:31 board and I hope that there is a an integrated plan to do that because I think it you know for so long we we weren't raising rates and now we are and we have to be able to tell that story because I don't want to I I know that we'll get phone calls and we hear from our constituents how come you're raising your rates and it's really difficult for me to extrapolate that you know like well we got a bump in the in customer service because we're integrating you know smart meters and stuff like that that doesn't translate well so having a a cohesive message is going to be a very important part of this for me people more talented than me and that aspect

1:10:18 are listening in here there is a plan um and we've we've started at executing that plan already um there have been a number of Bill inserts and newsletters talking about our rates and everything from where your dollar goes to these are some of the changes that that we um looking to fund um the the interesting thing and I think it came out last meeting was um this the 2024 rate increase is not because the 2024 budget is any different than the 2023 budget um we are um the reason for that is that we are uh positioning ourselves to make some of these significant infrastructure

1:11:05 Investments um in the years in the near years to come and so um to be able to fund those be in good financial position to borrow money at at good rates um you have to set yourself up financially to do that it's not because our 2024 budget is 7% higher than our 2023 budget but but to answer your question yes we have a plan and and we have a team that's that's already started working on that yeah um we haven't talked about Bas great basic charge for a long time last time we did we got crucified and we but other utilities like Lane electric they're 35 bucks a month we're 22 and so

1:11:50 on our comparative charts is that just a kilowatt charge um that is based on a usage level and we targ base rate it it does so that 20 the difference between 22 and 35 between us the lane electric is factored in there it is factored in there yes why don't we why isn't that base rate ever brought up to us anymore it hasn't been for what seven years 5 years I know we got pounded on it but well this is the the whole issue of R design is what is going that's going to be a big part of the discussion the new rate design is is raising our base rate yeah there I I can I I'll project that there's going to be three phases to that the first one is um I I believe but this has to be

1:12:36 discussed that we need to better align our fixed cost with our variable costs that's um in order to set the Baseline for to be able to offer some of the future products and services the second phase will be to create the mechanisms to be be able to um reward uh people who can um save us on the capacity pieces so the peak pieces for example the being able to set this up for time of use rates and things like that and then the third one is the very specific products and services around demand response and and other things that we want and I I expect that to take probably two or three years to implement but that will be when when we come back next month and

1:13:23 talk about the 2024 goals rate design will be one of the goals that we want to launch into including a better alignment between fix fixed and variable cost I had a couple more quick questions about um just some of the details in the budgets 58 of our board packet which is the water utility operations and maintenance budget and revenue requirements it says that the production I'm assuming that's our sales for for water and correct me if I'm wrong there that's not what production means but for 2023 it's 18 million and

1:14:11 then for 2024 it's 11.5 and I'm just curious what why there's that big of a change is that it seems like we're raising rates so it would be higher the presumed gallons above are fairly close maybe slightly lower um from a residential perspective and it's a it's a function of last year's budget including uh expenses that were Grant funded so we had Grant revenues uh included in the budget last year that we haven't done this year because those grants haven't yet been awarded got it okay so that's that explains why it was a br found the same amount for 2022 then jumped up and then

1:14:57 went back down yes okay um then on the uh electric utility operations and maintenance budget Revenue requirements this is page 56 of our full packet page it's listed as page eight at the bottom of the regular packet it says rate funded capital I just wanted to find out more about that because it was about 19 million um for 2023 and it's listed at 32.1 million for 2024 and um and so is is that the the prefunding of these different projects or is that something else

1:15:44 entirely it's okay um so this is related to prefunding for liber it's also related to or not the prefunding but for the the capital work related to leer it's also related to inreasing type one work um as well as the soft poity Enterprise EB Enterprise Solutions um software implementation and so um those are those are projects that are not [Music] bonded over here you're seeing that increase okay so this is the amount that we are going to recognize in 2024 and then in addition to that then there's

1:16:29 the the deposit to the leeberg reserve down below is yeah so the rate fund is defund the capital work but then the the reserves comes from the revenue decomissioning future future okay you can follow that rate funded Capital line from the bottom of that schedule onto the next page as a funding source for the capital plan so those those numbers actually show up twice or that line item shows up twice great in terms of direction thank you for your work and I we know that there's

1:17:15 a lot that's gone into this we've had numerous conversations about the kinds of projects that we've approved and and what we you know how we want to smooth the rat so thank you for listening to feedback and presting us with the budget that goes that's it okay thank you just to be clear I didn't hear any redirection on on the uh materials provided so uh you'll see basically the same thing next month all right so still not we do potentially have any came in late um we'll just have

1:18:00 to keep know the time at 7:55 other than that we have a break any objections to that no okay let's take a break we will take a 10 minute break and we'll come back get

1:30:39 we're going to call order here and we are up with the purpose standards resolution number 2317 and we'll turn it over to you guys okay good evening Commissioners uh it's my pleasure to introduce uh Jonathan Hart power planning supervisor and coming in online I see he's opened up his camera Aon Bush energy resource analyst here at the Eugene Water and Electric Board eron will be providing analysis of the recent public utility regulator Policy Act or perpa standards relating to demand response and electric vehicle charging programs it'll shed light on the alignment of these standards with e web strategic Direction and The evolving

1:31:25 energy landscape and help discuss the implications for utility policies remun equity and the reliability our system this presentation draws from valuable insights clean from both our normal rigorous staff analysis but also the uh public feedback which has been substantial it's it's been nice uh that we've gotten from the perple process so please join me in welcoming Aaron Bush uh as you sharees insights On's approach to these standards and staff's recommendation okay thanks Brian and good to be back with you uh after a couple months of this so uh yeah happy to move to the next slide uh so just wanted to do a very brief agenda for this item uh basically

1:32:12 want to review our perpa process and the timeline that we've had over the past couple months a quick overview of the public comment that we received and then dive into the St analysis and recommendations and then ultimately uh we will end up with a board resolution at the end of this item next slide so you should recognize this uh timeline we've looked at it for the last couple months basically we started off last September um with the uh resolution to have a new hearings process so we use that new hearings process uh and so open public comment uh in early September that ran through mid October and and then also at the October board meeting uh we presented on our initial analysis of the appropriateness of the standards

1:32:57 for eweb and now this month we're going to talk a bit more about that overview of the public comment that we received uh have the final staff analysis and recommendations and then ask for board resolution uh to adopt the the staff recommendations so next slide and we talked a bit more in depth about Pera and the standards at the other board meetings uh but just wanted to kind of refresh and highlight uh what the the overview of the standards is right the goal of the standards is to promote the use of demand response and to promote transportation and electrification so while there's a lot of nuances about rate design and all these little sub pieces the broad purpose of the standards is these two things promote demand response promote

1:33:43 electrification uh next slide uh so jumping on to public comment that we received uh we received about 42 comments and uh while there's a lot of nuances and different perspectives in those comments uh there two main themes that came out um one is kind of the the broad support for the standards came from commenters who basically felt like eweb should be enabling and facilitating uh reductions in community carbon emissions and saw the standards as aligned with that goal um and so supported ueb adopting the standards to achieve those broader goals uh most of the concerns about the stand s were basically about rate impacts to different customer groups and the appropriate use of customer dollars

1:34:28 right for uh EV programs and other incentives and so those are themes that you've seen probably throughout the I process uh and other things throughout eweb right uh the overall goals and policies that we have as utility and then kind of the the equity and the the treatment of rates and different customer groups um also just want to recognize that we haven't necessarily heard all the perspectives that are out there we did have a pretty robust public process so um we had the the notice in the Eugene Register Guard and then also did a press release and reached out to commenters um who participated in the integrated resource plan process um and so through all of that we did get a fairly good range of perspectives but we also know that some of the more

1:35:13 vulnerable or disadvantaged communities tend to not participate in these public processes and so we might not have heard their perspective at this point next slide uh so moving on to some of the public comment for the electric vehicle charging standard um so the support for the standard a lot of that support came from customers who already own electric vehicles and have have experienced the need for better charging infrastructure um and so they supported the standard as a means to accomplish that um they also saw the standard is aligned with the the broad goals of reducing carbon emissions um and then in general similarly they wanted to kind of increase access for everyone to have uh Char infrastructure for charging electric vehicles to

1:35:59 accomplish those goals um so that broad support is people who see the need for charging infrastructure and want to reduce carbon emissions uh if you would hit next uh a lot of the opposition basically came from commenters who believes that EVS already receive a lot of subsidies um and then it's not U's role to provide further subsidies for electric vehicles or incentives for electric vehicles um and felt that that just wasn't the right place uh next and similarly some of the concerns that commenters expressed were basically about cost shifts between customer groups um and so they're worried that hey if EB is incentivizing um providing funds for electric vehicle charging infrastructure those need to come from

1:36:44 somewhere and they were concerned that those dollars would come from other rate payers who wouldn't necessarily benefit from that charg infrastructure uh next slide uh so moving on to the demand response standard uh the broad themes uh from public comment was that uh those who supported the standard saw demand respones a way to integrate Renewables uh more effectively and again reduce carbon emissions a lot of the same commenters who supported the EV standard uh like the demand response standard because they saw it really meeting the way that electric vehicles could be used to charge more efficiently um there are also several commenters that had experienced time abuse rates or demand response rates in other service territories and actually found it to be a positive experience and thought

1:37:30 something that would be beneficial for EB next um so similarly the uh opposition came from commenters who were concerned about cost shifts to customers who couldn't shift their consumption patterns right so they they basically saw this as penalizing customers for using energy when they would need it most and they weren't necessarily able to shift those those costs um next and uh similar concerns on the cost shifts uh impacts the vulnerable populations who might not have access to demand response ready Technologies and again wouldn't be able to participate in programs or shift their loads and so might be negatively impacted um and end up paying more next

1:38:17 slide uh so the the overview there's a lot more detail in the um staff analysis and recommendation document itself uh but broadly right the comment raised some pretty valid uh considerations both in support of the the standards and uh some concerns that they rais about uh the potential for rate impacts or uh the way that uh rap pair of dollars are used um and in general right those are things that we consider all the time as a publicly owned uh utility right so these are the types of uh considerations that we need to balance going forwards and the the broad response that um we have is that right moving forwards as we we would Implement standards or do anything with rate design we would incorporate

1:39:02 right utility values uh those potentials for cross subsidies across rate classes and also our adopted policies like the diversity equity and inclusion policy or our carbon policies into future decision making um and so we recognize the validity of their concerns and want to be cognizant of those as we're mve forwards um just also wanted to note that uh this is in some of the the deeper analysis but uh the current funding for the EV programs that we have comes from the Oregon cleeveland fuels program so all of that funding is basically generated by EV owners charging in our service territory um and so because that funding is coming from EV owners going to EV owners it's not creating cross subsidies between groups

1:39:49 um and EB also already has uh thinking about the accessibility part of the standard um we have programs that are intended to uh provide accessibility for uh uh ride share programs and uh ebikes and things like that that are a little bit more accessible to the general population next slide uh so that was the the kind of overview of the public comment again there you've received the the whole list of public comment if you manage to make it through all of those there also more analysis in the the STA recommendation um but really want to talk about like the format of the recommendation itself um there's basically three main areas um so the appropriateness of the standard

1:40:34 right is it appropriate for eweb and is it appropriate for Pera um implementation so if the standard is appropriate for us how would we actually implement it and then what are some clarifications that we would need right so the standard is kind of written for for everyone but what do we need to to say about the standard to make it right for us um so as we think about the staff recommendation overall that's what's going to be the three main things to think about um how we would actually Implement and whether it's appropriate for us next slide uh so the recommendation on the EV standard uh broken into those three main categories so the appropriateness as we talked about last month the standard is broadly appropriate to carry out purpose purposes so uh more efficient use of our

1:41:22 resources um and the standard is align with our strategic direction right our support for cap 2.0 and broader Community uh carbon reduction goals and our own uh internal carbon policy uh so it's broadly appropriate for EB and for purpo and so for implementation uh basically the implementation is hey we're already doing this we're going to keep doing what we're doing and moving forwards in any decisions that we would make we would apply our already adopted policies around carbon or Dei um and our utility values to those decisions um and for a clarification there's many more clarifications listed in the uh recommendations document but uh the kind of overview clarification is this we can change direction in the future right we

1:42:08 have the right to alter our EV programs and incentives depending on our different needs uh in the future so broad overview for the EV standard is that it's appropriate take uh basically continue what we're doing to implement um and reserve the right to change direction if we need to in the future uh next slide so for the demand response standard uh similar to the EV standard we talked about this last month uh it's broadly appropriate to carry out purpose purposes right more efficient use of resources uh the standards aligned with 's strategic direction right it came out as a seleced resource in the in resource plan it's part of our action plan uh Frank just mentioned some things we're kind of moving in that direction Direction um so it's aligned with where

1:42:53 we're headed and it's appropriate to carry out purpose purposes so it's broadly appropriate uh to implement right we can't implement it yet because we're not there yet with all of the technology so for us the implementation is more about continuing to do the demand response potential assessment that we called for in the IRP action plan uh continue with the billing systems updates that we need to do and make sure that those are demand response ready uh continue with the advanced miroring uh role out and so going forwards uh right just as with the EV programs uh there's going to be a lot of different considerations in how we actually design and Implement demand response programs and so we would apply all of our adopted policies to those programs right our utility values

1:43:38 considerations of impacts of different customer groups things like that and for the clarifications just as with the EV standard um you know if we get through all of this we do some pilot programs we test things out and it turns out it's not working it's not right for us again can change direction as needed so uh we're not locking ourselves into a a path here um we can make it right for utility um so next slide uh so before I talk about the the board resolution itself just want to kind of call back to the the overview of perpa uh for eweb right the requirements for us was to have this hearings process which we did we actually we had a pretty robust hearings process we've solicited

1:44:23 public comment and Incorporated that into our thinking and Analysis about the standards and so in that in that sense um we're kind of fulfilling our duties under pero um and then also just wanted to uh note that we are um oh sorry lost my train thought there um yeah would like to to basically say oh that everything is align with our strategic direction right so we're we're not calling for things in the implementation of the standard uh that we're not kind of moving towards already and that we don't see kind of in the in the broad future for the region for EB uh and so there's nothing in this that's kind of like we're moving that way when actually we should be moving this way

1:45:08 we're kind of everything is designed to uh roll in the direction that we're already moving um and so part of this is kind of that this it's an officials kind of signal saying hey we're heading this direction um so so for overall um the staff would recommend the motion to approve the resolution 2317 adopting staff analysis and recommendation um so happy to take questions I think John and Brian might be able to answer some things it's more fluid to have conversation in the room but I'm also happy to you all right again all right just a a technical question because you say that EB's funding for the EV programs incentives

1:45:54 comes from more clean fuels which generated when EV owners and E service territory charge a car how do you know when I'm charging my car where the program works is the orgon has a general sense for where e are registered and so they have a a deemed amount of credits that are produced per based on their own internal analysis the uh based on registration of vehicles where are those uh which service territories those e likely reside within so it's just a registration thing it's not a consumption thing and so my EV sits in the driveway for 6 months we still getting money that's my understanding yeah I'm

1:46:41 agree with everything you're doing here but I just we just passed breaks and things and this is going to cost money we going to how is this going to be f part of the standard says that Sayed I realiz you're talking about us putting in the charger I don't think selling electricity I mean we sell it for 9 or 10 cents a kilowatt we charge 29 cents to vouch is large than capit it's $100,000 B

1:47:36 charging this delay the implementation of per these two standards EV and demand respons be funded how so in terms of the electric vehicle or should our electric vehicle which align with the standards that we talking about here are largely being funded through Revenue that is generated through the sales of these clean fs and the state of Oregon is deemed that web is generating a certain amount of those credits that are available to us for free and that we are uh you know to remarket uh and uh Revenue associated with the sale of those credits are to be used towards these purposes

1:48:27 to my knowledge the programs are are Revenue neutral because they're using that those Revenue dollars from the sales of those credits as theour great answer that's what I was going to say that e is going to be Revenue neutral at least in this initial implementation and then the demand response will be part of our work around um that's a cost avoidance that will actually create value for the organization and we'll have to have discussions around how that value is shared with the individual who creates it and the utility as a whole so it's it's actually going to provide value to the organization I'm just curious so when we started talking about the

1:49:12 purpose standards these were standards that seem to be in the books and I we're not changed for decades and up they're more compliance but it was still my understanding that the policies and the programs behind them are remaining unchanged I mean if we vote this in pass res resolution it's not changing our current programs it's just developing the current programs kind of the directory that we've already outlined to accommodate that so really if we vote Yes on this it's not like tomorrow we have response I mean this is we have we have a series of uh setup

1:49:57 saying that we could do this in the future but it's not actually changing anything tomorrow that is correct okay thank we felt that our that everything is already doing want to be crystal clear on that I just want to comment on um one of the things that people complained about with EVS they were concerned about us subsidizing EVs and I just want to say we used to subsidize the purchase of did but then we changed it because we thought that um we didn't want to do that anymore and instead we do subsidize Chargers in home that more directly relates to what it is that

1:50:42 we're doing with electricity so just want to um say that and then yeah with the demand response we don't have the capability right now to do demand response the way that we want to but that is on the docket for what we're going to explore next so it's this just seems very in mindful what we do to be clear so the charging uh the charger program that we have is is one of our even uh programs which are funded with this same pool of funds that we're getting to the sales of these credits and so um so that that is where those funds yeah but we're not subsidizing the purchase we used to we did at one time

1:51:33 yeah okay Frank then Bry just a quick thing on those um clean fuel credits funds we we actually have to account for those the purpose of those is to facilitate and go back into things related to uh Electric Mobility and so um we couldn't just be taking those and sending them off into some general fund that the the other part of the utility uses just just so people know there is an obligation to use this for electric vehicle types of things okay BR um yeah I'm I'm all on board with this the moving forward to the resolution the thing that that I was really encouraged about was the amount

1:52:18 of public input that we got um it was it was outstanding and I and I'm I'm I mean a lot of the people referenc the article in the Register Guard which again where's where's my friend from the Register Guard um but I guess the other question that I would have is a lot of times on public input there would be an advocacy group that's pushing it did you notice that this I mean I read I've read the story in register G and I'm giving input do you feel that a a percentage of this was advocacy uh generated or you know like a newsletter went out to specific

1:53:03 Advocates or was this just a a really well uh designed public Outreach I I don't know if I can I can answer if Aon o isn't in the room Aon o is our communication specialist um you can thank Aaron o for everything that we get public feedback on he uh is yeah um so he did a press release and I think that was the thing that garnered the most uh feedback so we kind of did the standard boiler plate like hey here's a notice but it's actually the press release and kind of releasing that we also connected with um some of the folks who commented on the integrated resource plan and we know that several specific

1:53:48 groups advocacy groups did were involved in that so we know that that specifically did reach kind of people who are associated with ADV advocacy groups um I would say that in general kind of to the comments earlier um you know I'm on the integrated resource plan team as well and I think we're just broadly seeing that the the effort that e puts into Outreach and soliciting feedback is pretty impactful on the comments that we get um and so being cognizant of that in the future and figuring out how we can reach different groups um we're kind of thinking about that in the back of our minds as well for especially for the next go around on the IRP and how we engage right yeah I mean I was just I was really stunned by one that we got that many responses and two

1:54:34 that they were as varied again I do think that it was I think it was skewed by a lot of people who are have EVS or know about EVS are are engaged in that conversation and so that's the the one area that I show a little bit of concern about is that we weren't hearing from the the people that don't have an EV or won't you know don't see themselves in that market and again but you addressed that in your in your comments that we we know that there's a there's a population out there that we aren't hearing from on on certain issues but I think that this shows that we're really getting out to a lot more people than lot of agencies

1:55:20 that have say could work out for both standard oh sorry for both standards we did receive you know constructive feedback around you know uh great uh design and cross subsidization and stuff like that so I think you're you're right in describing that we have very respons which was really helpful a motion please I moved to approve resolution 2317 adopting the staff analysis and recommendation on purpose demand response and electric vehicle charging standards second okay all those in favor say I okay passes unanimously thank

1:56:16 you ready okay corly operational strategic goals president Carson do you want to see if check to see if anybody I asked Dan yeah there wasn't anybody got shiny object don't be distracted by a shiny object president Carlson Commissioners uh good evening uh Frank Lawson for the rest general manager uh wanted to take the opportunity to review a few of the highlights from the last quarter um you did receive a 79 page uh quarterly

1:57:02 report I guarantee it's entirely accurate and transparent as as much as we can uh with all that data coming at us but um appreciate the the staff work that goes into uh putting that together a few of the highlights and I am going to start with with the the shiny object here um because I want to talk about our EES system eweb Enterprise Solutions uh We've really passed uh a major Milestone moving from what's what's termed the Imagine phase to the build phase and the Imagine phase isn't just oh here's here's some ideas of what we want want to do what goes into that is a complete um look at our

1:57:50 processes um the documentation the process maps how work flows uh throughout our utility uh and we have a lot of processes and we process millions of transactions and so to be able to go back uh go through that process uh and then imagine the uh the Imagine piece is where you have to Now map those processes into a new system and uh our goal has always been to make that system as standardized as possible to do the least amount of customization as we can and we have so far been able to to do that and really leverage uh the technology there we did receive an award for uh

1:58:36 this um from sap uh who's our uh software sort of Suite supplier it's the Innovation and vision award for our Forward Thinking approach to this project and moving from a a a location based server to now a cloud-based system and how we're approaching that eweb is the first midsize utility to ever win this um usually it's given to a number of different a number of larger utilities um but we were the first first to do that and um it's really our commitment uh to the journey um to working with our partners including sap and deoe and some others uh on this and so we know there's a lot of work left to

1:59:21 be done um but we wanted to to share and appreciate the team and all the work that they've done on this so far uh to give you a little bit of flavor there's approximately at any one time at least 30 employees working on this project um next year we talked about the the bubble that we're going to see in some FTE between roughly April and November we will have likely 70 people working on this project and testing all the different components of this project it's incredibly important uh and um it's really foundational to a lot of the work we want to do it's going well um very deliberate significant progress um and we want to celebrate that but we also

2:00:06 want to look forward with eyes wide open and say there's still a lot to come so any that's the the sign shiny object and and Deborah and Travis and Julie who are executive sponsors uh thank you and thank you to the team and all the change management and all the other things that have to go into that so so thank you um couple of the other highlights um we are on on you know year-to date our financial performance is good uh we will uh likely you want to give you heads up that we will um likely need to come for the board next month with a budget amendment on the water side this is particular to Capital uh it's really around timing of some of the projects being sooner uh we've been able to to progress on some of those sooner rather

2:00:51 than later they're all in the fiveyear plan it's just when you get near the end of the year whether they fall this year or next year um so we'll uh likely be back or rather Deborah will be be back in front of you with a request for a budget amendment on the water Capital side one of the highlights in the quarter um from a Energy Efficiency perspective was that we uh petitioned and secured additional funding from bille an additional $3.3 million to assist with additional Energy Efficiency we had those projects in the works which was something that um eweb um was wise to do um where that funding comes from is ew or BPA has a has a budget for

2:01:39 their Energy Efficiency it's actually paid for initially by customers like eweb it's then allocated out to different utilities and not all utilities meet their targets and so when bonnaville reaches the end of the year any additional funds are potentially available to other utilities and we we took advantage of that that that this year and and were able to fund another 3.3 million worth of incentives to to customers for Energy Efficiency work our we're a little we're about 57% of our way toward our annual goal that annual goal uh is a little higher than normal that's because in the past it was driven by IR the IRP which was to offset growth it's pretty close to our historic

2:02:24 average of around 10,000 megawatt hours per month based on a rate for the year but it's a little a little behind where we wanted to be um from an annual perspective this year from a major project perspective East 40th looks like it's on schedule and on budget that was we wanted to get that commissioned by the end of the year it looks like that's going to happen there will be some work that flows into next year around back filling and some of the work around the tanks but they thought is now it'll be commissioned and it's it's on on schedule and on budget Carmen Smith uh we did in September in the quarter we did um staff did provide the board with a pretty

2:03:10 detailed update on that there are some projects that are on schedu and completed and there's a few that are not um I think that the board is aware of what those are I won't elaborate too much on that um but Carmen Smith is is a large project it's a multi-year project and uh we had the board and has secured the funding and has planned for the funding for that project for a number of years going forward and then Ami uh Advanced infrastructure we will begin the the continued Mass deployment um in early 2024 um and so um and that is something where uh throughout this last phase at at some point uh we will be replacing all analog

2:03:57 meters with digital meters um even if they decide to opt out it'll be with a digital meter it won't be with an analog meter at at some point finally wanted to just celebrate a few of the the board actions uh that were taken in the quarter um there were uh really I I think three that were the most sign ific um two board policies that you you worked on throughout the year uh a resiliency policy that was uh initially uh launched um in 2022 and then a Dei policy diversity equity and inclusion policy which I think was actually originally talked about the year before when we were talking about rate equity and um worked

2:04:44 uh throughout the year those those were both passed um by the board uh in the third quarter um and the actions that support those you'll start to see come up um when we start talking about next year's goals and action plans and then you approved the or adopted the integrated resource plan also throughout the quarter so uh thank you to the board for uh a number of of key Milestones um throughout the quarter some goal updates uh we do have um some goal updates um as we progress um most of them are in the green some of them that are in the yellow um are in process um and the the data management plan that we will be developing and

2:05:29 finishing up some of the scope that's more like a 2024 implementation it's somewhat coupled with the EES project um but we have developed the charter and are working on a refined scope um that includes things like storage and security um uh really how you manage your data and all aspects of it um really proactively and it's it's not just through the enterprise system but it's it's all data for example meter data and other things so that's a pretty all-inclusive um project and then uh there's a couple things in the workforce environment that we're continuing to evolve and and look at hybrid work for example and how we want to structure that um as well as

2:06:15 integrating some of the U feedback that we received through our Employee Engagement survey and implementing some of those and so the dark green means it's been been completed and then the light green it's on on track and the yellow there's there are some issues that that we're trying to navigate and mitigate and in some cases we some of that will get pushed off to 2024 the other goals I think you're you're pretty well aware of these uh the EES I just talked about again some major milestones accomplished there launching into some other other phases integrated resource plan um the actions that came out of that you will see um being

2:07:00 implemented over the next couple of years the uh drinking water second drinking water source we are in the the permitting um we wanted to get all the local permits taken care of um in early 2024 and so that we could um submit for any federal permits um in that time as well sort of do our submitt for the federal permits um in the the first half of 2024 and then the the decommissioning action plan um there will be a public public meeting on that and the direction that we're going to go there um the first board meeting in January so um you have lots of Staff around there's lots of details as you can imagine that go go

2:07:46 into this um and would be happy to answer any questions I don't know if you did notice this but um we've been working on really continuous Improvement for for this report um there's a lot of new and different Graphics that were included um some of the the charts um maybe have looked a little bit different we're continuing to evolve that and continuing to look for what is the most meaningful data that we can present so I really appreciate app staff's work on that um and we'll continue to evolve this as we as we go forward I'll turn it back to you president

2:08:34 Carlson questions I'll start this time okay we go thank you um on the second treatment plant the psfp uh process is that being slowed down through government agencies or is it appe is has there been an appeal or what's what's the process with getting the metro plan amended to do that as my understanding it's it's not an appeal um that it's just the government process is that is that correct and if so which which there's three there's three parts there's Eugene Springfield and and Lane County that all have to sign off on a metrop plan Amendment so who's who's Dr not stepping up of

2:09:25 those three Partners there we we it hasn't gotten to that stage yet um it's actually in the author authoring okay um and elog is also helping to participate in that so it it has not actually gone to those agencies so you're still you're still developing the the verbage to to present to the the legislative B that's correct and we're we're expecting that actually in the first quarter of you you give us the minutia so for a reason so I read it so in July there was two contracts a week apart to the same company one to both to remove trees one for $46,000 and one for

2:10:10 $999,900 but the same company only for a month um that just doesn't sound right I mean they're both up and if you do the math that's like $4,500 4,000 a day every day for a month and can you just look into that and see what that was about because we're spending a ton of money cutting some trees and that's some pretty merchantable Timber I just wonder why we would spend that kind of money and $99,900 kind of rings a bell for me why you know that's the contract with that specific amount for tree volley yeah there's there's no magical $100,000 limit those contracts we can look into that there's usually when you have two

2:10:56 contracts there's multiple purposes even though it may be the same organization but same company same function of cutting trees at at car I just that small stuff we can look into that and do we have any issues with um on our property at uh John was just referring to where the second source is are we all good on that we settled with sub and everybody else and we required everything we need to do no we we we have not gotten everything we need to do some of those are are the permitting issues that we're in the process of right now we do have because of the so the the land issues that you're referring to because of Sub Sub sub

2:11:43 substation um all of those land issues the easements and all that has been taken care of that's that's all behind us um but the actual um land use and zoning and permitting issues um are in front of us and some of that contingent on the public Facility Services plan and other things so okay thank you a small comment on something that you made about uh Ami deployment and that everybody will be getting meter just the plan to communicate is out don't think that they're yeah we're in okay go ahead BR that that communication will start

2:12:29 pretty and so the um as we go there's areas where there's not meters so all the meters will be replaced in that area and then there's opt out Legacy meters we'll go back towards the deployment and start communication team um yeah um as always appreciate these quarterly reports it's really helpful to get a glance of all parts and I can appreciate how much work goes into summarizing all the data so thank you to everybody involved and help you put this together um and I I I appreciate the um the chart

2:13:18 on Energy Efficiency to understand where we are there I also appreciate there's a note on building ification to help us understand how many buildings are shifting to um electricity um it's interesting to look at that number and I I will just raise again I think it be valuable for us to have a Target around that um because I think there's opportunities there for the utility that need a I'm curious on the drinking water treatment plan I noticed on the headline it's got Federal permitting we have to work with we do have to work yes we do have to work with some of the same agencies that we have to work on on other things

2:14:03 such as licenses okay he scous thank you the relationships with those agencies are important for a number of reasons okay that's what I had any else good thank you so much thank you Commissioners the the next one of these will be the the annual report and we will be doing some deeper dives into some areas uh on an annual basis and so um we'll be working with staff between now and the end of the year to be able to bring you back um even more information on an annual basis that one's usually a little bit more of a long-term snapshot and so um expect a a

2:14:48 little bit more um on the early part of next year to staff and yes us yes this is actually really [Laughter] heavy how how much should we pay for this 25 million and we

2:15:36 position to the desk for this one yes um so just just a couple of things really of of noteworthiness here one of them is that we have moved the leeberg decomissioning action plan from December to January and so we'll be working with the communications team to make sure that um the public especially the upper Republic is aware that that discussion will take place in January and not and not December um and um other than that let's um I I don't have any add comments I think that um I really appreciate staff in in

2:16:24 particular um an and Holly who has taken what was the board Agenda Report before and really developed I think a good Cadence on a lot of these items you can look ahead and see that there's recurring things that we do throughout the year um whether it be looking at the state of the Watershed or certain customer confidence reports or uh we do have a a dam safety report that we're required to do annually and so that's coming up in December and so um and then this is financial season obvious obviously for um Deborah hardt and her staff and so really appreciate their work to develop this Cadence and so as

2:17:09 Commissioners go through this too if there's things that you would like to see on a recurring basis we do a capital review we do a lot of things but I think that's where um obviously working through the the board president would be something that we'd like to make sure we're getting covered um and so I think it really gives you a good snapshot of what's what's ahead it was brought to our attention in in email earlier that the January meeting is on January 2nd oh y I was going sit on the board okay I I just I saw agendas and stuff like that so I you want to post Paul land for a week

2:17:56 since it's the day after I mean there may be a football game you anticip anticipate a headache or what no I was just thinking that there might be people who holiday that time of year when when they get paid holidays off a lot of times what day of the week is it it's a Tuesday first is a Monday so care less I mean staff are not working on the first so right because so if we're submitting questions then staff have to deal with the questions on the on that time or Frank might be national football championship game that coincides with that weekend that people might travel weekend that isn't it we'll have a board

2:18:43 meeting how how burdensome is it at this at this time it's doesn't matter to us I mean it it I'm sorry I thought there's something in the bylaw we had to convene the first we of something about for election of officers are doing something well there's we don't have any new elected officers this this time around and um I think that that policy also says that we can change it if we need to so from a staff perspective it's not difficult to change um I would I would for me I would say let's push it back a

2:19:28 week I I agree agree thank you I'll just clear it with hly you know any issues with pushing it back one week I don't think so we can make sure that the room's available but I think you all take priority we good can't tell me who's going to kick us out I wouldn't want to then oh um so I guess we'll move on to board wrapup we did have a a question

2:20:15 were asked about the practice for how we evaluate the board and um you know typically in the past we've had a questionnaire and we get together after that have an opportunity to say if there's anything that we to adjust but do you all agree with that process have any thoughts on changing it if you don't have thoughts in this late hour at 8:30 um just let us know if you have any else but I'll just say that the by policy the Board needs to do a self- evaluation on an annual basis it doesn't it doesn't say anything about how or why or when um

2:21:02 the last few years we've just we've sent a survey out to Commissioners we compile that provide that to you and in many cases you it gives you something to discuss or not during a retreat and so um it's it's it's mandated that you do it but there's no stipulation around what you actually do but that's historically worked fine for us but and it gives us a little information as well ends up um I I may have spoke too soon there is a training happening in this room every day that second week of January so I'll just need to coordinate I don't know if that involves outside parties or not

2:21:47 is it happen at night it's 8 to 5 so I'll more to come I'll get back to you right else yeah and I don't know if this is possible but for me when the board agenda goes out um if it would be possible to put the page number that that so like when we have uh

2:22:35 the uh budget right we can look and say the budget starts on page 230 or 231 or what whatever cuz I you know I'm flipping back and forth in here and and then it's like okay well where's the budget and I have to scroll down just do a word search way or if they could just say that the the budget start you know this start the public hearing item number 10 starts on page this in our packet would really be helpful to me I don't know if that's if that's cumbersome if it is then forget about it but you know if each one number one of these numbers you can say where in the P what page in the

2:23:21 packet that starts so that when I'm going CU I'm going back and forth between these things if I can just punch in page here I know that I'm jumping to that rather than scrolling down that would be helpful for me we'll explore some ideas there there may be a way to do it with separate documents also that allow you to navigate we we'll write about it and see okay thank you right thanks everyone meeting