San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) Bob said he is working on a meeting regarding the South County Detention Facility to see if there are gas opportunities. In other SCG news, Bob reported that one of the issues that came out of recent outreach events was the use of the SCG logo and co-branding. Bob has provided Maureen with the most current logo and said that SCG will be having conversations with the other utilities to figure out how best to represent everyone in the co-branding situations. In addition, SCG can now provide event support such as collateral and staff depending on the type of event and the amount of advanced notice. Bob gave an update on the finance pilots that will allow larger financial institutions to create their own lending options and have utilities to be the facilitators for on-bill repayment (separate than OBF). Over the next six months the program details will be refined but it is still just in the pilot stage. SCE Michael presented the current project tracking list and asked partners to touch base if something did not look right. He also encouraged partners to work with Mark if there were any projects on the horizon. Michael will also be communicating with partners who are close to moving up tiers in the ELP model in order to spell out all the next steps. Gail Henry thanked SCE for their efforts in producing a more clear and concise list of projects that was easy to understand. SCE has new Demand Response banners for each city and county of the partnership. Michael recommended that these be displayed in high traffic areas and for those partners who would like corresponding brochures, please contact Maureen and she can coordinate. Michael added that it is important to raise awareness that peak periods for energy usage are not just during the summer. Mark will be following up by visiting and taking pictures of the banners at each of the partner cities. Michael reminded partners of the October 30th Energy Action Plan Summit in Bakersfield. PG&E Cam thanked and highlighted the hard work of Gail and Rhonda for the very successful Waukena and Stratford events. 104 flu shots were given at Stratford and 50 at Waukena. Both were truly community events and had wonderful turn-outs. PG&E will report back to the group once the final numbers are in regarding sign-ups for programs and work completed. Cam said that PG&E would like to do something similar in a few other smaller communities next year. ME&O Update Betsy Garcia reported on the success thus far of Visalia’s Battle of the Buildings. Halfway through the month and competition and the facilities were working very hard. If all efforts were kept up, the city would save over $80,000 over the year. Some facilities reported that they were a bit discouraged because they were not seeing as many results as they had hoped. The main goal of the competition was to simply start a discussion around energy usage and that has proven successful. The Tulare County Health Fair was another very successful outreach event this year. Gail’s only disappointment was not having much information on customer assistance programs like CARE, but other than that, she was very pleased. It was an excellent turnout and those that visited the booth had great questions/comments regarding solar, utility bills, and other energy related matters.
2013 Meeting Schedule: Luncheon - November 21, December 19