Hi PAYS® Pals, here's your weekly newsletter!
Major Movement in Minnesota
As you may recall from our 7.17.20 newsletter, Tammy Agard, PAYS® Pal and CEO of EEtility, and Kim Havey, the Director of Sustainability for the City of Minneapolis, submitted testimony for the before the Minnesota Public Utility Commission. The aim is for CenterPoint, a gas utility seeking a 4.5% rate hike, to propose a PAYS tariff to offer home energy upgrade services that are specific to insulation and air sealing.
As stated in this article which quotes Tammy, Minneapolis City officials are pressing state regulators to approve a $50 million pilot which would reach around 10,000 households and make this the largest tariffed on-bill program in the nation. Kim Havey is also quoted in this article saying, "The city’s Clean Energy Partnership, a collaboration with CenterPoint Energy and electricity provider Xcel Energy, has unanimously supported inclusive financing through a board resolution, Havey said. The partnership established a goal of seeing 75% of homeowners with whole-home retrofits by 2025, a number unobtainable without the addition of inclusive financing, Havey said."
The City of Minneapolis has now filed docket number G-008/GR-19-524 (attached below) which summarizes their responses to the utility's request for information that asked the following questions and more. EEtility and PAYS® are cited multiple times in the responses in the attached docket!
"Please comment on whether providing energy-efficiency upgrades meets the definition of utility service under Minnesota law..."
"Will the proposed program be limited to insulation and weatherization upgrades? If not, what other types of upgrades will be part of the program? Who will decide what types of upgrades qualify, and based on what criteria?"
"Please describe the nature and cost of typical upgrades under this program, typical monthly service charge amount, and typical savings for both a single-family residence and a larger, multifamily dwelling. Provide all assumptions supporting your answers."
"Explain how the expected energy savings for a project are estimated. Provide an illustrative example, showing all calculations. At what point after installation of upgrades will actual savings be verified?"
And more!
Despite COVID-19, Community Power in Minneapolis successfully petitioned to have public testimony submitted via home video when the Commission held hearings on the utility’s proposed rate hike and the City’s proposal for the Commission to approve a tariffed on-bill program for energy efficiency upgrades. These short home videos can be viewed at this link and among the 72 statements, here are a few on the must-see list:
Jayda P
John Farrell
Rashaad A
Kyle S.
Marcus Mills
Timothy DenHerder-Thomas
Erik Hatlestad
Rev. Tyler Sit
Kimberly W
Louis Alemayehu
Let's hope this system is adapted to other proceedings with utility boards or utility commissions!
NCSEA’s Making Energy Work Webinar Series - Innovative Financing Models for Low and Moderate Income Participation in Clean Energy
Our PAYS® Pals Kerry O'Neill and Holmes Hummel were both speakers on a panel this week hosted by NCSEA where they educated the audience on inclusive financing!
You can view a recording of the webinar here, password: AugustMEW
PAYS Pals Leading Informal Sessions at ACEEE's 2020 Summer Study on Buildings
Holmes, our fellow PAYS® Pal, will be hosting an information session alongside Jane Peters from Opinion Dynamics next week on Wednesday, August 19th from 4:30-5:45 pm EST. Their session is entitled Equitable Building Electrification and Accessible Financing and the pdf summary #7 is attached!
Ethan Goldman, another fellow PAYS® Pal and chair of the CalTRACK technical committee, will be hosting a session entitled Energy DEN: A Welcoming Online Community of Practice for Energy Data Analysts alongside Dana Miller from theUniversity of California-Berkeley. Their informal session #13 is also attached!
