GVEA Board Meeting, Feb. 22, 2022

GVEA Board Hears Reliability Summary and Report on On-Bill Financing

By Jim Schwaber

The public session of the February 22, 2022 Golden Valley Electric Association Board meeting convened at 6:35 PM. One of the seven directors – John Sloan – was absent. About 35 people attended virtually via MS Teams. Agenda items during the earlier Executive Session of the Board included an Infrastructure Bill Update, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Legislation, and a Healy 2 Update.

Chair Tom DeLong provided a Safety Moment on the utility of LED flashlights and reflective gear.

2021 Reliability Summary

GVEA staff delivered the 2021 Reliability Summary. The two major storms that year – on October 3 and December 26 – resulted in an average of 468 minutes of power interruption per member-owner.  Curiously, in comparing the power reliability of 2021 to 2020, the summary excluded the impact from these two storms, resulting in a reported “improved reliability in 2021” of 99.96%, equal to the USDA Rural Utility Service power availability target. Also, outages lasting less than five minutes are excluded; no data on these shorter outages was provided in the summary report. Counting the storm outages along with all other ones, the average customer was without power for 738 minutes in 2021, compared to 383 minutes in 2020, and 228 in 2019. In short, there were fewer outages in 2021, but outages were much longer in duration. GVEA staff are working to reduce outages system-wide through a range of improvements.

On-Bill Financing Task Force Presents Final Report

Member Advisory Committee members Mathew Mund and Alison Carter presented their Task Force’s On-Bill Financing (OBF) Final Report. This is the product of two years of hard work.

Highlights of the report included:

·       The goal of the OBF program is to increase equitable access for members to renewable energy, energy efficiency, and beneficial electrification projects. To do this, the program has three main objectives:

1.     To save members money

2.     To make OBF accessible to members regardless of their income

3.     To reduce energy consumption

·       They recommend an On-Bill Tariff program, with investment attached to structure and meter, instead of a loan attached personally to a member-owner.

·       An energy audit will be used to determine appropriate technology for participants to invest in.

·       Improvements must provide a net energy cost savings and be paid back within ten years, per program rules.

·       The Task Force recommends establishing a workgroup, led by GVEA staff, to work out final details of the program. This remaining work, eventual Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) approval of a tariff, and accounting details may take another year or more to complete before the program is operational.

Concerns over High Bills

The third and final educational presentation addressed High Bill Concerns.  GVEA External Affairs Director Meadow Bailey stated that GVEA’s mission is to provide safe, reliable, affordable electricity to its members. Rates have been stable between 2017 and 2021, ranging between 20 and 23 cents per kWh. She suggested that members may have experienced higher bills in December due to cold temperatures.

Bailey went on to give a number of actions that members concerned about high bills could take. They can access their AMI meter info on-line through the MyAccount portal and track their usage. Members with low incomes can apply to Interior Weatherization for help with weatherization. And she noted that GVEA’s Home$ense program was about to resume with a new contractor.

Member Comments

Member Comments followed the educational reports. Seven member-owners offered input:

·       Two members reported >$550 month electric bills for small 600 sq.ft. cabins; staff offered to look into it with members to identify why their bills were so high, since this size bill is way out of normal range.

·       Request for customer service hours in evening, so working members can do GVEA business.

·       Grateful for quick outage responses.

·       Support for On-Bill Financing program and thankful to MAC Task Force for their work.

·       Support for more renewable energy; meet or exceed Renewable Portfolio Standards.

·       Mistake to extend life of Healy 1 coal plant; decommission ASAP.

·       “Get cheaper energy; bill is too high already. Healy Clean Coal OK if cheaper…”

·       If Healy 1 not shut down, GVEA may not be able to reach current 26% carbon reduction goal.

·       Bad air quality is killing people; renewables now cheaper than fossil sources; will clean air, too.

·       Renewable energy prices continue dropping.

·       Community solar a good option to pursue.

·       Praise to board for open meeting and transparency; giving members same information

The remainder of meeting dealt with normal business; now just 14 people remaining on the MS Teams platform.

NOTE: The 166 page Member Book for the February 22 meeting includes the full text of the bill for RPS, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory RPS Assessment, and the entire Final Recommendations from the OBF Task Force.

The Agenda/Member Book is available at:

https://gvea.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/February-22-2022-Member-Book.pdf