ESC Residential Consortium Minutes 081320

ESC Residential Consortium Minutes from August 13, 2020 Meeting was called to order at 2:03 pm Eastern Time Attendance: Atmos Greg Anderson Avangrid Troy Trombley Black Hills Energy Joe Terick Chesapeake Utilities Tiffany Giroux DTE Energy Rosana Laurain FortisBC Tanja Percival Hawaii Gas Audrey Okaneku National Fuel Marti Sawyer National Fuel Ashley Butera Southeast Gas Shannon Jackson UGI Kim Geder TMAF: Due to the ongoing situation with COVID-19, ESC has decided to officially cancel the October TMAF scheduled for Minneapolis, MN. However, ESC is planning a virtual TMAF in lieu of the regular TMAF. ESC staff has selected a software vendor and we are excited to be able to provide this option. The virtual TMAF is scheduled for October 6 – 7. If you do not recall receiving an email with registration instructions please contact Barb and she will forward a copy of the email. Barb also reiterated that we would again like to have a builder panel as part of our vTMAF. Several members had offered to secure builders during last month’s call but nothing has been confirmed at this point. If you have a builder lined up please let Barb know so ESC can send out speaker instructions. Since this will be virtual there is more work for ESC so we need to have speakers lined up earlier than usual. Rocky Mountain Institute: The Rocky Mountain Institute issued a report entitled “Health Effects from Gas Stove Pollution” which basically said that cooking with a natural gas stove was not healthy. AGA has evaluated the report and responded to 8 specific claims made in the executive summary of the report. In fact, some claims made in the summary differ from statements made in the body of the report while other claims just aren’t justified with the statements that are made in the report. AGA’s report has been posted on the ESC site under the Residential Consortium under Reports & Studies and can be read by following this link: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/consortia/residential_burner_tip_reports_and_case_studies1.aspx AGA BECS Staff to Initiate Discussion of Appliance Testing: It is the expectation that natural gas/hydrogen blends and Renewable NG will be introduced into distribution systems with more regularity and across the country. Therefore, AGA BECS staff has been supporting evaluation testing of appliances to ensure that appliances will operate correctly with the different fuel blends. It has been announced that AGA will be sharing their testing results to date with the technical staff of AO Smith Corporation. We will keep all apprised to any future developments. SoCalGas Files Lawsuit: SoCalGas has filed a lawsuit against the CA Energy Commission (CEC). This lawsuit refers back to CA’s 2013 Natural Gas Act. According to this act, the CEC is to “identify strategies to maximize the benefits obtained from natural gas as an energy source.” The lawsuit has been joined by Clean Energy Fuels Corporation, which is a major player in the California natural gas vehicle (NGV) movement. SoCalGas plans to show that CEC has fallen short on maximizing the benefits of natural gas. More details to follow as this unfolds. It is good to see that California is fighting back in a similar vein to the states of Arizona and Georgia. Open Discussion: Greg Anderson, Atmos Energy, asked if there would be “interaction” opportunities with the vTMAF in October as the June Webathon was only a series of webinars. Barb responded yes! This is going to be a true virtual event with some interesting features to start and end our days. Even though some speaker sessions will be pre-recorded, the speakers will be in attendance the day of the event and will be available to answer any questions that attendees have in real time as opposed to our normal webinars where we ask that all questions wait until the conclusion of the formal presentation. She noted that members will also have the opportunity to visit exhibitors in the exhibit hall. ESC staff is very excited about the upcoming vTMAF. Marti Sawyer, National Fuel, asked about the Member Survey that was issued on behalf of Jerry Graham from Eversource. Jerry had noted on our previous call that several municipalities in their service territory were trying to ban natural gas in future developments and he was wondering if any other utilities had seen movements like this? The responses that were received were included in the Running Member Q&A study that is posted on the ESC site in the Residential Consortium section. This survey is always available on the site and can be found by following this link: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/consortia/residential_burner_tip_other_deliverables1.aspx Barb shared that Robur will be conducting a free webinar on Gas Heat Pumps & Chillers on September 1. For more info and to register please use this link: https://mailchi.mp/c57a4aa4d56c/webinar-september-1-2020 With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 2:21 pm.