ESC Residential Consortium Minutes 121219

ESC Residential Consortium Minutes from December 12, 2019 Meeting was called to order at 2:02 pm Eastern Time Attendance: Black Hills Energy Joe Terick NW Natural Carollyn Farrar Semco Energy Rachelle Adamczyk Socal Chris Goff Southeast Gas Shannon Jackson Spire Kathleen Crowley UGI Kim Geder Union Gas Jacqueline Caille Vectren Gerry Jones Next TMAF: We will kick off the 2020 TMAF season from March 3 – 5 in Phoenix, AZ. Registration is live and you can view the tentative agenda as well. We do have a block of rooms available but the rooms go quickly so make your reservations today. You can view the details of TMAF by following this link: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/events/technology_market_assessment_forum.aspx Electrification: Want to keep up with the latest news, stories, articles concerning electrification? A great deal of information has been posted to the ESC web site under the electrification workgroup and/or the low carbon workgroup. The workgroups are free and can be accessed by all. Be sure you visit the ESC site to check out the latest info. Success Stories: Have you worked on a project that you are especially proud of? Kicked off a great marketing campaign? Maybe a project that didn’t go quite as planned? How about offering to share your story with the group? I would love to arrange to have a member present at TMAF or during a monthly webinar. Even our not-so-stellar moments can be a huge learning experience. In addition, the group just might offer some suggestions to turn the project/sales campaign into something positive. Feel free to give me a call or send an email with your example to share. Focus for 2020/Open Discussion: The group was asked what topics they wanted to learn more about in 2020 or what do we need to focus on in the coming year? Were any deliverables needed? Chris Goff, SoCalGas, mentioned that due to what is happening in California (localities banning the direct use of natural gas in new construction homes, the focus on Net Zero Energy and climate change) he felt we needed some type of messaging to counter all of the negativity being spread about natural gas. He thought a good area to start would be to focus on heat recovery ventilation in conjunction with renewable natural gas. He noted that this would reduce energy bills, promote a clean environment and lead to carbon reduction. Initially, there wasn’t much response to his statement; he asked if others were facing the same issues he was in California? Kathleen Crowley, Spire, noted that the mid-west was always the last to feel the effects of what was going in the rest of the country. Barb noted that some areas were experiencing what Chris was (a municipality in Massachusetts recently banned the direct use of natural gas not only in new construction residences but retrofit projects as well.) However, we have had builder panels at TMAF who have stated they have never heard of any issues with the use of natural gas. Kathleen noted that occurred at the St Louis TMAF. Barb will look into getting some speakers to educate the group on heat recovery ventilation. There was no further discussion so the meeting was adjourned at 2:39 PM.