Technical Committee Meeting
Friday, April 5, 2024
10:00 A.M.
Public comments may be made in person or remotely via the details below. 1125 Tamalpais Avenue, San Rafael, CA 94901 (MCE)
2300 Clayton Road, Suite 1150, Concord, CA 94920 (MCE)
11780 San Pablo Ave., Suite D, El Cerrito, CA 94530 (Contra Costa County) Remote Meeting Participation for Members of the Public
Video Conference: https://t.ly/QzAmo
Phone: Dial (669) 900-9128, Meeting ID 828 5103 7385, Passcode 142534
Agenda Page 1 of 2
1. Roll Call/Quorum
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1 Approval of 10.6.23 Meeting Minutes
6. Virtual Power Plant Ten Year Vision (Discussion)
7. Achieving MCE’s Mission by Addressing Risk (Discussion)
8. Committee & Staff Matters (Discussion)
9. Adjourn
The Technical Committee may discuss and/or take action on any or all of the items listed on the agenda irrespective of how the items are described.
QMCE ~-::r~~~~ng
Energy Future
CONTRA COSTA I MARIN I NAPA I SOLANO
MARIN COUNTY I NAPA COUNTY I UNINCORPORATED CONTRA COSTA COUNTY I UNINCORPORATED SOLANO COUNTY
BENICIA I CONCORD DANVILLE I EL CERRITO I FAIRFIELD I HERCULES I LAFAYETTE I MARTINEZ I MORAGA I OAKLEY
PINOLE I PITTSBURG I PLEASANT HILL I RICHMOND I SAN PABLO I SAN RAMON I VALLEJO I WALNUT CREEK This Committee may be attended by Board Members who do not serve on this Committee. In the event that a quorum of the entire Board is present, this Committee shall act as a Committee of the Whole. Any item acted upon by the Committee of the Whole will be considered advisory to the Board of Directors and require consideration and action by the Board of Directors at a noticed Board meeting before adoption or approval of the item.
DISABLED ACCOMMODATION: If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation or an alternative format, please contact MCE at (888) 632-3674 or [email protected] at least 72 hours before the meeting start time to ensure arrangements are made.
DRAFT
MCE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Friday, October 6, 2023
10:00 A.M.
Present: Alexis Fineman, Town of San Anselmo
Eduardo Martinez, City of Richmond
Devin Murphy, City of Pinole
Charles Palmares, City of Vallejo
Scott Perkins, City of San Ramon
Katie Rice, County of Marin
Absent: Gina Dawson, City of Lafayette
John Gioia, Contra Costa County
Staff
& Others: Jesica Brooks, Board Clerk
Darlene Jackson, Lead Board Clerk
Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer
Justin Kudo, Senior Strategic Analysis and Rates Manager Tanya Lomas, Internal Operations Assistant
Alexandra McGee, Director of Strategic Initiatives
Ashley Muth, Internal Operations Coordinator
Zae Perrin, Director of Customer Operations
Daniel Settlemyer, Internal Operations Coordinator
Jamie Tuckey, Chief of Staff
Dawn Weisz, Chief Executive Officer
1. Roll Call
Chair Murphy called the regular Technical Committee meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. with quorum established by roll call.
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
There were no announcements.
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
CEO Dawn Weisz introduced this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1 Approval of 6.2.23 Meeting Minutes
DRAFT
C.2 Amendments to Power Purchase Agreements with CES Electron Farm One, LLC
C.3 Third Amended and Restated Scheduling Services Agreements with ZGlobal, Inc.
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
6. MCE Solar Billing Plan Tariff (Discussion/Action)
Justin Kudo, Senior Strategic Analysis and Rates Manager, and Zae Perrin, Director of Customer Operations, presented this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period and there were comments from member of the public, Howdy Goudey.
Action: It was M/S/C (Perkins/Martinez) that the Technical Committee approve the proposed Solar Billing Plan tariff included in Attachment A, as well as the proposed Export Rate methodology. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Directors Dawson and Gioia).
7. Update on MCE’s Green Hydrogen Activities (Discussion) Alexandra McGee, Director of Strategic Initiatives, presented this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period and there were comments from members of the public, Bob Miller and Howdy Goudey.
Action: No action required.
8. Committee Matters & Staff Matters (Discussion)
There were no comments.
9. Adjournment
Chair Murphy adjourned the meeting at 11:56 a.m. to the next scheduled Technical Committee Meeting on November 3, 2023.
Action: It was M/S/C (Perkins/Martinez) to approve Consent Calendar C.1-C.3.
Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Directors Dawson and Gioia).
DRAFT
___________________________________________
Devin Murphy, Chair
Attest:
___________________________________________
Dawn Weisz, Secretary
1 Virtual Power Plant
Ten Year Vision
April 2024
Lead California to an equitable, clean, affordable, and reliable energy economy by serving as a model for
community-based renewable energy, energy efficiency,
and cutting-edge clean-tech products and programs.
VISION
MISSION Confront the climate crisis by eliminating fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions, producing renewable energy,
and creating equitable community benefits.
VALUES Innovation: We fight climate change with leading edge, community-centered programs and policies.
Equity: We prioritize environmental and economic justice for communities of concern.
Accessibility: We serve our communities and customers through open and transparent engagement.
Inclusivity: We celebrate diverse identities at work and in our communities.
Sustainability: We strive for a sustainable workplace, community, and planet.
Fiscal Responsibility: We maintain financial strength to deliver sustainable programs and rates.
2 Market
Challenges
MCE’s ‘peaky load’ results
from widespread solar,
causing customer demand
spikes in late afternoon to
early evening as solar power
ramps down and household
electricity use surges.
This is what we call the
“duck’s neck.”
Addressing the Over-Generation of Solar
Energy
3 California's duck curve is getting deeper
CAISO lowest net load day each spring (March-May, 2015-2023), gigawatts 25 20
15 10
5 0
12 AM 2 AM 4 AM 6 AM 8 AM 10 AM 12 PM 2 PM 4 PM 6 PM 8 PM 10 PM Evolving Settlement Requirements
• Managing energy in shorter time frames requires
faster controls to keep up with supply and
demand changes.
• Resource matching for 24x7 settlement to ensure
energy supply matches the energy demand on a
continuous basis, every day of the week, all year
round.
• As California retires natural gas power plants, we
need new tools so grid operators can match
load / supply on a 4 second basis.
Market
Challenges
‘Settlement’ in energy markets
is the process of reconciling all
transactions between
electricity suppliers and
customers, ensuring accurate
payment to generators and
billing for customers.
Settlement processes can
vary in frequency, from hourly
to daily, and involve complex
calculations.
4 Managing Rising Costs
• New purchasing rules, or procurement
mandates, mean that suppliers can keep their
prices artificially high since they know we’re
required to buy it. Without a limit on what they
can charge, prices can go up significantly for
securing reliable energy sources.
• We face increased expenses for maintaining
energy reliability (resource adequacy) while
intense competition for green energy sources is
intensifying.
• The process to connect to the energy network
(interconnection) is becoming longer, impacting
our ability to bring new sources online efficiently.
Market
Challenges
5 What is a Virtual Power Plant
Keeping the Balance
Instead of an industrial power
plant taking up a lot of land, this
connects many smaller physical
assets throughout a community.
A VPP taps into existing distributed
energy resources - solar, smart
thermostats, smart plugs, batteries,
electric vehicles - and sends them
digital signals to charge up or
release power to the grid at
strategic times.
It quietly and invisibly creates
pockets of power to support and
decarbonize the grid.
6 CAISO/BALANCING AUTHORITY
±0.50%
SUPPLY (Utility Scale Resources) DEMAND (Behind the Meter Load) In 10 years, build a new paradigm of
People Power
Weave together MCE’s incredible programs to
create a “spectrum of controllability.”
Community members engage at various levels
to optimize value through controllable devices
and behavior change.
Share value of a suite of DERs with MCE
customers while competing against for-profit
3rd parties to:
• alleviating pressure on MCE power
procurement
• creating bill savings for customers
• creating value for MCE
• promoting local grid health with smart
devices
Dispatchable
Resources
Energy
Efficiency
(non-dispatchable)
Demand
Response PeakFlex
Virtual Power Plant
7 All Inclusive
Solution
Direct MCE
Benefits
Cost benefits:
• Smaller up front investment than large
power plants
• Allows for distributed and incremental
solutions to closely match demand growth
• Mitigates the risk of transmission or
distribution (T&D) bottlenecks where
significant power is locked behind
congested T&D corridors
• Use power where it’s needed - tap into
inherent benefits of co-location of demand
and supply
• Closed loop of value - customer generates
and shares value with MCE which then
returns to the customer
8 Direct MCE
Benefits
Settlement benefits:
• Access real-time device data
• Facilitates time-sensitive peak load
reductions
• Reduces associated procurement &
resource adequacy obligations
9 Benefits of a
VPP
• A decade of MCE programs means our
communities have years of upgrades that
can be integrated into the VPP to generate
additional value for the customer
• Lots of install jobs, especially important in
Disadvantaged Communities (DAC)
• Modernized building stock, including with
energy resilience
• Reduce demand for polluting peaker plants
• Reduce emissions of entire system due to
localized usage of power
• Value sharing tariff transforms passive
consumers into a active agents of grid health
• Increased customer awareness and
participation in the energy system
• Cost savings from more efficient usage as
well as from bill credits
Direct
Community
Benefits
10 Implementation
11 “No customer left behind” - Multiple strategies - Meet people where they are Solar Storage
Credit
MCE Sync
Peak
Flex
Energy
Storage
Program EE and
Electrification
Retrofits
Richmond
VPP model
Less Control More Control
MCE VPP
\ I
Next Steps (part 1)
Richmond VPP:
● 1.5MW Flex Load + 1 MW Solar + 2MWh batteries
● Use OpenADR DERMS to monitor and dispatch
● Bid Capacity and Energy into Day Ahead Markets
MCE Sync:
● 7,000 Vehicles by June 2025
● Shift 95% of EV Charging Load out of Peak Hours
● 1.2 MW of average daily peak load reduction
● Bid into Day Ahead Market
● Incorporate Dynamic Pricing Signals
Peak Flex:
● Build on the 3MW of demand reduction achieved in 2022 ● Focus on storage, building control systems, EV chargers 12 Next Steps (part 2)
Energy Efficiency Programs:
● Single family homes: Install 280
heat pump water heaters
(HPWH), 100 smart thermostats,
300 HAN devices
● Build local capacity for HPWH
installs through workforce
training programs
● Multifamily Properties: 300+
HPWHs and 200 smart
thermostats
Energy Storage Program:
● Initial Launch: 1.2 MWh
residential installs (complete) &
4.5 MWh batteries at Non-Res
Critical Facilities. Collect usage
data and issue performance
payments
● Phase 2: 2.5 MWh batteries at
C&I facilities, integrated into
Open ADR DERMS to monitor
and dispatch.
13 14
2032 Average hourly profile
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- Load - Generation Portfolio
Closing Remarks
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