Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority
Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
7:00 pm
Cupertino Community Hall
10350 Torre Avenue
Cupertino, CA
Pursuant to State of California Gov’t Code Section 54953 (e) the meeting was conducted via teleconference with an option for members of the Board of Directors and staff to participate in person.
MEETING MINUTES
Call to Order:
Chair Gibbons called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Prior to Roll Call, General Counsel Trisha Ortiz advised Chair Gibbons to report out from the Special Meeting held immediately prior; Chair Gibbons noted there was nothing to report.
Roll Call
Present:
Liz Gibbons (Chair), Campbell
George Tyson (Vice Chair), Los Altos Hills
Jon Robert Willey, Cupertino
Neysa Fligor, Los Altos
Rob Rennie, Los Gatos
Evelyn Chua, Milpitas
Javed Ellahie, Monte Sereno
Yvonne Martinez Beltran, Morgan Hill
Margaret Abe-Koga, Mountain View
Tina Walia, Saratoga
Gustav Larsson, Sunnyvale
Otto Lee, Santa Clara County
Absent:
Zach Hilton, Gilroy
Chair Gibbons, Vice Chair Tyson, Alternate Director Larsson and Director Willey attended in person; all other Directors attended via teleconference.
Public Comment on Matters Not Listed on the Agenda
No speakers.
Consent Calendar
General Counsel Ortiz provided a report summary of Item 1d) Approve Amendment No. 5 to Employment Agreement for Chief Executive Officer, noting the amendment reflects the following:
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Increases the annual salary from $384,000 to $422,400;
Allows the CEO to elect to receive an additional $1,000 in lieu of participating in the group medical insurance plan as additional compensation; and
Provides additional 80 hours of management leave time to be used before September 30, 2023.
There were no questions or comments from the Board; there were no requests from the public to speak on any matter on the Consent Calendar.
1a) Approve Minutes of the August 10, 2022, Board of Directors Meeting 1b) Receive July 2022 Treasurer Report
1c) Adopt Resolution Authorizing Public Meetings to Continue to Be Held Via Teleconferencing Pursuant to Government Code Section 54953(e) and Making Findings 1d) Approve Amendment No. 5 to Employment Agreement for Chief Executive Officer 1e) Approve General and Administrative Policy #7: Chief Executive Officer Absence Policy 1f) Authorize CEO to Execute a 5-Year Agreement with Adapt2 Solutions, Inc. for Deal Capture and Settlements Software
1g) Adopt Resolution Establishing October 5, 2022 as Clean Air Day 1h) Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Execute a Two-year Agreement with Braun Blaising Smith Wynne P.C. (“BBSW”)
1i) Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Execute a Three-Year Agreement with Keyes and Fox, LLP for Legal Services
1j) Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Execute Agreement with Maher Accountancy for Accountant Services
1k) Authorize the CEO to Approve Agreement with Pisenti & Brinker, LLP for Financial Audit Services for the year ending September 30, 2022
1l) Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Execute an Agreement for FY22-23 with Richards, Watson & Gershon for Legal Services
1m) Executive Committee Report
1n) Finance and Administration Committee Report
1o) Audit Committee Report
1p) Legislative and Regulatory Response to Industry Transition 2022 Ad Hoc Committee Report 1q) California Community Power Report
MOTION: Director Chua moved and Director Martinez Beltran seconded the motion to approve the Consent Calendar, Items 1a through 1q.
The motion carried unanimously by verbal roll call vote with Director Hilton absent.
Regular Calendar
2) CEO Report (Discussion)
CEO Girish Balachandran addressed the following in his CEO report:
• Introductions of the following new employees: Juliette Pascual, Community Outreach Fellow, and Alhad Dighe, Fleet Electrification Fellow; both provided brief welcome comments; • Announcement that the SVCE Community Decarbonization Demonstration Grant and Community Decarbonization Engagement Grant would be opening this month;
• Announcement that SVCE would be pursuing a second prepay agreement, noting CFO and Director of Finance and Administration Amrit Singh would be leading the effort; • Reminder of invitation to an Electrification Reach Code event for elected officials taking place on September 29, 2022; and
• Comments on the recent heat wave that occurred the following week, with gratitude to the Board of Directors for their response in sharing Flex Alert information, SVCE customers who used backup generation during the heat wave, and acknowledgment of staff and their outreach efforts to customers to ensure they had enough warning to get things in place.
Chair Gibbons shared her thanks to all for the heat wave response.
Director Martinez Beltran noted the heat wave affected the City of Morgan Hill particularly hard, and suggested others who may have had a similar experience get together to speak with the CPUC regarding gaps in infrastructure and problems identified.
Chair Gibbons suggested a follow up discussion, possibly at the Executive Committee level, to discuss further.
3) Update on Strategic Plan and Adopt FY23 SVCE Strategic Focus Areas (Action) CEO Balachandran presented a PowerPoint presentation on the proposed FY23 SVCE Strategic Focus Areas which included:
24x7 Clean Energy: Explore 24x7 clean energy delivery at scale, to improve on the current 100% clean energy goal
Customer Base & Electrification: Grow Customer Base & Offerings, Emphasize Electrification Inflation Reduction Act: Accelerate deployment of currently adopted decarbonization strategies and goals; evaluate and capitalize on the Inflation Reduction Act & California state budget climate funds to further improve programs
Finance: Leverage Balance Sheet for Structured Financing and use financing solutions to increase impact of decarbonization program offerings, especially to lower-income customers Employee: Be the Employer of Choice, and Increase Staffing CEO Balachandran responded to a board member question regarding the mention of accelerated deployment of goals in the Inflation Reduction Act focus area.
Chair Gibbons opened Public Comment.
No speakers.
Chair Gibbons closed Public Comment.
MOTION: Director Martinez Beltran moved and Director Abe-Koga seconded the motion to approve the update on the Strategic Plan and adopt FY23 SVCE Strategic Focus Areas.
The motion carried unanimously by verbal roll call vote with Director Hilton absent. 4) Adopt the FY 2022-23 Recommended Operating Budget and Updated Reserves Policy (Action)
Amrit Singh, CFO and Director of Administrative Services, introduced the item and presented a PowerPoint presentation on SVCE’s FY 2022-23 recommended operating budget and updated reserves policy.
Chair Gibbons opened Public Comment.
No speakers.
Chair Gibbons closed Public Comment.
MOTION: Director Martinez Beltran moved and Director Abe-Koga seconded the motion to approve Resolution 2022-21 adopting the FY 2022-23 Operating Budget, and updated Financial Reserves Policy.
The motion carried unanimously by verbal roll call vote with Director Hilton absent. 5) Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Execute Necessary Agreements for a Resource Adequacy Resource from AES Clean Energy Development, LLC (Action) Charles Grinstead, Senior Manager of Power Resources, introduced the item and presented a PowerPoint presentation requesting approval of the mid-term reliability Baldy Mesa resource adequacy agreement.
Staff responded to a board member question regarding the extension of Diablo Canyon and its impact on the request.
Chair Gibbons opened Public Comment.
Bruce Karney questioned: 1) demand response as a way to balance consumption of electricity with generation during heat waves and other times, and 2) critical peak pricing. Karney requested the CEO comment on the potential for SVCE offering a critical peak pricing rate plan, and whether the state may begin to accept demand reduction through OhmConnect, and similar programs, as being equally valid to building new generation.
Chair Gibbons closed Public Comment.
CEO Balachandran noted he would be happy to discuss with Mr. Karney offline, and commented critical peak pricing is something SVCE would like to do, OhmConnect is a great idea, and spoke in support of automatic demand response.
MOTION: Director Lee moved and Director Fligor seconded the motion to delegate authority for the CEO to execute the Baldy Mesa RA-only agreement with the following parameters:
10-year term Resource Adequacy Agreement with expected delivery from June 1, 2023; Up to 75 megawatts (MWs) of lithium-ion battery incremental capacity; and The total contract amount not-to-exceed $81,477,000
The motion carried unanimously by verbal roll call vote with Director Hilton absent. 6) Integrated Resource Plan Status Update (Discussion)
Maren Wenzel, Senior Manager of Energy Policy and Regulatory Analysis, presented a PowerPoint presentation on SVCE’s Integrated Resource Plan, which included procedural background and context, draft results, and next steps.
Chair Gibbons opened Public Comment.
Bruce Karney thanked staff for the presentation and inquired if it is required to file information about the anticipated prices over the next 8-13 years, and if not with the state, can they be shared with the SVCE board next month.
Chair Gibbons closed Public Comment.
Senior Manager of Energy Policy and Regulatory Analysis Wenzel responded to Mr. Karney that CCAs are not obligated to discuss their rate forecasts, but there is an obligation to discuss the associated costs of the portfolios.
Senior Manager of Energy Policy and Regulatory Analysis Wenzel provided additional information on the draft results summary.
Board members provided comments and feedback on the recommended approach for the IRP. 7) New Construction Reach Code Update (Presentation)
Zoe Elizabeth, Deputy Director of Decarbonization Programs and Policy, presented a PowerPoint presentation providing a status update on reach code efforts and upcoming action items.
Chair Gibbons opened Public Comment.
No speakers.
Chair Gibbons closed Public Comment.
Board Member Announcements and Future Agenda Items
Director Abe-Koga announced the City of Mountain View City Council voted to accept a grant from SVCE to build a community center resiliency hub, which would be used to build a battery storage system to connect with the Mountain View Community Center’s solar system. Director Abe-Koga encouraged other member agencies to pursue the grants from SVCE on energy conservation and resiliency projects.
Director Chua announced the City of Milpitas would be launching a Simple Mobile Access to Reliable Transit (SMART) pilot program aimed at providing a transit solution to the City of Milpitas.
Director Martinez Beltran announced the City of Morgan Hill would be launching MoGo Morgan Hill Quick Ride rideshare service.
Chair Gibbons encouraged the Board of Directors and member agency electeds to attend the virtual reach code event on September 29, 2022.
Adjourn
Chair Gibbons adjourned the meeting at 8:50 p.m.
ATTEST:
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Andrea Pizano, Board Secretary