Nelson Community Power

March 1, 2022

Attendees

• In-person

  • Patsy Beffa-Negrini

  • Lisa Sieverts

  • Gary Robinson

  • Jonathan Pfister

• Zoom

  • Greg Rothman

  • Bill Waterston

  • Betsy Street

  • Rick Weyerhaeuser

  • Mare-Ann Jarvela

• Absent

  • Sandy Mackenzie

    • Grand-daughter, Nell, born on Sunday!

• Guests

  • None

Action Items

• Patsy

  • Find out how to request the data on resident usage from Eversource

  • Edit and clean up the questions and send to the brokers in advance.

  • Share a PDF of the questions with the committee

MINUTES

• Motion to approve the minutes of February 15, 2022, as sent by email on Feb. 1, Gary, and Rick seconds, all in favor

• Check-in: How are we doing?

  • We still have uncertainty and feel like we are learning our way, very grateful for other towns, and grateful for the in-depth agendas for these meetings

  • PDFs vs Google Docs for sharing committee documents?

    • Some preference for PDF, not all committee members are comfortable with Google Docs

• Plan for March 15 meeting with Standard Power and Good Energy (SP & GE)
  Finalize questions to ask consultant/broker using Keene’s Consultant Scoring Sheet as a guide

  • 1. DRAFT Consultant Scoring Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ucPQJTfetgHGWuFW1I5Gbv2j8ugekMVeulMrmN57rx8/edit?usp=sharing

  • We want to know for one thing, if Nelson is of large enough population to be of interest to them, and how will they service us compared to a larger town

  • We will also need Selection criteria for choosing a broker for electric purchase, do this later as we get closer to making that decision (in 2023)

  • Looking at Keene’s questions, we made edits directly in the document

    • docs.google.com/document/d/1ucPQJTfetgHGWuFW1I5Gbv2j8ugekMVeulMrmN57rx8/edit

  • Standard Power and Good Energy

    • Emily Manns, Bob Haydn will join us in two weeks, possibly another.

    • We don’t know if in person or via Zoom

    • Patsy will lead the asking of the questions, Lisa will take notes, and everyone should feel free to jump in and ask for clarification

• Handout at Town Meeting?

  • Lisa and Betsy feel it’s too early and that it will just confuse people if it’s handed out at Town Meeting but there’s nothing to vote on. All in agreement

  • Other ideas for Outreach later this year:

    • Better to tap into the Artisan Fair and Old Home Day instead

    • Our survey will also be a form of outreach

    • Best to also plan on going door-to-door next February

• Goal setting and vision

  • 2. Goal and Vision working document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y74JQsmHZ3gkaIO9E-_lXYu8wZtkFFFD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111544631100531111996&rtpof=true&sd=true

  • 1 Provide greater choice for ratepayers, at a rate that is competitive with the default/base rate offered by Eversource,

  • 2 Increase the percentage of renewable energy sources in the electricity mix,

  • 3 Support local renewable energy production

  • 4 Build a reserve fund to manage energy price shifts and to invest in local energy

  • Consider a goal around helping the Master Plan process to include Energy, which probably means creating a Nelson Energy Committee

• Retrospective

  • Discussion of meeting in person vs. meeting in Zoom. We’re still not permitted to meet entirely in Zoom

• Motion to adjourn at 3:50 PM by Rick, second Greg, all in favor

Next Meeting

• Tuesday, March 15, 2:30 PM, to interview Standard Power/Good Energy

Useful Links

• Google Group Email

  • mailto:nelsoncommunitypower@googlegroups.com

  • Using this email address will automatically send your message to everyone on the committee

• Nelson Community Power Web Page

  • sites.google.com/view/nelsoncommunitypower/home

• Consultants’ Web Pages

  • goodenergy.com/

  • cpcnh.org/

  • felpower.com/