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FSEC Policy Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes

March 3, 2017

Attendees: Paul Allen, John Anderson, Tommy Boroughs,  Michael Burroughs, Chris Castro, Peter DeNapoli, Mike Faas, James Fenton, Bill Grieco (via GoToMeeting), John Leeds, (for Kelley Burk), Debra Reinhart (for Liz Klonoff), Dave Robau, Louis Rotundo, Jennifer Szaro, Yara Watson (for David Norvell), David Winslow

Invited Guests: Sybelle Fitzgerald, Gulf Power Company; Lauren Thead, City of West Palm Beach; Huynh Tran, UCF

FSEC Staff: Issa Batarseh, Paul Brooker, Philip Fairey, Mary Huggins, Colleen Kettles, Doug Kettles, Eric Martin, Nan Qin, Ali Raissi, Richard Raustad, Winston Schoenfeld, Sherri Shields, JoAnn Stirling

  1. David Winslow called meeting to order at 10:00 and asked for introductions. 
  2. Winslow asked for motion to approve minutes from last meeting.  Motion was made and seconded by Mike Faas. Motion approved unanimously.
  3. Jim Fenton made a PowerPoint presentation covering the status of FSEC programs. Presentation: Status of FSEC Programs
  4. John Leeds presented some current activities of the Florida Energy Office.
    These included:
    • Purchased kits for schools for Energy Whiz program.
    • Continuing the Farm Renewable and Efficiency Demonstration (FRED) Program providing free energy evaluations valued up to $4,500 to Florida farmers.
    • Status of the Volkswagon $14.7B settlement.  Florida may be in line to receive $166M over 10 year period.
      • Winslow suggested that the VW settlement issue be placed on the agenda of the next Advisory Board meeting.
  5. Louis Rotundo and Tommy Boroughs commented on state energy policy
  6. Jennifer Szaro gave presentation on the Smart Electric Power Alliance. SEPA is a collaborative which develops solutions in partnerships around today’s challenges in distributed energy resources. Presentation: Smart Electric Power Alliance Working Groups
  7. Chris Castro gave presentation about City of Orlando’s efforts on energy efficiency, smart cities, EVs, solar and energy storage. Presentation: City of Orlando, Smart ORL – The Future of urban sustainability
  8. Adjournment at 12 noon for lunch.
  9. Meeting continued at 1:00 p.m.
  10. Fenton introduced Debra Reinhart, Office of Research and Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, UCF and Hyunh Tran, Utilities and Energy Services, UCF.
  11. Tran gave presentation about his department’s energy monitoring project.
  12. Yara Watson and Huynh Tran explained the UCF annual kilowatt competition, which involves 10 communities on campus. It gives students knowledge on how to manage energy bills, awards 10 scholarships, and saves the university money.
  13. Fenton said that there would be two in-person board meetings a year and working groups could meet via webinar meetings. Working groups could pursue other fields of interest similar to SEPA, e.g., storage, microgrids, smart grid & demand resources, community solar and electric vehicles.
  14. There was discussion on what more can FSEC do.
    • Training and partnerships should be explored.
    • Do market research to see what areas we can serve.
  15. Discussion on how FSEC could get involved in third party testing of new technologies. FSEC building researchers have worked jointly with manufacturers and potential customers of the technology to be evaluated but getting real money to fund FSEC staff is difficult. A SWOT analysis was suggested and while FSEC did one several years ago, economics are changing fast in solar and battery storage which would warrant a new SWOT analysis.
  16. Discussions on if and how FSEC could become involved in review and testing processes for utilities and big energy consumers.
  17. Motion made to adjourn meeting, motion approved, meeting ended at 2:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
David Winslow, Chairman