HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-06-28-SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of May 25, 2016
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on May 25, 2016 at
the Hadley Building. A quorum of five was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Marcia Gens, Dan Voss, Todd Rhodes, Rick
Reibstein
Members Absent: None
Other Attendees: Brian Butler, enerscore
Ken Butler, enerscore
Tom Witkin, enerscore
Joe Pato
Lisa Fitzgibbons
Kris Spriano
Grace Sawaya, National Grid
Amy Smith, National Grid
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
Enerscore Presentation (Brian Butler)
• Mr. Butler provided a presentation of enerscore business. The objective is to provide
an estimated "energy score" for residential properties. These scores will be based on
tax assessor database information. The scores will be posted on Zillow and similar
real estate sites and include a button to "Improve My Score".
• Their research suggests that a more energy efficient home will have provide a 5%
premium on the sale price of the home.
• They work with Green Button, which is a standard approach for sharing energy data.
• Their approach is for the town to pay for the analysis. Enerscore then generates a
report for the 12— 15 housing types in the town and then makes the reports available
to the homeowners. The homeowner may then contact enerscore to be connected to a
contractor to implement the recommendations.
National Grid (Grace Sawaya, Amy Smith)
• Grace said that she will be able to generate the aggregate consumption data for the
town. She is the individual that the town contacts to fix known leaks.
• Amy said that she would be able to provide a map that provides general information
about where the cast iron pipe is located vs. plastic. They don't typically provide
detailed maps of critical energy infrastructure.
• They said that they would be happy to work with town engineers to identify areas
where there are gas leaks in need of repair, but they don't like to share the maps.
• Amy said that they are working with HEET to identify the super-emitters in the
service territory (she doesn't think any are in Lexington). They will focus on super-
emitters regardless of the town, since they focus on service territories not town-by-
town.
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• Amy agreed to provide information on each identified leak. If Lexington provides a
map of known leaks, National Grid would be able to provide information about the
size and type of pipe and the pressure level. And a list of distribution lines.
• Also agreed to setting up a meeting with DPW to review maps.
• They don't have data on lost and unaccounted for gas for Lexington. They said the
average is about 2%. Lexington would be lower than the average because about a
third of the pipe is plastic.
• Amy would be willing to look at a proposal for how Lexington could do their own
monitoring of leaks. MAPC is doing some monitoring that may be relevant. Agreed
to look at that information first.
• They follow a generic EPA standard for the estimating the number of leaks in a
system (e.g., X feet of pipe of a certain type under a certain pressure typically has Y
leaks).
Solar Task Force (D. Voss)
• Hartwell project is moving forward. Need Solar City to come back with proposed
compromises.
• Plan to kickoff in the first week in July.
Community Choice Aggregation (M. Sandeen)
• Presented the plan to the Board of Selectmen last night to include two options: 1)
100% green with national wind, and 2) a lower percent of lower green.
Getting to Net Zero (L. Fitzgibbons)
• Recruiting for the task force. Boston Properties, Shire, Paul Lucas, Planning Board,
Melissa Titocolas, Aaron Henry (Planning).
• Working with Cambridge to learn from their experience.
• Joe recommended providing a charge and roster at the July 25th BOS meeting.
• Working on putting a bid out to complete an assessment of the town building stock.
Composting (M. Gens)
• The 3 school pilot went well.
• Thinking of expanding to the high school.
• Need to put out a RFP due to the expanded scope
Toxics (R. Reibstein)
• Update on the Toxics Law.
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