BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES
JUNE 4, 2025
5:30 P.M.

LOS ALAMOS COUNTY MUNICIPAL BUILDING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS

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Okay, good evening. I'll call to order this, uh… June 4th, 2025 meeting of the Board of Public Utilities.

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Thank you, everyone, for coming and for participating. Um, it may look like we're a little short-handed tonight, but my understanding is we have three other board members on Zoom.

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Uh, let… for both a comm check and for a quorum check for the record.

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Let's make sure that we can communicate with all three of the folks that we have Uh, on Zoom. So, Charlie, are you there?

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I am here. Hello, everyone.

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Thank you, Matt. Okay, and Eric?

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Great, fantastic. So… We actually do have a quorum.

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I am here as well.

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Um, appreciate everybody taking time out from wherever they are to, uh.

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Participate this evening. We also have Councillor Dave Rieger pinch-hitting for Susie Havenman and the, uh… Uh, council liaison role tonight, so… the, um… Thanks, everyone.

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First order of business is public comment. Uh, do we have any public comment in chambers?

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Seeing none, do we have any online? Thank you, Chair Gibson. For members of the public who are joining us tonight on Zoom.

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When Chair Gibson calls for public comment, please use the raise hand function, and if you're participating by phone, you can press star 9 to raise your hand.

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Would anybody like to make a public comment at this time?

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Nobody has their hand raised, Chair Gibson. Okay, thank you. Next will be approval of the agenda.

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Um, just to simplify things, I'll go ahead and make the motion here.

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So all we'll need from the online crew is a second, and that can be done by raising a hand.

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Um, so I move that we approve the agenda. For this evening's meeting, as published.

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Is there a second? See one from my… see, Eric had his hand up first. Eric Stromberg seconds.

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Any comment or other input? Seeing none, all in favor, raise hand.

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Okay, motion passes 4-0. We'll do the same thing regarding the statement regarding the closed session.

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I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve the following statement for inclusion in the minutes.

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Quote, the matters discussed in the closed sessions on June 4th 2025, Um… Let's see… that's… That's not right. That's the wrong date.

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Um… Stop. We'll get this right yet.

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May 21st, thank you. Okay, let me start over.

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The matters discussed in the closed sessions on May 21st, 2025 We're limited only to those topics specified in the notice of the closed session.

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And no action was taken on any matter during the closed session.

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Is there a second? Okay, Matt, we'll take Matt as the second.

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Any discussion? Seeing none. Um, again, we'll do raise… show of hands to, uh, in favor of the motion.

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And Charlie, I don't see you… there we go. Thank you. Okay, motion passes 4-0.

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That moves us on to presentations. And the first one is an interim report on the electrification study.

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Mr. Merez? Yes, Chair Gibson, board members, uh, today we have, uh.

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Jacob Wells and Elliot Poppel from 1898 and Company. Burns and McDonald's, and they're here to give you an update on the progress of the electrification study.

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And, uh, give you some, uh, answer your questions as needed.

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Thank you very much.

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Welcome, gentlemen. I appreciate you coming this evening. Thank you. My name is Jacob Wells, appreciate the opportunity that we have to speak with the board today.

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Um, and for your time. I'll give it a second for the… Slides get pulled up.

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Um, and as that's being pulled up, uh, we have about 20 slides to walk through tonight. We're happy to pause if there's any questions or discussion that you'd like to have throughout, and we'll see what we can address. And our intent for today is to really give

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You know, an update of where we're at with the study, as well as what are the next steps as we work towards finalizing the draft of the report, getting some more of the um, you know, analysis results, um, into your hands.

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So… Yeah, advance, please. So, our outline for today's agenda is… I'll have Elliot start off with the electrification scenarios.

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We're going to take this opportunity to talk about some of the assumptions, how we went about performing the electrification forecasts, and why we went with this methodology of three scenarios for the study.

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Um, as we work through the electrification scenarios, I will then come back to the podium to talk about the electrification impact study, and this is really where we're taking the forecasts, and then looking at what are the grid impacts, what are the things that…

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The DEPU needs to do to react to this electrification, as well as prepare Um, with a 30-year outlook. Um, so with that, I'll turn it over to Elliot to go into the electrification scenarios. Thank you.

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Right. Thank you all. So, my name is Elliot Poppel, um, and next slide, please.

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So, just as a reminder, why it's this study needed? Well, you've all signed up for a really ambitious climate action plan.

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Uh, and I say ambition not because it is impossible to do. The technology that you need to accomplish this.

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Is commercially available, widely available, and it is very achievable. Um, but it is ambitious in the scope.

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Of getting 100%, uh, EV adoption by 2050, um, reducing natural gas usage in buildings, uh, by 100% also by 2050, or thereabout. Uh, so these are very ambitious goals.

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And I just want to set the stage and say that in order to accomplish this.

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We need to, um, build up that, uh, our electrical grid in order to accommodate those future loads. Um, so, next slide, please.

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So, to help you understand where this was, uh, what it's going to take.

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We have prepared 3 different scenarios. Next slide. Um, the first scenario is, uh, scenario number one would be most aligned with the climate action plan that you've, uh, put out.

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Uh, in 2022. Uh, that Climate Action Plan calls for 100% EV adoption by 2050, we stretched out to the full 30-year of our forecast of 2055 from today.

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Uh, we've also, uh, modeled what would it take for 100% home and commercial building electrification. So that's going to be electrifying your water heating, your space heating.

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Uh, clothes drain and gas, uh, and cooking, um, for all of those different buildings in the county.

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In addition to that, what are the effects of, uh, more green building policy standard?

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Energy efficiencies, um, we think that, uh, the high end would be a 20% improvement.

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Of those energy usage in buildings. And then lastly, parallel to all that, we expect that a lot of people to install rooftop fillers on their homes and businesses. With that, some percentage, uh, up to 20%, of home could also have a battery energy storage system.

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To… in addition to all that. So all of those are in the envelope of, uh, scenario number one.

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It's most in line with the Climate Action Plan. Now, Scenario 2 and 3 are less, uh, ambitious in scope.

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Scenario 2 would be most aligned with what we have right now in current policy.

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Uh, so the current projection of what is going on in Los Alamos County when it comes to EV adoption.

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Um, maybe half of homes and commercial property electrify their, uh, appliances by 2055.

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And then a quarter of homes, uh, go all in on solar, and 10% of homes also go with it.

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Battery energy storage system. Uh, so all of that would be in Scenario 2.

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And then Scenario 3 was what we like to call the natural behavior. This is assuming that there is no government policy pushing one way or the other.

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What would people just do on their own, uh, if there weren't, uh, regulation, either?

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Incentivizing or even mandating it, uh, one way or the other, so that would be following the historical trend for EV adoption in the state of New Mexico.

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Maybe a quarter of all homes, uh, electrified by 2055. There's no energy efficiency upgrade, and then there's very low penetration of additional solar.

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Uh, coming on to people's home. Next slide, thank you. Now.

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Okay, before you… before you go on, um… And I think you just maybe just touched on it.

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What does 20% building efficiency mean? I think that's mislabeled. I don't… because I understand what efficiency is, but what do you mean by 20% building efficiency?

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I actually have a slide on that, so let's jump to the next slide, and I can answer that question.

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Okay, perfect, thank you.

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First. Uh, so when we're talking about building efficiency, what we're talking about are ceiling windows, uh, improving installations in home.

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Improving, getting more efficient HVAC system and lighting, all of those, uh, things can improve the amount of energy that is being used inside the house. And that couples really closely with home electrification.

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Uh, because when you… When you're heating a house in the middle of winter.

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The reason why you're, uh, you constantly need to use your furnace is because there are air leaks around the building, just due to the age of the home. It could be not as much insulation we'd use in the past as what is currently standard.

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Um, so… doing these simple upgrades of improving, uh, the… Like, preventing… putting a new transit… a transition on your doorway to prevent less air coming inside house, and similar for the windows and everything else.

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Can actually have a improvement on your energy usage in that home.

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Now, Josh?

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Okay, so… so what… so what we're doing here is, you didn't have enough room on the slide.

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Yes.

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To say 20% increase in energy efficiency. If you didn't mean… 20% building efficiency, which makes no sense. What you meant was 20% increase in efficiency.

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Okay, okay, I got it, thanks.

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Yes, correct. Yeah, yeah, so that would be for scenario one, and Scenario 2 would be 10%, I did brief a client over that, and then Scenario 3, uh, which is our natural behavior, there wouldn't be any changes. Uh, so zero proofing.

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It would probably… it might help to put, like, a plus sign, so building efficiency.

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Plus 20%, instead of just saying 20%. Because, like I said, that… It confuses us engineers, we're easily confused.

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You got it.

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Okay, thanks. Okay, okay, got it.

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No, not a problem. Speak for yourself, Eric. If you could hold on for just a moment here, let me… Um, could you leave this, uh.

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Panel on the right-hand side up so we can see the other board members.

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So at least I can see the other board members all the time.

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And maybe even see if they have hand… hand up.

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Yeah, if you… if it blocks anything substantive, then take it away, but that'd be nice to have all of the Board members visible here.

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At least all that wish to be visible. Thank you. Thank you. So I'll just finish off this one slide talking about building efficiency. So, the reason why building efficiency is important is because as we transition appliances in the home and commercial property to all-electric options.

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Um, you know, not that we want to necessarily want it to be wasteful when we're on natural gas, but we definitely don't want to be wasteful With all that warm air, warm water that we're producing with electricity, and then letting it escape out of the house. Um, so…

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Um, now, if we can jump back to the previous slide.

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Another, uh, major input into our model is understanding how do people charge their vehicles.

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Um, now, if… if everyone in Los Alamos goes home from work.

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Parked their cars, plug in their EVs all at the same time.

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Multiply that by, uh, the 18,000… a vehicle that we have here in the county.

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That's going to have a massive grid impact. But that doesn't… that's not realistic, because human behavior doesn't always align perfectly. People don't always automatically go home at 6 o'clock and plug in their cars After driving an EV. Um, what I want to highlight is, uh, the figure on the box, um, on the right-hand side.

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Um, that top box here, we think… we have evidence that Most EVs drivers fall into one of three bucket of categories. Um, most people, uh, 30… or, excuse me, 30% of people When they come home, they'll immediately plug in their cars, start charging right away. As I previously outlined.

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Um, if you have a time to use rate, or some other, uh, incentive to charge your vehicle at a later time.

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A lot of people will be very sensitive to that, so we think that 40% of people will schedule their charging to occur later, uh, maybe, um, either through an app on their phone, or schedule on the charger.

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Um, and so that means that they'll Um, the car will be fully charged at 6 AM in the next day, uh, but the charging will start at 1AM in the morning, or something like that.

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And then the last, uh, uh… group of people, uh, will rely dead on Level 1 charging.

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Uh, so that's a slow charging. Um, and what that means is they'll come in, they'll come home at 6 AM or 6 p.m.

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And, uh, it'll plug in, but it's out of a regular wall outlet. Uh, that means that the grid impact is a lot less.

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But it does take a lot longer to get a full charge. Um, so 3 different charging behavior to be aware of.

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Um, some other factors to be considered, uh, there's something called a diversity factor. That just means that not everyone charged your vehicle.

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On same time, on the same day. Um, on average, most EVs can go 3 days of normal driving.

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Before they need to be charged up again. Um, so we opted for a 30% diversity factor.

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Um, and then, in addition to that, there's a, uh, about 80% people charged exclusively at home.

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That are 20% might be out driving around on a road trip, or charging from a public charger.

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Or they might not have access to a charger at home.

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So, we do not need to worry about them. The net effect of this slide is that last box on the bottom, uh, are a coincident load.

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This is how we're calculating the grid impact of everyone having an EV in this county. The number of EVs based on our scenario.

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Multiplied by the charger output, multiplied by the 80% that are charging a home.

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And then the 30% diversity factor. All right, uh, next slide, please.

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Yeah. Okay, so this is the result of our study.

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Um, oh, excuse me, one more slide. Okay, this is a result of our study, um, we have two boxes. The left side is 2040.

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You know, 15 years from today. Excuse me. And the right-hand side is 2055, so 30 years from today.

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I wanted to direct your attention to the right-hand side, 2055, all the way to the bottom four rows.

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Where it says, total additional electrification peak load. Um, so what we're looking at, we have 3 different scenarios.

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That last row, Scenario 1, are high load. Um, what we're looking at for potential growth is that we are currently at about 17 megawatts of peak.

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We're gonna add, by electrifying everything. We're gonna add an additional 44 megawatts of load.

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Add a result of electrifying. All of our transportation, of home electrification, uh, commercial electrification.

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Plus solar and battery storage. So all of those things combined add up to 44.

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0.4 megawatt of additional load. That is our high scenario. Uh, scenario two, our medium scenario.

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Um, that is 28 megawatts. And in our low scenario 3, 13.5.

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Now, if you look at the sections above that, we call out two different load, EV adoption, and building electrification. So, same format of high, medium, low.

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Um, and… We can contribute our EV adoption to, uh, in our high scenario, um, 22.4 megawatt, uh, our middle, uh, scenario 2, 18.2 megawatts.

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And then, uh, our low scenario of 8.1. All for EVs.

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Uh, our building electrification. Have pretty similar number for our high scenario to 33.3. Uh, our Scenario 2 is, uh, 18.7.

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And our low scenario is 9.9. Now, you will notice that if you add up our EV adoption and our building electrification, you do not get the same numbers in the bottom section.

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That's because those peaks are occurring at different times, which I will explain in more detail on the next slide.

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Um, but our EV adoptions happen… our… all of our EV charging is happening at one time a day.

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Our heating load on a winter day is happening much later in the evening, in the middle of the night.

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So, when most of our EV charging is done. Um, and all of our other activities aren't as active.

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Um, we still have spacing to account for it, and I will explore that on the next slide.

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Now… Yeah, uh, one other note on this slide, um, everything on the left-hand side is 15 years from now.

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So these are kind of the midway into the 30-year forecast. These are similar numbers.

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Um, what I do want to highlight is, uh, looking at that bottom four rows.

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For the total additional electrification. Um, our high scenario is still 20.9 megawatts, so more than your current grid.

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Peaks at right now. Um, so these are big numbers. Um, with that, um.

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Is there any comment… question or comment on this slide? I know there's a lot of numbers. I want to make sure that We're… we're all on the same page.

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Is any… any of the board members have questions or comment here?

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Okay, I've got a couple. Um, the, uh… Um… I think you've probably chosen a good set of, um… Both… both periods of time and, uh.

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Low, medium, and high scenarios. Um, we will, of course, be interested in the details of how you got there.

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But, uh, I did note with interest that, uh, you're, uh.

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High scenario… Uh, in 2055, for building electrification.

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33.3 megawatts. Is exactly the same number that the LREZ study came up with 4 years ago here, 33.5 megawatts, which is Uh, you know, if we're anywhere within 20 or 30% of these estimates, we're probably doing well, so… Um, that, uh, that helps provide some credibility that, uh.

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Different people at different times using their own assumptions have come up with basically the same number.

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If we can get there. The, uh… I had a question about your comment at the bottom. You estimate the current peak load around 17 megawatts.

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And I think it's Mr. Merez can probably tell us for sure.

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Uh, we have certainly at times been in the low 20s.

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In terms of peak load. Um, so it's, uh… I believe, um… The, uh… And the good news is, I think that our current peak load is fairly… is… typically fairly low in the early morning hours.

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When the heating load is going to be high, so you don't necessarily have to add 33 megawatts to 20 megawatts, or 17, or 23, or whatever, it's, what, more like… down the low teens, or 10, or something like that?

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So, I don't know if you've taken that into account, but… Wow, this is a perfect segue to my next slide, so why don't we jump to our next slide. Okay. And then let me… let me explain that, and we'll… we'll pause and get some more comments.

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Um, okay, so… We, um, ran these numbers.

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But we wanted to understand what would a typical peak day look like. So we believe your peak day, you're going to be pinking in the winter months because of that heat and load is going to be pretty extreme. Um, so what we have on this slide is Scenario 1.

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For 30 years from now. We… I do have some, uh, uh, Scenario 2 and 3 for also for 2055 on the next few slides.

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We did not include 2040, just because it… very similar, and it… we want to focus on this slide Um, now, uh, I know this is… this is a hot mess with a lot of different lines, so let me First, define the axes. So, on the y-axis, this is our mega kilowatts of growth.

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Uh, so 10,000 kilowatts. 10 megawatts. Um, on the X-axis, we have our time throughout the day. We're starting at 6 AM in the morning.

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Going all the way to 5 a.m. The next day. And then, uh, if we can just trace the green dotted line.

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That is our, um, home electrification. Now, at 6 AM in the morning, people are starting to wake up, they're using, um, they're cooking, I even do a load of laundry at that time, but it's primarily space heating.

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Um, at that hour of the day. Now, you'll notice that it drops off from 6 AM, uh, pretty quickly down to a very low level.

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Not zero, but fairly low, um, uh, during the day. It stayed low until around 4 PM, then it started rising up. That's people coming back home Um, they're cooking, they're cleaning, they're doing all the normal activities.

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Uh, so we expect to see that growth anyway. But then, after, uh, you know, 10 PM, Most people are going back to bed. They're not doing a load of laundry at that time and cooking a 5-course meal or anything like that, so why is it still high?

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:32.000
That is almost entirely because of space heating. Again, this is during the winter months, so out here, um, it can get pretty darn cold. Um, and then… It continued, that line continues to go up from, uh, 1AM all the way up to 5 a.m, and peaks at 6 AM.

00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:43.000
So, that is almost entirely space heating of using heat pumps to keep your house warm and toasty. And what I mentioned earlier about building electric, uh.

00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:49.000
Energy efficiency upgrade, that will really help with that, um, line.

00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:58.000
Now, let's look at the dotted blue line. So at 6 AM, it's the next one down below the green line.

00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Um, it's also… that's all of our EV charging for residents.

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:10.000
Um, now, at 6 AM, they're starting to dial down because people are waking up, they're heading out the door to go to work.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:20.000
It stays low, not entirely 0%, um, but then, um, as we progress from about 3, 4 o'clock on.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:28.000
People are starting to come home. As soon as they come home that first group of people who are immediately plugging in and charging.

00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.000
Plus people who are also doing Level 1 charging are also plugging at the same time.

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:36.000
Um, so that's why we see that line starting to go up.

00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:50.000
Around 4 and 5 p.m. And then later in the evening, you'll see that starting around 9 PM, and then peaking at 1AM, That line goes up quite a bit.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:02.000
That's all of our schedule charting. Those are all the people who are really responding to any potential time use rate, or whatever, but they want a fully charged car.

00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:11.000
By 5 AM. Uh, that way, when they get out and go out the door in the morning, uh, that car is fully charged and ready to go.

00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:17.000
So you see that EV charging Uh, peaks around 1AM.

00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:24.000
And then start to dial back down, but that's also coinciding when space heating is starting to really ramp up.

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:39.000
Uh, the next line is a dotted purple line. Um, that is our commercial electrification, so these are… businesses and other, uh, buildings in the community, non-residential buildings.

00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:54.000
Um, and, you know, people aren't typically walking in and out in the middle of the night, uh, so… Starting around 6 AM, we see that load coming online. Uh, that's where people are going into the work.

00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:05.000
Um, they are turning on light, they're turning on… Uh, the space heating, uh, to keep the building nice and warm and toasty. Um, but By, uh, 9 a.m.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:20.000
Uh, that load starts to drop down, because presumably the building is warm, the doors are closed for new employees coming in aren't really coming in now anymore. Um, and also at the daytime, so we expect to see some warmth from the sun.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:27.000
And then at, uh, at around 5 PM, that started to dial back down pretty dramatically.

00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:43.000
All right, um, now underneath… all of that, you can see there the light blue teal color line, um, that is our commercial EVs, so local businesses having their own electric vehicles.

00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:52.000
It peaked from around, uh, 6 PM, uh, or so. Um, so presumably people are at work.

00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:02.000
Using those vehicles in their day-to-day operation. At the end of the workday, they park their vehicles, they plugged them in, then they hop into their own cars and drive home.

00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Uh, so that's why we see that load pick up, uh, pretty rapidly at around 7PM.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:19.000
But then, over time, it dials back down as people… as those vehicles are fully charged, and they don't need to charge anymore.

00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:28.000
Uh, lastly, we had, uh, that yellow line that goes below the axis. Uh, that is all of our solar generation.

00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:36.000
Um, again, we are modeling a average day in January, because we expect this utility to be winter peaking.

00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:45.000
So there is some sunlight, it's not no solar at all, uh, but it is reduced summer, uh, solar hours compared to what you would see in the summer.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:50.000
Um, but, you know, that solar start picking up right away about 7 a.m.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:58.000
Uh, peaks around noontime, and then dials back down afterward. And then, uh, around 5 PM, it's basically done.

00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:08.000
You will notice that it plateaus right up below to zero access. Uh, so why is that? Well, those are our battery energy storage thermostat.

00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:13.000
Residents would have. Um, so you can see it plateaus for a couple of hours.

00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:18.000
And then it hit the zero axis. Uh, so all these battery systems.

00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:30.000
Uh, they would only last for a couple of hours. Um, and, you know, so it's not forever. Um, and then around… 8, 9 p.m, we expect most of them to be depleted.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:36.000
Now, um, if we can… Jump to the next slide really quick.

00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:47.000
This is Scenario 2. It is the same pattern, maybe some little tweaks here and there, but you have the same curve going on. And I forgot to mention that.

00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:53.000
Solid orange line on top. That's the net impact that we're seeing.

00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:01.000
And then one more slide. This is Scenario 3. So, same pattern, but even more of reduced magnitude.

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.000
Um, maybe if we go back to a slide to Scenario 1.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:16.000
Thank you. Um, I forgot to mention one more thing on the… CHEO lined a light blue line, you'll see that there's a weird little hump right in the middle of the day.

00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:31.000
What is that? Well, those are, uh, electric school buses. So, most school buses pick up kids in the morning, then they're idle for a couple of hours before they run out again around 2 o'clock to pick up the kids again and take them back home.

00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:50.000
Uh, those are prime hours that they could just be sitting on a charger. They're idle anyway, and take advantage of all that renewable energy that's available on the grid. So that's why you see a little hump up But, in aggregate, with everything else going on, the, uh, the grid…

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:59.000
Peaks around 6 a.m. At 44 megawatts in Scenario 1, and then it hits a minimum of 1.5 megawatt.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:05.000
Uh, compared to what you normally would be peaking at at 1PM.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:22.000
So, I know that was a lot of content to throw at you, so maybe why don't we take another pause, and any question or comment about this slide.

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:36.000
Sure, go ahead, Phyla. I just want to let you know that before the Council on June 10th, we're looking at implementing time of use and demand, uh, residential demand.

00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:52.000
Rates that would go into effect no sooner than July 1st of of, uh, next year. Okay. And… I don't know if that helps, uh, maybe… you know, Steven and I can get ahold of you on the 11th next week, but uh…

00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:56.000
We seem to be moving in that direction. It may help.

00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:12.000
With, uh, especially the fleet charging, um, after, you know. Timed hours that you… Yeah. Take advantage of that time of use rate, and uh… It may actually help with demand if people use Level 1.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:31.000
Uh, because of the demand charge. Yeah, so what we see in other utilities is that As soon as they introduce the time of use rate, there's a real sharp, uh, movement to wherever that time of use rate is. I think when we last came out back in March for the town hall.

00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:40.000
Uh, we shared a slide that showed, like, what the, uh, KCO, uh, the California, uh, Independent System Operator.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:50.000
Was expecting, and load, and there's a… Real dramatic cliff at 9pm at night, that's when a time of use rate is implemented.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:56.000
Um, and that's when everyone set their EV charging. So, not only do you have that ramp, uh.

00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:15.000
To accommodate for EV load with the time of use, it becomes a cliff. Um, so… It's really, really interesting challenge of kind of understanding how all those different policy fits in here. But, uh, for our model, we do not implement any of that. We just said.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:28.000
Maybe 40% of the people just would like to have their charging, uh, vehicle fully charged at 5 AM in the morning, they don't really care what the algorithm set that charging to.

00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Okay. Other… other questions or comments? I have one. Most of our commutes here are fairly short.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:52.000
10 to 20 miles round trip, probably. Yeah. Ballpark. Um, that would seem that… it would seem that an EV a modern EV, even today.

00:35:52.000 --> 00:36:00.000
Could do 4 or 5 work days. And maybe an errand or two into town, which would also tend to be of similar length.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:23.000
Uh, in other words, a whole week without We're getting even close to the… to needing recharging. Yeah. So… Do you see that in other communities and people still want to charge at the peak time of use rate, in the evening, or is that something that we're likely to be able to count on

00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:35.000
Being, uh, people charging on the weekends, for instance. Um, during the day, preferably, when solar's available, if that's our primary electric source.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:41.000
Or, uh, otherwise. Avoid that peak time in the evening.

00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:49.000
Um, you… do you What's your experience in that… with that, uh, those drivers in place.

00:36:49.000 --> 00:37:05.000
Well, I think a main pain point for a lot of people when they're considering hey, should I buy an EV? There's also, oh, I also have to buy this other piece of equipment to sell, you know, high power charging station

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:13.000
Uh, for my house, I have to go hire an electrician to make sure I have the right kind of outlet in my garage, or wherever I'm parking the vehicle.

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:18.000
Um, and that just means that if your commute is short.

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:25.000
You can get by just fine with Level 1 charging. Any old 120V outlet will do the job.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:34.000
Um, it may take a long time to get a fully charged, but if you're doing it frequently, um, every 3 days.

00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:44.000
Fine. Um, and, you know, I think… That just makes EVs more attractive at an option for residents here in the county.

00:37:44.000 --> 00:38:02.000
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Well, on that note, um, if we advance the slide, uh, to… Next one, one more. Uh, that's it from my portion. I'm going to hand it over to my colleague Jake Wells, and we'll go from there.

00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:15.000
Can I actually have you… go back one, uh, back to the Scenario 1 forecast. There's a few ideas I wanted to bring in as we're talking about the grid impact, so… Uh, one of them was the time that the peak, so…

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:26.000
So in this forecast, we're showing that 6 AM is when the system peaked the most. However, I want to just point to the orange line that it is relatively flat.

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:46.000
Through the evening hours. And so, part of that is because we wanted to model you know, customer behavior as there's variation in charging, you know, helping to flatten out that curve, because that's gonna help us meet the… the grid demands. Because of that, even though the peak was at 6 AM, we still have a very significant amount of load

00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:56.000
Through most of the evening hours. And so. That idea, I'm gonna bring back more as I talk about the grid impacts, because you know, I'm a very conservative engineer as well.

00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:02.000
We don't want to underestimate the grid impacts, and so there are some of those ideas are going to work their way into the grid impact.

00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:14.000
Um, as well as with the EV charging and the commute distances, I know, Ellie, in our In our report, we're gonna lay a lot more of the assumptions of you know, population of vehicles.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:19.000
Commute distances, how does that factor into the kilowatt hours used by the drivers?

00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:35.000
And so there will be some variation in the future of Some people might be able to wait till Saturday to charge off of excess solar, and That is a great thing, because they're using that renewable energy, charging in the evening, you're not going to get as much solar. So there are some benefits from that.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:40.000
Um, but there's also some things to consider if we're modeling a winter day.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:52.000
You know, electric vehicles are less efficient in the winter. They may not be driving as many miles, but running those heaters in the car, as well as maintaining battery temperatures for longer life of that asset.

00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:59.000
You know, customers may use more energy and be more inclined to plug in more often in the winter times.

00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:02.000
So, just a couple thoughts to add, but we can… we can advance.

00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:19.000
Um, so great. So, what I wanted to bring this all together is start our initial discussion about the electric distribution system. That's really why all of this electrification matters, and how the Los Alamos customers are going to maintain their electric service. So.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:25.000
What we're showing here is a picture of the power flow model that was provided by the county.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:34.000
Uh, this isn't a software called Windmill. It is a very common software that is utilized by many cooperative utilities and municipal utilities throughout the country.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:50.000
Um, so we come across it very regularly. Uh, so I apologize, some of the colors might be a little hard to see as I zoomed out, but this shows the Los Alamos town site system. We are aware that the last, Los Alamos substation, is going to be energized

00:40:50.000 --> 00:41:03.000
Probably relatively soon, or…? Steven says, by the end of the month. So, uh, what we wanted to do as a start point for this study is represent that near-term system configuration.

00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:11.000
Uh, so what we're showing here in red is the last substation, so the areas that would be served by the distribution feeders from the last substation.

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:24.000
Blue represents the feeders from the existing Townseite substation. And this gives a bearing of, kind of, how those feeders would be configured, and just an overview of the Los Alamos Towsonite system.

00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:39.000
Um, you could advance, please? As we started digging into the windmill model and getting a basis, we wanted to represent, and this will be incorporated into the report, what are the initial power flow results? Uh, so we could get an understanding of, are there

00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:46.000
Planning criteria violations today. Or is the system set up well for the current load levels?

00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:51.000
So what we found is we reconfigured the model to represent this near-term system.

00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:59.000
Is that your distribution feeders are relatively lightly loaded. Uh, you know, between 1 and 2 megawatts of load per feeder.

00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:08.000
Uh, this shows a great benefit from energizing the last substation. We're going to be splitting that load, traditionally served by the town site station, across more distribution feeders.

00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:17.000
That's gonna reduce the wear on equipment. That's going to reduce the outage impact if a fault occurs, less customers are going to be impacted.

00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:25.000
And so this shows a lot of great things. We're looking at the maximum amps as the second from the right column in both of these tables.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:30.000
You know, we're not seeing high amperage amounts that would deteriorate cables.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:39.000
And we're also tracking in the Powerflow model what is the minimum voltage. You know, another planning criteria that is important for customers. We don't want sensitive equipment to be tripping offline.

00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:45.000
We also don't want solar inverters to have problems. We want our customers to have good, reliable power.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:59.000
A couple thoughts that we were laying out here that are gonna be… come arguments in our study report is that Um, you know, outlined in that orange box is you know, as we're looking 30 years into the future, thinking about electrification.

00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:06.000
You know, service transformers and secondary conductors, uh, the equipment that's nearest our customer homes.

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:15.000
That has the most potential to be impacted by electrification, because You know, that service transformer serves a handful of customers.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:29.000
There's more likelihood that people living on the same street could plug in their vehicles at the same time. That impact could be exacerbated. So, that's something that we're going to keep talking about in the report, and something the county needs to be

00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:47.000
Having their eye on that service upgrades, electric vehicles, they're all gonna you know, they could cause some challenges, um, at that lower level. But from a primary system, or the distribution feeders and substations, we don't see any issues with the existing system in Los Alamos.

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:53.000
Could I ask a question right there? Yes. Um, in the… in the red box there.

00:43:53.000 --> 00:44:03.000
You're talking about the service transformers and secondary conductors, and it sentence, this will be discussed qualitatively in the study.

00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:15.000
Um… Are you not planning to give us any quantitative Estimates or guidance there? So, we will provide some estimates, it's just not going to be from the power flow model.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:33.000
Uh, because as… and I'll talk more about the process, but… as we apply the electrification load, we don't know which customers are going to get Ford F-150 that charges at 20 kilowatts, and which ones are going to get a Nissan Leaf. So, we're going to be applying the electrification load throughout the system.

00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:51.000
And we're going to be focused more on the primary lines and conductors, but we do have some estimations for you know, how many service transformers may need to be upgraded, because it's a capacity issue, but also an asset health and reliability issue. Assets will need to be replaced over time. So we will have estimates.

00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:58.000
I just said qualitatively here because the power flow model won't necessarily tell us which transformers are going to overload.

00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:08.000
Hmm, okay, thank you. Uh, so after understanding the, what we call the normal configuration.

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:14.000
Verifying the planning criteria. Next, we started looking at the contingency review. So.

00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:33.000
You know, the county needs to be able and capable of serving all customer loads Even in the presence of major substation failures or outages. You know, these outages can occur due to failed equipment, as well as maintenance, and so what this table represents is a list of those major potential contingency

00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:44.000
Scenarios. Uh… what we want to show out here is… For every scenario, uh, the third column from the left shows the total applicable customer load.

00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:51.000
Um, the worst scenarios are if we lose Transformer 1 or Transformer 2 from the TA3 substation.

00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:58.000
That means all of the… Los Alamos Town Site load must be served by the remaining transformer.

00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:15.000
What this shows is that the existing peak load that we modeled in the power flow engine can be maintained by the remaining 20 MVA of capacity from the TA3 substation. So there's no violations, no risk today.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:20.000
But it does highlight that there's not a lot of remaining capacity for future growth.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:26.000
Because we need to be able to maintain these contingency configurations, so we maintain service to customers.

00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:47.000
Another important thing to note is the primary feeders, TC1, TC2, LC1, and LC2, that serve the to Los Alamos town-sized substations. They have slightly reduced ratings, but there's also more of those primary feeders. So the contingency load that must be restored is reduced, and we do not have any

00:46:47.000 --> 00:47:00.000
Contingency capacity concerns at this time, because the last substation will be energized, and that is going to introduce improved reliability and resiliency to the area.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:08.000
That captures it. So, so everything looks good with the last substation energized.

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:15.000
So then we started digging into the White Rock system. Uh, much smaller system, smaller number of customers, as well as peak load.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:34.000
We have 3 distribution feeders serving this. Area from one traditional substation Why Rock Feeder 3 is relatively lightly loaded, um, and the other two white rock feeders, a little higher loaded, but nothing… Um, nearing any equipment loading.

00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:49.000
Violations, as well as our minimum voltages, were maintained. Um, the blue and the green feeders represented by White Rock 1 and White Rock 2, you can see With more load and extending longer distances, the minimum voltages were lower than the White Rock 3 feeder.

00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:55.000
But well within the planning criteria that we were provided. Similarly.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:48:02.000
Primary system, everything looks… adequate, uh, but the service transformers, secondary services.

00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:06.000
Those are areas where we anticipate, you know, more of a challenge in the future.

00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:11.000
As we think about 30 years into the future and electrification.

00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:18.000
Yep, advanced space. For White Rock, uh, there are two substation transformers at the White Rock substation.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:25.000
The Transformer 2 is rated at 7500 KVA. It is a larger transformer than the second.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:44.000
So it, uh, has no trouble normally serving the load of the White Rock system, which peaks at, uh, in our power flow model, approximately 3, KVA. The second transformer, actually named transformer number 1, has a lower 5,000 KV rating.

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:57.000
It's no problem with today's present loads, but it also highlights that if we have a peak of 3900 KVA and our backup transformer is rated for 5,000 KVA, That delta of remaining capacity.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Is a little smaller, and something to be aware of as we're thinking about adding electrification load.

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:20.000
Next slide. Uh, so those are the… the ideas and arguments that we're going to be laying, you know, laying out in the report, and that sets the foundation for what we understand from the existing system. When we came out in March, we also had some additional data we showed about the

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:26.000
Age of existing equipment, um, that are important. Our lines, our cables.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:32.000
Service transformers, switch cabinets, those are assets that are crucial to serving the load.

00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:41.000
And those ideas of asset health and replacement are going to be folded into our electrification impact analysis. So, if you can advance.

00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:55.000
So this table represents everything Elliot showed for the electrification forecast, but now we need to add it to the planning model. And so what you'll see here in the three tables to the right.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:04.000
We took those three scenarios, high, medium, and low. And we wanted to break out that electrification load between the Los Alamos system and the White Rock system.

00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:12.000
Um, and to your point earlier, Robert, about the peak load being more in the, you know, 20 MVA range. We are representing that in the power flow model.

00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:19.000
Um, as we were looking at historical, um, load data. So, just a mismatch in numbers there.

00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:26.000
What you can see is We anticipate more of the electrification load increase being in the Los Alamos system.

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:31.000
Relative to the White Rock system. You know, more customers, more commercial activities.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:36.000
You know, so it is a little heavier electrification impact in the Los Alamos system.

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:42.000
And then on the rightmost column, you can see how we add the existing load.

00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:53.000
With the electrification forecast load. To reach the total amount that we're going to be modeling in our power flow analysis.

00:50:53.000 --> 00:51:04.000
I mentioned it already, but we don't know exactly which customers are going to electrify, so we will be taking this new electrification load spreading it throughout the model.

00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:17.000
And really trying to understand the… primary system impacts, and what we saw from the initial system assessment is Our distribution feeders actually have pretty good capacity. There's a lot that we can work with operationally.

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:26.000
The challenge is more the substation level. That's really becoming the pinch point, and where most of the system improvements for capacity are going to be focused.

00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:34.000
Um, so that was a good insight we gained as we've now started looking at the electrification load. As we add that electrification load.

00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:43.000
Uh, we rerun the power flow engine, and we're gonna… we've already… we're working through it right now, already observing low voltage violations, conductor overloads.

00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:54.000
Issues if we add 32 you know, megawatts to the Los Alamos system. It's anticipated, you know, we're doubling the system load. It's gonna cause challenges.

00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:04.000
Uh, once we identified those challenges, we used new substation capacity. We built out distribution feeders, reconfigured the area with new switches.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:10.000
Conductor upgrades, voltage regulators, new equipment that isn't as common in the system today.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:15.000
If we're transmitting higher amounts of power. Potentially over longer distances.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.000
We are going to need to make some investments in some of those new assets.

00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:30.000
And then the planning study, as we laid out in the report, will show That we can maintain our planning criteria with the proposed system improvements.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:39.000
Do you want to advance? Um, so… We'll talk about what are some of the challenges from a high level we anticipate, and that the report will dive more into.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:55.000
You know, transmission… transmission service is one. If we're gonna build a new substation in the town of Los Alamos. It's gonna need to be connected to the 115KB lines in the area. That's going to lead to maybe some more work and engineering design that's gonna come as we look to build those substations.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:53:09.000
Substation capacity already mentioned. You know, the existing system assessment pointed to that being the pinch point that is showing to be the largest issue, and that's something that the county will need to focus on as we look to electrify.

00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:16.000
Uh, distribution feeder capacity actually was pretty good. We had a lot of distribution feeders, they weren't heavily loaded.

00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:19.000
So there is a lot of opportunity to reconfigure and move loads around.

00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:24.000
Again, it… but they all get sourced back from that substation pinch point.

00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:27.000
And then we talked about service transformers and secondary conductors as well.

00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:50.000
Um, those are… you know, they're not as impactful to the primary system to upgrade a service Every once in a while, but… in aggregate, the volume of the number of customers and service transformers can be very impactful to What are the operating budgets need to be? What do we need to focus on over the next 30 years? So that's something we don't want to forget in terms of asset replacement.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:55.000
As we're looking forward. Yes. Question.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:04.000
Yeah, go ahead. On the service transformers, um… with, uh, distributive… generation is that?

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:11.000
Part of your decision point with, you know, energy being backfed.

00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:23.000
So, we don't… You know, with that penetration, I think in your model, you're saying 20%, maybe solar in the community, or Yeah, so specifically in the power flow modeling, we're trying to model the worst time of the day.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:30.000
And that's anticipated to be in the late evening hours or early morning. So the solar is going to be great, it's going to help us during the day.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:44.000
But we're modeling that worst hour of the day, and so solar is not going to be a significant factor for what are primary system upgrades. That is something that's going to need to be considered as the system evolves over time, and as the…

00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:54.000
Electric department is working on service upgrades, you know. When solar is getting… connected at residential homes, there is potential for it to impact transformers.

00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:11.000
I don't think it's going to be as impactful as the electric vehicle and home loads. You know, the magnitude of that load is probably going to be greater than the back feeding of those solar systems, especially you know, as we move towards time of use rates.

00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:25.000
Demand charges, those solar customers are going to be more incentivized to use the energy they're generating instead of Sending it back to the grid. The financial benefits are not going to be the same. So, I think that'll also help

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:31.000
For service transformers, it's really the load, I think, that's going to drive the service transformer upgrades.

00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:37.000
Okay, and then, uh… How about on the switches, though, for backfeed?

00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:44.000
Uh, with the reverse power flow negatively impact the switches? I don't believe the… you're talking about the primary, uh, switching cabinets?

00:55:44.000 --> 00:56:02.000
I don't think the switching cabinets will be as impacted by that, you know, because, from my understanding, there's not any relaying in the switching cabinets, is that… correct soon. Yeah. Yep, so they're… they're gonna be… So, you know, they're gonna be worried more about the magnitude of current flow on those switches.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:16.000
And we believe from the power flow modeling that load is gonna… result in much higher magnitude of current flow, then… then some reverse power from the… I was asking these questions because I think part of the study was to see if we could expand

00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.000
This 6 megawatt limit. Uh, that we have for solar.

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:39.000
Uh, we kind of set that based on an industry standard versus actual data. Actually, this next slide that's pulled up is, I think, going to help answer Some of those ideas. So, what we plan to do, this… this is still in progress, so this is an example, but hosting capacity is a

00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:48.000
Very popular concept in New Mexico, especially with the PRC today, and just helping customers understand what is the system capable of serving.

00:56:48.000 --> 00:57:00.000
Without significant investments from the utility. Because we… we want to understand how can we generate more renewable energy without increasing the costs of the infrastructure.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:16.000
So hosting capacity is an analysis where we're looking at what are the existing system of today, so we'll be looking at that first image I showed with the lass and the… Um, Town site substation energized with those.

00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:21.000
Residential and commercial feeders. How much more, um.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:28.000
Solar, could we add to every line section in the model before a voltage, equipment loading.

00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:35.000
Or a protection violation occurs. And we believe that protection is probably going to be a limiting factor.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:41.000
In the system, because if the protective relays aren't set up for directional power flow.

00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:56.000
Um, and other protection issues that can arise from two-way power flow, you know, that's something that is going to be a limiting factor for the DPU to start tackling first if we want solar generation to increase on the system.

00:57:56.000 --> 00:58:06.000
Does that answer your question, Phil? Partially, I guess we need to figure out what that is and what the cost would be to accept more solar.

00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:13.000
Yeah. Uh, you know, currently we… have a fee that we establish to, uh.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:17.000
Replace or upsize transformers, kind of on an average basis, like you're doing.

00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:25.000
Um, but if it… if we need additional switching. And protection, what does that costing?

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:30.000
How do we allocate that? Yeah.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:46.000
If I might follow up just a little bit. It would be helpful to know what their capability is today, uh, with the existing system before anything Before any upgrades to deal with reverse flow.

00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:58.000
That's, as Philo mentioned, we're just kind of… Took, uh, some… industry experience and numbers from a number of decades… excuse me, a number of years ago.

00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:04.000
And the industry probably understands better now how things work, but we don't.

00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:31.000
Uh, are you planning to look at that? And how… how resilient the system would be today to significant amounts of… solar distributed generation, distributed assets, so we know where we're starting from before we look at more. Exactly. So that's what this image represents, is our scope of work, the intent is to show what is the existing system capable of today, what is that first limit.

00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:36.000
Because I don't want you to start investigating… investing in upgrades if it's not necessary.

00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:47.000
You know, and so we can help identify how much more could we potentially push Each distribution feeder. So our plan is… this is a hosting capacity map that represents a color coding of every line section.

00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:52.000
And, um, what could potentially be served at that line section.

00:59:52.000 --> 01:00:05.000
These maps are becoming more commonly produced by larger utilities around the country, so that residential or commercial customers can see you know, based on my address, if I plug it into one of these maps.

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:14.000
Is the hosting capacity 100 kilowatts, or is it a megawatt? And so it can give them an idea of how many system upgrades may be necessary.

01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:20.000
That's what we plan to produce for every distribution feeder in your system for the today's configuration.

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Assuming we're in a minimum load scenario, because that's when you're gonna have the most backfeed and issues from renewable generation.

01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:43.000
Uh, we love solar when it's a really hot day. It's great. But the boundary condition, you know, we will study for hosting capacity is It's a March or April day, there's not a lot of load, and we want to know how much could the voltage rise.

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:49.000
How much reverse power flow could we see? How much could our protective relays at the substation be impacted?

01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:54.000
But that should give you kind of a near-term how much could we push the system before.

01:00:54.000 --> 01:01:15.000
You know, Steven and team need to… start the engineering work on improving relays, improving, you know, other system equipment. But the challenge with that is the next customer that causes a relay that needs to be upgraded. You don't want that residential customer to pay $100,000 for relay upgrade. So, there are some challenges with how do we socialize.

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:21.000
These system improvements, definitely.

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:28.000
So, the rest of this month, what we're working through right now is, again, documenting for the report what is the transmission system.

01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:41.000
Constraints, you know, from a high level, what are the things that we need to do to enable the county For the next steps of pursuing a transmission service to a new substation, of… You know, how do we get that power to the county?

01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:48.000
Um, we've had some recent great discussions about power generation resources, what is going to be needed in the future.

01:01:48.000 --> 01:02:06.000
We'll have some discussions about that in the report. Uh, rules and regulations review, this is centered along some of those ideas of What should our policies be for Um, residential solar, what do… the time of use rates demand charges look like, even things like line extension policies. What are the things that other utilities

01:02:06.000 --> 01:02:20.000
Smaller municipal utilities, and even larger utilities doing In the industry, you know, we want to incorporate some of that knowledge and and share those ideas. And then last is the… the LAC staffing requirement. You know, we want to get an understanding of

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:23.000
Now we know the forecast and how the utility… what scale it could grow to.

01:02:23.000 --> 01:02:35.000
You know, benchmarking against what are other utilities of that magnitude, what are their staffing levels look like Helping give the county, you know, kind of an idea of How will it need to evolve to accommodate this?

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:52.000
Electric future. And then this last slide that we have, just, uh, you know, discussing what are the major study milestones. So, July 9th is when we plan to submit the full draft report for the BPU to review, as well as the Department of Utilities.

01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:57.000
Uh, we plan to be here in person again, uh, July 16th to discuss, you know.

01:02:57.000 --> 01:03:05.000
Some more of the intermediate details there. Um, and then our plan is July 30th to have us middle of the final report for the county.

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.000
And that is all I have for tonight. If there's any final questions.

01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:19.000
Okay, thank you. Questions from… Board?

01:03:19.000 --> 01:03:25.000
Not seeing as many as I expected. Questions from anyone else?

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:36.000
Chair, I think, uh. I spoke to Jake earlier in the meeting in… they're able to get a few chapters put together for our next June meeting.

01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:40.000
Um, if we want to look at it in pieces, um.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:47.000
And we could have him join, uh, remotely online to run through those first few chapters.

01:03:47.000 --> 01:03:53.000
Uh, if that's what the board desires to bring back an interim.

01:03:53.000 --> 01:04:08.000
Report that's draft Well, what we see here is a pretty high-level Um, uh… view of the whole thing, and it's… excuse me, a high-level view of part of the whole thing.

01:04:08.000 --> 01:04:19.000
Uh, so, uh, I think, uh, from my perspective anyway, I think having some more detail would, uh, would help us understand it better.

01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:31.000
Help us, uh, kind of start the critical review process, because You know, if we see this, uh, if this draft is submitted on the 9th of July.

01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:38.000
That's just a week before our July meeting. And by the time it gets disseminated, which might be a day or two.

01:04:38.000 --> 01:05:00.000
Um, that gives the board, the staff. Uh, public… 5 days or so to review what I anticipate to be a substantial report. That's not a lot of time to take you into a lot of things. And if nobody's told you yet this is a data-driven community, we like to dig into things like this.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:06.000
So, anything, in my view, this is one board member speaking.

01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:19.000
Um, if we could get, uh. Anything we could get by next meeting would probably be helpful, get us a running start on the On the review process that For our comfort, we would need to go through.

01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:23.000
Yeah, yeah, so I think talking with Philo June 18th, the date there.

01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:31.000
Um, yeah, so I think what we can do… most of what we've presented today the forecast, the initial existing system assessment.

01:05:31.000 --> 01:05:38.000
Those are the details we've, you know, in the process of writing right now. I think those chapters we would have ready to transmit June 18th.

01:05:38.000 --> 01:05:55.000
And then the electrification impacts, the financial analysis, and the staffing requirement, that might come you know, on the July 9th timeframe. But yeah, we would be happy to get a few initial chapters in, and… kind of start that process of digging through, and at that next Board of Public Utilities meeting.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:06:01.000
Instead of rehashing these slides, I can probably come for a… Just an open question and answer.

01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:06.000
Um, instead of just going over this high-level outline again. If that is satisfactory.

01:06:06.000 --> 01:06:14.000
Yeah, I don't know that going over this again would be… these slides, again, would be necessary, but… Yeah.

01:06:14.000 --> 01:06:26.000
I'm sure we'll have a few more questions when we see what was behind them Definitely. I do have a couple, uh, a few more questions on what you have presented tonight.

01:06:26.000 --> 01:06:30.000
If nobody else does, and I haven't seen anybody chomping at the bit yet.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:41.000
Um, which is unusual. Ah, there we go. They… Dave, go ahead. You said… you said questions from anybody, right? Yep. Yeah, okay.

01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:52.000
Um, so what was the 17 megawatts early on in the presentation? I think that was initially looking at a coincident demand on the system based on initial numbers we were given.

01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:58.000
Then, as we were looking at more specifically the peak demands at each substation, we refined that.

01:06:58.000 --> 01:07:09.000
Is that an average peak demand over the year? Is that what you mean? Yeah, I believe that was… because you have two different systems that might peak at slightly different times, and so we were looking at kind of an average

01:07:09.000 --> 01:07:19.000
Of those two, initially. But what are the two systems? So, White Rock and the Los Alamos system. Oh, they don't peak at the same time? Not necessarily. They're gonna be close.

01:07:19.000 --> 01:07:25.000
But… but not the same hour. So a lot of times, it's over 20, so 17 must be an average.

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:39.000
Yeah, and that… But, like, for… go ahead. Yeah, and that might be where it came from. You know, that was an initial number, and then we've been refining as we're going. You saw in the later slides, so… These were submitted several weeks ago, and so…

01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:49.000
That number will be updated in the report. But a lot of your new consumption is not at peak time, because it's at night or other times. So the peaks we did see?

01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:58.000
Uh, in winter, this previous year, it was in the 7 o'clock hour in Los Alamos. 7 p.m. 7pm, correct. Yeah. So, so our assumption, again, trying to be conservative.

01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:03.000
We had a very, you know, relatively flat demand over those evening hours into the early morning.

01:08:03.000 --> 01:08:12.000
Uh, we want to plan for the worst case scenario. And what we're seeing is we have those three scenarios to help give us a wide range of what could happen.

01:08:12.000 --> 01:08:22.000
And so, even if we overshoot a little bit in the high scenario, it is an educational point, because maybe not all 100% of the customers will electrify.

01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:27.000
But it gives us a boundary condition of what could happen. But at 17, then, to about 44.

01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:34.000
That was additional load. So, so actually, can we pull… So that's a quadrupling of the amount of power you have to carry. Yeah.

01:08:34.000 --> 01:08:43.000
Correct. So if we could pull up the slides again, actually, um… Yeah, if that's okay.

01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:53.000
So a lot of the analysis is in process right now, and that slide with the three tables showing the electrification increase.

01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:57.000
I'm puzzle, do you… we even have the wiring for that?

01:08:57.000 --> 01:09:01.000
The house wiring, the… Yeah, power lines running down the streets.

01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:09.000
Yeah, so the primary lines, as I… as I defined, you know, those are what run through the main roads and the main switching cabinets you see along the roads.

01:09:09.000 --> 01:09:18.000
There's quite a bit of capacity in those distribution feeders. The service conductors that take it from the service transformer to the houses, I think those are going to be most impacted.

01:09:18.000 --> 01:09:27.000
Um, and so there are going to be… some upgrades required, for sure. Yeah, rewire the whole town. Well, and another thing.

01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:35.000
We talked about it more at the town hall a couple months ago. It's gonna be, you know, more in the report as well, is… assets need to be replaced over time.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:42.000
And many of the assets are aged near their end of life, and so if we're looking 30 years into the future.

01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:45.000
There is going to be a significant amount of asset replacements required.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:56.000
You know, so as Los Alamos has the opportunity to upgrade or replace assets moving from a smaller conductor to a larger conductor.

01:09:56.000 --> 01:10:05.000
Is an opportunity that the county can take if they know the electrification is happening. So, there are going to be… need to be engineering decisions on the laterals, the smaller conductors.

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:12.000
As this electrification occurs, as assets are aging and deteriorating and need to be replaced.

01:10:12.000 --> 01:10:22.000
But this is at… no. Is this… this is all extra current, then, not… just not voltage. The whole voltage of the system would be the same, yeah. Voltage will stay the same, correct.

01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:32.000
So the problem with current and wires is that you need a lot more copper to carry a little more current, because of you know, you have to… the heat doesn't spread out any better.

01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:39.000
It's a very, very tricky thing. Yes, yes, true to a point. There is some extra capacity in the lines today.

01:10:39.000 --> 01:10:58.000
Uh, so that is gonna buy some space. Uh, but we will need, you know, building new substation capacity is going to help Spread that out. We're gonna need to build additional distribution feeders, reconfigure the area so that not all of the extra load is coming through one distribution feeder. You know, it's gonna help spread it out.

01:10:58.000 --> 01:11:17.000
Yeah, you have to add feeders or something. Yep. Okay, thank you. Maybe just to finish that, if you go back… Uh… one more. This one, yeah. So… so this is the table summarizing, you know, how much load we're adding. So, the top table in the total row

01:11:17.000 --> 01:11:27.000
Uh, the total system demand would be close to the high 60s, you know, 66 we're showing there. High 60s for White Rock and Los Alamos combined.

01:11:27.000 --> 01:11:34.000
So, about a 3X increase in total. For the high scenario. And then if you look at the low scenario.

01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:44.000
We would be growing from about 20 megawatts to 35. So there's… there's a wide range. It's going to give us some boundary conditions to understand what upgrades may be necessary.

01:11:44.000 --> 01:12:03.000
Um, but I want to emphasize the existing system review showed that even a little bit of load increase is going to strain your existing substation infrastructure. That's really, I think, the big… outcome we're seeing, so… I've got a couple questions on assumptions.

01:12:03.000 --> 01:12:19.000
Yeah. Uh, going back to slide 5… Under Scenario 1, You show, assuming 50% homes with solar, and it was one… and 20% homes with batteries. I was wondering where those assumptions came from.

01:12:19.000 --> 01:12:26.000
Do you want to stomach?

01:12:26.000 --> 01:12:36.000
All right, so, um, I'll speak about that. So, uh, 50% was chosen for homes, because that was a very optimistic.

01:12:36.000 --> 01:12:47.000
Possible, uh, outcome. Uh, the current Uh, the community with the largest amount of solar panels.

01:12:47.000 --> 01:12:52.000
Is down in South Australia, and they are currently at 37%.

01:12:52.000 --> 01:13:02.000
And that is a combination of having Very attractive finance, uh, financial option for that, plus grant incentive from the local government.

01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:12.000
And a very high cost of electricity. So over the last 20 years, they've accumulated a lot of solar panels in those communities.

01:13:12.000 --> 01:13:22.000
Between all the different, uh, factors. Put, uh, pushing that. And they, uh, they are currently around 37%. So this goes beyond it.

01:13:22.000 --> 01:13:41.000
But not that far beyond it, just an additional 13%. So, it is an aggressive, but this is the boundary condition for Scenario 1, where all the different, uh, climate action plan objectives are enacted. Um, now, why 20% battery storage, right?

01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:47.000
Um, now, in our research, we found that battery storage become really popular.

01:13:47.000 --> 01:13:52.000
When you introduce some sort of time of use rate, or some other financial mechanism.

01:13:52.000 --> 01:14:05.000
Where it really makes sense to… Uh, charge those batteries during some hours, and then discharge those batteries in some other hours when the rates are much more… much higher compared to off-peak hours.

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:11.000
So, I don't have a roadmap for exactly how that's going to play out here in Los Alamos County.

01:14:11.000 --> 01:14:17.000
But if we have a lot of solar, plus time of use rate, plus all these other home electrification.

01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:21.000
That's when a battery starts to make sense for a resident to have.

01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:35.000
Now, we have that at… 5% for Scenario 3, Um, because it's not zero, because we know that this community is likely to have a lot of people who just want to try it out.

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:47.000
Uh, for whatever reason they want, so it's not 0%, But, um, without having those financial mechanisms and lots of different other homolectification and EV in the mix.

01:14:47.000 --> 01:15:00.000
That percentage should be a lot lower. Thank you. Yeah, I do wonder about the… I'm not sure that the 50% homes with solar is realistic at all in this community.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:12.000
It might be in a new community out in flat countryside where you can orient the buildings to take good advantage of solar, adding solar panels.

01:15:12.000 --> 01:15:16.000
Uh, we're not going to add a lot of new buildings.

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:21.000
In the next 30 years, and if you look around, you know, things are oriented every which way.

01:15:21.000 --> 01:15:33.000
Um, with a lot of trees, also. Uh, the, uh… So, that number, to me, seems… probably unrealistically high.

01:15:33.000 --> 01:15:42.000
Yeah, no, you're not wrong about… not likely to add a lot of new construction, and there's community, uh, given that geography and everything else.

01:15:42.000 --> 01:15:56.000
Um, however, back in March, we looked at, uh, the rate of new solar being permitted in the community, and it took off very rapidly after 2020, 2019.

01:15:56.000 --> 01:16:07.000
Um, so, you know, if it stays on that projection. It could get as high up as 50%. Um, it all just depends on, you know.

01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:13.000
What are the incentives for someone to get solar? If they continue into the future.

01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:21.000
That is a possibility. Um, and again, scenario one is supposed to be a boundary condition of what if there's so much solar.

01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:33.000
On the system. Now, you'll notice that Jake had mentioned earlier that he's modeling the peak load, uh, in some of this model. That doesn't coincide when the solar is on the grid.

01:16:33.000 --> 01:16:41.000
So, if there's less solar, that minimum during the daytime hours, it's just going to be higher.

01:16:41.000 --> 01:16:57.000
Compared to the evening, uh, compared to the evening hours. But the evening hour peak at 6 AM will still be there. Which is the… well… Actually, it's the 6 a.m. Peak that concerns me more.

01:16:57.000 --> 01:17:10.000
You know, for worst-case condition, you know, you don't have that every… Every day, thankfully, but… Um, okay, um… I'm still skeptical of that 50% number, but thank you for the explanation.

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:37.000
Another… comment on the next page. It says you assume 80% of drivers charge at home Now, by whom do you actually mean at their homes, or do you mean home meaning In Los Alamos. In their residential home. So, single-family home, or would that primarily the people who are charging at their home when they have a garage, or access to their own dedicated parking spot.

01:17:37.000 --> 01:17:48.000
The 20% that are not. Are more likely to live in a multi-unit, uh, dwelling, like an apartment complex, um, or something similar.

01:17:48.000 --> 01:18:06.000
Um, part of your… statement of work was to get some… local demographic information, etc. Did you look at how many homes in this community actually have their own garages or carports?

01:18:06.000 --> 01:18:12.000
Um, we're… we're a charger… at home is reasonably convenient.

01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:20.000
I'm trying to remember the number off the top of my head. Um, I believe it… the vast majority of homes are single-family homes.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:39.000
Um, I… we did hear from our outreach that most people park their cars outside, so not necessarily in the garage, but they have access to a place where they can park their cars and, uh, presumably They can connect a charger to it, but for detailed, uh.

01:18:39.000 --> 01:18:43.000
How many houses have a garage or carport? I don't have that number.

01:18:43.000 --> 01:18:50.000
Okay, because we do have a very significant number of Primarily older homes that, uh.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:57.000
Not only don't have garages or carports or driveways. Um, they may not even have off-street parking.

01:18:57.000 --> 01:19:05.000
We have a significant number of those, and of course, we have to accommodate those too, which leads me to my last question.

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:14.000
I think you're… you should be aware that we are We, the county, are also conducting in parallel, but not exactly at the same time.

01:19:14.000 --> 01:19:19.000
Not to be completed at the same time. An EV study.

01:19:19.000 --> 01:19:37.000
For the community, which is trying to look at where do we need chargers, and how many, and of what kinds, and so on I think they'll be probably looking in more depth at that particular question, um, but how have you folks been in communication with the, uh.

01:19:37.000 --> 01:19:44.000
Uh, Stantec, the, uh, uh… consultant that's doing that study, so that they're coordinated to some extent?

01:19:44.000 --> 01:19:57.000
Yes, yes, we have had a couple phone calls with the Stantec team. We shared with them our electric vehicle forecast analysis, so they could incorporate and look at what were we thinking for the area.

01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:02.000
Now, the scopes are, you know, like you mentioned, slightly different. They're probably going to be looking a little closer at homes.

01:20:02.000 --> 01:20:17.000
We're more concerned about the grid impact. So we had some good discussions with them about what were our assumptions and our thought processes, um, and we gave them some information. They have shared some of their initial data back with us. But again, because it's grid impact, we're really looking more at

01:20:17.000 --> 01:20:23.000
You know, overall, what happens to the area Um, going back to the distribution feeders.

01:20:23.000 --> 01:20:28.000
If a high-power charging station gets put on one street versus the other.

01:20:28.000 --> 01:20:42.000
I'm less concerned from a distribution feeder perspective. But we have that load accounted for in the area, and again, I keep thinking back to substation was the really critical pinch point. My feeders, I had a lot more flexibility to chase down these

01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:45.000
You know, electric vehicle loads that may come up at different times throughout the area.

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:51.000
Okay, thank you. And then, one last comment I wanted to make on what Elliot was saying.

01:20:51.000 --> 01:21:10.000
We know that we have 3 scenarios, and all three scenarios forecasts can't be correct, and so, you know, there are going to be some different opinions on some of the assumptions, but we do believe that the future reality falls somewhere in that spectrum, and that's why we wanted to approach it this way. You know, some we might have been a little high in others, some a little low, but we do think

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:20.000
You know, the potential outcome is going to fall in these scenarios, and the analysis is already showing between the high scenario and the low scenario, there's some very common system improvements that are going to be needed.

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:25.000
So we can have more assurance in some of those projects that need to happen.

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:30.000
Probably for every, you know, scenario. Okay, thanks.

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:38.000
Last chance tonight. Any questions? Any other questions, comments?

01:21:38.000 --> 01:21:47.000
If not, we thank you very much. We, uh, this is… this is helpful so far, but we're looking forward to, uh.

01:21:47.000 --> 01:21:53.000
Filling in the details and filling in the other chapters of the report, or whatever.

01:21:53.000 --> 01:21:59.000
And, uh, this is going to be… a very important report to us.

01:21:59.000 --> 01:22:18.000
Um, to base a lot of work on. So, we're looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you for coming this evening.

01:22:18.000 --> 01:22:36.000
You are welcome to stay, but you're certainly not obligated to.

01:22:36.000 --> 01:22:44.000
Okay, we will move on now. To item 5A.

01:22:44.000 --> 01:22:55.000
Um, it says final review, but it's actually initial review. Of, uh, uh, report, uh, our annual report to County Council, which will be given next month.

01:22:55.000 --> 01:23:01.000
To Council, and we will do a final review at our next rig meeting in 3 weeks.

01:23:01.000 --> 01:23:13.000
Uh, so this is a draft. Place to start, and… to… for… really looking for comments, suggestions?

01:23:13.000 --> 01:23:32.000
Etc. Um… And… I, uh… I can do this a couple ways. I can… talk through it like I was going to give the presentation, but I'd rather not, because it… pretty much follows, it just fills in the details.

01:23:32.000 --> 01:23:44.000
On the slides, so what I would propose to do is simply go kind of slide by slide and ask if there are suggestions or comments or items for discussion.

01:23:44.000 --> 01:23:49.000
Does that sound like a reasonable plan? I got a couple of thumbs up.

01:23:49.000 --> 01:24:04.000
So, okay, got 3 thumbs ups, so… All right, um… This is a draft, so… Um, July 15th is the day we… Alright, this is presented to Council.

01:24:04.000 --> 01:24:16.000
Let's move on to the next slide. We finally got this one right Um, the, uh, at least I think it's right.

01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:22.000
Didn't check the terms. But a quick look suggests that those are correct.

01:24:22.000 --> 01:24:29.000
Um, and then the… The people who really get the job done are on the next slide.

01:24:29.000 --> 01:24:33.000
Or at least lead the people who get the job done.

01:24:33.000 --> 01:24:39.000
That should be fairly straightforward. Next slide.

01:24:39.000 --> 01:24:50.000
I should say my philosophy this year is a little different than it was last year. I'm really not planning to spend a lot of time going over what has been accomplished.

01:24:50.000 --> 01:25:02.000
Um, but more to look at what is… going on now, and the kinds of… major issues that will be coming up that Council will need to… will want to pay attention to.

01:25:02.000 --> 01:25:08.000
That's the philosophy that I used in drafting this. But if people have different views.

01:25:08.000 --> 01:25:30.000
Here's the time to… to, uh… express them. So, um… This is kind of my summary of the… the enterprise, I was planning to change on that second bullet from stable low turnover to, I would say, normal turnover.

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:41.000
Is a word I would plan… planning to change. And if anybody has comments, just… Do a raise hand, or raise your hand, or whatever.

01:25:41.000 --> 01:25:42.000
Eric?

01:25:42.000 --> 01:25:55.000
Yeah, in addition to assets. I'm assuming that's depreciated assets. Would it make any… sense to, in addition to that, have a figure for replacement assets?

01:25:55.000 --> 01:26:09.000
Hmm, good question.

01:26:09.000 --> 01:26:16.000
I'm not sure if that makes sense or not. Let me, uh… Let me think about that one a bit, if you don't mind.

01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:18.000
Okay, perfect.

01:26:18.000 --> 01:26:26.000
Okay. Chair, I might say on employees, we have a wave of retirements.

01:26:26.000 --> 01:26:35.000
That… that's still… that's what those 3 extra XFTs are for, overfill.

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:54.000
But it's not due to… turnover, other turnover, it's… due to retirements. Yeah, well… In my view, anyway, retirements is part of turnover. There's premature turnovers, and then there's those… You hope people are here long enough to retire from the, uh.

01:26:54.000 --> 01:27:08.000
From the department, okay? Um… Next slide is… I do want to emphasize that even though we're not spending a lot of time on it.

01:27:08.000 --> 01:27:16.000
This is what Utilities does on a day-to-day basis. It's the main job Uh, keep the lights on.

01:27:16.000 --> 01:27:26.000
Uh, keep the gas, the water, fluid, and water… wastewater flowing, all the flu when and where they should do it safely.

01:27:26.000 --> 01:27:31.000
And I think we can say that that pretty went pretty well in FY25.

01:27:31.000 --> 01:27:37.000
This is the big job, and I really do want to emphasize that.

01:27:37.000 --> 01:27:43.000
Any comments? Seeing none, we'll move on.

01:27:43.000 --> 01:27:55.000
Two goals, and these are summarized, they're not stated exactly the same way that Um, we do it in our… strategic goals list.

01:27:55.000 --> 01:28:05.000
But it's sort of a summary. Um, obviously maintain a high service level, again, emphasizing what we do on a day-in and day-out basis.

01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:12.000
But then we have to, uh… we're looking at transitioning to a non… Hydrocarbon electric supply.

01:28:12.000 --> 01:28:20.000
And phasing out natural gas. And there are… Big points on that.

01:28:20.000 --> 01:28:26.000
That Council needs to understand, if they don't already, that we have no authority to reduce gas service.

01:28:26.000 --> 01:28:31.000
We can do education, which we do, and will continue to do.

01:28:31.000 --> 01:28:40.000
And we've got to be able to… supply, uh, have the electric supply and the distribution system capacity for the electrification.

01:28:40.000 --> 01:28:44.000
That… and, you know, numbers about that were just talked about.

01:28:44.000 --> 01:28:53.000
So, uh, we know that's a big job. That's… that's our job.

01:28:53.000 --> 01:28:59.000
Robert, do you want to have, um, the dates for the various goals on that slide?

01:28:59.000 --> 01:29:04.000
Oh, good point. Good point.

01:29:04.000 --> 01:29:13.000
Easy to do. Thank you.

01:29:13.000 --> 01:29:21.000
Thanks. Okay, next one.

01:29:21.000 --> 01:29:30.000
Major projects in progress. I didn't want to spend a lot of time, as I said, talking about what's been accomplished.

01:29:30.000 --> 01:29:41.000
And… there's already a… maybe a change or two here. The main… the… And then for water main replacement is done.

01:29:41.000 --> 01:29:51.000
So, that could be deleted. I was going to add last, but if… if Steve is correct, and that's done by the end of the month. I don't have to.

01:29:51.000 --> 01:30:00.000
Otherwise, we'll put that in there as… still something that we're working towards.

01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:08.000
Other comments here?

01:30:08.000 --> 01:30:17.000
Okay, we'll move on. The major things that are on our plate right now.

01:30:17.000 --> 01:30:23.000
And these… there may be updates on these in another month, or 6 weeks.

01:30:23.000 --> 01:30:29.000
Eca maybe, Foxtail Flats. We hope so. Elk Ridge, probably some.

01:30:29.000 --> 01:30:42.000
Um, Code Ford, I don't know. Anything that other… others consider to be major issues?

01:30:42.000 --> 01:30:50.000
Okay, not seeing any. Next slide. It's the three big studies that we have going on right now.

01:30:50.000 --> 01:31:00.000
We, the county, the, uh… Of course, we're doing the electrification study, and the National Natural Gas Usage Study.

01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:08.000
Um, the, uh, CMO's office and sustainability coordinator. They're doing the EV infrastructure.

01:31:08.000 --> 01:31:17.000
Study due at the end of this year. But it's still very important to us.

01:31:17.000 --> 01:31:26.000
Comments? None? Okay. Future electric challenges.

01:31:26.000 --> 01:31:33.000
I might… I've got a couple changes in mind for what's already shown here.

01:31:33.000 --> 01:31:40.000
Uh, is… would probably be the first bullet. Is the increased demand coming from electrification.

01:31:40.000 --> 01:31:48.000
What we just talked about. Um, it's not just that we need new carbon-free sources.

01:31:48.000 --> 01:31:57.000
We need more electricity altogether. So, I'm intending to make another bullet up top that would include that.

01:31:57.000 --> 01:32:03.000
Um, probably would just… would have sub-bullets under that saying, building electrification and EV charging.

01:32:03.000 --> 01:32:11.000
And then eliminate the EV charging at the very bottom of the page.

01:32:11.000 --> 01:32:13.000
Other comments? Eric?

01:32:13.000 --> 01:32:21.000
Yeah, I'm not… I don't think you need the, uh, LI. You can just… I think it's good enough just to say batteries, you don't need to put lithium in front of them.

01:32:21.000 --> 01:32:26.000
Because there could be other kinds of batteries people want to use.

01:32:26.000 --> 01:32:30.000
Well, that's why I mentioned hydrogen may be CO2 store… it means lithium batteries, hydrogens

01:32:30.000 --> 01:32:39.000
Yeah, but none of those… yeah, but none of those are batteries. H2 is not a battery, CO2 is not a battery, none of that's a battery.

01:32:39.000 --> 01:32:40.000
So…

01:32:40.000 --> 01:32:46.000
Well, that's true. Um… what I intended, and maybe it's not clear, you're telling me that.

01:32:46.000 --> 01:32:50.000
Is, uh, the whole thing comes under the heading of storage.

01:32:50.000 --> 01:32:51.000
Lithium batteries is one type, hydrogen storage is one, CO2 storage is one.

01:32:51.000 --> 01:32:55.000
Exactly.

01:32:55.000 --> 01:32:59.000
I get that, but what if I want to use valve-regulated lead-acid?

01:32:59.000 --> 01:33:12.000
What if I want to use nickel metal hydride? What if I want to use flooded cell? What I'm saying is, it doesn't… It's not… lithium's not the only battery. There's no real need to have lithium there just to get rid of it.

01:33:12.000 --> 01:33:14.000
So you're suggesting, just you say, batteries.

01:33:14.000 --> 01:33:23.000
Yeah, just say batteries, right. Because the others… there's two types of storage. There's energy storage systems.

01:33:23.000 --> 01:33:34.000
And then there's battery energy storage systems, and you've got batteries, and then you've got, uh, one… you've got two non-battery storage.

01:33:34.000 --> 01:33:35.000
And some question marks. Exactly, yeah, perfect.

01:33:35.000 --> 01:33:50.000
Plus some question marks, because there's future technology. Okay, we can take out lithium if nobody else objects.

01:33:50.000 --> 01:33:51.000
Not… not on this one, not on this one, Robert, but I was thinking again about the previous one on the studies.

01:33:51.000 --> 01:33:56.000
Any other comments here? Seeing none…

01:33:56.000 --> 01:33:57.000
Sure.

01:33:57.000 --> 01:34:09.000
Is there… is there something to say something like, I think… you're probably gonna say something like this, but I think it'd be good to give Council some… some guiding, um, themes about where it looks like… I mean, these studies are in progress.

01:34:09.000 --> 01:34:24.000
But where it looks as, at the moment, as to where it's gonna take us, because I think these studies are likely to be quite important in terms of kind of scoping out the range of our future directions in which we could go as a…

01:34:24.000 --> 01:34:40.000
As a community, um… Does that make sense? So, it's like, where kind of where are we headed in the electrification world? Where… Are we headed on EVs, and what is… How is our… what… how is this going to help guide our planning for natural gas? If there's something that…

01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:49.000
You could tell them to give them an update, and you'll have more by the time you do this, so… I give the presentation, but… Does that make sense?

01:34:49.000 --> 01:34:57.000
It does… Except I don't know… I don't know that we've seen much of anything yet, nor had we expected to on the natural gas usage study.

01:34:57.000 --> 01:35:02.000
Yeah. Well, there is that, yeah. Yeah.

01:35:02.000 --> 01:35:21.000
Um. The, uh… I'll have to give some thought to what we might be able… and talk with Angelica about what we might be able to include in the Under EV infrastructure. Obviously, we have the… Electrification study will be very close to done by then.

01:35:21.000 --> 01:35:23.000
Yeah, right.

01:35:23.000 --> 01:35:34.000
Um, in fact, that's a good point. Maybe I ought to make a slide on the electrification study, now that we're starting to see some output from that, even though it's preliminary.

01:35:34.000 --> 01:35:36.000
Yeah, that might be very good, actually, I think.

01:35:36.000 --> 01:35:46.000
That's… okay, I… that'd probably be a good idea, to give people a… a flavor for some of the challenges that we're facing.

01:35:46.000 --> 01:35:48.000
Right, right, right.

01:35:48.000 --> 01:36:04.000
Um. Some of them we already knew from the Lorez study, but this puts, uh, puts some more… Uh, and puts the inhibitor of a professional consultant on it, not just a bunch of guys in the back room Uh, who…

01:36:04.000 --> 01:36:10.000
Know the community. Um, okay, I can probably make up… I can make up another slide.

01:36:10.000 --> 01:36:19.000
For the electrification study… which… may evolve right up until the date this is given.

01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:25.000
Sure, of course, of course.

01:36:25.000 --> 01:36:37.000
And I think, you know, maybe… I don't… I wouldn't advocate another slide on this, but… and I guess in talking about the natural gas study, the question is, how are we You know, we have this goal out there for 20, what, 70, right?

01:36:37.000 --> 01:36:38.000
Mm-hmm. Yes.

01:36:38.000 --> 01:36:46.000
No win, yeah. Yes, 2070, yeah. I mean, so what are the, kind of, the major… plan… planning issues.

01:36:46.000 --> 01:36:55.000
That the community's gonna confront. As we move, you know, start to move down that… that path.

01:36:55.000 --> 01:37:01.000
And we hope the study is going to help us learn something about… You know…

01:37:01.000 --> 01:37:07.000
I was planning to describe a little bit, qualitatively, the study itself.

01:37:07.000 --> 01:37:08.000
Um, to… which is to help us learn how people are using gas today.

01:37:08.000 --> 01:37:13.000
Yeah.

01:37:13.000 --> 01:37:14.000
How many people are eating… are using gas for hot water.

01:37:14.000 --> 01:37:18.000
Right.

01:37:18.000 --> 01:37:19.000
Right? Right, right.

01:37:19.000 --> 01:37:22.000
Uh, for cooking, etc, because we don't know that yet. Um, I was planning to say that kind of thing.

01:37:22.000 --> 01:37:28.000
Right. That's a good point. Sure.

01:37:28.000 --> 01:37:38.000
Um… hmm. Let me think of that one a bit.

01:37:38.000 --> 01:37:39.000
Thank you. All right.

01:37:39.000 --> 01:37:44.000
Sure.

01:37:44.000 --> 01:37:52.000
Right? And now we… have water… water issues, potentially.

01:37:52.000 --> 01:38:01.000
With, uh, the chromium plume and the… projected cooling demand increase at the laboratory.

01:38:01.000 --> 01:38:14.000
Uh, we might need to do a well. Um… And I think on that third bullet, I'd say knew well in White Rock.

01:38:14.000 --> 01:38:29.000
And… I obviously would comment about the San Juan surface… San Juan Chamo surface water, right? Well, that's a water right, that doesn't mean that we would necessarily get 1,200 acre feet.

01:38:29.000 --> 01:38:35.000
Per year out of that.

01:38:35.000 --> 01:38:42.000
Okay, if there's no further comments, we get to… a summary?

01:38:42.000 --> 01:38:58.000
I hope it's fair and reasonable. But if you don't, let me know.

01:38:58.000 --> 01:39:08.000
I think that's very, very fair. I do think the, uh, yeah, those major decision points are all big, and And all hopefully coming soon.

01:39:08.000 --> 01:39:13.000
Right? So… I don't know if we're gonna be able to say much about the ECA.

01:39:13.000 --> 01:39:17.000
Uh, at the time you give the talk or not. Phyla, what do you think?

01:39:17.000 --> 01:39:22.000
It's likely gonna be available, to be said.

01:39:22.000 --> 01:39:34.000
Um, we're supposed to get a draft in July, I just don't know if it'll be… before… before this meeting or after?

01:39:34.000 --> 01:39:38.000
Or, again, whether we'll have had much time to look at it.

01:39:38.000 --> 01:39:39.000
I don't suppose you want to mention anything about rate challenges.

01:39:39.000 --> 01:39:40.000
Right.

01:39:40.000 --> 01:39:48.000
Yeah, I don't…

01:39:48.000 --> 01:39:54.000
Um, but we just went through the first round of that. I'm sure there'll be more.

01:39:54.000 --> 01:40:03.000
Eventually. Hopefully not right away.

01:40:03.000 --> 01:40:06.000
I just thought.

01:40:06.000 --> 01:40:17.000
Okay, noted, thank you.

01:40:17.000 --> 01:40:27.000
Okay, anything else?

01:40:27.000 --> 01:40:33.000
Okay, Eric's happy, Matt's happy. Charlie's shaking his head in the right direction.

01:40:33.000 --> 01:40:35.000
I… I'm happy, yes.

01:40:35.000 --> 01:40:41.000
Okay, thank you, Charlie. All right, you'll go get another crack at it in 3 weeks.

01:40:41.000 --> 01:40:51.000
But, uh, hopefully it won't have to make too many changes after that, unless there's new information that comes in on one or more of these big things.

01:40:51.000 --> 01:40:56.000
All right, with that… We're on to 5B.

01:40:56.000 --> 01:41:06.000
Annual review of the Utilities Assistance Program. Joanne.

01:41:06.000 --> 01:41:19.000
Good evening, Chair and members of the board. So, I'm going to go over our UAP That's okay, assistance program.

01:41:19.000 --> 01:41:23.000
Joanne, it might be easier for you if you put the microphone down. Sure.

01:41:23.000 --> 01:41:29.000
There you go.

01:41:29.000 --> 01:41:44.000
It's okay.

01:41:44.000 --> 01:42:14.000
No pressure.

01:43:07.000 --> 01:43:17.000
It's loading…

01:43:17.000 --> 01:43:45.000
Oh, yes. Flip it.

01:43:45.000 --> 01:43:52.000
To set those little arrows. I think there's a… there's a, uh… Rotation button at the top.

01:43:52.000 --> 01:43:56.000
Yeah. Right there, there you go.

01:43:56.000 --> 01:44:07.000
Thank you. Have you ever used this video so far? You need to zoom in. Yeah. Yeah.

01:44:07.000 --> 01:44:14.000
One more. Yeah. There you go. No problem.

01:44:14.000 --> 01:44:28.000
And share on Zoom.

01:44:28.000 --> 01:44:36.000
See it? Yeah. Okay, so do you want to go to the second page, Kathy?

01:44:36.000 --> 01:44:45.000
Does board members see it? Okay, we do. Okay, so our utility assistance program is Rural GR18.

01:44:45.000 --> 01:45:07.000
Um, it's funded entirely through customer donations, and it's available to homeowners and renters. So, our UAP program is designed to aid qualified low-income residential customers. So we have, um, three, um, programs. So we have the Winter Assistance, which is October through March.

01:45:07.000 --> 01:45:14.000
Um, the minimum amount is $17, um, per month, and the maximum's $138.

01:45:14.000 --> 01:45:23.000
Um, year-round assistance is, um, October through September, so we ask our year-round assistance customers to reapply every September.

01:45:23.000 --> 01:45:30.000
And, um, they are qualified if they, um… are under the Social Security income.

01:45:30.000 --> 01:46:00.000
Um, or SSI. Um, the one-time assistance is, um. It's available to anybody. It's not necessarily low-income. It's a one-time assistance if the customer demonstrates, um, hardship or unforeseen circumstances, um, where They may not have the money to pay their utility bill that month, and so that, um, is a lump sum payment, um, to a maximum of $350. And we provide that in a rolling 12-month average, so they can get it once, um, every 12 months.

01:46:03.000 --> 01:46:26.000
Currently, um, our median household income is $135,801. And to qualify for the winter assistance, they have to fall in that 50%, so their income needs to be $67,900 or less. Um, the new, uh, census CDP, um, median household income is $136.

01:46:26.000 --> 01:46:35.000
502, um, so beginning in October of this year, um, that income will go to $68,251.

01:46:35.000 --> 01:46:45.000
Um, so next slide. So this is just a breakdown of, um, our donations and our assistance, um, starting in July of 2024.

01:46:45.000 --> 01:46:54.000
Um, for. Um, the blue is all the assistance we, um, provided our residents, and the red is the donations.

01:46:54.000 --> 01:47:04.000
Um, in January, you'll see a peak. We did get a $2,000 one-time donation from a local entity that… so that kind of piqued that, um, donation.

01:47:04.000 --> 01:47:15.000
Bar up. Um, and of course, this is only through April of this year. Um, at the time I was making this slide, I didn't have all of May data, so it's only through April.

01:47:15.000 --> 01:47:35.000
Um, next slide. So this is, um, our utility fund balance. At the beginning on July 1st, 2024, our fund was $19,670, And at the end of April, our fund balance was $23,352.

01:47:35.000 --> 01:47:46.000
Um, if you go to the next slide, um, this is the fund balance since fiscal year 2016. Um, you'll see kind of a peak in 21.

01:47:46.000 --> 01:47:55.000
During that time, that was COVID, and we had an option in our payment as our credit card processing, where we… they could donate online.

01:47:55.000 --> 01:48:02.000
Um, so we did see a lot of, um, donations in that fiscal year.

01:48:02.000 --> 01:48:17.000
Next slide. So, um, since July 2024, we've assisted 81 customers, and um… And that 24,178 has been, um.

01:48:17.000 --> 01:48:28.000
Given to our customers, and um… So, in the year-round, we have about 39% of that 24,000 was given to our year-round customers.

01:48:28.000 --> 01:48:42.000
41% was, um, provided to our winter assistant, um. Residents, and then we give about 20% of that money was, um, provided to our one-time assistance.

01:48:42.000 --> 01:48:49.000
We also do… we also end customer care. We have additional resources that we, um.

01:48:49.000 --> 01:48:56.000
Refer our customers to. One is the LawHeat program, or the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

01:48:56.000 --> 01:49:06.000
Um, locally, we have self-help and LA Cares, and we also do a lot of referrals to our county social services. They have other referral options that they can, um.

01:49:06.000 --> 01:49:21.000
Guide our low-income families. Um, I went through our cashiering system and found, um, since July 24, LawHeap has provided $5,810 in assistance, and LA Cares.

01:49:21.000 --> 01:49:34.000
Um, 26,119 since July. Um, so we do have an option if you would like to, um, donate monthly.

01:49:34.000 --> 01:49:53.000
You can put that on your utility bill, and when you pay your bill, that money goes directly into our fund, and we do have a form online that, um, you can fill out and designate the amount, um, from $1 to whatever you'd like to donate, and then we'll put that on your utility bill.

01:49:53.000 --> 01:49:57.000
And then you can also donate one time, and you can fill out a little, um.

01:49:57.000 --> 01:50:10.000
Box on your, um, remittance slip for your utility bill. And you can put whatever amount you want there, and… or you can drop off a donation to Customer Care as well.

01:50:10.000 --> 01:50:19.000
Um, we have a little Zazzle store that, um, we have t-shirts, tote bags, magnets, all kinds of little items.

01:50:19.000 --> 01:50:31.000
And any of the profit goes directly to the UAP program, so people can also shop here and, um, any of the profit goes to our program.

01:50:31.000 --> 01:50:37.000
And so I did… so questions? If anybody has any questions?

01:50:37.000 --> 01:50:40.000
Are there questions from the board? Eric?

01:50:40.000 --> 01:50:57.000
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. What a great program. Um, so… they… people could give through the portal, but I remember… a year or two ago, there was an issue that some people were Gaming the portal somehow? Could you refresh my memory on that?

01:50:57.000 --> 01:51:15.000
Yeah, so when we had the UAP, um, option on Paymentus, our credit card portal You could… you only needed to put in, um, an amount, and then your credit card number, and an expiration date and stuff, and we… people were using it, trying to…

01:51:15.000 --> 01:51:24.000
See if they could get a credit card number to pass through. So, they were putting all these random numbers, and then the cards were getting declined, and it was just a really big mess.

01:51:24.000 --> 01:51:27.000
And so we, uh, disabled that option.

01:51:27.000 --> 01:51:38.000
Yeah, so that's not… you're not able to… Has there been any research to try to figure out to… re-enable that somehow without having all the fraud?

01:51:38.000 --> 01:51:43.000
Um, no, I have not researched that since we took it down. It's something I can look into.

01:51:43.000 --> 01:51:44.000
For sure.

01:51:44.000 --> 01:51:55.000
Yeah, because that… that would have been convenient. I mean, I pay my bill by check monthly, you know, so I… I give… I just write a check every month, but for the people who pay on the portal.

01:51:55.000 --> 01:51:56.000
Yeah. Yes, I will definitely look into that.

01:51:56.000 --> 01:52:01.000
It really would be a cool option.

01:52:01.000 --> 01:52:02.000
Thanks.

01:52:02.000 --> 01:52:23.000
You're welcome. Joanne, is that the… the… mechanism that was in place back in 21, where we had the high Um, high donation amount? Yeah, so that's when we had that portal available in Paymentus to donate to the UAP program.

01:52:23.000 --> 01:52:30.000
So, it was used a lot, and then it started becoming a problem with the fraud.

01:52:30.000 --> 01:52:35.000
Well, since it was… it appears to have been very convenient and effective.

01:52:35.000 --> 01:52:39.000
Yeah. If you're able to figure out how to do it securely.

01:52:39.000 --> 01:52:46.000
Yes. It might well be advantageous. Yes, I think so. I'll look into it. Seems to have worked before. Yes.

01:52:46.000 --> 01:53:08.000
Um, one other question. The amount, uh, that LA Cares provided is… comparable to what we provide… Yeah, they… their donations are usually about $700 a month, so if the person… I don't know what their qualifications are.

01:53:08.000 --> 01:53:16.000
But generally, most of the donations are in about the $700 range. So they do… they do give a bigger amount than we do.

01:53:16.000 --> 01:53:36.000
I was wondering… whether there is… any opportunity… Um, or whether there'd be any advantage to looking to see if the two programs that recognize are different organizations and different laws and different rules, but There might be a way of combining

01:53:36.000 --> 01:53:43.000
Somehow, so that, for the benefit of the of the customer having to go one place instead of two.

01:53:43.000 --> 01:53:58.000
And maybe even administratively, it's simpler if people don't have to come to utilities and get bounced and go to the LA Cares, or vice versa. With either of those, they're generally phone calls. I don't believe they go anywhere into

01:53:58.000 --> 01:54:02.000
Los Alamos County, I think it's all done through, um, phone.

01:54:02.000 --> 01:54:08.000
Um, I don't know if they have an office, are you aware they do?

01:54:08.000 --> 01:54:14.000
Just a fi… yeah, I think it's mostly done on the phone, and I believe social services also will assist with that.

01:54:14.000 --> 01:54:23.000
With LA Cares, and they have other programs, so… I don't believe they go to different places to… to apply. I believe it's all on the phone.

01:54:23.000 --> 01:54:29.000
Oh, that's for them, but then… Yep. File?

01:54:29.000 --> 01:54:39.000
Chair, just a point of clarification, our credit card processor payment is has a rule that we can only do it for utility transactions.

01:54:39.000 --> 01:54:46.000
And so the donation is a utility transaction that's run through that program.

01:54:46.000 --> 01:54:58.000
Um, so we're looking to reenact it, it would only be for… utility to cover utility bills. That's how we're doing it, and I think with… the credit card portal.

01:54:58.000 --> 01:55:04.000
We take donations, I think we'd need to add the name and account number with the donation.

01:55:04.000 --> 01:55:14.000
And not have an anonymous, because that's where the fraudsters would just try a dollar donation to see if the card worked, and then if it worked, then they would use it somewhere else.

01:55:14.000 --> 01:55:36.000
Um, uh, but you know, as far as trying to combine a non-profit with… our enterprise fund will be difficult with the systems we have in place, that's what I wanted to offer. Well, I figured it probably would be difficult. The question is, is it reasonably possible, or has anybody even thought about trying?

01:55:36.000 --> 01:55:45.000
Is that, uh… I won't take it any further. Yeah, no, I don't believe that's ever been addressed, so I don't know the answer, honestly.

01:55:45.000 --> 01:55:56.000
It was just a thought. Yeah, it's a good thought. I mean, it would be easier, for sure.

01:55:56.000 --> 01:55:57.000
Yeah, I have a question. I don't know how practical this is, but I've been wondering about it for a while.

01:55:57.000 --> 01:56:02.000
Okay, anything anyone else have questions, comments on…

01:56:02.000 --> 01:56:15.000
Is it possible to have… Um, um, and opt-out clause on the… on utility bills so that people would automatically have a certain, you know, modern amount of donation.

01:56:15.000 --> 01:56:19.000
But they would have to stop it, they would have to opt out.

01:56:19.000 --> 01:56:33.000
Sort of similar to the way companies now do with 401Ks for new employees. Is that… is something like that possible to do? That might be a convenient way to… help get donations up.

01:56:33.000 --> 01:56:39.000
I'm not sure I'd have to… Yeah. Okay, Ann.

01:56:39.000 --> 01:56:47.000
Chair Gibson, Member Knockley, I… we can look into that with legal. I… just because of we're rate-driven in our charter.

01:56:47.000 --> 01:57:02.000
I don't think we can just charge somebody something that would be voluntary, um, in that regard, and… That would be kind of a… a tough thing, given the way we're set up, which is rate-driven, and… And the way we have to approve rates, so…

01:57:02.000 --> 01:57:03.000
We can ask, but I'm not optimistic that's a good plan for this type of program.

01:57:03.000 --> 01:57:08.000
Sure.

01:57:08.000 --> 01:57:15.000
I could see obstacles also, but… The question can… the question's been asked.

01:57:15.000 --> 01:57:17.000
Sure. Thank you, I would appreciate that. Thanks.

01:57:17.000 --> 01:57:31.000
Thank you, thank you. All lawyers can say is no. Any others… any other questions, comments?

01:57:31.000 --> 01:57:37.000
Okay, with that… Thank you. Thank you.

01:57:37.000 --> 01:57:42.000
I think, uh, we're down to, uh, final opportunity for public comment.

01:57:42.000 --> 01:57:54.000
Whoops. Damn Um, Chair and member… board members, I just wanted to make a comment as a… customer of the Board of Public… of the Utility Department.

01:57:54.000 --> 01:58:04.000
Uh, today, or yesterday, we had our irrigation system fixed. And after it was fixed, it was tested and left on.

01:58:04.000 --> 01:58:08.000
And we had a knock on our door from Greg, uh, midday today.

01:58:08.000 --> 01:58:15.000
Checking in on why, if we had some sort of leak, and because it was a slow drip system, we couldn't tell, and especially with it.

01:58:15.000 --> 01:58:27.000
Raining, we just… we wouldn't have noticed any additional moisture, and I just want to compliment Greg and the Water Department for that notification and amazing customer service, so thank you.

01:58:27.000 --> 01:58:32.000
Thank you.

01:58:32.000 --> 01:58:41.000
David? I was wondering, as the, uh… that assistance program, is that, like, a tax-deductible charity?

01:58:41.000 --> 01:58:46.000
Is it… because it seems like it's tied into the county budget. I don't think we're a charity.

01:58:46.000 --> 01:58:59.000
It's… are those donations, like, tax-deductible, like a charity? I don't know the answer to that. Chair, and the donations to UAP are not tax-deductible.

01:58:59.000 --> 01:59:07.000
Now, if you donate to LA Cares. That probably is a tax… 501c3 organization.

01:59:07.000 --> 01:59:16.000
And then they put funds into the… UAP? No. Well, they assist customers with bills, but not into the UAP.

01:59:16.000 --> 01:59:22.000
Yeah, not through the UAP, okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

01:59:22.000 --> 01:59:28.000
Okay, any other public comment? Do we have any online?

01:59:28.000 --> 01:59:35.000
Thank you, Chair Gibson. If anybody online would like to make public comment, would you raise your hand now?

01:59:35.000 --> 01:59:43.000
No one has their hand raised, Chair Gibson. Okay, thanks everyone for participating this evening. We are adjourned.

01:59:43.000 --> 01:59:44.000
Thank you.

01:59:44.000 --> 01:59:55.000
Take care of everybody.