[0:09] Overwhelming. walking. This meeting is called to order. Please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening, and welcome to the Thursday, September 24th, 2026.
[0:45] Inver Grove Heights Environmental Advisory Commission meeting. Stacy, will you please roll call? Roll Lundquist here. Barry. Here. Sorry. Mikulski. Here. Goodman. Here. Reese, here. Trees. Look here. Killian. Here. Pick it. All right. Um. The next order of business is the approval of the agenda for today, September 24th.
[1:17] Are there any changes to the agenda from commissioners? Are they are any changes from staff? Okay? Commissioners, would anyone like to make a motion to approve the agenda? Move it. A motion to approve the agenda. Second, I please. Do we have to vote on that or is that just a move in second? All in favor? Okay.
[1:37] All in favor of approval of the agenda. Say, is it I. I.. All opposed. Say no. All right. The agenda is approved to move forward. The next order of business is the approval of minutes from. And I’m going to say June 25th, 2026, as well as August 27th, 2026.
[2:03] Um, does anyone, um, commissioners, you have any comments? And I miss this. Does anyone from the public have any comments? Um, commissioners, would you like to make a motion to approve the minutes from both of those meetings? I’ll move that. We approve the minutes. For second. All right. Um, sorry. Uh, move by Commissioner Reese and seconded by, um, Commissioner Killian.
[2:23] I forgot to do that on the. Sorry. Um, let’s see here. Uh, okay. Um, all in favor of approval of the, um, minutes from the previous two meetings? Say, I. I. All opposed. Say no. Okay. The, um, the first order of business on the agenda is a presentation from the Partners and Energy. An update on that. Good evening. Hi.
[3:00] Hi. I’m Marcus Baker. I’m work. I work with the center for Energy and Environment, and I’m a facilitator for the partners and energy program with this Xcel Energies program. So I wanted to give a brief update tonight. Um, to the commission. I appreciate you having me here.
[3:24] And, uh, if you have any questions at the end, I definitely want to be able to answer any of those. And also, Caitlin’s here tonight from Xcel Energy. So between the two of us, we should be able to help. Awesome. Welcome. Thank you. Okay.
[3:51] So I don’t know how many of the commissioners are new on the on the commission since we started, but we started together, um, in 2020. I believe I’ve got a timeline here that’ll that we can go through, but we usually have, like, a two year collaboration doing an energy action plan and then implementation of that plan.
[4:10] Uh, a city of Inver Grove Heights has been through that and is now a graduate community with the Partners in Energy program. And here’s the timeline. You did start in October 2020. Created that energy action plan. And then that was the implementation of that plan with the partners and energy team. Uh, ended in December 2022.
[4:39] However, we picked right back up in 2023 and the city of Inver Grove Heights wanted to continue working with us. Greatly appreciate that. And we’re still working with you today and the last couple of years in 2025 and 2026, there was some pauses in the work that we’ve been doing. So this is a great point.
[4:59] I believe, as we’re picking up our work with Stacy and, going to continue on together. This is actually my first time I’ve been able to work with you all to. So Stacy and I are kind of picking the ball up and taking it taking it forward from here.
[5:14] So we’ll have some ideas on how to do that tonight as well. But just a little bit of a review on your energy action plan. Um, you have a great vision as the city. Your focus areas are really there.
[5:32] Um, as, as kind of be an energy stewardship and a holistic and a holistic way covering a broad part of your community, both the residential, uh, segment, businesses, schools, non-profits, places of worship and municipal leadership. Those are all focus areas from the plan that you may already be aware of.
[5:55] Um, tonight we really want to kind of do a check in on where you at in meeting your goals from that plan. So this should be all new information for everybody. Um, in the plan you originally had specific goals that you would you wanted to meet as a community by 2025. And here we are in 2026.
[6:21] And we just got the data from Xcel Energy. That was through the end of 2025. So this is perfect timing to have this update in this check in, because we just got all of the data to back up, uh, where you’re where you are at by the end of 2025.
[6:41] So in the plan, you can kind of see in the red there, those were the goals that were that the city had set to achieve by the end of 2025. And then in the right column there is the progress as of as of December of last year.
[7:03] And I just, you know, have to congratulate you all because you’re doing excellent, excellent in meeting those goals. Um, two of them, especially the first two, um, there was a goal of saving the community $3.2 million or. I’m sorry. The goal is $2.4 million. And you actually far exceeded that by hitting 3.2 million. And then you had a goal of saving of energy savings. That was 19,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.
[7:28] And you actually hit 31.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity. So I’ll show you in a graph here in a minute. This will represent us a little, a lot better, but you really far exceeded those two goals.
[7:47] Um, the next two, the savings for firms, which is a measurement for natural gas usage, that was, um, one that we haven’t quite hit yet. So we’re going to continue. And I have some ideas on how, um, we can we can kind of bolster that goal. And, and, and do the savings on that a little further at the end here.
[8:11] Um, and then savings are the avoided carbon emissions is the last one there in the fourth row. And you’re right on target there. Um, just a little bit short, but it’s really you’re really right there hitting that hitting that goal by 2025. So like I said, this graph shows that a little bit better. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I’m interrupting you. Yeah.
[8:29] Go ahead. It says there Xcel Energy only. So those numbers could be higher if you include the other provider. Yes, very. That’s a very good point. I’m glad you brought that up. This is Xcel Energy only.
[8:45] What? What do you mean by provider? Can you go back one? There’s a there’s a small part of the city that has a different. Dakota. South. Dakota. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yep. Thank you. Sorry, Mark. No, that’s a great point to bring up. And yeah, this graph is just really showing once again the the lines that you see, the black lines across the bars.
[9:07] There are where those three goals were, were set at. And you can see how one far exceeded that. The terms is is about halfway there. And then you’re right at that. That line for the carbon emission. Um reduction.
[9:32] So this is all to say like what we really set out to do together is meet 2030 goals. So it’s really the 2025 is really a checkpoint of how are you doing towards that, towards your goals for 2030. Now those goals are higher. So as you as we look at that, if we look at those numbers again, you’re really trying to save an estimated $5 million for your community.
[9:57] 39,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 2.5 million terms of natural gas, and avoid an estimated 28,000. Um, in the in the carbon emission. So we still have work to do on all of all accounts. But you’re you’re definitely further ahead on some than others. Is there any questions on that specifically? Yeah. Go ahead.
[10:21] On the on the shortfall in in terms of natural gas. That’s that’s big. So you know, any any sense of that. Where are we too optimistic to begin with is whether been different or. That’s a really good a really good question. Um. I will probably have to get back to you on the answer.
[10:43] I don’t think it was a goal that was out of a line, but any any reasons? Um, however, I don’t know why it would be as short as it is being. Um, being that you did so well with the kilowatt hours savings. So January had some record cold, right? Sure. Yeah.
[11:07] Weather definitely plays a factor in how much, you know, natural gas is used in the wintertime. Um, we don’t try to normalize for that data. So that does kind of play a factor. But there’s definitely things that we can do to to help boost those numbers up. So we’ll we’ll definitely look at those together.
[11:31] And that’s what that’s what kind of Stacy and I and the team have really started to, to already start to look at. We’re kind of at the end of the MOU that we had written over 20, 25 that got kind of put off until this year and then until Stacy got hired
[11:47] for her position. So, um, we’re going to we’re going to pick up the work now, but we’re really at the end of the MOU. That was for The Graduate. Um, community designation.
[12:06] So we we have we have some capacity to still do a little bit more, but not a lot right now. Um, so but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to do things, but it just will have a new scope of work. And this committee can actually really help in determining what do we do next.
[12:26] What is kind of the next steps that we should all take together? So what I would suggest is for the current MOU is some residential outreach. And I’m going to suggest this for a couple of reasons. One is the capacity.
[12:47] Um, but I think you’ll be really interested to see that Xcel Energy is is just started a new I don’t know if it’s a program necessarily, but it is a credit that’s an automatic bill credit that is going to a specific, uh, census block group in Inver Grove Heights. And I’ll show you that better on the map here. You can kind of see it in the bottom corner. There’s the orange shaded, uh, census block group.
[13:09] And that automatic bill credit is already being applied to the, uh, citizens bills that live within that census block. So what we could do together before the end of the year is actually do some outreach to that area specifically.
[13:32] And I say that because they’re already getting a bill credit, I think it’s good to kind of make that announcement, kind of make that more known to people of why, why are they seeing a bill credit? It’s already happening on their Xcel Energy bill, but also to say, hey, you’re also, since you’re in the census block group, you also have a, um, kind of an easier path to get to a home energy squad visit and some
[13:53] other Xcel Energy programs that could benefit them even more by reducing their bills. Um, finding ways to insulate their homes better. There’s a home energy savings program that they may already qualify for as well, with very little, um, proof for, um, I think they have to have some kind of proof
[14:17] of income, but very little paperwork and not much that they have to do to try to get some really major things for their homes. So, um, I think this is a good thing for us to target and maybe work with. Um, the I think there’s a manufactured home park within that.
[14:38] I mean, move it to that map. So, yeah. Can you make that bigger? There you go. Do our business is included in this along Concord. This is also the trailer park. Right. But I mean, there’s north of 70th. I thought there was. Maybe it doesn’t go high north enough.
[15:06] All I can tell you, uh, for sure that I know is there’s 274 premises in that census block, and there’s. Which has 726 residents. So it’s a good number, a good number for us to be able to do outreach, especially if it is a manufactured home park there where we could, you know, have a have some kind of resource that we could give to like a
[15:23] park manager or some of that could distribute something very simply and easily to the citizens of that park, something that, you know, that they trust and they know. And it’s it’s got the city’s logo on it. It’s got partners in energy with Xcel Energy on logo on there.
[15:43] So it’s a trustworthy source that they’d be getting and a kind of a, hey, you’re getting this bill credit. There’s other programs that you are also eligible for, and you can take advantage of.
[16:06] So this would just be like one suggestion that we would have is just really promote home energy squad visits, rebates and low, low cost or low cost programs. That actually everybody in that census block group would get a no cost home energy squad visit. So it would be free. So that is would be very helpful. Any questions on that piece? Um, why do they have a credit? That’s a great question.
[16:34] It was identified as an area that has a high energy burden. Um, for for households within that census block group, which means. It’s a it’s basically a percentage of their gross income compared to what their energy bills are. So you get a certain if that percentage gets high enough, it’s designated as a high energy burdened, um, household.
[17:00] So that’s where there’s a bunch of these census block groups that got identified within the metro area. And this is one of them that was identified in Inver Grove Heights. So they don’t have to apply for that at all. It’s just automatically already happening on their bill. I don’t know how much it is.
[17:16] That’s kind of I think that varies depending on the census block group. Can you? That’s a good question. Sorry. Can you say a few words about. What a home energy Squad visit entails? Sure. Um, I have a I had one of these myself, so I had some personal experience with it.
[17:39] Somebody comes to the home, you can have a blower door test. Really? Looking for areas of the home that you can tell where there’s, um, not as much insulation. So there’s maybe there’s one room that’s colder or hotter than others.
[18:00] Um, windows or doors, or maybe it’s attic insulation that just needs to be improved upon. But when they do that blower door, um, I seen the right blower door, um, test that’s really identifying those areas of the home that need that. But then there’s also like installation of like water aerators, uh, LED light bulbs.
[18:21] They’ll come in and actually do some, uh, installation of different things that help like reduce the cost of electricity or electric use or water use or that type of thing to help the the homeowner out as well. And those installations are also a no cost in this case. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
[18:45] Okay. So this is this is a work that we did do together. Um, last year. And I was part of this a little bit, but it was we definitely have been doing some other work with outreach about energy efficiency and renewable energy for businesses, youth, residents, multifamily buildings.
[19:11] Um, there was a sustainable Inver Grove Heights award program, and then the Minnesota’s Green Step cities and smart support as well. So those were all things that we kind of touched on last year. But I can’t tell you how far we got with each one of those.
[19:28] It was kind of we did a little bit with all of them. But yeah, the big question is, you know, how how can we best support as the city moves forward as we do this together in 2027? We do need to do a new scope of work. Our new MOU or something that would kind of like really formalize what we’d like to do together.
[19:48] But there are a couple of things that I put on here as like recommendations that you could look at. Um, and I and I’ll suggest these mainly for that piece of like, how do we really boost up the, um, the energy savings from firms, from natural gas? Because that’s the goal that’s really kind of
[20:08] lagging behind right now. Um, one thing, and this all depends on the capacity of the city. So, um, we can we can do more than two options, but two that I put on here is one, you could do a beneficial electrification plan, um, that also has a you can have an electric vehicle
[20:27] subsection to that I noticed in your energy action plan that there was a pretty, pretty solid base in there, like things you wanted to do with electric vehicles. Um, and that was more of a long range plan of kind of doing it later on, which is kind of now.
[20:47] So this would be a really good way to, um, get into the EV planning portion of things. But really focus on beneficial electrification, which is really looking at heat pumps, uh, for residential, having that conversion from using natural gas or usually a heat pump is going to be a primary source for most people in Minnesota when they have it.
[21:08] And then a furnace or a a boiler or something as a backup in a really cold day. But we do have a cold climate, heat pumps today that work very well as a primary source in Minnesota for most of the year, not all of it, but that really would
[21:25] reduce natural gas use by quite a bit and move it more into electricity usage, which the grid is getting cleaner and cleaner. So that’s, that’s, uh, that’s helpful that, um, it’s going from gas to electric. Yes. But how do you make your electricity? I mean, yes, you do not.
[21:48] I probably refer to Caitlin on that one. That’s there’s definitely a variety of sources. I mean, I understand that, but this isn’t like just they just increased their plants or are in the houses. We have a pretty aggressive carbon legal and we have, uh, pretty aggressive carbon free goals by 2050. As far as utilities to go. Our.
[22:12] Um, fuel mix. I don’t know it off the top of my head. So I can get back to you guys with that. With this public information, um, we get a lot of energy from nuclear, from wind, from solar, from different sources. So it’s. Definitely cleaner than a 100% natural gas furnace.
[22:27] Would be. Right. But I think you are. I thought you were eyeing a couple of natural gas plants online. I can get. back to you on that. I don’t yeah, I don’t know the specifics on that. I’m sorry. All right.
[22:50] Um, is there more to the presentation or at this point, is it time for questions and discussion? Yeah, this is all I had other than just, uh, kind of a smaller campaign recommending a continuing as a graduate community, um, focusing on smaller campaigns, depending on what the, you know, capacity that the staff would have and, and what you’d like to do. Okay.
[23:11] Um, Stacy, what would you like from the commission as far as comments and things? Um, pretty much just whatever. If something popped into your head during the presentation, something that called you, what you would like to focus on in 2027 really is the guidance that we’re okay. So kind of what’s up here? Yep. Okay. Perfect.
[23:32] Um, does anyone have any other clarifying questions before we do comment at this time. Madam Chair? Go ahead. I was wondering if you had any, uh, kind of like cities that are close to us with, uh, that, like, best practices or practices. You could recommend. For moving forward different campaigns.
[23:59] I mean, as we as we plan for that because, you know, like contacting businesses and multiple unit housing and that is there any plans out there or any cities that you say, hey, that’s a good way to do it so that we could look into it and not reinvent the wheel. Yeah, for sure.
[24:20] There’s I don’t have the map on my presentation, but there’s so many communities there right around you that are sometimes in varying stages of, um, like Saint Paul Park right now is developing their energy action plan for the first time.
[24:39] So you have anything from Saint Paul Park to like Eagan right now? Uh, Eagan is doing a beneficial electrification plan, and I forget what they’ve done in the past, but, um, I’m thinking of others right around close here. Uh, Burnsville is is a graduate community there. They have a lot of campaigns. They just did a multifamily building. Um, kind of going door, a little door to doors right where they say it.
[25:03] But visiting with property owners of those buildings and also did like a business blitz of, uh, one area of their city that was in the Xcel Energy territory, where they talked to a lot of their business owners and, and got them into the commercial, um, programs as well. So there’s a lot that’s happening right now.
[25:24] I feel like we’re busier than ever. Um, working on so many different campaigns. Um, and I can definitely be in communication with Stacy as we move forward. Like what? Some more of those campaigns are. But it really varies, for sure. Um. Thank you. Madam Chair. Yeah, go ahead.
[25:43] I had questions, but I was going to save them for my comment piece. Oh, okay. Do all my questions. Do you want me to wait? Um, if you think they might be questions that will help other people with their comments, maybe. Otherwise we can just start on comments. Always helpful. All right, I’m gonna ask my questions.
[25:57] Yeah. Maybe. So. I am happy to say I was on the founding committee of this effort back in 2020. And then also on the environmental commission that voted to go forward. And if I was running for political office, I would take credit for all the success. But I’m not. So, uh, a couple of things.
[26:15] So, uh, if you were to suggest like 1 or 2 things that could improve the gas terms, is it is it as simple as lower your thermostat or are there other things that could happen just a 1 or 2 point kind of thing off the top of your head if you have one?
[26:29] Yeah. Getting ways to like have insulation and people that use the insulation rebates that Xcel Energy has, uh, just, you know, doing that first and foremost, even if somebody went and took the next step and got a heat pump, it’s good to have that insulation done.
[26:51] First thing or or at least very close together. That way the heat pump works even more efficiently than, um, than otherwise it would without the insulation. So those are the two things that come to my mind the fastest. Thanks for that second one.
[27:09] Um, how long can we keep this relationship the MOU thing going with you all? Does it come to an end or is it? Can we keep going into to some way in the future? 2030? It’s a fine question. I think it’s an indefinite thing.
[27:30] So as long as you want to continue doing work, it’s really you do have like there’s a link on here that’s for the that’s that one is I guess it’s for a few different applications. So you could do an application on there for more graduate support. You could do an application for the beneficial electrification plan. And then also when you fill that out it goes directly to Xcel Energy. And they um they look at approving it.
[27:50] I, I don’t foresee any reasons why they wouldn’t, but, um, yeah, once you’re done with one, MOU has just got a process of applying again. Okay. Last one, how do we compare with other cities. Our our results are pretty good except for the gas.
[28:09] Are we, like along the middle? Are we better or we worse? Won’t commit you to like, grades. But yeah. Just generalization. How are we doing compared to other members? I, I don’t know that I have a good, um, comparison of how the, you know, how the communities are doing compared to one another.
[28:26] Um, that would be a great thing to ask my data team and see if they could come up with something like that. If we can find that, I’ll, um, I’ll send it over to Stacy so she can share that with you. But I’m sure you’re doing, uh, you’re doing at least above average. I was happy to see the the scorecard.
[28:44] I was surprised, so thank you. Thanks for coming to Madam Chair. I’m okay. Thank you. Um, here, we’ll start with Commissioner Killian on comments related to the questions on the screen or anything else you have. With natural gas, usage is going up, probably mostly due to generators.
[29:05] People are adding more and more generators as backup because of the electric grid not being as reliable. And then, especially with, uh, data centers coming online, um, what are you doing to assure customers that their electric grid is reliable and that they don’t need to depend on generators.? Would you try that one? Yeah. I think that’s more.
[29:32] Of a question for our community relations manager. So I can definitely bring that back to him. Um, Eric Simonson, I know we’re doing our best to promote our demand response programs, we call them, which are different programs that work with residents and businesses to take. energy off the grid at.
[29:48] High peak demand times. But I can get a better answer for you from our community Relations manager. Um, okay. And. There’s, um, other ways, like leaks on natural gas that could be looked at, right, to decrease the amount of gas going into atmosphere.
[30:19] And I know that there’s new technology going into drone usage that, you know, I know you probably do your surveys. Yeah, I know a lot about Metro gas. Yeah. Um, has Excel thought about besides just driving around looking for lease if they bring in drones and then being able to tell customers about their leaks that they may have on their facilities, or is it something that they’re considering?
[30:41] I am not aware. I’m I apologize, but I can look into that for you and get back to you. Okay? Yeah. Something another thing that I would like Inver Grove to move towards is, um, lights that are censored and so that we’re using, like, less lighting when we don’t need to at night when
[31:03] there’s nothing around. Is that something that they’re ever considered is maybe having lights go on and off as needed, like in the residential neighborhoods? I don’t know, maybe say non electricity usage.. And you put the first one next to her house if it’s going to go on and off all night.
[31:28] All your people walk by because. they’re going to turn on. Right. Okay. Yeah. Um. And then I was people that you know, natural gas is also cheaper than, than electricity at this time. Right. So and you get more to use electricity like seven times the amount.
[31:54] I mean, what is the incentive to use more electricity over natural gas if your natural gas is cheaper. That’s that’s a good question. We recently started our, um we call it we have a lower rate during the heating seasons for electricity.
[32:15] I could get the exact details of what the actual rate is, but if you heat your home, your primary heating source is electricity, you’re eligible for that rate. It’s really easy to sign up. You just call Excel. If you get a heat pump rebate, your contractor can help you get on that rate. Um, and that rate will.
[32:31] The whole point of it is to incentivize electricity to make it more affordable, because we know there is that gap currently. Okay. Yeah, I could speak for my personal experience. I, I got a heat pump and it is a really inexpensive rate. It’s, uh, electric space heating rate, and it’s like six and a half cents a kilowatt hour.
[32:49] So it yeah, that was great that Xcel Energy did that because it made it more comparable to, um, the price of natural gas. Okay. That’s good though. Thank you. All right. Commissioner. Look. I’m done. You’re good. Okay. Commissioner Reece. Yeah. Just one more. When? When they go out on the energy audits and that this is just something that happened to me.
[33:10] And I didn’t pay attention when we built the house about how to run the vents, and and, uh, we have a split entry. So, uh, in the furnace, the guy that serves as our furnace said, you know, in the winter, you should have this set and, you know,
[33:26] push the bents up here so that the heat is staying up there and that I, I should have paid attention and looked at my bill a little bit and see what impacted me. But it’s a simple fix and it’s free. It’s just changing your vents.
[33:44] , right? Of course, it’s not my basement and the winter as a fruit seller, but that’s it. All right. Um, I guess I’m just trying to think if I had anything beneficial to say, but I think, like, the biggest thing for me is, like, community outreach and being at farmers markets with information or being out in the
[34:05] community with information, because everybody’s so busy and inundated with information all the time. And energy isn’t necessarily top of mind. Besides, maybe when you get your bills.
[34:22] So, um, I don’t know if that’s one way to just stay out there, even though Inver Grove Heights isn’t that big like they’re we do have events that happen. I don’t know if there was a booth on or anything at Inver Grove Heights days, but, um, for for this. Okay. And did we talk about electric usage and all that, or was it more just. It was more recycling? Okay. Yeah.
[34:41] I was just thinking, like if we could do something maybe with that, I don’t know, to talk about energy use and things and, but there are, um, rebates for certain things or whatever. So, um, and then I guess maybe more information about the beneficial electrification, maybe down the road, because that sounds interesting, but, um, without more information, it’s kind of hard to know what
[35:02] that fully means. So we’ve actually got a really good event coming up that’s specifically for beneficial electrification. Oh, Okay, I don’t know. Stacy may have already, um, signed up for it is October or six in person? Partners in Energy event? Yep. I’ll be there. Right. Okay. Cool.
[35:24] Maybe, maybe just like a little report at one of the next meetings about how or about that or something would be helpful for this commission then. Okay. Cool. Thanks. Okay. Commissioner mikulski. Oh, just a couple of comments. Um, we didn’t meet our goal by half, and now we’re, like, doubling it in the next, you know, four years.
[35:43] Not sure how we’re going to do that. Um, since we, like I said, only met our goal halfway. Another concern, again, is adding, like what? Tracy said, adding more electrical burden to an already stressed electrical grid with electric heat pumps. Um, I have huge trust issues and I like my natural gas.
[36:03] Um, for a lot of reasons, because I, you know, especially with my gas stove and the power is out, I can still cook in my house, um, things like that. So it’s going to I’m going to be a hard sell on heat pumps up here in Minnesota. I’m just tired.
[36:18] I’m going to be your standard person because I consider heat pumps a southern thing. Um, I have friends. My sister lives in Tennessee. They’ve got a heat pump. It’s great. Until it gets to about 20 degrees. When it drops that that cold, um, it doesn’t keep up as well. Um, but of course, you said there’s some cold weather ones, so I’ll do some research on that.
[36:38] I’ll do my homework on that. Other than that. But yeah, the, um, the community support part is really important. I think we need to kind of keep that going so we can work in partnership. All right, Commissioner, and I forget your name. I’m sorry. Okay. That’s okay.
[36:56] I’m one of those new commissioners, though, since, uh, this endeavor started. So this is my first time learning about it and really appreciate all the information and all the efforts that have come before my time here.
[37:12] Um, so I would echo the sentiment of, I would be interested in learning more about what an MOU or the like moving forward. Um, working together would look like. Um, I’m curious about. So this scorecard is based on five years worth of data, right.
[37:33] Um, did you see any, like, points where there was a big increase in, like the cost savings or the, um, decrease in the electricity usage? Were there any, like, specific interventions you could see like, oh, this happened, and then there was this big jump, or was it kind of a steady, um, rates throughout the five years? Any kind of insights for the data there? I didn’t go back and look at each data dashboard closely enough to, to see if there might have been a leap
[37:49] somewhere in there. But we can check on that. If there was a leap like that. It’s generally from like a commercial business participating in 1 or 2 programs.
[38:08] And if you’ve got a commercial business that does something like that, it can make a pretty substantial difference in the numbers just because their energy use is so much greater than a single resident. So I would look for that, um, program participation if I went back into the data and looked like where, where were some of those, um, you know, commercial business participation numbers. Yeah. Interesting. That’s a great point.
[38:27] They kind of fun to dig through and. Yeah, see what it will reveal. Um, I’m also curious about, um, the heat pumps as a strategy. Um, are there any kinds of, um, incentives or rebates or. I understand that they can be really, like, varied in price depending on a particular home.
[38:48] Um, is there a good time, like you mentioned, the insulation. You know, if you need to update your insulation anyway, like, what are those kinds of considerations that somebody may make? Well, considering a heat pump.
[39:08] Yeah, we definitely make, um, you know, the community is aware of rebates that are available for heat pumps specifically, as well as the insulation rebates. And you can kind of like stack those rebates together when, when it’s done within a year of each other.
[39:24] So that’s, you know, it’s kind of part of the home energy squad visit to like the the person that comes to somebody’s home and does does that an inspection is not really the right word, but just the visit. Yeah. Um, they point out like what rebates are available for the work that they see that needs to be done or could be done. Um, so that’s yeah, those are all there for, for people, home energy squad.
[39:40] It’s a great place to start just to be able to identify what else can we do from here. Mhm. That’s good advice. Thank you. You’re welcome. Uh, Commissioner Lundquist. Thank you for your presentation today. Um. I am really excited. About the. Electric vehicle. Um. I think.
[40:04] That would be something that people would be receptive to with the high gas prices that. Seem to be. Continuing for the foreseeable future. And I agree with my other commissioners about concerns with heat pumps.
[40:27] Um, we upgraded our furnace a year or two ago, and our HVAC contractor recommended that we stick with a furnace rather than going with the heat pump because of the concerns about what do you do when it gets zero or below 20? So yeah, I think more has to be done with the community to get people on board with that. So but thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you.
[40:46] I just have one more comment I’m going to add, um, going back to Commissioner Killian’s and Kelsey’s comment about power going out here. There is a problem. I know Excel is working on it, but there is a problem in Inver Grove Heights and I do. I wonder if there’s an increase in, um, generator usage because of it. Um, we had one that.
[41:06] What was that a couple weeks ago where it sounded like there was an overgrowth of vegetation by one of the electrical stations, and they had they spent like a, you know, several hours clearing it. And it’s just there’s a lack of attention or something in this area. I’m not sure what it is.
[41:22] So, yeah, if you can bring that back to Excel, that would be great. Absolutely. Because I think that would help with some of these other things. So for sure, okay. Um, well, thank you for your presentation and for visiting and answering all your questions. And, um, Stacy, is there anything else that you need from us? Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate. Your time.
[41:43] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Um, next order of business is commissioner. Comments. Um, Commissioner Kelly, and do you have any further comments to come before the commission? I have no further comments. Okay, Commissioner. I think for. Me, Commissioner Reece. Nothing for me. Commissioner Mikulski.
[42:12] No, just continuing the partnership for, uh, community outreach in this case, and that’s a great thing. Yeah. Is it buried? Barry? Okay, Commissioner Barry, no further comments. Okay. Commissioner Lundquist nope. Nope. Okay. At this point, then, um, do any of the members of the public wish to speak on items on on the agenda? Um, CC, do you have any.
[42:33] Further would you like to talk? Do you want to talk, lady? Um, Stacy, does staff have any additional comments to share? I don’t. Okay. Thank you. Um, I will take a motion to adjourn. Uh, I make a motion to adjourn. A second. All right. Motion by Kelly and seconded by mikulski. To adjourn. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed. Say no. Okay.