SERC Regular Meeting Minutes
March 1, 2023 6:30 P.M. (Rescheduled from 2/22/23)
Remote Participation
Board Members Present
John Hayes, Chair
Chris Cantone, Vice Chair
Doug Bowker
Jack Nessen
City Staff Present:
Stacy Kilb, Sustainability Engagement Coordinator (recorder)
Vanessa Pineda, Energy Manager
Andy Varela, City Council Liaison
Absent
Rick Nye
Erin Casey
Elvis Alvarez
Public:
SATV (recording)
Robert Huttig
Meghan Cole (WRNS)
Kate Kennedy, Planning Staff
Introductions
Guest Speakers:
Lori Hammett, Regional Sales Director, VXSmart (formerly WaterSmart) Software Demo
Rich Ames, GIS Cloud Coordinator, Town of Natick and VXSmart Customer
Lori Hammett, VXSmart
AMR AMI – real time readings every 15 minutes
Grants available?
Demo of VXSmart
For all meter classes in a City
Customer Experience
Customer Portal for notifications, leak parameters
Leak Resolution to solve it on their own
Bill Explainer
Features:
Will have City logo. Can toggle from English to Spanish or other languages
My WaterScore: Compare yourself to average and efficient homes in the area
View & Pay Bills
Notifications
My Daily Use
Recommended Actions
Continuous Water Use alerts by email
AMI = Advanced Metering Infrastructure or “smart meters”/ “fixed networks” - get reads daily to 4-6x/day instead of quarterly or monthly, helps you get of leaks
Can walk customer through leak investigation/resolution
AMI utilities see 60% customer resolution on own; Non-AMI's see 40% resolution
Leads to less calls/complaints
Non-AMI leak notification is still available as communities transition
Does this cover deduct meters for outdoor water that does not go into sewer/avoids sewer charges for irrigation use? These can be accounted for but there is extra development so would have an additional cost.
Many alerts available under “Communication Preferences”
Utility can also configure according to meter class
Can add/link/combine users
Customer Tabs:
Forms: All forms can also be digitized
Usage
Take Action
Bill Pay
Utility Experience (Back End)
Consumption data analysis
50+ reports and maps
Group messenger tool to send targeted, timely messages
Dashboard Overview
SAAS based: Software as a Service, internet based, optimized for mobile and tablet
Analytics
Consumption
Leak Detection
Tier Consumption
Water Budgets
Drought Restrictions
Engagement
Mailings
Group Messenger
Customer Intelligence
Portal Registrations
Portal Visitors
Lists: Build a static or dynamic list of customers (can use a map/polygon to send to affected area) or GIS shape file
Q&A:
City uses thousands of cubic feet; VXSmart is gallons per day (gpd). Would that be the default option if we adopted this software? Yes, most want it presented in gpd.
Large entities such as High School: Leak detection and notification could be useful to the City but does the City get detailed info from large facilities like that?
City can set up parameters for this. Can reach out to specific accounts
Entire golf course and many sports facilities are irrigated
Platform is based on meters; from utility perspective, can they read pumps that are pushing water throughout the City to identify leaks in underground pipes? No, more geared towards customers. It does not measure pressure or other indicators. Applies AI to meter reads.
As a SAAS, it is a cost for us; are grants available to pay for this? Possibly an infrastructure bill grant? Not aware of any in New England; historically there have been some and Lori will research. Salem’s infrastructure is aging, and any level of leak detection would be helpful. VXSmart is working with Worcester, who did get funding.
Are meter upgrades required? No, even older meters are compatible.
Origin of Salem Sound Coastwatch was to detect sewage leaks.
Rich Ames:
Natick wanted a better way to find leaks rather than sifting through data and notifying people they had high usage. Ti Sales told them about WaterSmart. Natick uses the communication piece all the time. Hydrant flushing notifications are run through WaterSmart
Data set is accessible and downloadable into a spreadsheet
Is a lift to get going but then an indispensable tool
What type of privacy and security is in place?
SSL encryption, bank-level security
20-page security document can be shared
Is this a budget line item? Are savings realized?
It is an add, a three-year contract. Savings will be on the customer end. Natick sells water, so loses revenue when people conserve. Went live in Feb. 2019
Uses software to track usage of schools and large entities, but can isolate them to track usage even though they are not billed
Natick has many classes of use that they track separately than WaterSmart, which tracks single family residential and large commercial
Salem has many multifamily units, to do water use education, billing must be per unit. How does this work in Natick?
Try to have one meter for every service connection. They read monthly and bill quarterly; old filter was read every 3 months. So it took that long to find out about a high bill; Can now find out about leaks monthly
Natick has a tiered billing structure; the more you use, the more you pay. Bill is at one price for the first 10 units (100 cubic feet, converted to gallons), which is a base price, then if you use more, you pay more.
Natick has irrigation meters but not deduct meters. Domestic reads water and sewer, irrigation is separate. If hand watering with hose, a deduct meter doesn’t make sense, if irrigation in the ground, a separate deduct or irrigation meter may pay for itself eventually
Will need heavy buy-in from the water system for this, who will own the system once it’s up and running? Set up is a bit of a lift.
Natick does NOT use it to provide info about climate change; only use for alerts such as water bans. Don’t want people to get messaging fatigue. Sustainability coordinator sends out a monthly newsletter
Discussion
How much water do City properties use? If we avoid leaks, we can save that way
VXSmart will help ID infrastructure costs sooner rather than being reactive
VXSmart is the only SAAS that are the only one that does customer facing programming; there are no other options that do this. Others only do back end. Is this important for City?
Uncertain how useful the “how to fix your leak” walkthrough really is
Customer will be relying on decision tree to fix leaks – it’s not rocket science, and could set up as an FAQ
If the Water Dept won’t change the bill format, what do we do? How complicated is it to change a bill? Stacy to research other municipalities’ bills and if they are more intelligible, and how they did it
The only changes to our bills were detrimental. The chart of past usage did not include units on the updated bill.
Review of January unofficial meeting topics
City Updates
New Director Info: Neal Duffy started Monday 2/27
Energy Manager Project Updates (Vanessa Pineda)
Investment Grade Audit by Ameresco began last week; schools are being audited first followed by other facilities
New Director Neal Duffy will be visiting all facilities
Witchcraft and Bentley have solar panels, but not the high school, which is electric. Bertram Field and Forest River have solar panels
Energy audit will be translated into greenhouse gas emissions? No, just an energy audit. Then Ameresco will come out with ECM (Energy Conservation Measure) recommendations for the City to take under consideration to deliver X savings, and these could be converted to GHG savings
EV chargers on utility poles: no updates from National Grid
Currently implementing ground-mounted level 2 EVCS on Church St. and Crombie St. Parking lots
Discussion of pole mounted EVCS functionality
Open Space & Recreation Plan (John Hayes) https://www.publicinput.com/salemosrp
Public Meeting 1/24, Online survey open through 3/22: Survey Link
Mission: be smarter with growth, equity, purpose
Lenses, demographics
Inventory snapshot
Issues & Ideas
Harbor Master Plan Update (John Hayes) https://harborplan.salem.com/
City Council Liaison Update (Andy Varela)
Composting Ordinance: Moving slowly but surely. Meeting w/school committee next week. Schools are largest food waste entity in the City. Want to make a policy within SPS and then roll it into curriculum
Councilor Cohen’s introduction of specialized opt-in code. Spoke to Council and inspector Tom St. Pierre. Some discrepancy between environmental code and what DOER is doing with stretch code. Looking into this; if adopted, the City must make sure it is satisfactory to code and compliance. Code is about zero carbon and must be discussed; intent is there and must be championed
Must have someone in the building department who is trained and so inspectors understand the changes. When adopted, it must be enforced
New Business
New SERC Member: Jack Nessen
Have community solar speaker at next agenda? OK to do at SERC or at Energy fair?? Follow up W/Chris
2023 meeting schedule: 4th Wednesday except for Nov. 8th and Dec. 6th
Meetings required to be in person or hybrid with an in-person quorum after the end of March if remote participation not extended
Find out input dates for harbor plan
Phil Koch has resigned from the Committee
Public Comment
None
March Invited Speaker: Neal Duffy, Director, Sustainability & Resiliency Dept
Approve Meeting Minutes – December 7, 2022
A motion to approve the minutes is made by Doug Bowker, seconded by Chris Cantone, and passes unanimously.
John Hayes Yes
Chris Cantone Yes (seconds)
Doug Bowker Yes (motions)
Jack Nessen Yes
Erin Casey Absent
Elvis Alvarez Absent
Rick Nye Absent
Upcoming City Committee Meetings
Recycling Committee: First Tuesday of the month, 3/7/23, 6:30-7:30PM
Tree Commission: Monday, 3/20/23, 6:00 PM
Conservation Commission: Third Tuesday of the month, 3/21/23, 6:30PM
Upcoming Events
National Grid Energy Fair, Thursday, 3/16/23
Salem State University Earth Week Events, 4/10/4/14/23 https://www.salemstate.edu/earthday
(tentative) Salem Drive Electric Earth Day Event, April 2023
Living Green Expo, Saturday, 5/13/23
Next SERC Meeting - Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023, at 6:30PM on zoom
Adjournment
A motion to adjourn is made by, seconded by, and passes unanimously. The meeting ends at 8:10 PM.
John Hayes Yes
Chris Cantone Yes (motion)
Doug Bowker Yes (second)
Jack Nessen Yes
Erin Casey Absent
Elvis Alvarez Absent
Rick Nye Absent