Swampscott Energy Committee
Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 11th, 2015 at 7:00 pm
Swampscott Town Hall, First Floor Meeting Room
Members Attending: Neal Duffy, Wayne Spritz, Tara Gallagher, Christine
DePalma, Thomas Dreeben
Non-Members Attending: Pete Kane (Town Planner/Energy Manager), Dan
Dragani (Asst. Town Engineer), Gargi Cooper (School Committee)
Agenda
1) 7:00 to 7:10 - Approval of previous meeting minutes – approved
2) 7:10 to 7:40 – High School Energy Tracking Program – Dan Dragani, Tom
Dreeben reporting.
In collecting the data and looking at what the students collected, we learned that
we did not know how everything at the high school was tied in. We are still trying
to figure out how the solar panels are tied in.
We need National Grid to tell us what the numbers mean, specifically on meter
#2 and then we can connect the dots.
There is a lot of data that makes a lot of sense. We see the main electric usage
going down as we started doing the HVAC improvements. Possible future
projects/project expansion could include senior projects where students could
count lights in a hallway or in classes and then see what happens if they are
turned off - they could see if there are savings. They could turn off the
computers that are on at night.
The students are going see how much the computers are drawing to see if there
could be significant savings in turning them off. There is a control system for the
lighting in the hallways and the students were going to experiment with that.
Dan Dragani set the lights on a new schedule 11:00PM – 5:00 AM to shut off as
a fail safe. We can possibly expand that schedule so the students can look at
what the expected savings would be. The committee will invite Chris Ratley to
our next meeting and discuss the program to date as well as future plans.
3) 7:40 to 8:20 – Green Communities Grant Application – Pete and Dan put
together a breakdown of streetlight inventory. The estimate is over $250,000 but
does not include the utility incentive that the town would receive. Part of the
admin cost in the proposal may go to an energy expeditor (Energy company).
Pete – remaining steps – we need to show proof of ownership. The utility has to
provide a letter off support. We can get a letter of support from local reps.
Streetlight project approved unanimously by the committee for submission to
Green Communities.
4) 8:20 to 8:50 - HVAC Capital Improvements update – Dan Dragani –
The HVAC capital improvements at the high school have shown significant
savings. 15% reduction in power from Nat Grid (March) - $4,500. Total savings
in Feb. because of HVAC and Cogen is $7,500. 17.5% reduction in gas savings.
We are seeing savings without being weather normalized and assuming we are
likely colder this year, the savings may be even more significant. The dollar
savings for gas use is still hard to figure out. Dan met with a design engineer who
came up with a list of items we should address with energy management system,
boiler, systems in general. All low cost no cost items to implement. Dragani
emphasized the importance of the program because the school and town worked
together and achieved a great goal and we see the power of understanding what
we have.
6) 8:50 to 9:00 - Any other business that comes before the committee –
commissioning
The committee discussed some recent HVAC issues with the Police Station.
Committee members expressed concern that we were experiencing such issues
so soon after the building was finished and wants to make sure that the town is
holding contractors responsible for work performed. Dan will speak with the
police chief about these issues.