Okay, let's call to order the electric advisory board meeting. It's Monday, December 1st. Please join me in the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Lord, thank you for the opportunity to serve. Please bless us with uh wisdom
and understanding in Jesus name. Amen. >> Pledge of 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.
First order is the approval of minutes. >> Motion to approve. >> Okay, motion's approved. Discussion. Meter change out program. >> So, we have three presentations for you tonight. The meter change out program.
I'll go over uh that one. Uh Chris is going to talk about the maintenance grant application process and where we are with that and then Paul's going to wrap up and talk about bulk power cost adjustments. So that's what we have ready for you today. So the
meter upgrade project um we have the project plan the impact to the budget little background of the um AMI system how we're communicating with our customers the process and then the uh exchange process itself. So again the
the project plan is to uh you know change out um about 20,000 meters. We want to ensure a safe and reliable electric system. We have uh
again 20,000 what we would call first generation meters that were installed around 2012 is when we began the city began its own AMI adventure. Um and so we'll we're
going to go over the the nuances of that program. But again, the idea, you know, from a customer perspective is these meters aren't failing, but they've reached their end of useful life. And before they fail, we we go ahead and change them out. Um, there's a little
nuance in there that we're we do deal with meters that the display has has gone out. And when the display goes out, the customer service reps get a notification, if you will, because they're unable to remotely send that
data back to the head-end system. So, they'll get the first cue that there's something a miss and that falls under a meter replacement. But that's different from this program. This program is to try to get it ahead of the curve and get
rid of these 20,000 meters and exchange them with newer meters. On a sidebar, Arnold and his guys keep up with the meter failures each month that come in. Our goal again over five years is to get rid of the 20,000 and get to a point to
where we don't have these failed meters um that are occurring. But it's a nuance that you may hear through some of your, you know, the area which you live is if these meters are failing, you know, how can we ensure we're getting a good information from the meters. It's the
transmission of the data that uh is we're dealing with. It's accurately calculating the usage. It's just not able to send that remotely. Okay. So again in 2012, city of Leburg went
live with our AMI initiative. Uh the meter captures the data uh stores it and sends the energy usage data through the head-end system to create the monthly invoices. This is 15minute interval data that it's collecting you know every 15
minutes if you will. We're capturing that. We build from that information and then we can query that information whenever we have customer calls about high bills or usage. We can help really pinpoint exactly when they started seeing a problem and you know uh we can
help troubleshoot their end of the their side of their system if they have an AC problem. So we we work with them. The AMI is also integrated into our outage management system. So the meter has a last gasp if there's an outage in the
area. and the meter will respond a power out notification and that populates into the LMS system. So again, we know that they're out of power before they have to pick up the phone and even call uh we'll know they're out of power. Um again,
some of the benefits that we see today, the interval data like I talked about to help troubleshoot the remote disconnect and reconnect for all of our our residential meters. uh the current we're not able to do that with the commercial meters yet but as we move forward some
of the GE meters are are uh putting that remote cut on and cut off on some three-phase meters so we'll see some more of that but certainly all the residential meters are covered and then you know to help with troubleshooting and pinging you know we can ping we can
query meters through our system to to get a uh the handle if if they're out if their neighbors out if we get a single no- like call in the middle of the I through a meter system we can ping the neighboring meters fed off the same transformer to try to determine is this
really an outage is it impacting all these customers or just this single customer there's a lot of future use cases for AMI system um you can do well we we today we do hot meter base so it's measuring the the temperature of the
meter base and it will send us a message through the Q UIQ UIQ system to let us know that there's a meter base we should look at. We can collect information for transformer loading. We can collect information for um if you will on
voltages to help understand or help be a little more proactive if there's a uh open neutral type issue that the customer may have. The certain voltage um patterns that are visible or are are there so we can get that information. Um
the problem with some of the future use cases is you end up building these exception reports which is great but every day you get an exception report we have to have resources available to manage that data. So um with great power
comes great responsibility. Um we are in the final stages of the GE totron platform transition. So we have another month we wanted to be done by the end of the calendar year. I think it may lapse into one maybe two more months
that we complete the transition. So again, if you will, it's a significant um improvement in our cost when GE falls off and like we're I think GE right now is like a $1.7 million annual cost where
Itron is more of the $400,000. So it's pretty significant. same platform. The Itron meter provided the same mesh network, if you will, for all the metering information that we're getting today. We're just getting rid of GE as a third party.
Um, budget impact. So, this again is a five-year program. We have under this year um in our capital budget, right, we have just under 800,000 budgeted to take a first piece of this replacement. So,
we're trying to see if we can do 3,500 meters this year. The meters have been ordered. They're not in yet, but the meters have been ordered. Arnold and his team will exchange them out. Um, again, the total project cost is is just a shy
under 800,000. We do have some uh uh some meters in inventory today that about 500 that Arnold and his folks are going to go ahead and begin the first kind of phase of the initiative, if you will. We'll talk about that in just a
few minutes. And Arnold has some maps he can share about exactly where we want to get started. Um communicating the replacement activity. We got neighborhood signs that we made up. Uh we has a little QR code. We have within the QR code uh updated our website. So,
it takes them to the website to give them information as to what we're doing, what to expect. You know, we uh will only take a few moments really. It's it's more or less a minute to change it out. Once you get everything set up, you take the locking ring off, you pull the
old meter out, you test the lugs or make sure everything's nice and tight, and then you put the new meter in. It's just a few minutes to do that. Um and that that process we've communicated here we'll talk about in a minute. Uh we are looking at doing some text messaging. We
do have a a system on the electric side for proactive alerts um I'm sorry for alerts. It's not the proactive side yet but we can uh and we are planning to do some text messaging and then we'll kind of sit back and evaluate. There is a cost associated
with the text messaging. uh we'll evaluate to see, you know, what kind of saturation do you have? We get reports back. If we send a text out to this first group, about 400 customers, you know, how many are going through, how many are hitting, you know, are sending
it to phone that don't accept uh text messages. Some people still have landlines and and so we'll get some reporting back, but the text messaging is already kind of integrated into our outage management process. If we have an outage that's greater than I think 100
customers, we send a text message out to let them know that they're out and give them an estimated time of restoration. So that's our communication and and again the exchange process itself. We're utilizing our own our own employees. You
know, we have IDs and our vehicles are marked and our hard hats are marked. Um it's just really going to take a few minutes. there's no need for us to enter their home, you know, and so everything is done from the outside. Um, so we do
have, let me see, uh, before I flip to Chris, we do have, uh a small area that Arnold selected that we want to go ahead and do. Matter of fact, it may we put up the signs early or today. Did we put the signs up today? So, we're we're looking
to maybe the end of the week go ahead and move forward with this uh change out. There's apartment complexes you said off Bentley and 441. So, it's about 4 to 400 customers in this area that we're trying to change out. Again, these are older. One of the
first meters we install was back in these areas and they're still out. Some of them are still out there. So, we're trying to saturate that area and then once that done and the new meters come in, we'll replace the 500 and put that back in our maintenance stock and then move forward with the uh capital program
to replace the 3500. And we're trying to focus on again areas where historically we've had some meter um failures as far as the readout and that will again from customer service give us a report of meters that need to
be exchanged. I hate to belabor the point but you know we're changing the meters out because they've lived past their useful life. We have the initial failure that says I cannot take that information and remotely send it through
the head-end system to the billing system. So we first as a as a city we first get a a heads up when it comes back as a failed meter or monthly read for that for that um for that month for
that customer. So that gives us a list of meters that we change out. But again, that's outside of this program that we've initiated here. So, two parallel paths. One's about 300 mters a month. You know, in the cooler months, it may
slow down to maybe 150. We see that the higher temperatures, we see more of the screen failures during the hotter temperatures. We've seen as much as 400 meters a month fail. So, keeps us busy. Um, again, this program, it just gets to
a point we couldn't keep up with the the monthly replacements and do really anything else with four or three field folks. So, it's tough to to manage that resources. So, that's what I have on the meter exchange program. Again, the first program we'll
see here starting in in probably this week or early next week. Um, the communication's out. Um, we'll see how it goes. You guys may hear more from residents than we do, but if your phone rings, that's what we're doing. >> Yep. Go ahead.
>> So, is 2012 the oldest meter that's in service? >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. And there's >> 20,000 back in 2012. That's the oldest one we got. >> So, back in 2012, we took our entire system and we took our entire system in 2012 and
everybody got a new meter. So back in 2012 was probably 26,000 customers more or less. >> Okay. And then consistently between 150 and 400 fail every single month. >> Well, I mean for years we didn't have any failure. So the failure is a fairly
new item that's creeped up. Probably the last four years, four or five years it's creeped up. Um and anything new obviously wasn't installed with a 2012 meter. Right. Those those are the some of the older generation meters that we have.
>> And when they fail, do they just quit or do they >> No, what happens is the the screen fails first, right? The meter is still registering. It's still calculating. >> So, they still have service. >> Oh, they still have service and it's still measuring the kilowatt hours that are used each 15 minutes. What happens
though is it loses the ability to send it to the head-end system and the head-end system sends it to GE today and they formulate the you know the bill and and customer service takes that information and and generates the the
billing. So it's a it's a piece of that that uh flow if you will that's failing. >> Anything else on meters? So, I'll hand it over to Chris. >> I'm sorry. A couple quick questions. >> Y >> uh the ability to remote connect and disconnect. Is that a new ability?
>> No. No. That was part of the 20 That's That's early functionality. 2012 is early functionality for remote disconnect. I mean, pretty much that sold everybody on on why a utility. A couple things. One is I'm not sending people out to read meters anymore so I
can get rid of all those resources and I'm not having to use my RPS folks, my revenue protection folks to go out and, you know, cut meters off in the morning. You know, they pay their bill and send somebody out, they cut them back on in the afternoon. You know, that's all
remotely managed through through the system through again, these are for the 12240 residential meter types. Okay. >> The commercial meters I think for the most part none of the commercial meters really have a cut on cut off today. >> Only one 2208.
>> So a small sampling of meters have that. Uh we are seeing you know Arnold manages that process but we are seeing some of the meters coming out with the remote disconnect stuff on the three-phase side. >> On your communication slide and it might
have just been omitted. didn't see um bill inserts as a way to communicate to customers. Are you planning on using the inserts? >> Um yeah, we have uh we have that ability. We This is Yes, we are. We haven't done
it yet, but we'll go ahead and take advantage of that. We get emails from Pam, I guess, every month about the opportunity for Bill Winer. I think we just got an email this morning. Um we're not ready for this. This first trial was kind of, you know, we have some things
we want to test still. We want to make sure that the process is is is running properly. I pull a meter out. I pulled a meter in. You know, it it's uh we want to make sure everything is is jing up, especially with the transition, you know, away from GE to Itron. Um,
>> I would just offer that because those only come out once a month that to start to create awareness that this project will be taking place throughout 2026. Um, you know, if you see QR codes and signs in your neighborhood, please take a moment to scan them. I think the
further out that you can start to educate people about it, >> probably the better your messaging will be. >> So, we we can do that. The only downside of it is is that that we're not changing out everybody's meter. It's a very targeted areas that we're going and
that's why we have the signs in the neighborhoods. Arnold has knocked on and gotten with the homeowners association, in this case the apartment complex management team, you know, ahead of time to let them know what's going on. You know, we can certainly take advantage of
the bill stuffing uh stuffer, if you will, to get the mass information out, but you're right, the language has to be careful. It may not impact you, but there are certain amount of customers in the system that will be >> and what does the QR code tell me when I if I scan a QR code in my neighborhood?
>> Yeah, I telling. >> So, let me do this. I had those two papers, but I didn't put them as part of the presentation. Um, I'll give them to Andy in the morning, but and she can send them out to you all. But basically, it's it's just a little bit. You saw the
first slide is why we're doing it. So, it talks a little about why we're doing it. Talks about the 20,000 meters. It doesn't go into the budget side of the house. It just says this is what we're doing. It shows the AMI meter and shows you how to read the AMI meter. So, there's a little bit of that associated
with it. Um, what else? Chris, >> if I may respectfully suggest this is what you guys do for a living, >> right? like this is like the stuff you're throwing out there is totally inside baseball. As a homeowner, if my
home is going to be impacted, all I care about is about when to expect this and what's the what's the impact? Like my wife works from home. If she suddenly is in the middle of a Zoom call or something and and we lose power because you guys are swapping it out, um I get it, but there was probably also a way
that she could have worked around that had she known. Um, so I would just caution or recommend either uh to to just be very customer centric and keeping it a very simple message. Not only what the sign looks like and why it
would why why it would be important to scan the code um but also a very basic message about what what they should expect. And my hope would be that you're able to update you know the information that that's on the QR code should be updatable. So yours, you know, as it
moves, as those signs move from neighborhood to neighborhood, you should be able to let people know, you know, between Monday and Wednesday of this week, we will be swapping out meters in your neighborhood. It could affect, you know, electrical services between 7 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience. That's really all as a
homeowner I need to know. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, I will have to I know the message today doesn't incorporate um the time frame. it just says this is what we're doing. Um, one thing that we've kicked around a little bit is just
what you referenced is do I knock on everybody's door? Is it enough that I've I put out the signs in your neighborhood? I got with the homeowners, I got with the apartment manager, if you will. Um, I have the information on the website, but if I if I knock on each
door and and get them to the to the door, it's probably now a 15minute process rather than a twominute process. So, I understand the customer centric side of it. Um
um but you know I'm trying to if you will expedite the process as well. >> No and I agree. I mean I think uh and I was thinking about knocking on doors but yeah that adds a tremendous amount of time to your process and if communicated properly prior to that moment in time that you that you pull the meter and
replace it. You shouldn't have to be knocking on people's doors. Well, I think we could get I like the idea of being more specific on if we're if we're really working in targeted areas, then the the messaging could be a bit more specific in one of the two areas. So, we
could try that. Um, so I I got those notes and I'll send you what we have already and we'll see what we can do to incorporate. >> Yeah, those yard signs should be a nice bright color that says you may be losing electrical service. Scan scan the code for more information. that would get me to scan that sign and find out what's
what that's all about. And especially if it's got City of Leburg on there, so it's official. It's not going to be some sort of, you know, con of some kind of somebody trying to get me to do something. >> Well, I mean, that's why we had the note about, you know, nobody needs access to your home because I don't want to >> have anybody out there trying to, you
know, pull a a shady deal on anybody. >> You had a comment, Arnold, that I missed. >> I was uh going to say we can revert. We have the information on the website that talks about all of us as a a whole commuter
shop in our team. Um, >> you might want to step up the microphone. Sure, the guys in the back are freaking out. >> Um, good evening. I'm Arnold Eugene, the meter supervisor for lecture department. Uh we did kick around the idea of
sending out messages uh to every resident. Um and then also putting signs out that say I'm being your neighborhood Monday through Friday or something like that. But we also thought about all the
vandalism and stuff and home breakins and stuff. Um, and if our schedule changes, we may not be in that area at that current time, but you've been notified about it. Um, so generally today our practice is when we get a
notification from customer service from the billing side to us to go out and check a residence, uh, we knock on doors today. Um, so some of our larger complexes, we're kind of being proactive and talking with the HOAs and all that
kind of stuff to send out notification to all the residents so they know on this said time we the lecture department will be your neighborhood. Uh, we do have signs like I said about it. Uh, the QR code that um, Mr. Brad has alluded to
does have uh a sign on it that says we are upgrading meters in your neighborhood and it says city of Leburg with the logo on it and then it takes you to the website that shows all of us um I can see if they can pull it up. I don't know if y'all can pull it up in
here or no on the website which will show you all the information pertaining to the system. Uh, if you go down to the lecture department tab, it shows the meter shop and says it's it talks about the whole program. Um, >> I think you guys are complicating it,
but >> me me personally, I'm kind of I I've kind of gave my guys the direction to knock on doors on all the houses and residents as we go up because of fencing and all of that. Well, point I was going to add if there may be meters behind
fencing, then then we do knock on the doors, >> right? Um, >> I know it takes time, but I think it's beautiful customer service that you're doing that. My dad just turned 80 yesterday. He wouldn't scan a QR code of his life depended on it, and he's on oxygen, so if the old off, my dad would
have a heart attack. >> Well, we have notifications from all accounts that are flagged as uh what we call life alert accounts. Um, and then all the meters have a yellow tag on them for life alert. Uh, which tells us that
we must notify that customer before we disconnect power or any type. Um, which means we 90 90% of the time we knock on the doors. Customer tells us go ahead. It's it's a quick process. It's in and out. Uh, we do realize a lot more people
are working at home now. We do deal with it on a daily basis. Um, so we knock on doors, you know, if we see people walking in the house, we knock on the door, let them know what's going on, that kind of thing. So that process is not going to change. Um, I just kind of
me from Leburg, I've seen all kind of things around the holiday time, us working out, changing meters and stuff. I've seen a lot of vandalism. I've been in subdivisions. >> Reading meters for the city while homes been broke in. Uh, had to deal with the police and all that stuff. seen guys
running down the streets, uh, cars racing, the whole nine. We've had guns pulled on us in the neighborhood with all the identification and all that stuff. So, we know the importance behind all of this. So, that's why we've done all the brainstorming possible. And now,
that's why we're also presenting it to you also, so everyone's aware of it. So, that's kind of my point on it. Any questions for us? Move the deck out.
>> Hey, good evening. Uh Chris Hatkins, deputy director of electric. Um I'm here to go over the department um uh the department of energy electric grid res uh resiliency grant program. Um this
program uh by DOE their goal is a grid resiliency utility and and industry grants. They want to support modernization of the electric grid and they want to reduce the impact uh due to extreme weather and natural disasters.
So the um application process applications were submitted uh to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. That's who we have to submit to u the Florida Department of Emergency Management. They review all the
applications and then they send um all those up to DOE um for consideration. Um so we have documents we have to fill out uh to go to them. They review it. They make sure that we meet all the qualifications for the grant and then
they um send it on up if it does. The federal funding applies to reimbursement. So we have to put a outlay up front and then they re reimburse the cost anywhere from 47 to 67%. Um and that's based on particular
project that you're doing. There's a 5-year completion on the after acceptance. So we have five years from the time we get under contract with the uh DOE to complete the projects that they've approved with us.
Now the status update on this on April 23rd 2024 was the initial submission we have submitted 10 grant applications and on March 13 2025 seven of the grants applications were u approved and moved
to the next level on October 31st 2025. Four of the grant applications were approved and were going to be sent up to uh DOE. Now, we are waiting on the status of three other grants uh that we submitted.
So, we haven't got a um a negative or a positive response from uh Florida Department of Emergency Management. So um so what we wanted to do is we wanted to review this with you and see if you had any recommendations on this
um both currently and moving forward. Uh the final agreement and acceptance of the grants will be approved by the commission once we get to that point. I want to review the um the grants that we have out there. Uh, County Road 25A,
that's south of Leburg, if y'all are familiar with that. U, if you headed south on 27, just past Save a Lot, there's a road that goes off there to the right. There's a bunch of poles that we have down through there. That's a system hardening uh pro process that's
consists of seven older distribution poles and the associated hardware with them. The budget impact, the total project is $55,000. The total grant uh participation is 25,460
and the total impact to the city is 29,540 or 54%. The um just as a note, the seven polls that we have were recognized in a uh pole inspection program we have. They go out and look at all of our polls in an
area and then they let us know that these are polls that we need to uh go ahead and move forward on changing out because of uh their age or uh how they're doing structurally. Now the next project we have is L62
feeder reconductant reconductor and reconfiguration. This is a targeted reliability improvement project that will allow us uh more redundancy within uh the distribution system. It provides additional uh tie points uh that allow
us to tie with other feeders to make sure that outages are are less than what they normally would have been prior to this project. And we'll eliminate the majority of overhead exposure. When we talk about that, we're talking about trees falling, tree limbs getting into
the lines. The budget impact on this uh is $740,000. Uh the grant uh participation is $470,000 and the cost to the city is $270,000
or 37% of the uh total project. Now, this one uh most of the work has been completed. We've been working on this for uh over a year now. So uh >> where's this one? Chris, give them a little geog geographic outlay where
>> this one this project if you uh it's north of where we are now headed towards the boulevard and it also to our substation east substation by the old catroly plant. So, it's all that area. It goes back to center
substation on the boulevard or on 27 and allows us to tie those two substations together and also to u do some uh partial back feeding so we can get power back on to our customers.
Again, there's a lot of conversion um on this feeder. A lot of overhead, a lot of underground being installed on this particular Peter. As Chris noted, a lot of this work has been done already. Um but that doesn't take it away from the
grant um program, if you will. This may be something that we see a reimbursement after the fact. You know, we still have probably six months more work to do. um maybe not quite four to 6 months more work to do. It's kind of a pulling job
for us right now because we have other customer-driven projects. They're higher priority from time to time. >> Okay. The next project that we have is L59 feeder reconductor. L59. Um it goes
down south 27. The section that we're working on uh would start just south of the high school going south. It'll be on the west side of 27. It'll go down to South Street and then head west uh down
south street to Couty Road. So, that's the area. This project will improve resiliency and reliability by installing underground uh cable and installing hardened poles to increase the uh and increase the uh current
carrying capacity on the feeder. The budget impact is 2.85 85 million. The total grant participation is 1.9 million and the total cost to the city is 940,000 or 33%
33% of the total cost. And this project will take us over about a 2-year time period to get completed. And the last um project we have is Ravenwood subdivision. If you're familiar with this, it's on South 27. Uh
if you know where um Lake Denim is a new subdivision that went in. If you turn into Lake Denim, if you turn immediate right, you'll go back into Ravenswood subdivision. This is an area that is an older subdivision and it has a mixture
of overhead and underground currently. Um but it it will improve the reliability and resiliency by converting uh much of the subdivision to underground and hardening the remainder portion. The uh budget impact is 195,000.
The total grant participation is 130,000 and the total to the city is 64,000 or 33% of the budget amount. um due to the existing tree canopy, if anybody's been
back in there, it's just a lot of tree canopy and it's more effective for us to go underground than to pay for the tree trimming to clear everything out for us to go overhead. So, um, there are three projects that I
mentioned that I wanted to go over real quickly that are still out there that are of, um, a couple of them are of, uh, quite quite a note. The first one's on 25A. Again, there's more poles on there. Seven more poles down that road that we
want to, uh, change out that were recognized in the pole inspection process. 702 703 reconductor which is on North 27 in Futland Park somewhere about where the new um uh warehouses are on the left
hand side going north all the way to Spring Lake Road. So that'll help us out with some loading that we have in that area. Future projects and subdivisions that are going in. The last one is North Sub uh transform number one replacement. We've had problems with transformer
number one, the big substation transformer, and it's been up and down for the last several years. So, we want to try, we hopefully will be approved for that one, and we'll be able to uh change that out. Um
so also um continue uh the next steps we're going to continue working with DOE to develop uh contracts um detailing to begin the package and we'll bring that to the commission. The actual cost versus the estimated cost will be
submitted to the uh commission and projects are going to be spread over five years. So, we'll be able to budget those as we go through the year and have um a less of an impact on our capital budget each year. So, with that, if you
have any questions, try to help you out with that. >> Just interject on the actual cost. These estimates were done a couple years ago. So, everything's gone up, labor's gone up, materials gone up. So, we wanted to make sure that you all understood that we'll if we get approved for these, then
we'll turn in the actual cost for reimbursement, not what was submitted 18 months ago. >> And we did that from the 2024 to the the ones I just sent in, the four I just mentioned. And but DOE recognizes that there is going to be cost differences
from the start of the project to the uh contract and even the completion of the project. So, they understand that. I had a question about the grants. Um, you had said that 10 were filled out, seven moved to the next phase, four have been approved. You're still waiting on three. The first four projects you discussed,
you you also broke down that they have um grant dollars tied to that. Are those the four that have been approved or are those totally different ones? >> Those are the four that have been approved. >> Okay. So, we're waiting on the three. >> Waiting to for a decision on the three. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So, the four that have been approved are already allocated. So, those are not out there waiting for
Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. We say approved, but there is no contract yet between the city. They haven't given us a a contract for us to take to the commission. I've been I surprised we got this far. I thought
we'd get denied early on with all the talk of of costs with the federal government. So, I'm pleasantly surprised we've gotten this far. You know, do I assume the three we didn't get any indication on? probably didn't make it to the next
level. That's my assumption. But as Chris said, we haven't definitively heard one way or the other. >> I'm CL glass half full. >> Yeah, >> he's glass half empty. >> So, >> um excuse me. the the grants that have
been approved. Is it approved for a percentage or for a straight dollar figure given that the obviously the price of the project is going to increase? >> So the way things work is that DOE tells
the Florida Department of Emergency Management this is how much money your area gets and then they divide that out. So some that's why you see some of the percentages are not quite the same. So they know that Florida Department of
Emergency Management they say okay we're going to put these four projects in out of all the money that we have that can be allocated to projects in the state of Florida and then they say this is the way we want to do it and then they send it up to DOE. So DOE still has to say
yes to that. Um, so there is a plan that deal that part Florida Department of Emergency Management has how they're going to divide up that money. >> So >> that makes sense. >> The four projects that that made it through the next stage. Were those
prices updated in 24? >> They were given to them in 2024 and then they were updated whenever I resubmitted. They wanted an answer summary. Um, >> so they were up in 25 >> and they were updated in 25 a couple months ago.
>> I I think I understand your point of view, your question, and and I don't know the answer to that. Is they have a bucket of money and if our costs are $20,000 more, is their ratio going to go up? Because I did the math to get you
the rate the percentage, >> right? So, >> and that's that would be my concern on on the something like this is that you get, you know, you you get committed into a project that's a, you know, some of these are very big ticket item projects
expecting X amount and then at the end of the day the project exceeds what you initially budgeted significantly, but the return on the grant hasn't changed. And you know, I as a just a thinking
businessminded is like are you going to get roped into a a project and not get the the return and it end up you know overshooting our budget. >> So historically what they have done just
for simple math project has $300,000 total. DOE says we're going to pay uh 200,000 of that. So it leaves a h 100,000 for the city. We go and do our project and we go, "Oh, it cost more than $300,000 to complete it." We can go
back to DOE, show them the justification, and they will consider bumping that up to cover those costs. >> That's I mean, basically, in a nutshell, I'm like, can we afford to do these projects without the grants? Would we be
moving forward on these projects without with or without the grants? And then that's when it starts to make sense for me that that the grants are coming back as as bonus money reimbursing us for projects we were going to do anyway. Or are we doing them because of the
grants and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot financially when they cost way more than the grants are are going to give back. >> So my answer to that is that we have the opportunity to have some of these
projects that we have to get done. the L59 project is because of the growth that's going on, we have to be able to back feed and right now we are right there on the margin of being able to do that. Um, Ravenswood is another one we
need to get in there and do these things and 62 we're already doing. So if we to answer your question more directly, we would be budgeting to for them, but they would be multiple years down the road because of the costs that
are going into it. By getting the grant, we more we make it more manageable to get some of these projects accomplished. Now, some other things that we have in the budget because of capital outlay, we may have to reorganize, but we have an opportunity to get some of these
projects done. So, these projects fall, you remember our budget conversation, and there's a line on about 7.8 million per capital improvement projects. Um, that's that's where this all of these
lie into, not the bigger, what was $64 million capital plan that had all of our costs and m everything associated with it. It's a 70, it's a $7.2 $2 million bucket that is broken into capital
improvement, keeping the lights on, and new growth. So, it's kind of one leg of that capital plan. As Chris said, we've already worked on the other three that he mentioned, they're already in this year's capital plan. The 62 is already
in our capital plan. So, all of these projects we'll find there are in our five-year plan either in 27, 28, 29, etc. Just out of curiosity, the grant program is it do you get draws along the way or is it when you're all completely
done, you go ahead and request the total amount that's due to you and then what's the lag time to get reimbursed? >> There is nothing that I can find particular to this grant that tells me that uh it will be in the uh contract information that we get. Uh other grants
do have a uh payout in the particular time period. So, um, our hope is that from a budgetary standpoint that yes, we'll get get reimbursed along the way at a certain at a certain period of time. >> I'm completely understanding the um
maintaining and improving the existing the new growth. Can we hold developers more responsible to take on more financial responsibility >> versus the city taking on the new construction, new development? So we've done a a considerable shift in some of
our cost over the last three years is that directed you know by half. Um so if you look at some of the subdivisions are going in the new plan says for today if there's any line extension any make ready work developers paying 100% of
that right now they look at the subdivision their revenue fouryear revenue has to meet those that they have to exceed the cost to build if not then they have to pay the difference on top of that we're
providing the material but they have to install all the infrastructure. They got to install the pipe and the and the switch and the uh boxes and the hand holes. U they have to do all that. That wasn't part of our plan 3 years ago, but
we're shifting a lot of those costs to the developer. >> Okay. Because I >> we could talk about more, but it's signi I think it's significant. What we're doing today is quite a bit different than what we did three years ago. >> Okay. cuz I I am a real estate broker and I write contracts for a living. I
wrote a $3 million deal for Moss Development. Um, and they need to start taking on more responsibility because they're making very very good money when they sell these communities. Um, it's sad to have it come on us to pay for them
>> to make millions off of these developments. Um >> again I think we've shifted a lot of the responsibility to them. U one thing that we do in Leburg that's not all utilities do is you know we have that that bond
that's required that you have to live up to your obligation. If you don't live up to your obligation to build your subdivision then the bond is forfeited. So, I think that's some incentive certainly that Leburg has over those developers to make sure they do what
they say they're going to do. >> Yeah. Because I know even when impact fees were raised, it didn't slow anything down. Not at all. >> Which has got passed on to the toers to the buyers. >> Exactly. I have seven closings this month and it doesn't slow anything down. Not at all. >> Just raises the price. >> It they're paying it.
>> Do you Do you need a motion from us? Is that what you're looking for to give you? >> I don't think a motion. I guess we're asking, you know, we, you know, for a recommendation. Our our plan is that we need to move forward with working
with the DOE and at some point we're going to have a contract in hand on these four projects. We're not there today. We wanted to update you all and say, well, this is where we are in the process. We still have to come back with, you know, a contract that has the
numbers in it that has some more definitive uh decision making and then I think we bring it back to you all for your guidance and then we take that to the commission, but we're not we don't have those contracts today.
>> So, is there only one entity that you guys are writing the grant applications to, or are there multiple entities that you're writing grant applications to? So, we dove into the grant writing, I guess 2021, 20 something like that. >> Yeah. >> You know, we tried to get some outside
resources to help. We're It's not our our forte. And so, we've we we've tried the the grip grants. We did a number of other grants that we were not successful with. Um this is where we've gotten some
traction. Uh we went with FEMA on some of their grants and and we were unable to move forward with those grants. FEMA just like the DOE is saying we're willing to help subsidize utilities to mitigate problems and
issues that occurred during this storm, this tropical disturbance, so we don't see it over and over and over again. Um, but for whatever reasons, we weren't able to to reach an agreement with FEMA.
I think FEMA has other things happening. So, they just kind of shut off talking to people. DOE seems like they're more the same flavor because all these things are are mitigating areas where we've had problems.
Ravenswood was a problem year after year after year. So it bubbles up to the top. When you start listing out where my problem areas, these things start to trickle to the top. >> And I would think from a department of emergency management, they want to see
those targeted areas that are consistently down for days and days and days because then that does weigh on FEMA to reimburse that resident for outages that are beyond, you know, anyone's control. So these are projects that are needed and and I grant money is
just gravy on the potatoes. I mean if we get the reimbursement then you get it but these are projects that have to be done and so my recommendation is go after any free money that's out there. >> Um and I I I hear what you're saying and
I for our our benefit I don't think they're looking for just a project to get money and hopefully get it. This is a much needed project. >> Yeah. >> Do you get a um do you get any formal notice as a of approval before you I mean one you've already it says that
you've already completed much of the work but are you notified kind of advance where you know this project may have that funding for assistance in budgeting just a it's not going to change it for me but >> no we don't get any you know uh notice
ahead of time other than the official notice. Well, grants are are wishy-washy. You know, I work with grants in the arts and and you're dependent on that. You're like, "Oh my gosh, we're going to get it." And then all of a sudden, they're like, "You're not getting it." So, um I encourage you to continue to budget it in case we
don't. But I think you go after any free money that there is on the table. >> Yeah, that's you know, if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. I'm I'm on the same page and it should definitely move forward. uh especially with the
four that you already have advanced to the next stage with the understanding that you know with grants there's no guarantees and that you you know that the department is prepared uh to absorb that that full cost. I mean
you have to be it's it's just good stewardship and you know like Amanda said the grants are just gravy on the potatoes. Well, I think the way that it's it the way that it's orchestrated, if you will, you know, Al and the commission is going to have to come up
with a 100% funding, >> right, >> to get approved. And when the grants come in, it will just, you know, cut down on those those expenditures, but we're we'll have to be prepared to pay 100% of those costs through the budgeting process. And just as a note,
there's no nothing even though we got it approved to this next level with these four, there's nothing that's tying us to them until we do contracts. So if commission or y'all's recommendation is to put that aside and don't go move forward, then you know, we can certainly
do that up to the time we sign contracts. I'll just say final I think you push forward and and bring it to the commission um for if if a contract comes forward. So unless there's some, you know, verbiage in there that is terrible, but
that's my recommendation. >> I said I would suspect that we'll come back here in a future meeting with the with the more definitive contract u language. We're just not at that stage. Just wanted to update you all as to where we
are in the process. >> Okay. >> Good work to your team. >> Good. Thanks. >> Yeah. Good evening. Paul Austin, finance director, city of Leburg. We're going to talk about rates, specifically BPCA, which is a bulk power
cost adjustment. Um, and that's the piece of the the rate structure that we can al we can alter from month to month based upon the cost of gas as it goes up. We may look at raising the BPCA. If uh there's a reduction in gas costs, we
can reduce it. Um, right now we're at uh about 4.6 million in our BPCA account. Um, keep in mind that the target here is about 3 million. So because of a hot summer and cheap gas, we were actually
uh able to uh overcolct. I think we're about just south of 5 million uh end of September. So um moving forward, um reminder, our current BPCA rate is $20 per thousand
kilowatts. Um if we keep that rate with all projections uh through FMPA as far as costs and sales um in about May we're going to be $162,000 in the red. So
um reason for that would be um high domestic demand. So you remember a few weeks ago it got really cold across the country that was kind of early and unexpected which in increased the cost of gas. So half of the country um about
50% of households use natural gas to heat their homes. So when it gets cold everywhere, not only are we burning gas to create electricity, people are burning gas to keep their their homes warm. So that supply and demand gets a little out of whack. Um the current
administration is increasing liquid natural gas exports to Europe and a lot of other parts of the world. So when we do that obviously that tilts our supply and demand again in in in a in a bad way. Um FMPA is projecting higher costs
through the winter. Um based upon the early cold spell, they project that going through probably April. uh on the cold side. So, graphically um the past is the green. So, we had
some cheap gas through the summer and then last month there was a spike. So, if you can see that blue line is what FMPA projected what their costs would be. Um due to the spike in gas prices, their current projections are now the
red line. So through now until this spring they underp projected costs of at about 4 and a.5%. So we saw a pretty big spike last month in the cost of gas. So again, to get to that $3 million
number and to keep out of the red, we are recommending increasing the BPCA to 2250, which is 2.5 cents um per thousand kilowatts beginning January. And for the average customer, that's about a $325 increase before taxes.
And then and the additional increase to $25 in April again will be another three quarter, three and a quarter. would be about a 650 increase uh by April. So that would get us to that magic 3 million number by
the end of October of next year. So this next graph is probably hard to read. So I g I did took the liberty and printed some papers for you slightly better. So the first page is
First page is where we're at currently with the 20 cent, sorry, the two cent $20 per. So if you look at uh middle of the page in May, we go into the red and then we end the year slightly above a million.
Second page is the projected increases. So you'll see the highlighted number towards the bottom of a page in January and then again in April. And if you slide all the way across to the bottom, it gets us to that magic $3 million number that we were talking
about, questions, concerns. Didn't we just lower this not long ago? >> Uh we went from 25 cents to 20 um I believe in November. I'm sorry, not November. Um in August.
>> That's what I thought. >> Yeah. >> I just didn't think we were raising and lowering it that frequently. But I guess if that's is that is that normal? >> Um again, it's all dependent on the cost of gas. >> I got understand. >> Yeah. So, so, so just so I wrap, it's
it's normal to to adjust this multiple times a year. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Again, that's the one piece that we can play with based upon our costs. >> Yeah. When I saw that it was going back up again, I was like, well, it just went down. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Lake one does it monthly. They just It's
just a cost to pass through. So, they'll have monthly changes. And if you remember, I think it was maybe three, four years ago when gas was really cheap, we were we were at zero with this >> for a while. And then as cost crept back up, we started to um increase that
number as well. >> Again, all these are our projections based upon sales um and the projected cost of gas. FMPA does a good job with futures trading, so they kind of lock in for the short term. So there's so whatever happens in the world, we're not
going to be shocked, but that three that $3 million number gives us some flexibility. So if we do see a spike in cost like we did last month, we we we can um take that on without creating a disaster for customers. >> Is the transfer to the general budget
a potential offset to the increase? In other words, if if if they were to lower what is transferred to the to the general budget, >> that would not affect the the expense. Obviously, that would affect their their revenue and what they're able to play with, but that wouldn't affect the
>> the rates to the customer, >> right? But if you're locked into a certain and and I apologize, maybe this is more of a conversation for when Al is here. But let's say, you know, whatever that whatever that fixed number is that we tend to shift over to the general budget. If we said, "Hey, look, instead of doing that, we're going to absorb
more of this increased cost so that we don't have to raise rates." I I don't get the impression from sitting here for the last two years that there's an awful lot of valves that you guys can turn to try to save the customer money. Like, I get that there's costs. they're out of
your control. Um I will always be where else can we save money without having to pass on >> Sure. >> and and increasing rates. No, >> I think I think your question says if you lower the transfer at this point in time, it's going to ripple to all of the
throughout the whole city's budget because the city budget that we just started is all based on the transfers from all from the electric from gas or from water and solid waste if you will. And all of the Al likes to say the have and the have nots, the givers and the
takers, you know, the budgets already set. So, if I lower the amount to cover for the fuel adjustment um within the electric side of the house, then it impacts the the the the other side of the budget. All of those
costs are going to be impacted. >> But I would also make the argument that as a homeowner that if my electric uh bill is going up for the next several months, I have to make adjustments as well. Someone's going to have to adjust something somewhere somehow. >> Yeah. So, and again, I'm not looking to
solve it tonight, but I I will always bring that up as how else can we operate as a utility uh and and raising rates the absolute last thing possible. And sometimes the answer will be we just can't. >> But I will always ask that question. So,
sure. >> Well, we're not just looking at one price increase in January. We're looking at one in April as well. Correct. So, it's Yeah. It's not just one, it's two. Yep. >> And that mean, and according to this projection, it's riding out the summer at the higher rate. Yep. Again, the these are projections.
We can we can alter that BPCA number however you want. We can do one bump and leave it alone or we can do none and ride it out and hopefully that uh we've over projected cost and and and the weather cooperates. Um but based upon
the data we have, this is you know the best way to go forward, I believe. Well, and if I'm not mistaken, we we went through that at another point this year as well where we over projected and we wound up having a nice surplus that allowed us to to reduce the rate again. >> Yeah. >> Great place to be, >> right? >> Um nobody complains on social media when
you lower their rates. >> Exactly. Right. >> But they find social media when you raise them. >> Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of factors that are driving the the cost of natural gas. And then if you look even farther in the future, you're looking at all these data centers that are going to just consume
tons tons of energy. So, um this will be an ongoing discussion. Yep. >> Um in years to come for sure. >> And this goes before the commission for final approval. >> No, Al has the uh ability to make these changes. >> So, he's he's asking for a
recommendation or >> this was our dad's not here. >> Yeah, this was our recommendation. Again, we're we're open to discussion however you guys would feel most comfortable trying to tackle this. But again, in the end, we want to get to about a $3 million cushion. That's the
goal. >> I see I see Mark's point and I second that point, but I understand your point about the budget. So, my question would be when when is the right time to ask that? Where can we save within the comm within the the city? And I'm on the same
page as as uh Bethany that two adjustments are hard. So, do you bite the bullet and do it now? And >> yeah, it's you gota look into the the the psychology of it. People are gonna say, "Oh, they're they're increasing it again versus just doing one bump kind
of." >> So, if you tell me, Amanda, it's going to be $6.50 more a month. In my mind, that's great. Well, it's not great, but I mean, it's it's more accepted versus, >> okay, we're doing it in January and here we are again in April. So, I would
rather see that upfront bump one time versus twice and I got to go through social media >> and then re-evaluate again in April. >> Yeah. I mean, Mark's probably ready to kill me. Like, what are you doing, Amanda? But I I don't I don't like this.
Every other every 3 months, we're looking at it's got to go up again because, you know, it's going to go up. We I mean, we're going into the summer. So the chances of April being a status quo we're going to stay the same versus going up is probably slim.
I'm assuming >> as far as the bulk power cost or cost overall >> the the bulk the bulk power cost. We're probably not going to come here in April and and if we if we raise it three the the percentage you're saying now and come back in April, we're probably not
going to stay the same. You're probably going to be like we got to raise it again. >> Yeah. See the the thing with w with the curve. If I can pull that back up, you'll see there there's always this roller coaster effect. Gas is cheaper in the summer for us because the rest of
the country isn't burning gas to keep their homes warm. So we always see this this roller coaster curve. So in the winter it spikes because everyone's burning gas, whether it be to produce electricity or to heat their homes. And then in the summertime our gas is cheap and our sales are high. So we tend to
overcolct in the summer and then this time in the winter we underolct because um >> so >> and remind me the the base rate is set by is it the state >> the the per uh kilowatt rate those is
set by the commission. So they have to go in front of the commission for change. Any rate change would have to be approved by the PSC. >> You're asking the gas the gas charge. >> No, the base rate. So they're So this is basically Yeah, this is the the adjustment line. >> Yeah, the base rates haven't changed in
two maybe three years. >> Yeah. >> So it's just this bulk power cost thing that keeps going up and down just to >> and we talked about the base rate going up versus the kilowatt rate. >> Correct. >> Because that at least creates some continuity in that but it's out of our control. Yeah, we were lucky with the
the lower gas rates as you can see on the in the screen there on the green. There was actually lower than projected cost, which was good. But now we're we're in the opposite situation now. Well, I would make the same comment on this that I did earlier this evening about the the critical importance of
communication um and and letting people know number one as far in advance as we can that this is going to happen. This is why it's going to happen. uh this is what the money does not go to because I always love hearing, you know, city manager must have got a new car, you
know, with my my raised electric bill this month. So, you know, I think communication is pretty critical on these things. There are factors that are out of our control as as a as a as a utility. >> Um just like any other business, you know, and and even then they look so businesses have been dealing with
tariffs and like, well, how much do I absorb as a business? How much do I pass along to the customer? >> Sure. Um it it just feels to me that every time this comes up um that the automatic response and I don't say this that you guys take this lightly at all, but the automatic response is we need to raise rates. I always kind of question
where else can we possibly conserve so that we don't have to raise or if there's a happy medium in there someplace. >> Sure. >> I'm off my soap box. >> Are base rates for residential and commercial the same? >> No. >> No, they're different. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. with the with the residential base rates, it's two-tiered. So, you got your first thousand at such and such. So, it it kind of promotes um conservation a little bit. Our average customer burns about 1300 kilowatts a month. >> Always above average.
>> Yeah. So, overachiever. >> Well, Duke Duke Energy is still higher. So, that's all awesome. I'm a Duke customer. >> They're proposing a rate reduction, but I don't know. I I'll believe that when I see it. And the FPL is actually going up beginning January 26 and 27 and possibly
into 28. Um, >> I don't know that we should necessarily tell all we know either because I don't think anybody is going to feel sorry for us when they say, "Well, we want to have $3 million in reserves." That doesn't usually go over very well because wouldn't we all like $3 million in reserves? I just don't think we should maybe tell all we know
>> because I think that will be received as a too bad. >> Sure. Well, it it is a bit of a rate retention fund, if you will, because if you have large variations on it, you're not going back to your customers month after month because there's a big swing.
So, the it does help buffer these. So, we're talking about again two bucks and six bucks. We're not talking about 30 bucks. >> So, when it was really really cheap in the summer, did we power buy?
for reserves. >> Actually, we we talk about hedging. We have a lot of with FMPA. So, we have a lot of hedging that we've been doing since 2021 when it went to 70 bucks. So, we've been hedging ourselves trying to manage
these costs. So, this year is going to be fairly predictable about what we're going to see. So we we we we purchase down on some of the summer months. So it should be flatter meaning that our budget should be what we actually pay.
It's just some of these high hits you see with the our more demands based you know we can't hedge everything. We don't we're not hedging 100%. We're hedging 50% of our cost not everything. And to answer your question from
earlier, the the uh the budget meetings during the summer would be the time to bring that up. How can we maybe reduce the transfer, push those savings off to the electric customers, and maybe uh um bring down some of the expenses in some of the other departments. So that's the
time to do that. >> You're welcome. >> Is that all? Um, so would you feel more comfortable with one bump up or the two that we discussed? >> Yeah, you know, I think it's it's six of
one and half dozen of another. I mean, >> I would just assume see see the 50 cents um rather than two 20 is it 25 cents? >> It's 20. >> It's 29 20 to 22 and a half. to 25.
Yeah, >> I think that's what's on the table. You're proposing a 2 and a2 >> 2 and 12 cents a piece. >> Yeah. Taking a 5 cent increase and kind of breaking it out. >> You're splitting hairs. >> Yeah. Um
>> as a person that has four electric bills in this town. >> Yeah. Well, I I understand. I have several, too. >> Again, there's the math and then there's the psychology of it, right? How much? >> Yeah, I think >> well the 25 is based on projection, >> right? >> I would rather see a conservative
initial. >> I I would I agree. >> And we absolutely have to. >> I would I would I would stick with your initial plan. Okay. >> If it were me. >> Yeah. That was Al's thought is a little bit hopefully we get lucky and we can keep it there or you know if we have to we can bump it up.
>> Yeah. Do that and re re-evaluate later down the road. And if you have to you have to you have to. >> And this chart comes out every month. So next month may say, "Oh, we we over projected because of such and such happened." And then they can bring those >> projected one in April can be less. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Makes sense.
>> You know, as I think about my monthly expenses, this is really the only one, excuse me, that that typically will fluctuate. You know, my cable bill, my streaming bill, I mean, those are fixed amounts. Um, water bill, I imagine, is is a relatively fixed amount. So, this
is from from a consumer, from a homeowner, >> right? trying to navigate that fluctuation. Sure. Not necessarily in my usage, but in what I get charged for that usage. >> Right. >> So, >> it's it's much like gasoline when you go put gas in your car, one day it's 280, then the next day it's 319. So, it's
it's the same thing with the natural gas. >> You've noticed that also. >> Yeah, I do. Yeah. >> You could ask Al since he's not here, you could ask him next time. >> You know, some utilities do budget billing, so it is more set during the year. Now, there's trueups at the end of
the year that could be I think that's why some people stay away from it because it could be a little painful if you've underestimated this whole year, but the budget billing has a way of of kind of having each month pretty flat. >> We're actually working on >> I get questions about that.
>> Yeah, we're actually that's actually in testing right now. Um we've been testing it about 10 months. In about uh two months, we'll get actual true up and hopefully all the math works out and we can actually roll that out to customers. We've had some technical issues, but excuse me. But again, that doesn't
>> you're still committed to to pay for what you use. It just your bill from month to month will be in in a in in a window of, you know, 150 to 200 give or take depending on how the math works out. >> And then at the end of the year, you either have a >> Yes. You get a credit or or you get a
true up or or we just calculate the next year is going to be a little higher because we undersshot and vice versa. >> Just like escrow, >> correct? Yep. All right. >> Anything else? >> No, it's been great. >> Okay. >> Awesome.
>> So, we will proceed as uh proposed and hopefully we uh get surprised on the good side. >> All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh what an informative meeting. >> Go into roll call. Bethany,
>> nothing. >> I have nothing >> other than happy holidays to everybody. Yes. >> I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All right. Meeting's adjourned.