Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

REGULAR CALLED MEETING Electric Board DRAFT MINUTES The Electric Board convened in a Regular Called Board Meeting on May 19, 2021 via Web Ex Video Conference at 10:22 am. Board Members in Attendance: Gabe Flores, Delwin Goss, Rogelio Wallace, David Johnson, David Adamson, Michael King and Randy Pomikahl Members Not in Attendance: Nicole Stasek and Ben Brenneman Staff in Attendance: Rick Arzola (DSD), Eric Zimmerman (DSD), Mitchell Tolbert (DSD), Marty Starrett (DSD) and Jordan Word (DSD) MAY 19, 2021 1. CITIZEN COMMUNICATION: There was no registration of citizens to speak at this Electrical Board. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the March 17, 2020 regular called meeting was approved as written. Board member Johnson made a motion to accept the minutes as written. Board member Goss second the motion, motion passed 7-0. 2 DISCUSSION a. Election of Officers- David Johnson nominated Gabe Flores as Chair, Delwin Goss seconded the Motion. Board member Pomikahl nominates David Johnson as Vice Chair, board member Goss seconded the motion. Motion pass 6-0-1. Chairman Flores abstained from the vote. b. Austin Criteria Manual Update- Commercial Electrical Supervisor Marty Starrett gave his update to the board from the last quarterly meeting with Austin Energy. In that update, the two biggest discussion was meter location and main disconnect location. Other two topics that were discussed were metering operations and Commercial Multi-family unit’s solar systems. Austin Energy are beginning to enforce penalties if the meter is located at the transformer and not being within sight of that meter. This has become an Austin Energy design component issue and based on these enforcements, this has become a safety concerns for their workers. Board member Pomikahl express concerns as this could eventually be a huge cost issue and staff has encouraged if board members could express their concerns to this at the next quarterly meeting for input, if they are able to. If not, staff will meet with selected board members and gather their information for comment to AE. Residential Supervisor Eric Zimmerman also updated the board on the Distributed Interconnection Guide (DIG), which is a solar criteria manual that is line with the Criteria Manual. They are in the process of reviewing and re-writing of that manual and one of the items that has come up, AE is considering solar PV as a service and classify it as a service to prevent homeowners from pulling a homestead permit. c. Tentative Interim Agreement- Board member Johnson has involved himself in another TIA initiative which has the same exact language as before and will present it to the standard council in August. This is due to the original vote of the TIA passed 10-2 but does not think the standard council was fully informed. Also that the TDLR commission held an emergency meeting and voted to suspend the enforcement of 2010.8F of outdoor outlets being required on the GFCI protection for air condition units. And voted unanimously to change the occupation code 75.100 in the air condition program and occupation code 73.100 in the electrician program and to postpone the enforcement of the 2010.8F of the NEC till January 1 2023. This will be an emergency rule and will be reviewed in 120 days. d. Inspection Update on 2020 Code – DSD Commercial Electrical Supervisor Starrett has not seen any issues up to this point with commercial electrical inspections. Jordan Word, Residential Supervisor- has heard discussions from his staff on the fan rated of boxes and the exact implementation of that code and how does it constitute as accessible for a fan to be installed. Staff are in meetings on how it can be enforced. e. DSD Permit Program- Staff Mitchell Tolbert- there has been internal changes to the permit program. Inspections department are monitoring it and are continuing to utilize the items that were designed to permitted without building and electrical reviews and this has cleared a big backlog of permit request. Staff will not be able to look at the clear numbers until they are back in sometime in July. f. Solar Systems for Apartments Staff member Tolbert- “it is ongoing” item with Austin Energy and part of the quarterly meetings. DSD staff want to push this item but there are concerns with the Land Development Code and having it readily available and affordable for homeowners but there are significant hurdles that must be cleared before enacting this. g. COVID update: Staff updated the board that they will be reporting back to the office on June 7 and customers will be able to enter the building on July 6th. During the in between time, staff will be able settle into the new surroundings and test the systems and tools to ensure a seamless experience for customers and employees. 4. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 1. Discussion- Criteria Manual update 2. Discussion- Tentative Interim Agreement update 3. Discussion- Legislature update. 4. Discussion- Inspection update on the 2020 Code 5. Discussion- DSD Permit Program 6. Discussion- Solar Systems for Apartments update 7. Discussion- COVID update 5. ADJOURN: Board member Pomikahl made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Vice Chair Johnson seconded the motion. Motion passed 7-0. Meeting was adjourned at 11:04 am.