Board of Public Utilities - Regular Meeting

OK, good evening. We'd like to welcome you to the Board of Public Utilities meeting. This meeting is called to order. We will now play the inclusion statement.

Pursuant to the City Council rules of procedure and order of business resolution, the members of all Boards and Commissions and the public are reminded that they must preserve order and decorum throughout the meeting. In that regard, members of the Boards and Commissions and the public are advised that any delay or disruption in the proceedings or a refusal to obey the orders of the Board or Commission or the Presiding Officer constitutes a violation of these rules. The city of Riverside is committed to fostering a workplace that provides dignity, respect, and civility to our employees, customers, and the public they serve.

Okay, Michael, will you please lead us in the pledge? All right, please stand. Roll call, please.

Member Wright? Here. Member Goldware? Here. Member Rand? Here. Member Montgomery? Here. Member Evans? Here. Member Becker? Here. Vice Chair Wolgamuth?

Here.

Chair Siena?

Here.

And Member Cruz? Here. Thank you.

We will now move to public comment.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star 9. When called to speak, press star 6 to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

Okay, at this time, the Board of Public Utilities will hold a public hearing to receive public input regarding the electric rates and rules update. The public hearing will be conducted to allow public comment on this issue. We open for public comment for item number two. I guess we can play it again.

public comment is now open for this item call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting to request to speak press star 9. when called to speak press star 6 to 1 mute you can also join via zoom the meeting id can be found on the agenda and we call for a presentation of item number two by brian centurior

Good evening, Board Chair Cianna and members of the board. I'm Brian Centurier, Assistant General Manager of Finance and Administration. The item before you tonight is a public hearing for the Electric Rates and Rules Update. The items to consider are on the list here. It's to close schedule EV, the domestic EV, electric vehicle, separately metered to new customers rate that we have. Removing the self-generation program customer program cap. update electric rule 12 to provide clarification of the requirements and responsibilities for service requests for advisory dwelling units and engineering services this is just a summary slide I'll get into these in more detail update electric rule 12 to cease master metering to new customers and update electric rule 13 to clarify the right and type of access for the utility So Schedule EV domestic separately metered. In May 2018, along with the electric five-year rate plan, the City of Council approved the new electric Schedule EV. It was effective January 1st, 2019, along with that five-year rate plan. Schedule EV is an optional time of use rate specifically for residential customers with electric vehicles. And after the installation of a meter adapter to allow for dual metering, it meters the electric vehicle charging separately from the household energy. And this allows the residents to have their household energy consumption remain on the standard domestic electric rate or standard tiered rate, while they could have the EV charging separately metered and build on the time of use rate. so it allowed the house to stay on our standard rate where the EV charging was time of use. We currently have 30 customers on the rate. Again, it was implemented in 2019. We now have 30 customers and no changes in the past four years. We did receive, during that time, 219 applications, but only, again, the 30 customers completed the implementation. So we had a low implementation rate. It's partially due to two things. There's limitation in the meter equipment and the adapter, after all. The adapter works on the smaller size panel, maybe the 100 amp, 200 amp, but a lot of these, our customers, residential customers that have the electric vehicles have the larger panel size, so higher amperage, where the adapter doesn't work. And a lot of the new development is now installing service panels where this adapter isn't compatible with. So back when we implemented this schedule, it seemed like a great idea to give customers another option for their EV charging. And then a lot of the applicants just never completed the inspection process. But we do offer an alternative rate for customers with electric vehicles. It's our standard domestic time of use rate. It provides the low cost off peak energy usage late at night and early in the mornings, which is beneficial for EV charging. However, this is metered with one meter and it's whole house, but it does give customers that opportunity to charge in the off-peak. It's not a tiered charge and it's our lowest energy charge that we have. So the proposal tonight is to close the Schedule EV to new customers and close the Schedule EV rebate program that goes along with that. That rebate program covers the permitting and some of the installation costs for that adapter. The schedule self-gen, it's the electric grade, it's the self-generation program for renewable electrical generation facilities. And some history here, RPU offered net energy metering according to public utilities code 2827 for customers installing solar. So this was a state requirement. And once RPU met the state mandated program cap of 32 megawatts, RPU was permitted to change that program structure for customers with solar. On May 10th, 2022, the council approved our self-generation program for renewable electric generation facilities. Again, really just solar here in Riverside. And that was effective in November, 2022. It really changed the billing structure, and I believe the billing structure and the compensation calculation for energy that was sent back to the distribution grid. And it set the self-generation program capacity to 64 megawatts, and that included the net energy metering, 32 megawatts, and then customers coming online with self-generation. The self-generation program principles wanted to review these. The first was to ensure that customers with renewable self-generation continue to grow in a sustainable and equitable manner in Riverside. We were maintaining customer and community well-being as a priority in the self-generation program, and it continued the commitment to transparency and engagement by maintaining communication with all stakeholders. meeting environmental goals while maintaining a balance between climate policies, reliability, and competitive rates, and maximizing the value of renewable self-generation across all utility customers, with or without self-generation, so with or without solar. Our self-generation customers. So since 2022, number of customers has continued to grow. We currently have 3,339 customers with solar under the self-generation program. The 2,500 of those are new solar customers and 790 have transitioned from the net energy metering program. So if a customer were to increase the capacity of their solar by 25% or more, they automatically switch to the self-generation program. If they replace their solar, they switch to the self-generation. And when a customer on Net Energy Metering, NEM, moves out and the new customer moves in, they go on to the self-generation program. Any other Net Energy Metering customers just continue under the Net Energy Metering program. So here's our customers on solar rates. You can see that the light blue in the four bars to the right is the self-generation customers. The dark blue are the net energy metering customers. But the number of solar customers has continued to increase, even under the self-generation program. So customers are still installing solar. Here's the installed capacity for the net energy metering and self-generation solar customers. In 2025, at the end of the calendar year, we did get up to 72 megawatts. So the installations are continuing to grow. Here's a map of the solar interconnections within the city of Riverside, and this is on greenriverside.com. You can see the installations are really spread throughout the city of Riverside. So, again, the combined installed capacity under NEM and self-generation is a combined 72 megawatts, so we did exceed that current program cap of the 64 megawatts. The self-generation program is operating as expected, and the program participation has continued to grow. We haven't seen the installation of solar slowdown at all in Riverside. And then this is the summary again, how the NEM customers transition to self-chan. I already mentioned that. But before you tonight is consider removing that program cap to allow eligible customers to install solar and continue to encourage growth in solar generation within Riverside. Next one is electric rule 11 for electric service facilities. This is the design process for electric service facilities under rule 11 is used in the estimation and calculation of electrical service fees associated with providing electrical distribution and service facilities for specific projects. So the proposed changes include aligning the language with Rule 10 for the distribution system additions and providing clarification of the requirements and responsibilities for service requests for advisory dwelling units and engineering services. Electric Rule 12. The electric supply through master metering and the resale of electricity. Electric Rule. It governs how the utility provides electricity to a single master meter on a property. This is maybe an apartment building or a mobile home park. where then the property owner distributes and bills that electricity to the individual tenants or resale. The proposed changes to Rule 12 is to keep the existing master metering accounts because that's how those facilities are designed, but going forward, cease to offer master metering option to any new accounts or development. That way the individual tenants are utility customers metered by the utility directly, billed directly by the utility and eligible for RPU customer benefits. Electric Rule 13, the utilities right of access, defines the responsibilities and grounds to maintain and operate all infrastructure necessary to provide electric utility services. The proposed changes provide further clarification of the right and type of access, responsibilities to provide adequate service and maintenance to utility-owned service facilities, and enhance safety for service personnel. The recommendation is that the Board of Public Utilities conduct a public hearing to receive public input related to the proposed Schedule EV closure to new customers, remove the program cap from the self-generation program for renewable electric generation facilities, rate schedule self-gen, and provide public input related to Electric Rule 11, Electric Rule 12, and Electric Rule 13 updates. and adopt a resolution establishing the closure of Schedule EV to new customers, removal of the program cap of Schedule Self-Gen, and updates to Electric Rules 11, 12, and 13, and that the Board of Public Utilities recommend that the City of Council adopt a resolution approving the closure of Schedule EV to new customers, removal of the program cap to self-generation, and updates to Electric Rule 11, 12, and 13. And thank you. I'm available for any questions, and staff is here too.

Thank you. Do we have any public comment? No? OK. OK. So if there are no public comments, the Board of Public Utilities will close this public hearing. And do we have a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved. OK.

Thank you.

Please vote.

motion carries thank you thank you and do we have any comments or questions from the board for the schedule ev it never worked the way it was intended is that correct

Board member Wolgamuth, you're correct. The adapters just didn't work out as good as we intended.

And effectively, the schedule has been superseded by this other schedule that offers late night charging.

The other schedule is an option for the customers to charge their vehicles in the evening. It's an existing schedule, but definitely gives them a good option for electric vehicle charging. You're correct.

Is it cheaper one way or the other?

It may be. It really depends on the customer's usage, overall usage, and when they use their energy. It really depends on each customer specifically. But it does give them an opportunity if they can shift load or charge in the evenings to charge at a lower rate.

For either schedule?

I'm sorry. Well, compared to our standard domestic tiered rate, it gives them an opportunity to charge in the off-peak for low energy. But really, yes, the schedule EV and the domestic time of use rate, so the two time of use rates, do really mirror each other. Okay. They're very similar.

All right. Because it seems that one of the reasons this schedule never played out as envisioned was because of this adapter.

That's correct.

Adapter problem. Yeah. And it seems to me that if you really wanted to go forward with this, you could perhaps... Look into developing a separate or distinctive or new and improved adapter that could then be used by people on a schedule.

We really did explore that and thought we did a great job introducing this and to keep in an effort also in an effort to keep costs as low as possible for the customer and offering the rebates for the permit and the installation. But really we are not aware of any other option out there.

Okay. So, there's no new and improved adapter available or could be easily developed?

That's our understanding, correct.

Okay. Well, that's unfortunate, but I can see it's not really your fault. So, our fault, I should say. Anyway, thank you for clarifying. That's really all I have. Thanks for keeping us apprised of all the breaking news.

Any other comments, Tom?

How about now? Okay. Oh, the light went on. My understanding is that there's still a metering limit or limitation for somebody who wants to go to time of use, residential time of use, if you have a larger main switch. Am I incorrect about that?

Good evening, board members. My name is Efren Mejia, electrical engineering manager. I'm not aware of a limitation, but maybe you can clarify a little bit more to see if there's specific items that I can address.

Well, I inquired about this and was told that because I had a 400 amp main, I couldn't connect to a time of use rate, residential time of use. But maybe I misunderstood it.

Yeah, that does not apply. I mean, the power you use, you consume, it's irrelevant to the size of the main. Obviously, the larger main, you're able to consume more power, but the rate itself should not be impacted by the size of the main.

OK. And then as far as the master metering, I can understand the reason to change, but because this has kind of been a hassle for years, who owns the wires in the, well, first of all, for existing customers, we're not changing it. They will be, if they're master metered now and they have submeters, everything stays the same, right? Correct. Okay, so it's only for new facilities. Correct. And in that instance, who owns the distribution system within the mobile home park, for example?

The utility will own up to the meter.

Okay. So it's just like in a regular neighborhood then?

Correct.

Okay. And then with your ingress and access issues, what problem are you solving?

Well, there's been times I would say that a lot of our folks perform meter spots to do panel upgrades. We really need to have access and coordinate access with customers to make sure we have access to the utility lines, THE BACK OF PROPERTY POLES AND LINES AND EXISTING PANEL LOCATIONS. WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT IS CLEARLY COMMUNICATED AND SOMETIMES WE GET CHALLENGED ON THAT. YOU CAN'T COME HERE, YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT, YOU KNOW. AND SO THAT'S ONE ITEM THAT WE DEAL WITH SOMETIMES.

WELL, WHAT'S THE CURRENT RULES SAY? we we have the right to be there so what does this do to improve that is what i'm at what i'm asking if someone says no and they say no in under the new rule are you still going to have the same problem

Perhaps, but in reality, we need to have clear access, and I think just there's language in the rules that clarify that more specifically. We have, like I said, utility service lines. In some instances, transformers are blocked, equipment is blocked, and we want to make sure that we have clear access to that.

Okay, and so if somebody does block it, what's the remedy?

We usually work very close with the customer. We try to work with them and try to correct the situation.

OK, well, I guess I'm just still trying to understand what the outcome is going to be changing the rule, being like, why now versus, well, why now?

I believe if you look at some of the rules, I mean, I'll speak specifically on Rule 11. There's a lot of new ADUs. There's a lot of new ADUs coming into town. Multiple existing garages being converted to an ADU and a new separate ADU. Rules aren't really clear as to how to handle ad use and every every every new service every additional existing panel with new panels, so Those those rules need to be updated so that we can establish clear direction for staff and our customers sometimes customers want to be able to Just utilize the existing service and and say hey that that property stays have an existing service Can I just keep that in and feed off of this existing? pull over here it doesn't work it's it's very hard to maintain uh two two separate lines the transformer that this customer may want to be fed from needs to be upgraded so there's multiple reasons um for addressing the the rule updates i just wanted to give you one specifically with the adus as to why we needed to add some clarification as to the number of services needed, the location, and even sizes. How many, you know, how far can we upgrade our single-face service? There's customers who want to put an 800M panel on a single-face service, and we only go up to 600M. So just more adding clarifications.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, Christian.

Sorry, can you hear me?

About how much advance notice do you provide a owner before accessing the property?

It's supposed to be 72 hours in advance.

Okay. And then I guess to my colleague's point, if it escalates to the point where they're not providing you the access, do you then call the police department or how does that work? Like what's the end game there at that point? Like if they say, if I'm a customer and I say, you're not getting access, I don't care what you say, what happens then?

You know, I don't have the exact timeline for what would happen then, but I know we don't, usually we schedule, you know, like an outage and we give them the notice. So if there's for an outage notice, we make them aware of, you know, that we're going to have to access the site to replace something. In cases where we have to coordinate something to replace specifically an item related to that one customer, It would be more specific. I have to talk to electric field crews to see what's the, how often, maybe it has to get rescheduled at a different time.

I guess the point is that I want to make sure that we understand that nobody's going to be put in a position where they could be, you know, a customer gets angry and causes issues and things like that. So I'm just trying to get to that point to see like, in terms of escalation, where does that, where does that go?

Good evening.

There's one right there. Eric, good evening.

I guess I could stand up, right? Daniel Honeyfield, Assistant General Manager. Just to add a little bit more input into if it does further escalate and we're not able to get access to our facilities that we have the rights to, we will bring in the city attorney's office and maybe have some more pointed letters trying to work with them. There has been times where we have had to utilize the Riverside Police Force to assist us to get access. So from time to time, that does occasionally happen.

Thank you.

I have one more question. Sure. I'm sorry. This goes back. It doesn't have anything to do with access. But the self-generation and what's your distinction here? Net metering. The chart that shows you've got the blue and the light, dark blue and the light blue. When we just announced this, or we approved a rebate for battery storage, so is it a self-generation customer, are they unlikely to take advantage of battery storage because they're... They're retaining all the energy, or just what's the real difference between those two groups of customers?

Between the net energy metering and the self-generation, or the customers adding battery storage?

No, that 8,172 customers, that theoretically is a population of people who might be interested in battery storage.

You're correct, Board Member Evans.

But what's the difference between the two groups of customers?

Schedule NEM is kind of the 1.0, the legacy program. Customers are really, they're billed using the net billing. So it's how they're billed and then how the compensation rate is calculated. There are a few other more lenient parts of the self-generation program as far as system size, just as an application process, not a contract. But I could quickly describe the billing component if you would like. And also, sorry, the self-generation customers are required to go on the domestic time of use rate. So those self-generation customers cannot be on our tiered rate.

Well, because if you look at that chart, the relationship of the group with the lighter color is growing more so than the dark blue is going down.

Yes.

So why is that?

That was by design. When we introduced the self-generation program in November of 2022, we were able to close net energy metering to new customers. So typically then it would remain flat, right? But if the customer were to increase their solar capacity by 25% or more, they switch to self-generation. If they replace the solar on their roof, they automatically switch to self-generation. And if an energy metering customer moves out, the new customer that moves in and has that solar goes on to the self-generation program. So this is a way of slowly transitioning customers to self-generation and still allowing customers that have that original contract with us to remain on net energy metering. So that's why you see that number decline rather than just remain flat.

So essentially we don't like net metering?

career, net energy metering really provided a pretty large subsidy for customers with solar and other customers had to absorb those costs. So by introducing self generation, and the new kind of billing structure, it heavily reduced that subsidy and made it more equitable for all customers throughout Riverside with or without solar.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yeah, the net metering, I mean, it's a pretty dramatic difference because, you know, our rates have slowly crept up, you know, with time, as they do. self-generation, the value is actually declining. I mean, who knows what it'll do, but it has been declining a bit. So, some people who are legacy, you know, still on net metering are actually getting more and more value out of their solar with time, right, as the rates have gone up, but that's not been true with the self-generation, and it's a factor. It depends on what the I can't say the factor, the difference, because it depends on what tier you're replacing and whatnot, but it's quite a large difference in compensation.

I'm sorry, quick just clarification. When is the truer for NEM customers? Is that once a year, monthly? How does that work?

Board Member Cruz, for the net energy metering customer, the annual true-up is in December, in the calendar year. Under self-generation, it's monthly. There's really essentially no true-up the way it's billed. It's really smooth and nice monthly.

Okay, now it's going to be my follow-up question. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Do I hear a motion?

So moved.

Second. Second. Thank you.

Please vote. Thank you. The motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much. We now turn the time over to Tracy Sato for our sustainability update.

Good evening, Chair Sciana and members of the board. I really don't have a large presentation tonight. Our customer engagement team, because of the heat, hasn't been out in the field as much. They've still been doing all of their visits to the senior centers and a lot of our senior housing projects which they do on a regular basis because they're indoors but they aren't out and about but I did have a couple of awards that the team has an RPU has received over the last couple of months so the first award that I wanted to announce which is one that was just announced by the California Municipal Utilities Association They, every year, do a CMUA Impact Awards, and these are for utilities that provide impact and make an impact in their communities, a positive impact. And RPU happens to be the recipient of a Communications Achievement Award this year for being first place in the large utility category for our Riverside Public Utilities Education Month campaign. that occurred last July, on July 2025. And CMUA noted that RPU had marked its 30th anniversary of its K through 12 education program in 2025 and had taught more than 300,000 students since 1995 with a July 2025 Education Month campaign that spanned email, social media, billboards, and community events. um the campaign reached riverside's 320 000 residents including email sends email sends to 75 000 plus subscribers and nearly 61 000 social media impressions in july alone just for that program so again i wanted to congratulate our communications team here at rpu customer engagement marcom was a big player in that as well the department of communications with the city who assisted with that so we want to recognize both of both groups and both teams for the great work that they've been doing but we would not have an education campaign without our educators that are on our customer engagement team so they are not here tonight but we do want to give them recognition it was too short of a notice because we the press release literally came out the end of last week before we found out we received the award The second award that I wanted to talk about and give you the information on is a very prestigious award. It's from the American Public Power Association. And Riverside Public Utilities was one of five utilities across the nation that was recognized at the end of June for being a good neighbor. And this is the Sue Kelly, I apologize, I'm trying to read the full name, SUE KELLY COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD. THESE ARE PROVIDED EVERY YEAR FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC POWER ASSOCIATION, AND AGAIN, RPU IS ONE OF FIVE THAT WAS RECOGNIZED THIS YEAR. AND THE GOOD NEIGHBOR ACTIVITIES ARE GIVEN WHEN THEY GIVE THIS AWARD, IT RECOGNIZES UTILITIES THAT DEMONSTRATE THE COMMITMENT OF THE UTILITY AND ITS EMPLOYEES TO THE COMMUNITY. Riverside Public Utilities was recognized for our impactful customer programs that we have that support our vulnerable populations. Recognizing our share program which has been in effect since 1989 and provided bill assistance and provides bill assistance to more than 5,000 low income customers every year. We also have 20,000 customers on our medical needs and utility care program, which is a lower rate or gives them a little bit of electricity at a lower rate for their medical devices. We have the energy savings assistance program and the mobile home multifamily installation program, which provides free energy efficiency installations at their customers' homes. um and we also attend uh between our education programs and our customer engagement team attends over in 2025 attended over 75 community events connecting with over 200 000 residential customers throughout the city and i should say and we also attended a lot of events that met with our commercial customers So I did bring our team here. We do have our customer engagement manager, Carrie Dowsett, our principal programs and services representative who leads our communications team, Andrew Galvin, and our manager over at the Customer Resource Center who oversees all of our low-income and all of our rebate applications, Christiana Mott.

And please hold the ward up. I don't know why.

We'll pass this around for everybody to see. Would be happy if you wanted to take a picture. We can do that. If you want to pass on the picture, we can just pass the award around so that you can see it. But I wanted to congratulate our team. And I apologize. We took a month to get here. But being sick at the one time I could have presented this, we decided to wait. But we wanted to recognize our team for all of the great work and the outreach that they do, as well as the board and all of our community. But the board for approving all of these programs and helping us, our council for the same reason. It's just been fantastic that we're able to offer these great programs for our community members, and the team is very proud, and this is what they do. This is their passion. And with that, I will close my comments, and I'm happy to answer any questions or take any comments.

Thank you very much. Comments from the floor.

Well, congratulations on the award. That's not my question, though. You mentioned mobile home parks. I'm a member of a rotary club that does community projects, and we've been asked to help the Red Cross install smoke detectors in some mobile home park. And so my suggestion to you is to maybe contact the Red Cross to find out what mobile home park that is, and perhaps it's a candidate for all the other programs that we offer, irrespective of whether SoCalGas is involved. So maybe smoke detectors, CO2 alarms, but I just give you that for whatever it's worth.

We do appreciate that, and we'll reach out to the Red Cross and find out how we can partner up. I'm sure we can do that and get out to that community.

Okay. Good. Thanks.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay I'll comment I'll just reiterate congratulations and thank you for all the service that's being recognized by the award and I'm happy to you know steal some of the credit by taking a picture with you.

Okay do you want to stand up and we could do like the council does with the pictures and the chair and vice chair can come down with the staff we can come into the into the center here.

You can hold the award. Okay. Very good.

Okay, for item number four, I will ask our board members if anyone has any conflicts of interest to disclose on our agenda. Hearing none, so we'll now move to the consent calendar. Does anyone wish to pull an item on our consent calendar? Tom?

The minutes.

Oh, okay. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the remainder of the consent?

I'll move the remainder.

Okay. Second. Sean, second. Sean.

Please vote. Motion carries unanimously. Display. Thank you. Did it display?

Yeah, it did. Okay, so I don't know who presents or answers questions on the minutes, but what was your comment? Well, it's a very simple clarification.

On the septic holding tank pumping item, I voted no on the decision to table. It says I voted yes. and Board Member Goldware abstained, but I voted no on that item.

Okay, so what do we do about that? I mean, yeah, that's true. We'll make a correction. We can make a correction after the fact? Okay, great.

So I move approval of the minutes as corrected. I second.

Okay, thank you. Okay, go ahead and vote. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

And thanks for that clarification. So we'll now move to the discussion calendar. And we will open for public comment for item number nine.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star nine. When called to speak, press star six to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

We call for a presentation of item number nine by Efren Mejia.

All right. Good evening, Board Chair Siena and members of the Board. My name is Efren Mejia. I'm the Electrical Engineering Manager with Riverside Public Utilities Energy Delivery. The item before you is one of our very common projects. Over the last 10, 15 years since I've been here, we've been focusing a lot on 4 to 12 kV convergence. This project is a very good project in general based on the location because it is tied to our Hunter substation replacement project. So a little bit of background, outlined in the Electric System Master Plan, it recommends the conversion of existing 4KV distribution facilities that are outdated, inefficient, and difficult to procure, especially at the substation level. Utility poles, cross arms, and associated infrastructure such as wires, transformers, some of that equipment is at risk of failure based on their useful life. The Make Ready project will facilitate a future conversion from 4 kV to 12 kV that's associated with the Hunter substation replacement project. And voltage conversion projects upgrade system capacity and reliability in general. The project location is, it is on the north side. Part of it is obviously north of Third Street, south of Columbia, and west of Chicago, and east of Main Street. A particular circuit can go multiple directions, so it's not just in one area. Custom notifications will be sent out prior to any service disruptions, and the electrical outages will be coordinated to minimize impact to customers. So part of the scope of work, again, as I mentioned, a typical pole replacement is required. In this project, we're doing 34 utility poles, 95 cross arms, 64 transformers and related, like I said, insulators, secondary wire, and primary wires. So approximately 8,500 feet of overhead primary conductors will be replaced along with their insulators. in cross arms, and the project would take approximately six minutes to complete. All work would be performed by RPU field forces. Some of the benefits, a 4 to 12 kV conversion is key to improving the overall system reliability as the majority of our 12 kV distribution system is already at 12 kV. And then it improves safety by ensuring that new facilities are upgraded, installed and existing facilities are upgraded. Improves electric services and power quality. A lot of these old transformers, they've been, like I said, outdated. And new loads require that voltage is accurately provided. Improves system operations and response times to outages. Eliminate antiquated facilities that are no longer available for replacement. And make ready for the upcoming 4 to 12 kV conversion project out of Hunter substation. Quick summary on the overall project fiscal breakdown. Engineering was performed in-house by RPU engineering team. That's at about 587,000. Physical labor out on the field will be performed by our electric field forces. You've got about 2.1 million dollars worth of labor, some equipment, and materials such as poles, insulators, and transformers. There will be a component where we will require a crane rental for about 12 days. We're going to focus on the replacement of There's about five or six different areas that three poles within that area need to be replaced. And it could take us approximately one day to replace all three poles versus having to come back three individual times and do individual poles at once. So we're trying to take advantage of that and minimize disruptions to customers and avoid traffic delays and impact to the road. That contract will come back to the board probably in December. And again, we anticipate a 10% contingency for a future contractor with a work order total of approximately $3.4 million and anticipate a start will be next month for approximately six months. The recommendation for the board is that the Board of Public Utilities approve work order number 2405325 for a total capital expenditure of $3,449,918.26 for the Hunter substation 4KV to 12KV make ready for Circuit 26 project. And with that, thank you, and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much. Do we have any public comments?

No callers for now.

OK. No callers at this time. Do we have any comment from the board?

Hi. Thanks for the fine presentation, as usual. So the actual 4 to 12 conversion will go in after the Hunter substation is rebuilt, correct?

That is correct. Right now, we're getting ready to convert the insulators, the proper wire, the proper pole height. But the conversion, once the Hunter substations is on a 12 kV system, that circuit will be cut over sometime in early 2027.

Could you remind us again when the Hunter substation will be ready?

My understanding is we're currently at about 60 to 75, I'm sorry, 60 to 65% complete. The onsite civil work, all the underground work is complete. They're now working on some of the overhead structures. We anticipate beginning commissioning in early 2027 and then cut over each circuit as time goes by with an overall conversion or cut over completion, probably May or June, 2027.

So next year? Yes, next year. Very good. Thank you. So one final question. How much of the city is left for these 4 to 12 conversion? You said we're over half, I think you said.

There's a couple more sites. I know Riverside. I don't have the specific numbers, Pete, at this time. I do apologize.

No, no worries.

But once we cut over Hunter, we're probably going to be at, if I'm not mistaken, at least 50% done.

OK. So a few more years on this. Yes. Convergent project before the entire city is converted. All right.

Thank you.

Other comments or questions? Tom?

Thank you. So just so I'm understanding, you're replacing 8,400 feet of wire? Yes. Um, I asked the same question the last time we talked about this, what's the salvage value of that wire and is it netted against the cost of the project?

I can tell you this, um, board member Evans, we looked at that, uh, looking at the cost of aluminum was very minimal. Um, so I don't have that specific number and I would say it was so minimal that it really didn't make a difference.

OK, well, I guess, so what do you do with the wire? You still sell it, right?

yeah correct it is returned back to the corp yard there and it is salvaged we'll look into the the value it most likely just goes back to our general fund not general fund of the city but the the utility so I don't think it goes back towards the project specifically but it does help offset costs but it is Very minimal compared to the $3.5 million project.

Well, yeah, except it's still money.

It is still money.

And it's still counted for. And it's aluminum, not copper.

It is aluminum. Yeah, it's aluminum. Okay.

Well, I think that there ought to be some kind of notation that you're actually salvaging this stuff. Transformers, there's the core, whatever. It's copper. So you do have value. It has value. It definitely has value, yes. Otherwise, people wouldn't be stealing it.

Right. We dispose of the oil through proper channels and that sort of thing.

So I guess I just would think that somewhere along the way, make some notation about the excess, not surplus material, but salvaged material is actually being sold in some sort of investment recovery because, as I say, it's still real money. Thank you. Okay.

Other comments or questions? I have a couple of questions. In the last meeting, we learned that this conversion of 12 kV started in the late 1960s or something like this. Right?

Like we had – Well, I would say we started with the new voltage at that point in time.

So given that it has been taking a while to upgrade all of these things, is there some – I just want to make sure there's not a movement to like 24 kV and –

Oh, you can't say for sure? Well, there is other voltages. Other utilities utilize higher voltages. There's 21 kV in the Sacramento region, for example. But we see 12 kV as the standard for decades, if not longer to come. It is quite a process to upgrade the hose and all the wires, the insulators, everything has to be built and installed to support that level of voltage.

Yeah, I was just, I don't know, I was curious about that. But actually, I have a related question. My second question was... Okay, so this is make ready, like, this is once Hunter is ready to go, these lines will be there. So what do you do? Do you have, like, two sets of transformers up there?

Well, actually, it's called the dual voltage transformer. So it more or less has a switch. So if the incoming voltage is 4 kV, then that's what it's set to. And then we'll have to go back out and switch them all to 12 kV once that takes place. That's kind of a neat thing. And this happens a lot. If a transformer fails, say, on a 4kV circuit, we go back with a dual voltage because we know at some point in time it's in our plans to replace that voltage or upgrade that voltage, I should say, so that we don't have to go back and replace that transformer again.

Okay, I'm trying to think physically how this would work, but I'm not going to ask that. But I'm assuming these are more expensive because...

I don't think it's too much more expensive.

I don't know physically how they work. Okay. Well, if it's not more expensive, then that's smart.

It's really about the windings within the transformer. I know.

I would have thought you would need it. Okay.

And if I may add to that comment, it's a very good question. because development continues. As Daniel stated, we don't stop. We put in that dual voltage transformer, we connect that customer as soon as possible. And they appreciate that. They know there's upgrades coming, but because we are one of the very few utilities that provide this dual voltage transformer, they're very happy for that installation because they go to other utilities and they're like, oh, we can't be served at this time because it's a 4kV circuit in the area or something.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any motion? Anyone? Move to approve. All right. I'm going to say Christian moved to approve. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you.

Please vote. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Okay, we will now open public comment for item number 10.

Public comment is now open for this item. Call 951-826-8688 and follow the prompts to access the meeting. To request to speak, press star 9. When called to speak, press star 6 to unmute. You can also join via Zoom. The meeting ID can be found on the agenda.

Okay, we call for presentation of item number 10 by Brian Centurrier.

Good evening, Board Chair Sayana and members of the board. I'm Brian Centurio, Assistant General Manager of Finance and Administration. The item before you tonight is the Electric Cost of Service Analysis and Rate Design Agreement. So for some little background, the previous electric cost of service analysis, COSA and rate design was completed in 2023, and that supported the current electric five year rate plan, which was effective January 1st, 2024, with a final year effective January 1st, 2028. So we're already in the third year of that five year rate plan. And an updated cost of service analysis and rate design is necessary to plan beyond the current electric utility five-year rate plan. So we're trying to get ahead of this one by bringing this forward now. An electric cost of service and rate design project is going to include a comprehensive review of all electric rate schedules, forecast the future revenue requirement, so our projected costs using our financial pro forma, It includes an equitable allocation of costs among the customer classes. We'll do an electric utility rate trend study similar to the water utility rate trend study. We'll look at what electric rates are out there in California and the United States and see how they may be able to be applied or maybe implemented here at RPU or continue with our current rates. We'll have a five-year proposed rate design recommendation at the end of the study. We're doing a customer impact rate design model, so that's a detailed customer impacts, how all customers will be impacted by any rate recommendation. I'll be analyzing the advanced metering infrastructure, the AMI customer data that we have, evaluate opportunities to revise programs such as that self-generation program if needed. But again, that program is operating as planned. Develop new potential rates for electrification and provide two workshops prior to bringing that rate design and rate plan forward for approval. Things we'll be considering are the changing industry and regulatory requirements, the impacts of the distributed generation, electrification, and the renewable energy portfolio requirements are just some of the items. We'll be looking at the operating and infrastructure costs, our production, transmission, distribution, and then our capital improvement program. The study is essential to identify the cost to serve the city's customers and ensure an equitable allocation of cost responsibility among those customer rate classes. In January, an RFP was posted on PlanetBids. In February, the proposals were received from five consultants. RPU staff completed the proposal review, evaluation, and scoring. The scoring had four categories, each weighed at 25%. and then after receiving approval to move forward with one of the consultants from purchasing, and then along with purchasing, RPU negotiated clarifications of the phase four enhancements to the study to include analyzing the AMI data to support rate design, evaluate opportunities to revise rate programs such as self-gen, develop new rates for electrification, and added those two workshops. So new gen strategies and solutions receive the highest score. Their experience includes multiple similar projects in California and across the United States. And what we're really interested in also includes that customer impact rate design model, providing the comprehensive and complete view of all rate impacts to all of our customers. Here's the ranking schedule. New gen strategies and solutions ranked number one. They had the highest score in three of the four categories. They were second in total proposed cost, just slightly behind the second consultant, the GDS. But based on the overall scoring, new gen strategies and solutions ended up with the number one rank. So we move forward and recommend the agreement with NUGEN. The phase one is the cost of service analysis and project management. Phase two is that electric rate design study, or rate trend study, sorry. Phase three then is the rate design recommendation. So after phases one and two are completed or we have very close to a final draft, we'll move into the rate design recommendation. And then phase four includes those enhancements that we negotiated, the AMI data assistance, radar alternatives for customers with solar, electric vehicles, and other electrification, and the two workshops. And then it includes their expenses and travel for a total of $148,800. SO THE RECOMMENDATION IS THAT THE BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES RECOMMEND THAT THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVE THE PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT SERVICES AGREEMENT FROM RFP NUMBER 2531 WITH NEW GEN STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS LLC OF LAKEWOOD COLORADO FOR THE ELECTRIC COST OF SERVICE AND RATE DESIGN. with a term ending December 31, 2028, in the amount of $148,800, and authorize the city manager or designee to execute the agreement with NUGEN, including making minor and non-substantive changes, including extensions of up to one two-year term subject to the availability of budgeted funds. With that, I'm available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. Do we have any public comments? Okay. There's no callers. Christian?

Just a quick question on the workshops themselves. Are they going to be each ward or is that a workshop for staff? Can you just explain that?

It's anticipated that those work stops would be with the board members or maybe council members at that level. Haven't exactly figured it out yet, but we want to kick off the study and make sure that we do have time and budget built in for workshops to communicate the proposals before coming for adoption.

Great. So the intent is for this body to at least have some form of workshop.

That is correct.

Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments or questions? Pete?

Thank you for the fine presentation. So my understanding is that this is the same company that did the COSA for the 2023 rate plan, is that?

You are correct, Board Member Wolgamuth.

Okay, so they have a long history of working with the city and RPU and know the territory, so to speak.

You're correct. They're very familiar with RPU and electric utility and the city of Riverside.

All right, very good. Even though they're based in Colorado. Okay. I didn't read the prospectus word for word, but it seemed pretty comprehensive. And they seemed to have a fairly decent game plan as far as how to get to where we want to go. And I imagine that's what tipped the scales in their favor in terms of them getting the bid or the proposal. Rate hikes are an unfortunate fact of life, and nobody wants them, especially the people that don't understand what goes into providing service. But I think it's basic that whatever we were going to make that determination on depends on accurate data. And that's what we hope to get here with all their analysis and all the various information sources coming to bear that will then go into the various components of the product that they're going to produce. So regardless of what our opinion is on rate hikes, we need this basic information first. So like I said, I think the proposal by the company seems pretty comprehensive and realistic. And I see no reason not to go forward with it. So thank you.

Thank you. Tom?

Yeah, I don't have any. I mean, you evaluated the consultant. That's fine. When we talked about the water COSA, one of the important factors, at least from your recommendation, was that there was some kind of a model that the consultant had that was interactive that you could, at least my impression is, was interactive. You could put information in and see what the outcomes were. Does this, do you, in the same, does that apply in this case as well? Yes. Am I wrong about the water?

You are correct. Board member Evans. Yes. They take our financial forecasts, our customer data. It all goes into their model, a comprehensive model where we can run many scenarios add customer classes, change rate design. There's just a lot of flexibility. And then RPU staff obtains versions of that model, and we go through it in detail. This also does include time. I didn't highlight it, but I think I may have. We discussed it in the water COSA agreement. time to work with a consultant and bring staff up to speed on any new items in their model and any changes, so essentially training. So we can become experts in the model also and fully understand it.

Okay, because I think that's very important. And as to the workshops, what would be nice about this is you see some sort of a schedule and where those workshops are so that, for example, you have the first one and information comes out of that workshop that suggest some significant or identify some significant issues whatever but then you have time to integrate that into the model and see what the outcome is in terms of the recommended rates and and rather than having both those workshops squished to the end of the project So like I say, it would be nice to have seen here and Wells with the water coast as well. I don't recall that there was any sort of a broad schedule that gave us an opportunity for input that was meaningful.

You're correct. A detailed schedule hasn't been included tonight or with the water COSA. The consultants did provide in their proposals a higher level schedule so they can move quickly. To be honest, what we're trying to do here with the electric COSA and water COSA is to kick this project off and get going on the cost of service study and the rate trend study, get going on the customer data. So start going on the project as fast, well, quickly and well ahead of schedule. And you're correct. We'll be building that schedule and coming back and sharing that information and having the workshops in plenty of time before we ask for a recommendation, a rate recommendation.

Okay well that's good because you're not starting from scratch. The customers are the customers that we have. I can't imagine that they're going to be dramatically different. So it's not like they're coming in here for the first time and never looked at our customer data before.

Oh, you're correct. But we do have the AMI data this time, so we can get more granular. We're really excited about that. And NUGEN does have an expert that works with the AMI data, the interval data. So that will really give us more of an understanding of our customer usage patterns and the customer categories and the customer classes, how they use energy, and it'll help us allocate costs and design rates. So that is the big new one we're excited about this year with about half of our customers now have AMI meters and we have that interval data for them.

Okay, good.

Any other comments or questions? I just want to kind of point out because it wasn't explicit in the presentation that the original, the amount we're approving is more than the original bid and that's because after procurement, you know, after somebody was chosen after a contractor was chosen with the highest score, we then negotiated additional services with them. And I made, I clarified with you that that is standard practice at the city to first go with the one who, you know, won out the initial bid and then negotiate if you need to for additional services and whatnot. So I just wanted to clarify that that's the case. That's why it's a little bit higher.

You were correct. And purchasing guided us through that process.

Yeah. And I just wanted to kind of reiterate what Pete said, that I think this is so important, and it's, you know, compared to the amount of money, from the electric rates over a five year, over the future five year rate plan or whatever it will be is, I mean this is a percent of a percent of the money and it's all about what the incentives are, right? And so I'm really, it seems to me that you're much more interested in looking at more options going forward in this very dynamic space and I think that's great. So yeah, and then I'll second Tom's point comments that every indication I've gotten, at least not on paper, but verbally, is that you guys do intend to come to us more than the last rate plan and earlier, and so we'll hold you to that. All right. Anyway, thank you. I hear a motion. Thank you, Gary. Second? Second. Thank you, Tom.

Please vote. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any board or staff communications to report on for item number 11? OK. Seeing none, are there any items for future consideration for item number 12? Okay. Then we will now turn the time over to David Garcia for the general manager's report.

Thank you, Chair. I have two items, two announcements to make. One I wanted just to bring to your attention, the annual SCAPA conference. The early deadline for early registration is September 3rd. I encourage you, if you can attend, you know, please do so. You can reach out to Rosie and she could help you. set up any accommodations as far as travel and registration fees. So it is the big conference of the year for SCAPA. We get to hear a lot about what's going on in the electric industry. We get to hear from our state officials as well as professionals within uh, the energy industry. So if you can, please, uh, please attend. Um, and I think we can get up to four individuals, um, without having any specific issues with quorum. So, uh, that's one announcement. Second announcement I wanted to make, uh, going to give you a break, a little late summer break. Uh, September 14th, we will not be having a board meeting. Um, so, uh, if you, uh, have summer plans, uh, maybe that's an opportunity to, uh, have a, VACATION DURING THAT PERIOD AND NOT MISS A BOARD MEETING. WE'LL BE RETURNING BACK SEPTEMBER 28TH FOR A FULL AGENDA IN PARTICULAR TO DISCUSS THE GHG ITEM COMING BACK TO BOARD. SO I ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO BE INTENDANTS AT THAT MEETING TOO IF YOU CAN MAKE IT. AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE CHAIR.

OKAY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THIS MEETING IS ADJOURNED.