About Us » Advisory Board » Meetings Archive » 2019, November 18

2019, November 18

FSEC Advisory Board Meeting

2019, November 18
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
CCTS Conference Room
1679 Clearlake Road, Cocoa, FL 32922-5703
Phone: 321-638-1000

Agenda

Time Description Speaker
10:00 a.m. Welcome Mike Faas, Chair
10:10 a.m. Approval of March 29, 2019 Meeting Minutes Mike Faas, Chair
10:15 a.m. Status of FSEC Programs. Presentation: The State of FSEC [PDF, 5 MB]
 Jim Fenton
10:30 a.m. National, States, and Florida State and Cities Energy Policy

Report of Florida Energy Office

 Louis Rotundo

Kelley Smith Burk
11:05 a.m. Presentation: Experience with Residential Solar and Electrical Storage After A Hurricane [video, PDF, 7 MB] Danny Parker
11:30 a.m. Drive Electric Florida, VW Settlement, and Related Electric Vehicle Activities. Presentation: State of the Electrified Union! [PDF, 761 KB] Peter King
12:00 p.m. Lunch (Buffet)
 12:45 p.m. Orlando Solar and Efficiency Projects and Lack of Energy Efficient Affordable Housing. Presentation: Orlando: Sustainable & Resilient [PDF, 8 MB]  Chris Castro
 1:05 p.m. Review and Adoption of FSEC Strategic Plan. Discussion of FSEC Board Makeup (possible areas of focus) Mike Faas,
Jim Fenton,
 1:50 p.m. Board Business

  • Nominees for Chair and Vice-chair Candidates
  • Date and Agenda for Next Advisory Board Meeting
 Mike Faas,
Jim Fenton
2:00 p.m. Adjournment

 

Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Paul Allen, John Anderson, Mike Faas, Peter DeNapoli, Linda Ferrone (call-in), Helda Rodriguez, Louis Rotundo, Kelley Smith Burk, Chris Castro, Elizabeth Klonoff, Bill Grieco, Peter King, Thomas Lawery, Debra Reinhart, Paul Zombo, Bruce Lindsay, Emily Krasnicki for Jill Dvareckas FPL, Larry Dencker for Dave Winslow Universal Orlando

Invited Guests: Tom Davis, Health First; Anna Eskamani, Representative Florida State House District 47; Melanie Macklin, Publix Supermarkets; Paul Yelvington, RAPID Manufacturing

FSEC and UCF Faculty and Staff: Karen Fenaughty, Jim Fenton, Colleen Kettles, Susan Schleith, Winston Schoenfeld, Sherri Shields, John Sherwin, Safvat Kalaghchy, M. Swami, Paul Brooker, Eric Martin, Danny Parker, Richard Raustad, Robin Vieira, Eric Schneller, Joe Walters, Parag Banerjee, Kristopher Davis

  1. Mike Faas, Chairman called the meeting to order at 10:00am and welcomed board members and guests. Everyone introduced themselves. Several invited guests were called out.
  2. Mike Faas asked that the minutes from March 29, 2019 be reviewed and approved. Additional members who were not listed that attended the meeting asked to be included in the list of attendees. Minutes were approved unanimously with those corrections. James Fenton mentioned again that the minutes and presentations are always available on the FSEC website as well for review.
  3. Jim Fenton provided a review of the agenda that included a mention that at the next meeting a new vice chair and chair would be voted on. Jim noted the rebranding of FSEC to the new reference FSEC Research Energy Center.
  4. Jim Fenton gave a presentation on ‘The State of FSEC’. Current programs, new contracts and submitted pending proposals/contracts. Several collaborative partnerships that work with FSEC were also reviewed. A short video, which was made in 2011, titled ‘A Florida Fable – The Foreign Fuel’ was shown; Its storyline is still relevant today.
  5. Winston Schoenfeld continued the presentation with information on the new UCF Energy Initiative concentrating on energy research across the university. A Blue Ribbon panel in energy was created with 15 members from UCF and externally. A 32-page report was generated with a lot of recommendations. UCF Energy Council (FSEC included) to review and zone in on energy related research.
  6. Susan Schleith spoke about the upcoming activities in the Education Department. Susan mentioned that EnergyWhiz will be held on April 25, 2020. The EnergyWhiz event will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Additional activities will be part of the event relating to Earth Day and she is in need volunteers and sponsorships. EnergyWhiz Expos are happening throughout the state. We are partnering with Brevard Public Schools – having Innovation Games at FSEC in March where we will be doing the Junior Solar Sprint activity. We are helping Orange County Public Schools to run and judge their EnergyWhiz Expo events, which include Junior Solar Sprint, Energy Transfer Machine and Critter Comfort Cottage. In addition, we are providing a professional development workshop for teachers on the EnergyWhiz events.
  7. Energy Policy update:
    1. Louis Rotundo turned the discussion over to Representative Anna Eskamani. She referenced a bill that would have Florida use 100% renewable energy by 2050. It would also create a committee to get to that goal with all stakeholders invited – FSEC would play a role. A series of climate change bills have also been filed.
    2. Kelley Smith Burk talked about what’s being done at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Energy. The Florida Energy & Climate Summit was held in September where Commissioner Fried announced the Florida Energy and Climate Plan. The Commissioner also announced that they are creating a Florida Advisory Council on Climate and Energy. The Office of Energy is looking at energy proposal funding for climate research throughout the state – a cross section between agriculture, water and energy. The Office of Energy is also working on an electric vehicle roadmap for Florida and an alternative fuel resiliency plan. They have been working with the U.S. Dept. of Energy on building efficiency and building-to-grid technologies to get them to market more quickly. She advised the U.S. DOE of FSEC’s testing capabilities for future funding consideration.
    3. Representative Anna Eskamani mentioned two other legislative issues: 1) protecting net metering; and, 2) FEECA goals. At the recent PSC hearing, there was a robust debate around FEECA goals, which are established by the PSC. The commissioners decided not to set the goal at zero as proposed by the PSC staff, but to extend the current goals by a year.
  8. Danny Parker gave a presentation, ‘Experience with Residential Solar and Electrical Storage After Hurricanes’. He presented his experience going through Hurricane Dorian with solar, batteries and electric vehicles without grid power for multiple days. The best way to find out how new technology will work, is to try it yourself and if it works you can find ways to make it work better.
  9. Peter King gave a presentation ‘Drive Electric Florida, the VW Settlement, and Related Electric Vehicle Activities’. Peter is the Electric Transportation manager for Duke Energy and is also chairman of Drive Electric Florida. Drive Electric Florida is a statewide organization. It’s been around since 2012 and made up of many interested parties in the state of Florida. This year, they received funding to hire an executive director. A strategic plan is ready to execute for 2020.
  10. Lunch
  11. Chris Castro gave a presentation of some work the City of Orlando is doing this year.
  12. Discussion of FSEC Advisory Board makeup: Jim discussed whether we have the right players on the board and reviewed a slide with appropriate buckets of organizations/companies that should represent the FSEC advisory board members. He asks that everyone think about this and send him ideas and names of potential members. What is the purpose of the advisory board, advising or sharing info? The Board should change to serve the needs of FSEC by acting as partners in research and education.
  13. Review and Adoption of FSEC Strategic Energy Plan: Jim Fenton gave a brief summary of the strategic plan. He opened the floor to see if there’s any discussion of the document before approval. Dr. Klonoff wants to see baseline data and projected outcomes with demonstrable metrics. Her office is in charge of evaluating all centers and institutes at UCF and helping each come up with criteria they would use for success, as well as criteria she can use for sun setting those that are proliferating among themselves. Her office needs a clear statement on what you want to do, how you want to do it, and where you’re going to be in one, three, and five years from now. Areas should include grant funding, education, and faculty diversity. Regarding funding, list major areas FSEC is going to seek grant funding in. Where do you want funding to come from, technology rather than agency? Look at data from five years ago and also determine where you want to be.Bill Grieco stated the presented strategic plan was a big improvement since his participation as an external reviewer of FSEC in 2015, however, it has too many action items. He wants to see charges and strategies of how we will get there, including a follow-on appendix with Year 1, Year 2, etc. actions.Louis Rotundo cautioned that FSEC should not be seen at the state level as only UCF’s energy arm rather than the State’s Energy Center that resides at UCF. FSEC has two audiences: Washington and State Legislature, who do not seem to know that there’s already a state energy center (FSEC) or they wouldn’t be trying to create other entities to do the same thing.The outcome was to table the advisory board membership until the strategic plan is complete, and table the approval of the strategic plan. Move forward with creating a working group to provide additional outcomes pertaining to FSEC’s Strategic Energy Plan.

Mike Faas indicated that it was his next to last meeting as the Chair. In the past, the vice chair would assume the role of chair, which means that Chris Castro would become the next chair. The vote would then be for a new vice chair. Jim will send out an email to solicit nominees. Final nominees will be presented at the next meeting to vote upon and name the next vice chair. Next meeting will be in March of next year and Jim will send out a Doodle Poll to get the best date selected. The meeting was motioned to adjourn and it was unanimous – meeting adjourned at 2:15pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Faas
Chair, FSEC Advisory Board