MID Board Report Archive

Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Meeting ofTuesday, June 12, 2007
Contact: MID Public Affairs Department, Maree Hawkins, 209 526-7390
The next MID Board meetings will be June 19, July 10 and 31.

Water report

Don Pedro Reservoir’s current elevation is 793.6 ft. compared to 822.7 ft. last year at this time (830 ft. is a full reservoir). The end-of-irrigation season elevation should be about 740 ft.

The Board unanimously approved

• Aug. 28 as a public hearing on a possible electric rate increase. Last month staff recommended a five percent increase to adhere to Board-adopted financial policies. · An agreement with the law firm of Boutin Dentino to provide legal counsel in matters pertaining to employment law.
  
  
• By majority vote, the Board approved · An agreement with Hutchins Paving and Engineering, Inc. to provide construction services for the installation of the Claribel Substation Substructures. · Providing Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) with information for a feasibility study of an OID plan to sell water to the City and County of San Francisco using MID infrastructure. The feasibility study will include a review of probable impacts to MID and mitigation efforts. The goal will be no impacts to Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts.

Energy efficiency savings preliminary estimate approved

The board unanimously approved submission of a preliminary estimate of MID’s potentially achievable energy efficiency savings to the California Energy Commission. The Board will consider a final estimate in September. That percentage then becomes MID’s energy efficiency target for the next 10 years. The present estimate of MID’s feasible energy efficiency potential is 0.5 percent of load annually, which is approximately five percent over 10 years. Staff presenter Peter Govea noted that expanding MID’s energy efficiency programs will increase retail rates. However, program participants could see a reduction in their overall electric bills.

Under state law utilities must identify cost-effective energy efficiency measures, and report targets and accomplishments annually. California’s goal is to reduce the total forecasted electric consumption by 10 percent over the next 10 years.

Solar photovoltaic power

The Board unanimously set a public hearing for late July on MID’s proposed buy-down program for photovoltaic (PV) installations. A 2006 state law set a goal of one million PV installations over 10 years. PV Program Coordinator Mike Zweifel said PV is very expensive and rarely cost effective without significant utility and/or tax incentives. The payback for a PV installation within MID would be 25 years. A PG&E customer might have an eight to 12-year payback.

There are currently four PV installations locally, including MID’s rooftop installation. Zweifel said there is significant customer interest in PV with about five to 10 inquiries per week, although most customers are surprised when informed of the difficult economics associated with PV. He believes that one of the most important things MID can do at this time is educate the public so customers can make informed decisions.