VIEW the Success!
Our 9th Annual View the Success! Luncheon took place last month at the Vintage Press in Visalia. The text below is adapted directly from our Executive Director, Courtney Kalashian’ s speech at the event.
“We come to this same lovely place every year on the same day to celebrate the achievements of our public agency partners in your energy efficiency efforts…which doesn’t sound super exciting, but it is, because so many work so very hard to save energy and save money for your communities. But something else pretty amazing happened in 2019 that we should celebrate--VIEW turned ten!
For the last decade, we have been coming together to do better and through that we’ve created our own community. We’ve met monthly, then every other month, then quarterly, then back to every other month again…but the point is, we came together to share best practices, to hear what our colleagues and peers were doing in energy efficiency across the two counties, and to learn from and with each other. Through this collaboration the VIEW partners have saved over 21 million kWh…which really means nothing without translation, so conservatively speaking, that comes out to nearly $2 million dollars saved in energy costs. Congratulations!
You’ve invited us into your communities, you’ve been alongside us at farmers’ markets, health fairs, our County Supervisors essentially created a new type of event and joined us in hosting rural energy meetings. In the past decade, together, we’ve hosted 107 events. Thank you.
It’s been a great run! And while it’s changing, it certainly isn’t over. In 2019 SCE announced they were formally leaving local government partnerships, not just VIEW, but all of them. I assure you, just because SCE isn’t contracting us to work on the partnership, doesn’t mean that we aren’t still collaborating to better the region. Our relationships endure, and we’re thankful to the local team, Russ Johnson, Frank Yanes, and Omar Ferris and to our program manager of the past few years, Bill Rock, thank you! Thank you for your years supporting this work, and thank you for being here today, and continuing our collaboration.
Thankfully, from a place friendship and mutual respect for each other’s work, we were able to develop a solution that would allow us to continue to serve our SCE local governments, through a Regional Partnership with The Energy Coalition, to deliver their public agency program for the Southern California Regional Energy Network. Our work with TEC under the SoCalREN will allow us to continue assisting SCE customers in identifying energy efficiency opportunities, support efforts to chat a path towards zero net energy, develop and support revolving loan funds, and identify opportunities for energy reduction through metered energy savings. The work with TEC and SoCalREN is supplemental and complementary to our work in VIEW. As we, with TEC and our utility partners, navigate this new path, we hope to make the points of access easy of effective for all of you. Thank you to the cities of Farmersville, Hanford, Tulare, and Woodlake who have already enrolled. We appreciate your support and look forward to serving you.
As we look to this year, we’re grateful to SCG and PG&E for staying with VIEW, and we are looking forward to what we can accomplish. In a region where electric energy use is robust, finding energy savings was relatively easy. Comparatively, in a region where natural gas use is less frequent, it will take more effort, but we’ve been working with our utility partners to identify ways to drive natural gas savings for our pubic agency partners. While one-off measure installations and rebates remain, we know that more holistic and comprehensive solutions are needed. We believe that the region is ready to take on more, and through our one on one collaboration with you all and our SCG team, I’m confident we can deliver savings for you. Our involvement in our communities will continue, and I know both SCG and PGE are committed to driving more opportunity for our neighbors most in need through their income-qualified programs. Together, we can serve those who need support now.
We’re standing at the edge of a new era for how energy efficiency programs are delivered in California. The regulatory landscape is changing and as a result of how we work, and who we work under is changing, but our commitment to the Valley remains our constant. At the SJVCEO we are committed to continuing our advocacy for rural California, through our work with SCG, PGE, and TEC; by maintaining our seat on the SCE Consumer Advisory Panel; through advocating for Valley issues at the California Energy Efficiency Coordinating Council, in written comments to the California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission, and through our involvement in the Rural Hard to Reach Working Group—a collaborative of eight other agencies like ours, serving rural communities and committed to bringing access to energy programs closer to home. Our commitment to the San Joaquin Valley endures all things, and we are so very grateful to everyone here for making our work possible, meaningful, and fulfilling.
The event is intended to be an awards ceremony of sorts, where we hand out shiny objects and clap a lot. However, with the transition of SCE out of the Partnership, we wanted to ensure our SCE awards were delivered—unsure of how things might work after the first of the year. However, in December Samantha and Omar presented to council in Farmersville and Woodlake their Platinum Energy Leader awards. That brings the SCE final count for this partnership to four Platinum, two Gold, two silver and one valued. That’s a heck of an achievement!
We also like to take time acknowledge those who served the Partnership above and beyond. This year, we had two VIEW lifetime achievement awards! Two! It was just too hard to decide! Our first VIEW Awardee is Lou Camera, Pubic Works Director for the City of Hanford!
When VIEW kicked off in 2009 very few of us understood what we were supposed to be doing, but we showed up each month and tried to find ways to save energy and spread the word about efficiency. Lou has always been supportive of VIEW and our team. He’s welcomed us into the City for meetings and trainings, he’s diligently worked with the utility reps to find energy savings opportunities, he’s introduced our staff to the Economic Development staff, to the chamber, and to City Managers, who without his help, would have been too busy to hear about energy savings. He was always thoughtful and rational in his reasons why he could or couldn’t do something and provided the feedback we all needed to make improvements. Lou has been a true Energy Champion, and guiding voice in building VIEW into what it is. When he retires in a couple of months it will after 32 years of service to the City of Hanford, and 10 years of service to the Valley Innovative Energy Watch. Thank you, Lou!
Our second recipient of the VIEW award is our Program Manager from PG&E, Steve Newvine.
Steve hasn’t always been our Program Manager, but it’s hard to imagine that, because it seems that for as long as PG&E has been in VIEW, Steve has been a part of it. Now, rationally, I know that because he was managing our sister energy watches to the north, and involved regionally, but he’s always been more than a casual observer. My team and I love working with Steve. You may not know this, but Steve currently oversees eight Energy Watches, and three of his programs are with us! So, maybe it’s no surprise he’s retiring! But he’s always calm, and talks things through—and really, he won’t end a conversation unless there’s a resolution that both he and you are happy with. He allows his implementers to implement and doesn’t micromanage. He always shows up when you ask him to. And if you are a clumsy fool and fall and injure you in a PGE and parking lot, he will rush to help you, and offer you all the emergency water packets his emergency kit has. Steve is not a Valley native, but it’s hard to tell given his knowledge of the region, and his commitment to making it better. Steve is retiring from PGE next month, but he’ll still be an author, a husband, a father and a grandfather—and while we will miss him dearly, we do hope he can enjoy being all those things and more. And possibly keeping his standing call with Kelsey on his calendar. Maybe.
Steve, for your years of leadership to VIEW and your career serving the Valley, thank you!
Thank you all for coming on this journey with us and we are looking forward to a successful 2020.
