Cinergy Correspondence Diary 5 2008 and 2009

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Arena retrofit update Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:21:57 -0500 From: Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> To: Jim Kamstra <jkamstra@toronto.ca> References: <s704e8b3.027@gwia.toronto.ca>

Hi there -- we've tried to find the quarterly utility savings report you refer to below, but haven't managed to locate it on the city web site. Would you be able to send us the link?

Thank you

Jutta Mason

Attachment (summarized - followup from 2007):

This request is not yet completed. Thread follows.

Mon, 25 May 2009: Rinks/arenas energy retrofits

>>> Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> 5/25/2009 11:15 AM >>> Dear Ms.Cuthbertson,

We've now had the chance to go through the material provided for our access requests 2009-00108 and 2009-00109, regarding the City's contract with the Optimira/Cinergy Company for rink and arena energy retrofits.

The Quarterly Report for July 2007 to June 2008 was very helpful but it don't deal with one part of our request: "an electronic copy of all records describing the methods and figures used (in detail) to produce a) base year energy cost and b) performance period energy cost calculations...." [Italics added]

The records we got don't give base year (nor final) costs, only Optimira's own energy savings numbers. Perhaps we should have been clearer in our request. We meant to ask for the actual calculations. However, that may be too much extra work if all the rinks are considered. It would take too long, since the methods of calculating are not included in the Quarterly Report.

We would therefore like to narrow our question, asking for the actual calculations of the methods and figures used (in detail) to produce a) base year energy cost and b) performance period energy cost calculations...." for the following four sample outdoor rinks:

• Dufferin A.I.R.
• Campbell A.I.R.
• West Mall A.I.R.
• Rivercrest A.I.R.

We need to know:

• 1. the base year figures for those rinks
• 2. the figures showing how Optimira/Cinergy calculated the initial (projected) estimated savings for those rinks for their Concept Reports
• 3. the figures showing how Optimira/Cinergy re-calculated the estimated savings later (since the estimated savings have apparently changed in the Quarterly Report)
• 4. the figures showing how Optimira/Cinergy calculated the actual savings for those four rinks.

I hope this helps to clarify what we think is missing. If it's necessary to file a new F.O.I. request, please let me know and we'll do so right away.

Jutta Mason

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Tue, 16 Jun 2009: Rinks/arenas energy retrofits

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Rinks/arenas energy retrofits Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:00:10 -0400 From: Elizabeth Cuthbertson <ecuthber@toronto.ca> To: Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca>

I've heard back from Facilities and Real Estate in response to your request for more information.

I've been advised that, at the moment, all staff resources are engaged in contingency preparations for a potential labour disruption, and that they will require a minimum of 4 weeks to respond following the resolution of the labour issues. They will be working with Optimira to determine whether they can provide the information you require.

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This request is not yet completed. Thread follows.

Wed, 10 Jun 2009: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/Rinks Energy Retrofit Project?

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/Rinks Energy Retrofit Project? Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:26:13 -0400 From: Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> To: Brenda Patterson <bpatter2@toronto.ca>

Dear Ms. Patterson,

I am writing to bring to your attention a list of concerns (attached) that we have, regarding the Optimira Year 1 Energy Savings Report July 2007- June 2008. We received that report a few weeks ago through Freedom of Information, and have now analyzed it. As well as our list of concerns, we have attached spreadsheets based on the report’s Appendix A and Appendix E.

It appears to us that the energy savings listed by Optimira include more than $300,000 per year that its own report states are merely subjects for investigation. That is, they are not verified. In the absence of verification, the current status, as we read it, is that by the terms of the contract with Cinergy (the precursor to Optimira), Optimira may owe the city up to $1.9 million in reimbursements. If that’s the case, Optimira should be setting aside a letter of credit to the city in this amount.

Our concern is that this energy saving project was designed to be self-financing. Loans taken out to pay for the energy savings measures installed are to be repaid out of operating budgets over a number of years. Operating costs are guaranteed by Optimira to be lowered by at least the amount required for these payments, as a result of the real energy savings. However, IF the energy savings are overestimated, and therefore operating costs are higher than anticipated, repayment of the loans for the energy program would actually reduce the amount of money available for Parks and Recreation programs.

We’re wondering whether your division has come to the same conclusion. If yes, what steps have you taken to protect your division’s budget from harm if the energy savings program has indeed been deficient? If not, could we meet with your staff to find out what we may have misunderstood?

We would appreciate hearing from you about our concerns at the earliest opportunity.

Sincerely,

Jutta Mason

Attachments:

• Analysis_Optimira_Energy_Savings_Report_2008.doc
• Attachment_1_Analysis_of_Appendix_A.xls
• Attachment_2_Analysis_of_Appendix_E.xls

(Paper copy mailed separately.)

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Tue, 7 Oct 2009: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/RinksEnergy Retrofit Project?

>>> Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> 10/7/2009 3:20 PM >>> hello Brenda,

This e-mail, and the paper copy we mailed separately on June 10 of this year has not had a response from you. I'm sure the strike sidelined almost all other concerns, but could we ask you to respond to our questions now that the strike is over? There are financial concerns at issue.

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Thu, 22 Oct 2009: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million?

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million? Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:44:01 -0400 From: Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> To: jeff.griffiths@toronto.ca

Re: Possible problems with the Arena/Rink Energy Retrofit Project Dear Mr.Griffiths,

About four years ago, our small local research group became aware of the City’s $10.3 million Arena/ Rinks Energy Retrofit Project. We noticed Cinergy consultants walking around with clipboards at Dufferin Artificial Ice Rink. After a while, we also discovered that some of the city’s trades staff – electricians in particular – seemed to have doubts about the usefulness of the city’s contract with the company.

We spent some effort trying to understand what the retrofit project was about. Ms.Brenda Librecz, the Parks, Forestry and Recreation general manager at the time, wrote to us, reassuring us that everything was fine. We were not convinced. We eventually submitted a number of information requests to the City’s Corporate Access and Privacy office. We ultimately had to appeal the City’s refusal to let us read the post-project reports we wanted. The provincial Information and Privacy Commissioner decided in our favour, and so we were able to see the material in small batches. But it took us until last spring to get the last group of documents, and until June to analyze the material. Our resolve was strengthened by an offhand comment from Ms.Librecz shortly before she left the city. She said that the project had become a nightmare. But we heard nothing more.

On the basis of what we then read, we have concerns. In short form they could be summarized by this question: does Optimira Energy (the company’s current name, as far as we know) owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/Rinks Energy Project?

On June 9 2009 I sent a letter to the current general manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation, outlining our questions in some detail. I also sent her an electronic version of our query, with additional spreadsheets. The city strike shut down all communication a few weeks later, until the beginning of August. But when there was no response to my letter by October, I re-sent it.

There was still no acknowledgment, so we now turn to your office. It’s certainly possible that we have misunderstood the records we studied. But it would be good if your office could go over our analysis with us and see where (or if) we are mistaken.

I therefore enclose the material I sent to Ms.Patterson. I have sent the same letter to your office by paper copy. There’s quite a bit here and it may take a while to get to it, but we would appreciate it if you could let us know an approximate time when we might hear back from you.

Jutta Mason Adminstrator, Centre for local research into public space http://celos.ca 416 533-0153

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Tue, 27 Oct 2009: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/RinksEnergy Retrofit Project?

Esther Afriat wrote:

Please note that your questions were sent to Elena Gruia and Chuck Donahue in Facilities & Real Estate for response. You can expect a reply from Elena or Chuck. Feel free to follow up directly with them.

Esther Afriat Admin Assistant to Brenda Patterson, General Manager Parks, Forestry and Recreation Toronto City Hall, 8 EAST Tel: (416) 338-5058

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Tue, 27 Oct 2009: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/RinksEnergy Retrofit Project?

from Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> to Esther Afriat <eafriat@toronto.ca> cc Chuck Donohue <cdonohue@toronto.ca>, Elena Gruia <egruia@toronto.ca>, Henrik Bechmann <henrik.bechmann@sympatico.ca>, jeff.griffiths@toronto.ca date Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:02 PM subject Re: Fwd: Re: Does Optimira Energy owe the City $1.9 million for the Arena/RinksEnergy Retrofit Project?

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't know when you forwarded my June 10/ October 7 queries to Facilities and Real Estate, but since I had no acknowledgment by last Thursday, I sent the same questions to the city auditor on that day (Oct.22).

I've made some attempts over the past four years to engage with Ms.Gruia's staff directly, but after one good effort by them a few years ago, follow-up or even acknowledgment of these important questions was sadly lacking. We ultimately got the data we sought (or at least, what was available) by appealing a City refusal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, with a decision in our favour.

It's been a long process, so drawn out that it seems time for the auditor to get acquainted with the issues as well. If we understood the terms of the contract, payment for the retrofit comes out of the PF&R operating budget, so I hope that the general manager is following this too.

I understand that we are amateurs, and could be asking all the wrong questions. However, the City needs to explain and justify its spending to the citizens who fund this spending. We're eager to see if the capacity is there.

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Wed, 04 Nov 2009: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:43:36 -0500 From: Elena Gruia <egruia@toronto.ca> To: <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> CC: Peter Daldoss <peter.daldoss@optimira.com>, <henrik.bechmann@sympatico.ca>, Anne Marra <amarra@toronto.ca>, Brenda Patterson <bpatter2@toronto.ca>, Chuck Donohue <cdonohue@toronto.ca>, Esther Afriat <eafriat@toronto.ca>, Hao Yuen <HYuen@toronto.ca>, Jim Kamstra <JKamstra@toronto.ca>, Wynna Brown <wbrown1@toronto.ca>

Hi Jutta;

We appreciate your interest in our energy retrofits project and we'll be pleased to meet with you and Henrik to further address your concerns.

In the meantime please see attached our comments on the concerns raised by Henrik Bechmann- detailed in the June 8, 2009 report.

Please let me know (give me some dates) when you and Henrik will be available for a meeting.

Regards, elena

Attachment:

• 20091105-Analysis_Optimira_Energy_Savings_Report_2008 2.doc

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Mon, 16 Nov 2009: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

>>> Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> 11/16/2009 4:14 PM >>> Dear Elena,

Thank you for your point-by-point response to our query to Brenda Patterson. We've now had a chance to read it carefully, and we appreciate your offer to meet with us, to go over the matters we raised in specific detail.

No one in our group has professional experience with energy retrofit projects of this nature. So we will spend the next month or two looking for a few such people, and then set up a date with you, realistically in January. There are some engineers, statisticians and environmental designers among the many people who come to play shinny hockey at the outdoor rinks, and we have good hopes of finding a few people. All of them care a lot about the outdoor rinks and about financial obligations such as the $10.3 or $9.9 million that comes out of the PF&R operating budget for this energy retrofit project, so that's a good start.

There is a pretty wide gap between our attempts to understand what the energy savings are, including the degree to which they correspond with the City's contract with Cinergy/Vestar/ Optimira/ Duke Energy, and your assertions of the city's general confidence in the outcomes. You mention some specific documents that may help us close that gap. Could you e-mail them to us, in machine-readable format? Here is the list:

Re the $315,937 in unverified adjustments included in the calculation of $1.255 million in metered savings for July 2007 to June 2008: please send us a copy of the "valid explanation [that] was provided to and accepted by the City."

Please also send us

• 1. the text of the company's "Parental Guarantee" that takes the place of a letter of credit.
• 2. the documentation of the GST adjustments that you mention, and the reconciliation with the original figures.
• 3. the 4th Quarter Report of the First Performance Period and the first two Quarter reports of the second performance year.

I have included the auditor on the cc list because, as you know, we recently forwarded our report to his office for comment.

Please let us know this week whether any of these document requests need to go through Freedom of Information, as so many of our other requests have had to go through there.

The result we hope for is an account of this program that is clear and accessible to citizens. It seems best to us if we can all learn from experience (including mistakes) together.

Regards,

Jutta

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Thu, 17 Nov 2009: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

Elena Gruia wrote: Hi Jutta;

This is to let you know that I received your e-mail and will work on it. I'll get back to you once I have answers to your questions.

regards, elena

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Thu, 26 Nov 2009: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

>>> Jutta Mason <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> 11/26/2009 12:53 PM >>> Hello Elena -- are you getting close to being able to send us these records? They are not questions -- the questions are for later. Our request is only to see the specific documents, high-lighted below, that you referenced in your previous letter.

Please let us know the timing on this, so that we can supply the information to the knowledgeable rink users on our end.

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Fri, 04 Dec 2009: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

`-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Fwd: Energy Retrofits project in City arenas] Date: Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:33:50 -0500 From: Hao Yuen <hyuen@toronto.ca> To: <jutta.mason@sympatico.ca> CC: Peter Daldoss <peter.daldoss@optimira.com>, Elena Gruia <egruia@toronto.ca>

Please see attached email from Elena. Hao

>>> Elena Gruia Dec/04/2009 9:29 AM >>> Hao;

Please forward this message to Jutta Mason (jutta.mason@sympatico.ca) . It bounced back to me as "Message exceeds maximum allowed "

thanks, elena

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Fri, Dec 4 2009:Energy Retrofits project in City arenas

>>> Elena Gruia 12/4/2009 9:26 AM >>>

I am still waiting for:

2. the documentation of the GST adjustments that you mention, and the reconciliation with the original figures. The staff who were involved in these matters had to deal with other priorities--when I contacted them--and will get back to me (they have to search for documents dated approx. 4 years ago) as soon as they can.

Attached you can find copies of the Parental Guarantee and the M&V Reports.

regards, elena

Attachments:

• BOMDistrictSavingsReport 2008.pdf
• EastDistrictSavingsReport2008.pdf
• NorthDistrictSavingsReport2008.pdf
• Q4ReportAppendixE.pdf
• Q4ReportLessAppendixE.pdf
• Scan001.pdf (guaranty)
• SouthDistrictSavingsReport2008.pdf
• WestDistrictSavingsReport2008.pdf
• q6report1448TorontoAreanas.pdf

Content last modified on February 09, 2010, at 08:55 PM EST