On one of those sweltering days made for hiding out at home, a large group met at the School of Industrial Engineering in Vitoria. The first pop-up meeting was attended by a group from Gipuzkoa (Asier, Olatz, Pello and Santi), who were welcomed by local active members (Unai, Uxue, Susana, Pablo and Esti).
Over the last month, the LEGAL-ADMINISTRATIVE group has focused on EXTERNAL RELATIONS. We have had meetings with the following:
– Bera: We met up with the mayoress and deputy mayor, who are interested in our project and planning to join in as collaborators, as well as sign up for GoiEner to be the municipal electricity supplier. This town is opting to use biomass in a specific project of District Heating
– Rentería has recently signed the Mayors Agreement and called us in to address the 2025 Plan, relating to energy in the town and finding ways to collaborate.
– Companies: We have met with Zenit (hybrid boats) and Sisconsi (efficient architecture studio). We have also spoken over the telephone to Construcciones Urrutia, a company which specializes in structures based on Passivhaus.
– We are confirming our presence at the Durango Ecological Fair, organized by Emaús
– Meghan participated in a meeting in Brussels with Rescoop, inkeeping with our aim to keep in touch with the rest of the European cooperatives and find ways in which we can work together.
– Participation in the European Parliament with the platform for a new energy model, especially in order to follow the complaints submitted to the European Union for the lack of compliance shown by the Spanish State with regard to energy directives.
– We have participated in a video on SosteniblesTV for Unesco Etxea
– We are signed up to be present at the Bioterra Festival between 7 and 9 June.
– New groups interested in becoming organized in their own areas are getting in touch with GoiEner: We have been contacted by 8 groups, including one from Portugal, who wish to start up the same model as us.
– Interview with EHNE Bizkaia.
MARKETING reports the following:
We have finally become a part of the Spanish Electricity Market (26 March).
This means that at the end of April, we will be changing over the first group of people from the test group. Those who signed up will receive notification via email advising of the date on which their supplier changes over.
We will also send out a contract to each of the participants so that we can get on with testing the changeover process.
As was previously agreed, the initial PRICE will be the TUR so that we can later assess any changes. The prices as of 1 April are (BOE 76, Resolution of 29 March 2013, by the Directorate General for Mining and Energy Policy):
- TUR without TIME-OF-DAY RATE.
Power charge: 21.893189 €/kW-year –>Energy charge: 0.138658 €/kWh
- TUR with TIME-OF-DAY RATE.
Power charge: 21.893189 €/kW-year
- PEAK energy charge: 0.167658 €/kWh.
- TROUGH energy charge: 0.057190 €/kWh
In other words, we will not be paying more than what we would have paid otherwise.
Billing will occur every two months based on real readings carried out by the distributor.
On 16 April a coordination meeting took place with ENARA to start proceedings and begin activity.
We are in the process of designing the bill so that 2 months from now, the test group can receive their NEW BILLS FROM GOIENER.
For other interested members, we estimate that they will be able to sign up for us to supply electricity to their homes from the end of June. We will let you know if we can do it any sooner.
The group is also considering the possibility of jointly managing the claims submitted to distributors by members.
METERING (Group within MARKETING)
With the dual aim of improving energy efficiency in our homes (being aware of our consumption and acting accordingly) and using members’ electricity consumption curves to inform how much we purchase in the market, GoiEner has remote metering devices available for those members interested in participating in taking readings. It is expected that the next handover of devices will be at the next meeting (May) , so those members who are interested and have a flat-rate internet tariff are requested to get in touch with comercializacion@goiener.com
Susana reports the following developments within the GENERATION group:
– The group is trying to assess the possibility/viability of setting up projects within the current legal framework of the state.
– There are few options available to us: Self-sufficiency (which is not possible as a collective, and the one who generates the energy must be the one who consumes it, at that very moment) and directly selling to the market (which is less attractive financially without incentives).
– For direct sales, we must explore the options presented through a bilateral contract (if indeed there are any) and the Critical Observatory for Energy will be consulted.
– In any case, we believe that having some kind of facility to back our project is a positive thing (also in terms of image). It could be managed through participation (crowdfunding) and thus promote local companies and employment.
– The group will continue as a knowledge team which will keep abreast of technology and regulations, assessing the viability of projects as they arise and whether the cooperative should get on board.
The group is working with the Marketing group at the same time with regards to the possibility of representing small producers.
The COMMUNICATIONS group has provided the following information about the impact of GoiEner’s activity in society:
SOCIAL NETWORKS:
Information for social networks, comparing data from 20 March with that of 17 April
Followers on Twitter: 494 to 541 (9% increase)
Fans on Facebook: 438 to 512 (15% increase)
Visits to the website from 1 to 20 March: 1460 (total for March is 2707, average of 90 per day)
Visits to the website from 1 to 17 April: 1680 (average 100 per day)
Visits from 20 March to 17 April: 3004 (average 97 per day)
Analyzing the following data for web traffic to the site (20 March to 17 April):
Direct traffic: 861
Google search: 692
From mecambio.net : 318
From consumer: 295
From the El Pais blog: 90
From Facebook: 50
The new website was launched on 12 January and is still in a period of adjustment. We are correcting and modifying things as and when they arise. As of today, we have received a total of 11328 visits. We have seen that sending newsletters has a significant impact on web traffic and that people normally read them. We will try to send at least one every fortnight.
MEDIA:
As on previous occasions, the media continue calling us. We will soon be appearing on a debate programme on ETB2, which will notably increase our visibility, although the main source of members continues to be the informative talks.
REQUESTS VIA THE WEBSITE:
The average daily number of requests remains around 2-3 per day via email, which is the usual method of communication.
TALKS:
A further slew of talks after Easter have mainly had an impact on the website and somewhat less of an effect on requests for information. We are in no doubt that what works best are the talks and the relations with different associations and groups who are sensitive to our cause. In fact, if a distinction is to be made between this cooperative and a regular supplier, it is precisely our personal contact with members which makes us stand out.
Alberto is working on compiling the list of events on Facebook so that it can be seen from our website, and therefore means that people do not need to have a Facebook account to see them.
FAIRS AND FESTIVALS:
In the forthcoming weeks, we will be at various festivals and the most important will be that of BIOTERRA in Ficoba.
We want to make a small investment in publicity and capture members at this event by providing an information stand and also organizing a couple of talks.
We are preparing a leaflet both for the fairs and for the talks, with an option for those interested to fill in a form with their details. We will then collect those forms at the same talks or fairs.
DELAY IN STARTING MARKETING:
The newsletter and social networks have been used to communicate the delay in starting marketing and no negative reactions have been received – at least, we haven’t heard any complaints. We had a small problem with a member who, after mistyping their email address, did not receive any kind of notification. Given that our main method of communicating with members is via email, we recommend that they carefully check their email address is correct.
In general terms, we continue building our network of relations with other associations who sympathize with our philosophy and our name is starting to sound more and more familiar in certain circles.
The TRANSLATION group reports the following:
As of now, there are 16 of us translating in 4 languages (Basque – Spanish – French – English). We mostly translate summaries for external organizations, news for the website and summaries of meetings. We also have the majority of the web content prepared in English and French, and we were looking for people who can use Word-Press to upload content on the website. In doing this, we have found 3 people in our own group who know how to do this. What a gem! We therefore hope that the web content will soon be ready.
We also want to welcome all those people who can offer to translate texts or upload them onto the website (knowledge of Word-Press required).
This group was originally formed to handle translations, but nowadays we also have other requirements:
- People with experience in managing requests for subsidies because we have been unable to present anything at various calls for subsidies due to a lack of people and knowledge.
- We would like to hear from people who enjoy photography to take photos at the talks and other activities.
- People to act as taxi drivers to take speakers to various talks.
- We need people who can give talks. We must bear in mind that all the members of GoiEner form part of a communications group and we encourage them to speak in public as well as in private, with everybody doing what they can.
If you want to participate in one of the tasks listed above or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at goiener@goiener.com. Thank you very much!
NEW FACES:
Given that the meeting covered a lot of material, we were unable to give everybody the chance to introduce themselves, and more than a couple had to leave before we reached that point in the proceedings. However, the following people introduced themselves with a smile: Julen from Irún, who works in Gasteiz; Mar, Andoni, Unai, Iván and Pedro from BioAlai, which now boasts a whopping 1071 members; David, a producer-sufferer with concerns related to degrowth; Joseba from Gasteiz; Txomin from Zumarraga, who is also a producer; Maribi, who has experience with Gesternova; Maider from Oñati; Maite and Txema from Gasteiz; Unai from the University of the Basque Country, who designs small wind turbines; Socorro from Gasteiz and Eneko from Donosti.
They have heard about GoiEner through chats and interviews in the media, and came to find out more and share their concerns regarding the kind of technologies that GoiEner supports, the viability of the project, the possibility of creating information spaces for people who are unfamiliar with new technologies…
