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Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) Community Energy

Silicon Valley, USA

º£½ÇÊÓƵ played a key role in helping Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) to reduce the impact from power outages caused by wildfires and other climate hazards, and as well as supporting its decarbonization goals. Our team led the community energy resilience analysis, planning, and support services for SVCE, a Bay Area-based community choice aggregator (CCA).

SVCE invested $5.15m into its Community Resilience Program to help the region and their 13 Member Agencies reduce the impacts from power outages caused by wildfire conditions and other climate hazards while supporting decarbonization and local job creation.

SVCE invested $5.15m into its Community Resilience Program to help the region and their 13 Member Agencies reduce the impacts from power outages caused by climate hazards.

We oversaw and facilitated stakeholder outreach, evidence-based research, and spatial data analysis to inform the Framework.

We partnered with AESC, an energy engineering firm, to develop a Resilient Site Selection Tool.

Our work was tailored to the needs of seven Member Agencies in Santa Clara County, developing bespoke solutions to empower the area on the next stage of its journey to achieving community energy resilience.

Challenge

As part of this program, SVCE engaged º£½ÇÊÓƵ advisory to develop the to identify guiding principles that integrate resilience into programs and to support customers in preparing for and adapting to climate change. To develop the Framework, our sustainability and energy transition experts researched regional vulnerabilities and evaluated energy resilience solutions for deployment in SVCE’s service area.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ oversaw and facilitated stakeholder outreach, evidence-based research, and spatial data analysis to inform the Framework.

To support the planning process, we partnered with AESC, an energy engineering firm, to develop a Resilient Site Selection Tool. The tool is available to help Member Agencies prioritize critical facilities for energy resilience strategy implementation. To inform this tool, the project team engaged stakeholders to define critical community sites in the SVCE service area, broadening the discussion to include not only emergency management facilities, but also facilities that are considered essential to communities, such as grocery stores or assisted living facilities.

We developed a regional oversight of the challenges, alongside the ideation of a series of bespoke solutions for individual municipalities and the County. The team also developed educational and technical assistance materials as well as provided energy resilience planning support to Member Agencies.

Solution

Together, the Resilience Framework and accompanying technical tools and resources will advance SVCE’s goals to decarbonize the energy grid and to strengthen community resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Santa Clara County Building Study and Resilience and Equity Considerations Report involved the completion of an analysis of unincorporated Santa Clara County’s residential and commercial building stock to identify a set of preliminary considerations and recommendations for the County with respect to energy resilience and equity programs.

We analyzed building stock data, factoring in square footage and vintage, customer and ownership type, sector, energy consumption, use intensity, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as socioeconomic vulnerability data, to develop those recommendations and identify where the greatest opportunities for these programs lie across the unincorporated County area.

The Los Altos Cool Pavements Research, saw our team prepare a research summary of cool pavement technologies for the City of Los Altos, which is interested in potential pilot and city-scale applications of coating technologies to reduce urban heat island effect in Los Altos.

The research summary detailed the features and specifications of two of the most common applications of cool pavement coating technology: GAF StreetBond and GuardTop Cool Seal. For each technology, information on the material itself, the costs, opportunities, and duration of application was included, as well as case studies from across California and the South-west showcasing their application and efficacy.

The Mountain View Battery Storage Proposal and Design involved our experts providing review services for the City of Mountain View with respect to a technical microgrid proposal. The team provided feedback and recommendations on a proposal for a battery storage project at Rengstorff Community Center in Mountain View, based on approach and cost. º£½ÇÊÓƵ provided additional review and advisory services in the design stage of the project with respect to both design and construction.

Finally, the Gilroy Energy Resiliency Project Feasibility Assessment, saw our team complete a two-phase project for the City of Gilroy with the intent of identifying feasible energy resilience technologies for implementation or deployment for municipal operations.

In Phase 1, we provided an overview report of five technologies selected by Gilroy for exploration: grid-independent electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS), electric utility vehicles (EUVs), vehicle-to-everything (smart city connectivity) technology, shade canopy, and cool roofs.

In Phase 2, the City selected grid-independent EVCS and EUVs for a feasibility assessment that would evaluate scenarios for deployment of one or both of the technologies at Gilroy’s Corporation Yard.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ performed a constraints-based feasibility assessment, determining possibilities for deployment based on desired end uses and users, site limitations, available capital expenditure funds, and costs for purchase and installation. The assessment concluded that, with the funds available, Gilroy could purchase a combination of EUVs (specifically, a Ford F-150 Lightning Pro) and grid-independent EVCS depending on staff needs.

Value

Our work was tailored to the needs of seven Member Agencies in Santa Clara County, developing bespoke solutions, insight, guidance and advice to empower the area on the next stage of its journey to achieving climate change resiliency, as well as showcasing how decarbonization and climate change adaptation can support each other.

Working closely with AESC we created a tool to deliver insight into good community resilience locations – covering everything from community hubs to stand-alone microgrids. This holistic overview followed a series of stakeholder engagement events and took into account a deep understanding of the population’s concerns, the performance and resiliency of the energy networks in the region and the potential evolving risks as a result of climate change.