To: Board of Supervisors
From: Executive Office General Services
Meeting Date: June 21, 2022
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Department Contact: |
Darcie Antle |
Phone: |
463-4441 |
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Department Contact: |
Janelle Rau |
Phone: |
234-6050 |
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Item Type: Consent Agenda |
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Time Allocated for Item: n/a |
Agenda Title:
title
Ratification of Submission of Joint Concept Paper between the County of Mendocino, Sonoma Clean Power Authority, County of Sonoma, Regional Climate Protection Authority, and the University of Carolina - Chapel Hill Seeking Funding Available Through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) Funding Opportunity (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0002597 Focused on “Increasing Resilience of Vulnerable Communities by Actively Managing Local Distributed Energy Resources in Buildings and Vehicles”
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Recommended Action/Motion:
recommendation
Ratify submission of Joint Concept Paper between the County of Mendocino, Sonoma Clean Power Authority, County of Sonoma, Regional Climate Protection Authority, and the University of Carolina - Chapel Hill seeking funding available under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) Funding Opportunity (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0002597 focused on “increasing resilience of vulnerable communities by actively managing local distributed energy resources in buildings and vehicles”; and authorize the Chief Executive Officer or designee to sign resulting full grant application on behalf of the County.
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Previous Board/Board Committee Actions:
In August 2021, the Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 21-117 declaring its intent to reduce and eliminate the carbon footprint of buildings and operations of the County of Mendocino. Further, in November 2021, the Board of Supervisors received a presentation and update on initial activities intended to reduce the carbon footprint of the County of Mendocino’s facilities and fleet and provided direction to staff to proceed with efforts to retrofit County buildings for energy efficiency, install of solar photovoltaic (PV), and update on electrifying the County’s fleet of vehicles and other pilot projects.
Summary of Request:
The County of Mendocino was asked by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), the County’s renewable energy provider, to determine our interest in a collaborative effort to apply for grant funding being offered through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) Funding Opportunity (FOA) Number: DE-FOA-0002597. This program has $25 million in funding for projects to enable communities to utilize solar and solar-plus-storage to prevent disruptions in power caused by extreme weather and other events and to rapidly restore electricity if it goes down. Under this funding opportunity, projects were encouraged to foster engagement and ongoing communication among multiple stakeholders such as utilities, municipal planners, emergency responders, community groups, and others, especially in underserved communities located in areas vulnerable to extreme events causing frequent energy and power service disruptions. In addition, projects funded would demonstrate an increase in the durability of PV systems so they can withstand extreme weather conditions and demonstrate technologies that enable rapid recovery after an extreme event.
The Executive Office staff, General Services Agency staff & Supervisor Gjerde (the County’s appointee to the SCP Board of Directors) met with representatives from SCP Authority, County of Sonoma, Regional Climate Protection Authority, and the University of Carolina - Chapel Hill on the development of a Concept Paper that would be transmitted as a collaboration project approach. The attached Concept Paper entitled, “Increasing Resilience of Vulnerable Communities by Actively Managing Local Distributed Energy Resources in Buildings and Vehicles” was submitted to the funding agency on May 26, 2022, on behalf of all entities. The collaborative proposed project distributed energy resource (DER) management strategy applies advanced data analytics and automation techniques to better manage technology resources to improve grid resilience and equity for communities-at-risk of weather caused power outages. The concept strategy will coordinate data across a repository of sub-hourly electric meter data, demographic information, risk assessments, and techno-economic attributes. It will identify local communities of SCP customers in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties that are at heightened risk of power outage due to Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events, weather-based power outages, or other emergencies and have high social vulnerability, low community resilience, or any other disadvantages as indicated by designations such as Opportunity Zones. The strategy then evaluates the potential resilience values of the existing and planned portfolio of distributed energy and resilience resources in these communities and engages in a community-driven planning process to determine how these resources should be managed to maximize community benefits before, during, and after PSPS events and other outages and emergencies. Finally, the community-designed resilience measures are implemented by utilizing and expanding existing digital integration channels from SCP’s demand-response and energy efficiency programs, which enable real-time data processing and control of portfolios of DERs in the community as a resilience-optimized “virtual power plant”. Please refer to the attached Concept Paper for additional information.
The Executive Office and the General Services Agency are requesting that the Board ratify the submission of the Concept Paper; and should the Concept Paper receive encouragement from the Department of Energy by approximately June 25, 2022, authorize the Chief Executive Officer or Designee to sign the resulting full collaborative grant application on behalf of the County by the July 25th deadline.
Alternative Action/Motion:
Do not authorize the submission of the grant application and provide further direction to staff.
Does This Item Support the General Plan? N/A
Supervisorial District: All
vote requirement: Majority
Supplemental Information Available Online At:
<https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/funding-notice-renewables-advancing-community-energy-resilience-racer>
Fiscal Details:
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source of funding: n/a |
budgeted in current f/y: N/A |
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current f/y cost: n/a |
if no, please describe: |
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annual recurring cost: n/a |
revenue agreement: N/A |
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budget clarification: n/a |
Agreement/Resolution/Ordinance Approved by County Counsel: N/A
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CEO Liaison: Executive Office |
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CEO Review: Yes |
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CEO Comments:
FOR COB USE ONLY
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Executed By: Atlas Pearson, Deputy Clerk II |
Final Status:Approved |
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Date: June 21, 2022 |
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