City Council Report
915 I Street, 1st Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
www.cityofsacramento.org
File ID: 2022-01173 June 14, 2022
Title: Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) Grant Application
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: Receive and file.
Contact: Jennifer Venema, Climate Action Lead, (916) 808-1859, [email protected]
, Office of the City Manager, Elizabeth Weeks, Energy
Manager, (916) 808-2330, [email protected], Department of Public Works, Mark C. Brown, Supervising Engineer, (916) 808-7118, [email protected], Department of Public Works, Anthony Munoz, Recreation General Supervisor, 916-808-6251, [email protected], Department of Youth, Parks, and Community Enrichment, Daniel Bowers, Director of Emergency Management, (916) 808-1833, [email protected], Office of Emergency Management
Presenter: None
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: As the City works to achieve carbon neutrality and prepare for climate impacts, staff are exploring new energy technologies that can improve the resilience of critical facilities and emergency operations. To advance these ends, the City is collaborating with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) for pursuit of a competitive federal planning grant to fund development of an energy resilience plan to increase the resilience of vulnerable communities. The plan will also support the transition of existing community centers to energy resilience hubs in response to climate change, emergencies, and extreme weather events. The intent of the plan is to develop a regional template to advance resilience hubs and new energy technologies. If awarded, the project would include diverse, neighborhood-centric stakeholder engagement. A key outcome of the grant would be development of actionable project recommendations to guide future collaborative funding pursuits through new state and federal climate programs.
Together, SMUD and the City have identified the Pannell Community Center as a primary test case for the energy resilience plan. This community center has long served as a critical activation site for emergency events, serving both residents and the region as a respite center, COVID vaccination site, and clean air center. Facility characteristics also make the Pannell Community Center suitable for integration and piloting of energy technologies, such as distributed energy storage, on-site solar photovoltaics, and fast charging for electric vehicles.
This collaborative grant effort advances joint agency climate goals and is supported by the interagency Memorandum of Understanding between the City, County of Sacramento, and SMUD for coordinating building electrification and related activities.
SMUD is serving as the grant lead, and the City’s participation does not involve a financial contribution. Therefore, this is a receive and file staff report for Council information. Staff would return to Council for authorizations as necessary if implementation funding is secured.
Policy Considerations: The City of Sacramento is committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, and to prepare for the effects of climate change (Resolution No. 2019-0433).
Additionally, the 2040 General Plan Guiding Vision and Principles advocate for taking action to build resilience, including resilience at the neighborhood and citywide scale.
Economic Impacts: No direct economic impact from this report, but if awarded, the project would involve local stakeholders and workforce partners to maximize local neighborhood job placements and strengthen local job pipelines through the energy resilience plan.
Environmental Considerations:
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): This report does not involve activities that constitute a “project” as defined by Sections 15061(b)(3) and 15378(b)(4) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
Sustainability: If funding is awarded, the project would fund preparation of a community resilience plan to serve as a framework for clean, affordable, reliable, equitable, and safe energy solutions in light of a changing climate – prioritizing decentralized power systems in Sacramento’s diverse communities that suffer the most from air pollution and power outages. The plan will advance an equitable approach to energy resilience, while enabling SMUD to advance new technologies and accelerate action towards SMUD’s 2030 zero-carbon pledge.
Commission/Committee Action: None.
Rationale for Recommendation: Partnership with SMUD for the RACER proposal allows the City and SMUD to support a distributed, clean energy system with added layers of redundancy and reliability for critical emergency operation and response centers.
Financial Considerations: SMUD is the lead grant applicant and would manage the project if awarded. No direct City funding is requested for the RACER project. The competitive grant program is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, through the RACER program (Funding Opportunity Announcement Number DE-FOA-0002597). If invited to submit a full application following submission of an initial concept paper, SMUD and the City would collaborate to submit a full application by July 25, 2022.
Development of an energy resilience plan would include identification of potential funding strategies to implement project recommendations, including state and federal grants.
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.