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New Year, New Electrification Goals
Visit eHub to explore your electrification options
Read More
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Weatherize for Winter and Save Energy
Energy efficiency programs for you
Learn More
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SVCE Provides $100,000 for EV Charger Installations at Multi-Unit Housing
Partnership with EVmatch
Read the News
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Adding 24x7 Clean Energy Sources to Your Electricity Mix
Geothermal plants coming online in 2022
View Projects
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Understanding the State’s Proposed Changes to Net Energy Metering
Public Utilities Commission rooftop solar reform
Learn More
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Charge your EV with cheaper, cleaner energy
The GridShift: EV Charging app syncs your EV charging with your Time-of-Use or EV electricity rate to save you money, and charge when renewable energy is plentiful on the California electric grid. Ready to start smart charging? Visit svcleanenergy.org/gridshift-ev/ to download the app and start saving!
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Happy 2022! Last month, we highlighted the major impact SVCE communities made in 2021 with clean electricity. Now, we want to highlight how you can use your clean power to improve your home’s air quality, increase comfort and further reduce local emissions.
Removing methane gas from homes and buildings is necessary to achieve our climate goals. Small actions such as using electric kitchen appliances instead of a gas range, to larger swaps like replacing a gas water heater with an efficient, electric heat pump water heater, are valuable steps to reduce emissions and improve indoor air quality.
The SVCE eHub is an online tool that offers information and resources to help you make an impact. Visit eHub to explore how you can use your clean electricity to power your car and home and explore options to generate and store your own clean energy.
Visit eHub to find:
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 Electric Vehicle Assistant
Browse and compare models, discover incentives, and calculate your financial and emissions savings when you drive an EV. You can also explore charging options for at home and on the road.
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Appliances
Assistant
Building, doing a major remodel or replacing appliances? Explore a wide variety of all-electric home appliances. Browse and compare with efficiency scores, customer reviews, prices and even find an installer.
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 Solar + Battery Assistant
Discover options for a home solar system. Work with dedicated Solar Advisors to get multiple bids, understand financing options and learn how battery storage can benefit you with this free, no-obligation concierge service.
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We love rain rainy days. Well… we love watching rainy days from inside a warm house with a cup of our favorite hot beverage. This winter, we wanted to remind you of the available resources and programs to help increase your home’s energy efficiency.
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DIY Home Energy Saving Toolkit: designed to help you save money on your utility bills while conserving vital resources. DIY Toolkits can be checked out from your local library and contain energy efficiency items like LED light bulbs and weather stripping that you can use to make immediate adjustments.
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HomeIntel: offers a free in-depth analysis of your home’s energy use with monthly efficiency progress reports. After the initial analysis, an energy coach provides guidance on where and how you can save.
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BayREN Home+: provides rebates and resources to help you make your home more energy efficient and comfortable.
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SVCE Provides $100,000 for EV Charger Installations at Multi-Unit Housing
SVCE is partnering with EVmatch, a local EV charging software company, to install EV chargers at multi-unit residential properties and connect available EV charging station hosts with EV drivers on a reservation basis. The $100,000 SVCE is providing matches grant funding awarded to EVmatch through the California Energy Commission Clean Transportation Program.
“Increased EV charging access is necessary as communities transition to a clean energy future. EVmatch’s innovative software system and public sharing capabilities, as well as their commitment to making EV charging easy, reliable, and accessible to all, makes this an ideal partnership to advance charging availability in our region,” said SVCE CEO Girish Balachandran.
For more information on the funding and partnership, read the press release.
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At the beginning of this year, SVCE began receiving electricity from two existing geothermal plants - The Geysers and Coso. An additional new geothermal resource will be coming online for SVCE customers soon. SVCE has been providing reliable, clean energy from wind, solar, hydropower and other clean sources for nearly five years, and is excited to be bringing on geothermal resources that provide clean energy around the clock.
How does geothermal energy work?
Simply put - geothermal plants use water and heat from the Earth to create steam to power turbines that generate electricity. There are three different types of geothermal plants: dry steam, which uses the steam directly from a geothermal reservoir, flash steam which uses water from the reservoir and adds heat to create steam, or binary, which transfers heat from the water in the reservoir to another liquid. Find more information on eia.gov.
What are the benefits of geothermal?
One benefit of geothermal plants is their ability to operate and supply energy to the grid 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which increases reliability and reduces the need for carbon emitting gas peaker plants that ramp up to meet demand during peak hours from 4 – 9 p.m. Solar energy is abundant during the day when the sun is shining, and wind energy often ramps up during the night. Geothermal compliments SVCE’s current portfolio by supplying clean energy that is not weather-dependent.
The state recently recognized the need for geothermal energy in a mandate that requires 1,000 megawatts of new geothermal power by 2026. The Casa Diablo-IV project detailed below will help SVCE achieve a portion of this requirement.
Here are the geothermal plants that will be supplying electricity to the grid on behalf of SVCE customers beginning in 2022:
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The Geysers dry steam geothermal plant located on the border of Sonoma and Lake counties began providing electricity for SVCE customers in January 2022. The Geysers plant is over 50 years old and is the worlds’ largest geothermal power station. |
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The Coso geothermal plant located in Inyo County, CA also began providing power to SVCE in January 2022, and will supply 44.2 megawatts for the next 15 years. The Coso plant use dual flash technology. |
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This year, the recently constructed, Casa Diablo-IV geothermal plant will come online and provide power to SVCE customers for the next 10 years. This plant is the first geothermal plant to be built within the California Independent System Operator in 30 years, and uses an innovative closed-loop binary process. |
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Understanding the State’s Proposed Changes to Net Energy Metering
Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a Proposed Decision (R.20-08-020) that, if approved, would make far-reaching changes to the state’s rooftop solar Net Energy Metering (NEM) program. The Proposed Decision needs to be voted on by the CPUC before it can take effect, and that vote could happen as early as January 27. Meanwhile, the CPUC may issue an alternative proposal before next week’s vote.
SVCE has been reviewing and analyzing the Proposed Decision. In the context of SVCE’s mission to provide clean electricity at competitive rates and advance community-wide decarbonization, it is a complex proposal with both benefits and drawbacks. SVCE sees the proposed decision as directionally correct in that it addresses fundamental structural issues with the current NEM tariff, including a cost-shift from NEM to non-NEM customers, the need for incentivization of battery storage, and equity concerns. However, there are elements that would be problematic for solar customers, such as a very costly monthly grid access charge. This charge is based on the size of the solar installation, and applies irrespective of how the customer uses or stores their solar energy.
As the state proceeding continues, we wanted to help our customers understand what is being proposed and why it’s such a complicated matter. We recommend this article from Canary Media that offers one of the latest updates on the topic.
This is a historically complex policy, and SVCE is following the proposal closely to identify how changes could impact customers.
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