New Pilots Launched to Tackle Energy Resilience at Homes, Schools and Across the Community

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) selected four program proposals to fund from the spring 2020 application round of Innovation Onramp, the SVCE grant program that seeks to address key technical, market and policy barriers to achieving deep decarbonization. The application round targeted innovative solutions for community-wide energy resiliency.

Public Safety Power Shutoffs, heat waves, and rolling blackouts have put energy resilience at the forefront and highlighted the critical need for enhanced solutions to ensure a smooth transition to a carbon-free grid. The following four pilot projects were selected to further resiliency for SVCE communities:

Span.IO is a flagship pilot with SVCE. Span.IO will install its smart electrical panels in homes across the SVCE service territory, addressing several key barriers to the all-electric transition and community resilience. Span Smart Panels streamline solar and storage installations, facilitate household electrification by reducing the need for expensive service upgrades, and serve as the home’s energy management hub. The panel provides the homeowner with detailed insight into their electricity consumption and enables electric appliances to intelligently respond to grid conditions. Customers interested in participating can sign up to receive updates at svcleanenergy.org/resilience/#interest.

Extensible Energy and Community Energy Labs will demonstrate that load management technology can reduce electricity costs and enable schools to cost-effectively install battery back-up and serve as community resilience centers.

Outthink will provide e-bikes to four income-qualified residents and implement low-cost streetscape modifications to demonstrate the benefits and challenges of mode shifting and active transportation.

Electron will develop a prototype of an SVCE-owned local marketplace for load flexibility from distributed energy resources such as battery storage and smart thermostats, to unlock the value that they can provide to customers and the broader SVCE community.

“Achieving a reliable and carbon-free grid requires new technologies, policies and partnerships,” said Girish Balachandran, SVCE CEO. “SVCE customers are currently testing out and benefiting from past Innovation Onramp pilots, and we look forward to supporting these new programs to enhance energy resilience for our communities. Innovative programs like these are essential to enabling the transition to a reliable, affordable and clean, electric future.”

Applications are now open for spring 2021 Innovation Onramp funding. For this round, SVCE has dedicated $100,000 to provide seed funding to third parties with building decarbonization solutions. The ideas funded through this round will complement the efforts described in the Building Decarbonization Joint Action Plan, which was recently adopted by the SVCE Board of Directors. Applications close on March 12, 2021. For more information on how to apply visit svcleanenergy.org/innovation/#application.

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About Silicon Valley Clean Energy
Silicon Valley Clean Energy is a not-for-profit, community-owned agency providing clean electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources to more than 270,000 residential and commercial customers in 13 Santa Clara County jurisdictions. As a public agency, net revenues are returned to the community to keep rates competitive and promote clean energy programs. Silicon Valley Clean Energy is advancing innovative solutions to fight climate change by decarbonizing the grid, transportation, and buildings. Learn more at SVCleanEnergy.org.

Contact
Michaela Pippin, Communications Specialist
O: 408-721-5301 x1020
michaela.pippin@svcleanenergy.org