Power Ready Program
What is Power Ready?
The need for backup power systems is growing as power outages become more common with increased wildfires, frequent Public Safety Power Shutoffs, and increased summer grid emergencies due to high heat.
Clean Power Alliance’s Power Ready program is a community benefit offered to its member agencies to make a public building that serves a critical community purpose energy-resilient by installing a solar and storage system so that there is a backup source of energy when there is an outage. CPA is providing this benefit at no cost to member agencies and making participation easy by contracting with a developer/ financier to build, own, and operate the systems for 20 years.
Power Ready Benefits
Download
The Power Ready
Program Factsheet Here.
An opportunity to make a public building that serves a critical community purpose energy-resilient by installing a solar and storage system so that critical loads are backed up in an outage. CPA can provide this opportunity at no cost to our member agencies by aggregating a portfolio of member agency sites, CPA is making this opportunity easy for member agencies by contracting with a developer/ financier to build, own, and operate the systems for 20 years.
Power Ready is one of the many community benefits offered to Clean Power Alliance member agencies. Member agencies identified a need for resiliency. CPA’s Board of Directors developed Power Ready to meet this need for resilience by using the collective purchase power of CPA.
• Backup power system that provides islanded power during outages (including Public Safety Power Shutoffs, natural disasters, rolling blackouts).
• No up-front cost and no increase to annual energy bills for participating
• Reduced harmful emissions associated with backup diesel generators
• The developer handles all operations and maintenance
• Enhanced grid resilience that helps to prevent grid emergencies
• Member agency staff learn about hosting battery storage
• CPA will promote your agency’s participation in this innovative program
The amount that member agencies will pay annually will be equal to or less than what they would have paid if they were not participating in the program. CPA uses the solar and storage systems to create optimal bill savings that are used to pay the system cost to the developer, making it possible for us to provide this system to member agencies at no cost.
During hours of sunshine, the Power Ready facilities will be as the program name implies.... “Power Ready!” The Power Ready sites will be highly functional during grid outages during “blue sky” periods. Power Ready has conducted deep dives into each selected facility to determine which loads are critical during the night – “dark sky periods.” CPA offers member agencies a minimum of 4-hour “dark sky” duration of critical loads. In most cases, these loads can be managed to extend the “dark sky” duration until the sun rises the next day.
Solar, storage, and sophisticated controls. The facilities can island in the event of a grid outage and maintain critical operations. The cost of creating an islanded system that can provide this type of critical support is much higher than the cost of installing a normal solar system or even solar and storage system.
Many of the facilities in the Power Ready program already have generators. Power Ready brings carbon-free generation and storage to the facility, in some cases making the generators obsolete and improving the air quality of the community.
In other cases, the generators can operate in tandem with the Power Ready system to enhance resilience, cut emissions, and protect against fuel shortage.
City halls, libraries, community centers, public works yards, senior centers... any municipal facility that has sufficient power load that can be profitably offset with solar, and that has a logical use case for the community during emergencies.
Participation in the Power Ready program is not intended to lower your electricity bills, but it will not raise them either. CPA will ensure that the amount you pay will be equal to or less than what you would have paid if you were not participating in the program. The value of this project is that member agencies get an islanded solar and storage system at no cost for use in an emergency situation. The cost of creating an islanded system that can provide this type of critical support is much higher than the cost of installing a normal solar system or even a solar and storage system.
Cost to Participate
There is no cost for participating.
Power Ready is not intended to save you money on your electricity bills. The value you get is energy resilience at no additional cost. Participating members will pay no more for electricity than they would without Power Ready.
CPA will annually audit your energy bills so that the annual amount paid is equal to or less what your facility would pay had you not participated in the Power Ready program.
No, participants electricity bills will be equal to or less than what they would have been, if they were not participating in the program. Assuming the same general usage, your bills will be the same, increasing only over the years as SCE and CPA rates increase. At no time will the presence of solar or batteries make your bill higher.
More on the Battery
CPA uses the battery to manage electricity demand in such a way that lowers procurement costs. Strategies such as Net Energy Metering, Peak Demand Reduction, Load Shifting from high Time of Use (TOU) periods to low TOU periods will be handled by CPA. These cost saving strategies make it possible for us to provide you the islanded solar and storage system at no cost.
The primary purpose of the Power Ready program is to provide energy resilience to member agencies’ public facilities. A carve-out has been established for every battery storage system such that the program commitment for resilience can be met.
If the SCE grid goes down, the member agency will be using both the battery and the solar for emergency power.
Yes, only 75% of the battery will be flexed by CPA for demand reduction or load shifting. A minimum of 25% percent of the battery is always maintained to meet an unexpected outage. The batteries will be programmed to charge up prior to scheduled outages to give member agencies maximum resilience.
Sergei Kotsan serves the Energy Risk Manager for Clean Power Alliance. He has over a decade of experience working on quantitative research and modelling of the wholesale power markets as well as hedging commercial risk and market monitoring. He led commercial operations at TexGen and fundamentals research at Talen Energy on the power supply side. He also has utility experience at Portland General Electric and Pacific Gas and Electric evaluating market risks and financial valuation on the demand side. In addition, he worked at the Market Monitoring Unit at CAISO, developing dashboards and preparing market reports. Sergei holds Ph.D. in Economics from West Virginia University.
Rachel serves as Project Manager, Settlements for Clean Power Alliance. Rachel is responsible for reviewing and identifying discrepancies with our California Independent System Operator (CASIO) and bilateral counterparty invoices, validating transactions of wholesale market products, and performing after the fact analysis on settlements and Congestion Revenue Rights (CRR) to influence resource optimization and CRR strategies. Prior to joining Clean Power Alliance, Rachel served as a Power Settlements Analyst at Utah Municipal Power Agency for two years where she developed and finalized all settlement processes. Rachel earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Lewis-Clark State College.
Riju serves as the Website Developer, Communications and Marketing at CPA. He brings over 10 years of software development experience in addition to having a strong background in information technology and server infrastructure. Riju oversees all web related functions at CPA to ensure that the organization is able to effectively sustain meeting the requirements of its rapidly growing digital presence. Prior to joining CPA, Riju worked as a digital content developer at Claremont Graduate University where he developed and launched an online learning platform for the federally funded POLARIS mentoring program for museum professionals. More recently, Riju founded and operated a web development and digital marketing agency which served government organizations, non-profits, and other multi agency partners. Riju holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems & E-Business from Cal Poly Pomona. Riju supports CPA’s overall goal and mission to a cleaner, brighter future.
Jacob Adamson is an Analyst, Data and Systems, at Clean Power Alliance (CPA), where he collaborates with the Data and Systems team to develop and maintain robust data analytics frameworks. Jacob supports cross-functional departments in data enablement and business intelligence, focusing on automating reporting tasks and assisting staff with data requests. With a background in engineering, information technology, regulatory analysis, and data analytics, Jacob brings a wealth of expertise to CPA’s work in the renewable energy sector. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, is a former licensed professional engineer in the state of Colorado, and is a GCP certified professional data engineer. Outside of work, Jacob is passionate about outdoor recreation, conservation, and engineering sustainable community development.
Ammad serves as the Analyst, Strategic Finance at CPA. He comes to CPA with 3 years of prior experience in financial planning and analysis. Ammad most recently served as a Financial Analyst at Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of the Southern Company. In this role, he supported various areas in the Customer Experience division where he ensured timely and accurate financial reporting, conducted monthly expense forecasting, and created 5-year budgets with the approval of the Georgia PSC. He also sat on the 2024 Budget Committee where he contributed to developing guidelines for the company’s budgeting process and identifying areas for cost savings. Ammad earned his Bachelor’s in Finance from the University of Central Florida.