Creating flexible incentives, easily accessible support and links to financial assistance will be key for encouraging more San Mateo County residents to electrify their homes, according to top objectives being eyed by Peninsula Clean Energy, a county energy provider, for encouraging more building electrification and, in turn, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“This is one of the main reasons I came to Peninsula Clean Energy, helping to implement a strategy like this,” said PCE’s Building Electrification Programs Manager Blake Herrschaft during a March 23 meeting.
By 2035, Peninsula Clean Energy aims to help the region reach 100% decarbonization and a recent internal study found that the best way the agency can help achieve that goal is by supporting electrification of single-family homes, small multifamily buildings and small office and commercial spaces.
PCE already provides incentives to those looking to electrify their homes. The agency offers 0% interest loans up to $10,000 through its Zero Percent Loan Program to help people switch to electric water heaters, heating and cooling systems and energy efficient upgrades that reduce carbon emissions and energy use in homes, according to its website.
Residents can receive a rebate of up to $3,000 for switching to a heat pump water heater and up to $3,500 for switching to a heat pump heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. And income-qualified homeowners can receive help with repairs and energy efficiency upgrades at no cost through PCE’s Home Upgrade Program.
Herrschaft acknowledged the offerings while acknowledging that the public, including governing bodies, have asked for more, easily accessible support from helping to select the right contractor for their project, installing upgrades themselves to finding emergency replacements and other clear information.
“The current program provides incentives but doesn’t provide enough guidance and support. The updated program needs to address barriers that customers are facing. This is especially important if city councils are going to feel comfortable adopting existing building reach codes,” Herrschaft said.
Under the updated program, PCE would develop a one-stop website that serves as an appliance marketplace, contractor network, energy calculator and educational resource; a hotline providing support with navigating programs, project planning and technical assistance; and turnkey installation options including emergency loaners, whole home planning, appliance installation and piloting technology.
Herrschaft said the agency envisions launching the website, hotline and turnkey options by 2024 with some elements being developed in house and others through third party agencies.
Workforce development, financing options and rebates will also be key, Herrschaft said. While cost-sharing agreements would be used for some customers, other income-qualifying homeowners could qualify for no-cost support under the low-income Home Upgrade Program. That program currently electrifies one appliance per building and offers minor home repair but the agency plans to scale the program to cover whole home electrification.
On average, it costs about $31,500 to fully and efficiently electrify a home, Herrschaft said. After accounting for other rebates and financial support offered by other government entities, Herrschaft said the cost could drop to $13,000.
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PCE would cover that cost for qualified-income homeowners, costing the agency between $16 million and $19 million for electrifying 250 homes per year over the three-year lifetime of the expanded low-income Home Upgrade Program. The other elements of the plan are estimated to cost up to $1.2 million over a three-year lifetime.
No formal action was taken during the meeting but board members emphasized the importance of incorporating resiliency into future electrification plans, especially for residents living in rural areas, given recent storm-related power outages.
“When you’re without power for seven, eight days like people in my city, It’s not an affordability issue, it’s a life and safety issue. So at this point I do think we need to start thinking more holistically about the overall resiliency and when we’re electrifying homes, making sure that people have an option to put battery storage in there in an affordable expedient way,” said PCE Board Member Donna Colson, also the Burlingame vice mayor. “We have to build resiliency options in for people and if this needs to go onto the 10-year financing loan thing, we need to figure out how to do it.”
PCE’s discussion followed one by the Bay Area Air Quality Management Board which voted March 15 to adopt regulations that will begin phasing out the use of gas water heaters and furnaces by the end of this decade. The move is meant to help reduce toxic emissions, protecting air quality and public health.
Board members voted 20-0, with Supervisor Ray Mueller abstaining, to adopt the regulations but before doing so they largely agreed that more work is needed to create accessible paths toward implementation.
They plan to form a working group with stakeholders from a variety of areas to help develop a report about technological advancements and potential remaining gaps two years before the changes take effect. The board could decide to push off the implementation period depending on the information presented.
Community power plants, such as solar power systems, will be a key solution for reducing the cost of running electric utilities and creating more stable reliance on the system, said PCE Board Member Rick DeGolia, also an Atherton councilmember.
“We’ve got to figure out how to marry [community power] with this electrification effort because requiring people to electrify when the electrical rates in our region are so high is just almost incomprehensible,” DeGolia said during the meeting. “We’ve got to give people the ability to be protected when the power goes out so we’re not just sticking them into these extremely unsafe situations and I think we’ve got some ability to do that.”
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(1) comment
If anyone even thinks that PCE does this out of the goodness of its heart, please take the following into consideration. First of all, one has to pay upfront for the conversions. Then one can only hope that rebate amounts will continue to be available. Then, while this may entail an interest-free loan, it is still a loan that needs to be repaid. Once your alternative energy source, natural gas, has been eliminated, one is wholly subject to the rates that PCE will charge. All of these goodies will have to be paid for, and will show up in hefty electricity bills. Don't be fooled, there ain't such thing as a free lunch. These rosy projections do not even take into account that PG&E will have to upgrade its systems and its manpower to install thousands of new electric services. And who is going to pay for that? You, and only for a climate action reason that cannot be rationalized. Wake up folks, don't fall for these shallow promises.
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