The City of San Diego’s GHG goals
Discover how Shell Energy is helping the City of San Diego to meet their ambitious aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero energy by 2035.
The challenge
In 2022, the City of San Diego adopted a Climate Action Plan with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero energy by 2035. To achieve this goal, the city needed an integrated renewable energy solution that would help them reach their targets, deliver cleaner energy, and create operational resiliency.
The solutions
Shell Energy worked with the City of San Diego, and partner Gridscape Solutions, to deliver cleaner and more reliable power — by helping create its own power grid for city buildings. The new microgrids span eight installations at Police, Fire, and Parks facilities throughout the southeastern region of the city, and represent an important step the City has made to meet its ambitious sustainability goals.
The microgrids can operate with or without connection to the grid. Under normal operating conditions, they are connected and primarily powered by on-site solar and energy storage.
During grid outages, the microgrids electrically disconnect and continue operating autonomously on power supplied by solar generation, energy storage, and any existing backup generators. This makes microgrids like this a valuable solution for municipalities or commercial and industrial entities located in regions prone to outages from, for example, extreme weather events.
The value
Shell Energy helped the city adopt more on-site renewable generation in the form of solar-powered microgrids, taking a major first step towards meeting its ambitious sustainability goals and continuing to deliver more clean energy across its facilities.
Microgrids are inherently more reliable because they eliminate numerous issues faced by larger grids. As the state of California continues to face power outages, Shell Energy’s solutions offer the city greater resiliency in the face of unexpected disruption.
By working with Shell Energy to add battery-backed microgrids to key municipal buildings, the city estimates it will generate cost savings of ~$6 million from reduced electricity costs over 25 years, assuming San Diego Gas & Electric rates increase by 4% a year1. This will lower the city’s operational costs and potentially free up budget for future sustainability projects.
1. https://microgridknowledge.com/san-diego-microgrids-shell-new-energies/
