What has SJVCEO been up to?

Hello and happy new years to all of our loyal blog readers! We hope you have had a wonderful holiday and a safe new years.

We apologize for the long delay in posting an organizational update. SJVCEO has been busier than ever and not complaining. Since our last post in March our team has been working non-stop on energy projects, state utility outreach as well as policy work. So lets dig in!

The VIEW Partnership is very excited to say we have our FIRST partner city, City of Visalia, who has reached platinum within the Southern California Edison Energy Leader Partnership. We will be awarding the certificate to the city at our upcoming annual awards luncheon this week. To reach platinum level the city has saved over 2,114,358 kWh which equates to about $613,163 saved in energy costs. That money saved has gone back into the cities general funds and put to good use for the residents of the city.

Many of our VIEW partners have looked into and or signed up for the Southern California Edison streetlight retrofit program. In total we have eight cities who are in the que for what is being called the LS1 option E program within the utility. Through this program partners upgrade all Edison owned streetlights to LED and the cost of the upgrade will show as a line item on their bill for up to 20 years. Many of the partners will not see any change to their electricity bills as much of the energy savings will pay for the monthly cost. We are very excited to see how the large scale upgrade in the valley will turnout when complete within the next year.



Much of the partnerships summer and fall was dedicated to community outreach and informational meetings relating to AB2672. During all outreach the partnership provided free flu shots to residents, energy saving information as well as a time to speak with the CPUC commissioners in charge of deciding the direction of the state assembly bill. The partnership will continue to work with the state in outreach in regards to AB2672 and holding its annual energy awareness month events.

Our HDR Partnership has been very busy at work as well. Many partners are moving forward with lighting upgrades as well as the same street lighting program as the VIEW partners, LS1 option E. Our partners did throw a curve ball at Edison when asking if the LED lighting can with stand Mojave desert like conditions. Edison went to their researchers to make sure the equipment being used would hold to those conditions. We are happy to say that the LED technology passes the test but will have a shorter useful life than if it were in more temperate conditions. We are excited to for the upgrades as this change in lighting will help with maintenance and operation of street lighting for partners.

METU is off to a great start for the 2018 program year! Our team was able to close out 2017 with an insulation project in the City of Avenal. This project is projected to save the city more than 1/3 of its current energy costs for one of its largest public facilities and significant source of energy usage for the city. Savings verification reporting for the City of Avenal is planned for the 1st quarter of 2018.

Lighting audits were completed in partnership with PG&E at the end of 2017 for three large publicly-owned facilities in the City of Madera. These projects are anticipated to get underway in the first quarter of 2018.

The City of Arvin has experienced recent personnel changes. However, METU was able to get the new representative up to speed on recent progress and not allow the City of Arvin to lose any of its momentum for continuing energy savings projects. Following a coordination meeting with PG&E and the Kern County Energy watch, METU will assist the city of Arvin with additional lighting projects, HVAC replacement support, as well as assist with the tools to facilitate community outreach to promote PG&E programs.

Last but not least, METU has also been busy with benchmarking efforts for the cities of Sanger and Selma. Municipal Readiness Reports detailing project pipelines will be distributed soon!

This past year has been an adventure for the team, but we are very excited and thankful to continue to do the work that we are allowed to do on behalf of our partners.

Stay tuned for our next update!

What has SJVCEO been up to in March

Spring has sprung SJVCEO into energy efficiency projects as well as being on the road for community outreach events. We are glad to be staying busy and collecting energy savings for our partners.

With the VIEW Partnership our team has been hitting the pavement to make visits to all of our partners via lunch and learns. This new meeting format allows us to sit down with those that work day to day on city infrastructure to discuss the partnerships value and what their energy needs may be. So far we are happy to say that the new format is working well and projects are coming through the pipeline. The partnership is also busy with the planning of outreach events that will take place in late spring to fall. Please make sure to stay tuned to our community outreach page on the View the Savings website.

For our HDR Partnership we are busy making sure our partners receive necessary information and applications for the Southern California Edison streetlight program. This program has been a hot ticket item for many local governments. We hope to be able to share some energy saving updates with our readers as soon as the projects are completed. Also, the partnership is busy putting together a few educational workshop for those in the community. We are still nailing down final topics of interest so please stay tuned!

On top of the partnership work that SJVCEO our METU Program and grant work has been keeping us busy as well. METU is busy at work benchmarking the City of Arvin as well as the beginning the process with the City of Corcoran. We hope to have project updates in next months update. SJVCEO is lucky enough to have been awarded with one of the POM Wonderful Community Grants in the City of Avenal. Our work in the city is focused on enrolling homes into energy saving programs as well as showcasing behavior change techniques to implement in households. So far the outcome and response from the community has been great. We hope the success continues.

That is all for this month. Make sure to stay tuned for next months update!

What Has SJVCEO Been up to in December

We hope everyone had a happy holiday and a safe new years. Hopefully everyone was able to enjoy a few days at home with family and friends. Here at SJVCEO we cant believe that we are rolling into 2017 already...where did the year go. 2016 went so quickly and our team accomplished many feats and cant wait to see what the new year holds. In the final month of the year our team was busy at work tying up loose ends before heading into 2017.

For the VIEW Partnership we are happy to announce that the County of Kings has just passed its energy action plan which allows them to move up within the SoCal Edison ELP model. We are also happy to announce that the partnership will be working with the NOAA on their Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador program. The partnership will bring the message of weather readiness as well as how to build resilient communities to our partner communities. With many of the partnerships projects completed for 2016 our team began the planning process for our annual awards luncheon. At our annual luncheon we honor our partners that have moved up in the ELP model as well as made large efficiency gains. We like to take this time after the holidays to show appreciation for our partners as well as elected officials that have supported the partnerships efforts. We look forward to the luncheon as well as what 2017 brings for our VIEW partners.

With our HDR Partnership we are looking ahead to 2017 and getting together a plan to conquer energy savings. A few of our partners are looking into streetlight conversions and or upgrades. Many of the streetlights that are in existence house high pressure sodium lights. The name may not sound familiar but in essence they are the lights that provide a nice orange glow. We will report back energy projects and energy savings once they come in. We are also very excited to be holding our inaugural recognition luncheon in February. We cant wait to honor our energy partners as well as meet a few elected officials from the area.

Our METU Program has been busy at work over the last month. Our project analyst met with 4 out of the 8 cities involved in the Fresno County region.  The program has also begun to benchmark for the cities of Kerman, Selma and Firebaugh and Municipal Readiness Reports are in the works.  We have completed paperwork for the City of San Joaquin as they have expressed interest to get started.  Cities within Kern County are still on the METU radar.  Outreach has continued into the month of December and and connected with the City of Wasco. We are still working with the City of Avenal and it is on track for direct installation projects at the beginning of the new year.We are also happy to say that our website will be launching in the next week or so. We will be completing an official roll out as soon as it is complete. So stay tuned!

And finally, over the last month SJVCEO was named one of the recipients of the Wonderful Communities Grant in the City of Avenal. Our team will be working with the city over the next year on improving energy efficiency for residents and homeowners. We area very excited to begin the project and report back some of our successes!

That is all for this month!

What Has SJVCEO Been up to in November

We hope everyone had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving holiday. Here at SJVCEO we were able to take a few days away from work to enjoy family and friends. Now that we are back to work we are wrapping up items for 2016 as well as beginning the planning process for 2017. 

The VIEW Partnership has wrapped up its last monthly meeting of the year. All of our partners have worked very hard to reach our energy saving goals for the year. The partnership is happy to say that two of our partners, the City of Hanford and Kings County, will be participating in Southern California Edison's Charge Ready Program. This program allows municipalities to partner with them on the instillation of electric vehicle stations on their property. Edison will install and maintain the supporting electrical infrastructure, the cost of which will be covered by the program, and the municipalities will own, operate and maintain qualified charging stations. The projects are just now going through proper channels for approval. The partnership hopes to document the progress of the projects and share that with the public once it completed. 

The partnership has been working  very closely with the City of Avenal over the last month. Our team previously benchmarked the city and has now identified 2-3 key sites that they will focus efforts on.  Staples Energy, who works with the partnership on direct install, is in the process of coordinating a site visit to assess for energy efficiency measures. Hopefully next month we have exciting news that projects are underway.

As for our HDR Partnership we have wrapped up another successful year. SJVCEO and all of the HDR partners are hard at work getting project pipelines together for 2017. A few of the partners are even looking into converting older high pressure sodium streetlights into either LED or a more efficient lighting system. We hope to get our hands on the savings numbers to show how much converting streetlights can save for municipalities. 

Our Municipal Energy Tune-Up program has been hard at work for the Month of November.  Project staff continue to work with the City of Taft as well as actively reaching out to Wasco, Shafter, and McFarland for participation.  Additionally, we are working with the Fresno EDC to outreach to cities in Fresno County. Our staff is continuing to benchmark for the County of Kern and has also earmarked additional sites so that they will be ready to go once additional project funding has been allotted.  The county is planning to make very aggressive efforts for projects over the next 12 months.

That's All For This Month!

What Has SJVCEO Been up to in October

Now that the little ghouls and goblins have had their fun in October we move more into winter and gain back an hour...YAY! We hope that you are preparing your home for those chilly days that are ahead of us now. As SJVCEO begins to wrap up its work for the year we happy to say we have had much success in all aspects of our work in 2016 and are now eyeing goals for 2017.

With the VIEW Partnership we have working hard on wrapping up items related to SoCal Edison Energy Leader Partnership tier movement. Many of our partners, three to be exact, are right on the cusp of moving up one tier level. The items in progress to hit the next tier level are initiating an energy action plan. Our staff has been hard at work shaping these guiding documents for our partners and now they are in the final stretch of approval. We are very excited to see how city/county councils take to these items and hope to share good news by the end of the year. Outside of EAP's the partnership wrapped up its Energy Awareness Month activities the last week of October. In all, the partnership participated in four outreach events. Partnering with our city/counties on these events we are able to bring energy efficiency information as well as community services out to residents. During the events we are happy to hear from residents how much these events mean to them. For 2017 we will continue our outreach efforts and may look into spring events.


Our HDR Partnership just finished its first complete year with SJVCEO as implementer. We are very thankful to have such engaged energy champions as well as amazing support from SoCal Edison. We cannot wait to see how the partnership will continue to grow in the years to come. One exciting piece of news that the partnership has for October is the City of Hesperia has initiated its energy action plan and has been awarded silver level within the ELP tier model. Our staff along with city staff have been hard at work on this guiding document and we cannot be more excited to see the city council accept it.

Finally for the Municipal Energy Tune-Up we are beginning to gain steam with our new project analyst on board. She has been hard at work since day one and is now beginning to benchmark the City of Taft. We cannot wait to update you on projects in the coming months. Also, the METU program will also be launching its website and brand new logo in the coming months so keep your eyes peeled.

That is all for this month! 

What Has SJVCEO Been up to in September

We hope that everyone is just as happy as SJVCEO that fall has arrived and it is now time for pumpkin spice lattes and sweaters!

For the VIEW Partnership we are embarking on one of the busiest months of the year, energy efficiency awareness month. The partnership continues its long tradition of fall outreach events with hosting four outreach event within Kings and Tulare Counties. These outreach events allow us to connect with residents on energy efficiency tips as well as bill saving programs from the IOU's. We also enjoy that the partnership is able to connect with local supervisors on energy issues and betterment of local communities. Please check out VIEW website for upcoming events. We might just be in your neighborhood during the coming month. We also would like to applaud all of our partner cities and counties on their hard work over this past year. We were able to achieve the partnerships energy saving goal during the month of July. Now we are beginning to figure out the project pipeline for the coming year.


The partnership is also very excited to announce that the City of Visalia has just received ENERGY STAR Certification for its transit building. Visalia is the first partner city that has achieved the status. Way to go Visalia we applaud all of your hard work.

The HDR Partnership has also been very hard at work on finishing projects for the year of 2016 as well as brainstorming projects for 2017. We are happy to say that we already have projects in the que for 2017! We would also like to thank all of our partners who have been hard at work on projects. We are excited to be adding outreach events to the partnership next year. This year the partnership did take part in the conservation fair at the High Desert Mavericks stadium in August. It was wonderful connecting with residents on energy issues as hearing their praise for SoCal Edison. We look forward to participating in even more events in the future.

We would also like to wish all of our readers a Happy Halloween as we will not post another update until the beginning of November!  

What Has SJVCEO Been up to in July

We hope everyone is taking full advantage of their summer while surviving the heat waves that have been rolling through many areas. The team here at SJVCEO has been trying to stay cool while cranking up the heat on energy savings and encountering temperatures topping out at 109.

The VIEW Partnership is very happy to announce that, with the help of our energy champion partners, we have reached our annual goal of energy savings only halfway through the year.We would like to take a moment to applaud our partners on all of the hard work they have been doing, keep up the great work! Though we have met goal for 2016 we will continue to rack up the savings until December and push ourselves to be over achievers. While finishing out this year we are also beginning to focus on 2017 and potential savings that may be out there. Many of our partners have outlined work within their CIP (city/county improvement projects) listings that have been identified by SJVCEO staff as potential projects for next year as well as years to follow. We are very excited at the items that have been identified and will make sure to keep our readers updated.

The HDR Partnership has also hit its energy saving goal for 2016 as mentioned in a previous months update. The partners continue to share past and future projects with the group to help stir innovation as well as help other partners identify what savings potential may be out there. With the help of the partners and local chambers the partnership has worked to get the word out regarding the SCE Direct Install Program that will be wrapping up on August 12th. If you happen to be a business within the HDR area and have had wonderful success with the program please let us know. We always enjoy hearing positive stories regarding the program. We are also very excited to let everyone know that the partnership is very close to having a brand new logo. As soon as we have a final decision we will be sure to share that great news with our readers.

Our METU has undergone some changes in the staffing department over the last month. Our program lost one of its project analysts at the beginning of July. We wish him nothing but the best and are looking to fill the open position as soon as possible. If you happen to have someone in mind who has energy industry experience please pass along the opportunity when the position listing is available. We will be sure to share the position listing once the job description has been finalized. While we go through the staffing transition we are continuing to work with the City of Kingsburg on benchmarking and energy project opportunities. We hope to have an update and some numbers to share on next months write up.

SJVCEO is also excited to begin work on our California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded BioDico, a renewable energy technology provider, a grant to support a Zero Net Energy Farm in Five Points, CA. All of the farm’s energy needs will be supplied by distributed renewable energy including solar, wind, anaerobic digestion and gasification. Many biomass-to-energy plants located in the San Joaquin Valley have closed and this project will help offset some of the impacts of open burning of agricultural waste. The SJVCEO was selected to be a subcontractor on this project and the organization, along with BioDico and other subcontractors including CSU Fresno, Fresno COG, CALFIRE, and APCD, will create a model that may be replicated by other agricultural sectors and firms in the future.

Make sure to stay cool and safe for the remainder of the summer!

What Has SJVCEO Been Up To in June

With much of the southwest and California experiencing its first major heat wave of the summer we hope everyone is taking precautions to stay cool as well as save energy. While trying to survive the heat the SJVCEO team has been busy traveling for conferences as well as working to identify new projects that can be completed in 2016.

Some of the SJVCEO staff attended the 7th Annual Statewide Energy Efficiency Forum (or SEEC Conference) in Riverside on June 15th and 16th. This year's program was expanded to include four plenary sessions and sixteen different breakout sessions over a two day period.

This year, the forum focused on “taking a holistic approach toward a sustainable future” and how taking a full system approach to climate action and planning by understanding the interconnected and multifaceted nature of energy efficiency will better serve and create a longer term vision for our communities.
Speakers from the Local Government Commission (LGC), the Institute for Local Governments (ILG), the four IOUs (PG&E, SCE, SCG, and SDG&E), Planning and Sustainability departments from various jurisdictions, and many others spoke about current policies and programs in place that demonstrate the importance of a multi-dimensional approach that yields deeper energy savings. They also spoke to local climate actions that have allowed communities to respond to climate change more effectively and increase local and regional climate resiliency.

There were two new sessions at this year’s forum. Attendees could participate in the “Ask the Experts” one-on-one mentoring program. Experts in Finance and Funding, Regulatory Issues and Compliance, Climate Action Planning and Strategic Planning, as well as Engagement and Outreach were available for attendees to address and receive input on specific challenges. Attendees also participated in the poster session which allowed local governments partners, CivicSpark interns and many others to share their unique successes and challenges to a broader audience.

In between traveling the SJVCEO staff was busy looking through potential project listing from our energy champion partners in the cities and counties in the HDR Partnership and VIEW Partnership. We are very excited about some of the work that is being identified as well as in the works. As we say here in the office," keep the energy projects coming!" We currently do not have a lot to report in the way of projects and numbers since much of the summer is a down time for our local governments as well as our IOU partners. 

We hope to share much more exciting items with you as we make our way through the summer months. 

Stay tuned for next months update!

What Has SJVCEO Been Up To in May

First off we hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful Memorial Day. The SJVCEO team, like many, enjoyed an additional day off for the holiday before coming back to work full force on energy saving projects.

Over the last month the team and our energy champion partners have been working to finish up projects that have been in the pipeline as well as compiling lists of new projects that are being outlined in capital improvement project listings. During the summer months we use our time to start laying out plans of attack for new energy projects as well as using it as planning time for upcoming community outreach events.

For the VIEW Partnership many of our energy champion partners are busy working away on budgets for the their cities and counties. So during the summer we focus on back end planning. Our team works to make sure that all information is current and all projects numbers are correct. During this time we also like to touch base with our SCE cities/counties on how they are progressing towards their next level on the Energy Leader Partnership model. We want to make sure that we are informing the partners on what items ca be accomplished with the help of their Edison reps.


As mentioned before, during the summer months the partnership starts looking toward the fall community outreach events. A saying in our office is," it is never too early to start planning." We will be holding many of our events in late September into October. Make sure to stay up to date on events that are listed on the partnerships website. One of the exciting community pieces that the partnership is working on is with the City of Avenal. The partnership was given a mini grant from PG&E to work with one of our deserving cities on energy efficiency projects as well as community outreach. Discussions have just begun with the city so we will make sure to keep you posted as things develop.

With our HD Regional Partnership our partners are very excited about spreading the word on the Direct Install Program from Southern California Edison. The partnership will be presenting at two local chamber events in June regarding the program. Along with the promotion of Direct Install we are happy to announce that with the help of our energy champion partners the partnership has reached its energy saving goal for the year already!

For the METU Program our SJVCEO staff has begun to benchmark the City of Parlier as well as the City of Bakersfield. Once the city facilities are benchmarked our team will put together a readiness report of projects that have the most potential for savings. We look forward to sharing some of our success stories with everyone.

Some of our other items that been taking place over the last month are our staff participating in the Clean Energy Finance Advisory Council (CEFAC) coordination meetings as well as beginning to plan for a Central Valley September event. Our staff also attended a Onsite Greywater Recycling Workshop.

Stay Tuned For Next Month's Update!

What Has SJVCEO Been Up to in April

As we wave goodbye to April we  slowly embark into summer and those hot temperatures that are around the corner...which no one is looking forward to. With the beginning of summer and rising temps the SJVCEO team is blazing a trail into its energy saving goals for all three of its areas in 2016.

With the VIEW Partnership the SJVCEO team is working away on energy projects. With organizational change ups with the partnerships IOU partners projects are now beginning to trickle in. A few of the city and county partners in VIEW are taking advantage of the Savings by Design program that the state has to offer. The Savings by Design program was created for building owners to take a whole building or systems approach to energy savings. Instead of completing individual energy efficiency projects owners would take a look with the design team to see what systems or design tweaks the whole building can benefit from. This program is available to customers within California as it is funded by all six IOU's within the state. We are excited to see what savings and projects come out of the Savings by Design collaboration. The VIEW Partnership also was busy with the City of Visalia's Earth Day Event. The partnership always enjoys attending the event to spread the word of energy efficiency and conservation. This year's event was filled with plenty of sunshine and had a great turn out!


Now changing gears to SJVCEO's HDR Partnership. All of our energy partners in the high desert have been hard at work completing well and other large energy saving projects. With the partnership we are happy to now say we are out and about with the message of the energy partnership. Over the last month and a half we have met with most of the Chambers of Commerce in the high desert region and have been welcomed with open arms. We are happy to be sharing information and programs with the chambers in the area, since many of the businesses can benefit.

For our METU program that partners with PG&E we are happy to say that we are full steam ahead on benchmarking and projects. One of our staff members just completed a walk through energy assessment of five facilities within the City of Kingsburg. Our staff member is now crunching the numbers and information to give a full written report about potential projects and energy savings. We will keep you updated on what projects take place.

While we are not busy doing energy assessments and working on energy projects our team participates in a few different advisory councils and organizations. Just this last month one of our staff who works with the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Cluster helped with an annual clean energy summit. The summit was a real success and our staff was able to see the great energy work that is happening within the valley. Another one of our staff is working with the Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council. The objective of the council is bring information on new energy efficiency financing opportunities to California. In April the council held a webinar on financing energy storage as well as the CHEEF REEL (Residential Energy Efficiency Loan program) pilot roll-out with Valley Oak Credit Union. A lot of exciting things are happening in the valley as well as in the state so make sure you sty tuned to our blog for updates!

That is all for this month!