LA County Prepares to Launch Residential PACE Program

On March 3, 2015 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors authorized the implementation of their Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program, including issuance of PACE bonds, upon successful completion of judicial validation proceedings. At the same time, the Board of Supervisors also approved two companies, Renovate America and Renewable Funding, as administrators for the County's Residential PACE Program. With these two administrators, the County will offer PACE financing through both LA County HERO and CaliforniaFIRST to its residents. LA County HERO and CaliforniaFIRST are expected to launch throughout the County in May 2015.

PACE is a financing option available to Los Angeles County property owners to fund on-site energy efficiency, renewable energy and water-saving improvements that enhance a building's value while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and creating jobs. It is a unique financing tool that allows LA County to issue a bond to a lender, which secures funding for the construction of an energy upgrade. Property owners then repay their financing twice a year through a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill.

The LA County HERO and CaliforniaFIRST programs offer unique benefits to homeowners and cities. Authorized by the County, these programs offer more stringent consumer protections, additional support for contractors and realtors, and lower fees and interest rates. Additionally, safeguards, such as a reserve fund and additional foreclosure prevention measures, have been incorporated into these LA County residential PACE programs.

On August 26, 2014, Los Angeles County released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to begin the open and competitive process for hiring an administrator(s) to launch and manage the County's residential PACE Financing Program. Renovate America and Renewable Funding, implementers of HERO and CaliforniaFIRST respectively, were the administrators chosen as a result of the RFP process.

LA County HERO and CaliforniaFIRST PACE programs plan to launch throughout Los Angeles County in May 2015. To participate, a city within Los Angeles County needs to pass a resolution opting into the program. Eighty of the County's cities have already passed a resolution to participate and are actively engaged in the Commercial PACE Program. Once the residential PACE program is launched, residents in those cities may also participate in the residential PACE program without any further action from their city. For cities that still need to opt into the Program, please contact JCohen@isd.lacounty.gov for additional information and a sample resolution.

Los Angeles County's Commercial PACE Program has been in operation since 2012 and began initiating loans for commercial properties in 2013. Thus far, it has funded $14.4 million in commercial energy upgrade projects with an additional $51.5 million in projects in the pipeline. For more information on LA County's Commercial PACE Financing Program, please visit http://www.lapace.org.

Residential PACE is not a program funded through The Energy Network. 

City of Rancho Mirage Utilizes The Energy Network's Services to
Go for The Gold!

The City of Rancho Mirage is the first public agency to creatively utilize The Energy Network's services to capture energy savings through the city's Housing Authority. This initiative should propel Rancho Mirage to SCE's Energy Leader Partnership Gold Tier - and will achieve over three times the necessary kWh savings to reach Gold. This status is awarded to select cities through their Local Government Partnership (Desert Cities Energy Partnership) for a high level of commitment and measurable action taken towards long-term improvement of regional economic and environmental goals.

The City's goal of reaching Gold was in danger of not coming to fruition when they were about 70,000 kWh short - enter The Energy Network.  

The City's Southern California Edison (SCE) Account Representative, knowing they needed a reliable partner ready to assist the City in their search for deeper energy savings, referred The Energy Network.  Working in tandem with the Desert Cities Energy Partnership to complement and supplement existing services, The Energy Network combined efforts to push the City of Rancho Mirage into the coveted Gold Tier.

The City was initially interested in replacing their aging streetlights and their less than optimum-sized boilers, but was worried about the upgrades being cost-effective based on quotes they had previously received for those projects. Through The Energy Network's turnkey project delivery process another potential project - an opportunity for energy savings in the City's Housing Authority properties - was located.  It was discovered that the properties housed facilities which were using an enormous - and costly, amount of energy per square foot due to inefficient pool pumps.

In the end, the City leveraged The Energy Network's joint powers based cooperative procurement process and received an extremely cost-effective package to not only move forward with the Housing Authority projects (including the numerous inefficient pool pumps), but to also replace 172 city streetlights and replace the outsized boilers in City Hall. This multi-faceted project leveraged successful collaboration between The Energy Network, the Desert Cities Energy Partnership, the City, and the city's Housing Authority to incorporate a full range of services including  gas savings, electric savings, pool pump upgrades, streetlight upgrades, and the National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) - tripling the needed savings to reach Gold Tier.

Projects are scheduled for completion by the end of Q2 2015 with a projected savings of over 210,000 kWh. For further information on the City of Rancho Mirage projects or on The Energy Network, please contact info@energynetwork.com.