The city council of Carson, California has opted to take a closer look at a community microgrid proposed by Charge Bliss, although the city manager recommended that the project be nixed.
With a September deadline looming for a potential $10 million state grant, the council scheduled a workshop on the microgrid for Tuesday, August 14. The full council will then take up the issue at its next meeting August 21.
The decision to keep the project on the table came after council members expressed surprise and confusion after hearing – seemingly for the first time – that the project required no upfront capital from the city, includes performance guarantees, would save the city $8 million in net present value, and is in the running for a $10 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
During a city council meeting Tuesday night, Charge Bliss CEO David Bliss urged the city council not to accept the city manager’s recommendation to kill the project.
“This is more or less as if I were handing you a $20 million lottery ticket, and the city is now about to walk away from it,” said Bliss. “Yes, it is your legal right to forego this, but I would suggest it is your fiduciary duty and ethical responsibility to your community to consider the objective, verifiable value of this project.”
Council members complained that they had not seen anything in writing about the microgrid and its finances. However, Bliss said his company had provided a detailed 600-page plan six different times to city staff and its designees. Charge Bliss and the city had agreed to work together on the microgrid after the CEC provided an initial $1.5 million for planning.
“We’ve provided spreadsheets, analyses in multiple and myriad ways to the city to demonstrate these numbers,” Bliss said. “To be very direct with the council, we are shadow boxing because we have provided information to parties who then do not provide it with you.”
Kenneth Farfsing, city manager, argued against the city signing a power purchase agreement for the microgrid, saying that the project would cost the cash-strapped city $3.8 million upfront for chillers. Bliss, however, said that the plan put forward by his company required no capital contribution from the city. Farfsing acknowledged that the city, itself, added the $3.8 million into the plan in an attempt to reduce the per kWh price of energy in the 20-year power purchase contract.
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