Challenge
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is a community-owned, not-for-profit providing electricity to Sacramento and approximately 900 square miles of Northern California. For decades, SMUD has been a leader in clean energy and carbon reduction. SMUD’s 2030 Zero Carbon Plan continues this commitment, with a goal to reach zero carbon emissions in their power supply by 2030 – the most ambitious goal of any large utility in the United States.
To help achieve this decarbonization goal, SMUD is incentivizing proven, cost-effective technologies to support building and vehicle electrification. SMUD is encouraging 50k+ commercial customers (in addition to 1.5 million residential customers) to remove carbon emissions from their buildings and vehicles. An important part of this customer base is small and mid-sized businesses, a demographic that’s traditionally harder to reach than large businesses with better access to capital and resources.
Solution
In 2020, SMUD selected TRC to implement their Complete Energy Solutions (CES) incentive program, which helps small and mid-sized businesses participate in building and vehicle electrification upgrades. SMUD and TRC, along with subcontractor Brighton Energy, offer a full-service, “one-stop-shop” approach to saving money and energy, which appeals to time-strapped small and mid-sized businesses.
A team of energy advisors is key to the program’s success. Energy advisors help educate business owners on how electrification will help their bottom lines and reduce fossil fuel emissions in the community. Creating a cleaner and healthier Sacramento is a message that resonates strongly with these customers.
CES provides a range of perks for small and mid-sized businesses to participate, including:
- Free site assessments: Energy advisors offer free, comprehensive site assessments for business owners to identify all opportunities to upgrade facilities and equipment to reduce their carbon footprint and save money on energy bills.
- Financial incentives: Local businesses can receive incentives for completing energy efficiency and electrification upgrades.
- Increased support for heat pumps: The program increased incentives for heat pumps in space and water heating in 2024. These higher incentives are especially helpful for smaller businesses with limited capital.
The CES program team works one-on-one with local Sacramento businesses to navigate infrastructure upgrade needs for energy efficiency and electrification projects, ranging from refrigeration, heat pump water heaters, heat pump HVAC systems, cooking equipment, plug loads, EV supply equipment and smart thermostats.
An example of the CES program’s decarbonization work is the energy upgrades provided to the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento (CRH), a nonprofit facility in SMUD’s service territory. CRH provides a range of services to youth in crisis, including mental health care, on-site preschool and residential treatment. Each year, CRH serves hundreds of youth in the Sacramento region at their campus, which includes residential dormitory buildings, a gym and an administrative building.
Since 2022, the CES program team has worked with CRH to begin replacement of all gas-powered HVAC units onsite with energy-efficient electric heat pumps, helping to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their 2,775 square foot facility. Not only does this save energy and reduce emissions, but it also increases the reliability of HVAC at CRH, making sure residents have comfortable living and recreation spaces.
To date, SMUD has provided CRH with incentives of over $91,000 to make multiple HVAC and thermostat upgrades that have reduced the home’s energy usage by over 118,000 kWh.
“SMUD’s net-zero 2030 goal is forward thinking, and we see it as one more way that we are investing in the youth that we serve. I think it would be a little short-sighted of us to do this work with these youth, and help support them from a mental health perspective, but then neglect the environmental issues that face the Sacramento area, too.”
Travis Murphy, Facilities Director, Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento
Results
For over a decade, TRC has supported SMUD with program implementation and electrification research efforts. We provide technical advising, market outreach support, contractor training and recruitment, stakeholder engagement, and market research to support both the residential and commercial sectors. Our work with SMUD has led to the installations of hundreds of heat pumps in small to medium businesses and the construction of thousands of all-electric homes in SMUD’s service area. With support from TRC, SMUD’s residential new construction program transitioned to all-electric, a first in SMUD’s portfolio. Through the CES program by and partnering with TRC, SMUD has delivered almost 25 GWh in savings and over $4 million dollars in incentives for Sacramento area projects overall.
For more information about SMUD’s CES program, visit: smud.org/CES
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