Rural Voices Part 4 | County of SLO
Established in 1850 as one of California’s original 27 counties, the County of San Luis Obispo (The County) covers 3,300 square miles with 100 miles of coastline. Within the county, there are seven cities, and several special districts that have traditionally been unable to access energy efficiency programming available to larger more populated areas.
Over the past decade, the County has provided energy efficiency programing under various implementation and administrative efforts. Early on, the County of San Luis Obispo Energy Watch Program implemented five distinct programs focusing on climate services and energy retrofits for aging building stock and infrastructure within the county, special districts, and cities as well as small to medium business. The County managed these programs until recently when the investor-owned utilities began the process of outsourcing public sector partnerships across the state. The County also implemented, in partnership with the County of Santa Barbara, the Residential emPower Program that focused on single family retrofits for customers. The successes of the emPower program carried forward in new endeavors under the Tri-County Regional Energy Network.
The County now delivers a different program as part of the Tri-County Regional Network (3C-REN). In collaboration with the counties of Santa Barbara and Ventura, the County of San Luis Obispo delivers three distinct and tailored programs to meet the needs of our rural building professionals and residents. The three programs include Codes and Standards, Workforce Education and Training, and Residential Direct Install. For public and private building professionals, 3C-REN offers free training, regional forums, and energy code support. For households, 3C-REN delivers direct installation of free and low-cost energy efficiency and electrification measures. However, the County lacks access beyond just the residential sector.
The County is rural, and gaps are growing beyond current energy programming. For example, Agriculture is a robust industry in our region; small to medium businesses are a mainstay of the local economy and were hit hard during the pandemic; and many of the schools, jurisdictions, and special districts within the county still in need assistance with energy management and retrofits. The County’s rural and small nature makes it an undesirable and cost ineffective location for energy service providers and outside program administrators to deliver. As gaps grow the County will not have a chance at an equitable transition to a clean energy future.
The County of SLO, with 3C-REN, began to gather input from stakeholders in the Agriculture, Commercial, and Public sectors in order to begin developing expanded program offerings to existing and new customers. In March 2022, 3C-REN submitted an updated business plan to further fill gaps for rural and hard-to-reach customers in the tri-county region. The submitted business plan includes current programs offered by 3C-REN – Residential Direct Install, Codes & Standards, and Workforce Education & Training – and new programs for the following sectors – Agriculture, Public, and Commercial. 3C-REN anticipates approval of the business plan in Q3 2023 and is looking forward to providing access to more programs and funding in the tri-county region starting in 2024.