Pasadena School Board to Hear Plans for ‘Controversial’ Solar Power Plan

Plans for a “controversial” District-wide PUSD solar power project will be heard by the Board of Education Thursday.

According to a PUSD agenda report, the project envisions district power expenditure savings of up to $17 million over the length of the 25-year contract.

“It’s such a long-term commitment,” said Board member Scott Phelps Wednesday. “It’s such an unknown, I guess that’s why it’s controversial. We don’t know what the power rate will be. We’re doing it because there’s an estimate that they will increase, and so we locked in lower rates.”

PUSD signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with PFMG Solar in 2018 for construction and operation of the PUSD solar project. PFMG has since been sold to Constellation, a subsidiary of Exelon, which owns six utility companies across the US.

Under the PPA, PUSD will not spend any funds from project inception to completion; additionally, there will be no maintenance costs for the next 25 years.

The school district shall pay a reduced rate of energy costs, approximately $.05 or less per kilowatt-hour. Over 60 percent of PUSD’s electricity requirements can be supplied by solar power, resulting in large power savings, the PUSD said.

According to spokesperson Dave Snyder of Constellation, the rate is 5 cents per kW/h less than they would otherwise pay if they were purchasing energy from the utility.

Phelps added, “We just don’t know what will happen over 25 years. Long-term power contracts remind me too much of what happened to the State of California during the games Enron and others were playing.”

According to a January 2020 U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, “The EIA expects that wholesale electricity prices in many areas of the country in 2020 will be lower than last year, reflecting the lower costs for natural gas as a fuel for power generation.”

The report also forecast that wholesale prices in the Southwest will rise 5% in 2020, as a result of the recent retirement of some coal-fired generating units. In 2021, EIA expects that “wholesale power prices will increase in most areas, as a result of an expected 9% increase in the cost of natural gas.”

EIA also forecast that the U.S. retail price for the residential sector will average 1 cents/KWhh (kilowatt hours) in 2020, which is 1.2% higher than the average retail price in 2019. Forecast residential prices will increase by an additional 1.2% in 2021, said the report.

Phelps said he didn’t know whether or not the agreement was a “bad idea.”

“I just don’t like a lack of flexibility,” he said, adding, “Then again, we have to pay whatever we are charged now by Pasadena Department of Water and Power and Edison so maybe it’s not any worse.”

According to Phelps, a number of Southern California school districts have solar panels in parking lots. Those districts may have purchased the equipment with school bonds, he said.

According to the District agenda report, construction of the solar panels under Phase 1 is slated to begin this month, at no cost to PUSD nor to the City of Pasadena. The first phase will include installation at Coombs Elementary School, John Muir HS, Cleveland ES, Don Benito FS, Hamilton ES, and McKinley, with completion expected by the end of June.

The second phase of the project, will begin construction in February, with completion expected around July or August. Phase 2 will include installation work at Rose City High School, Field ES, Longfellow ES, Madison ES, Sierra Madre MS, Washington STEAM, and Blair HS. Completion of Phase 2 is expected in July or August.

Phase 3 and Phase 4 of the project begin construction later, with the latest completion date around December 2020. In all, 28 PUSD campuses will have solar power plants, upon the completion of the project.

The Board of Education meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. at PUSD Headquarters, at 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena.