Yucaipa Valley Water District Breaks Ground on a State-of-the-Art Resiliency and Clean Energy Project in Collaboration with ENGIE
June 20 2024 - 5:00PM
The Yucaipa Valley Water District (YVWD) has initiated
groundbreaking on its resiliency and clean energy water and
wastewater project. The project includes the installation of 7
megawatts (MW) of solar power, a 3.3 MW/13 megawatt hour energy
storage system, and 3.2 MW of natural gas generators coupled with
microgrid controllers. The program is designed to advance clean
energy adoption and the energy efficiency of water management at
two key locations: the Yucaipa Valley Regional Water Filtration
Facility and the Wochholz Regional Water Recycling Facility. A
Southern California-based team from ENGIE North America (ENGIE)
will manage the construction, ownership, and operation of the
systems.
“This project marks a significant step forward in YVWD’s
commitment to sustainability and energy resilience, ensuring
reliable and efficient water services for the community,” said
Joseph Zoba, General Manager from YVWD. "With the increase in power
outages and PSPS across California, communities are facing enormous
pressure to adapt and find new ways to ensure that critical
operations are not impacted by grid outages. This project will
enable YVWD to provide much-needed resiliency and reliability
during power outages, ensuring our community remains safe and
operational.”
The YVWD manages over 220 miles of drinking water pipelines and
provides a combination of water, sewer, and recycled water
connections to more than 22,000 ratepayers in the Inland Empire.
The project will significantly improve the District’s capacity to
serve residents, keep rates stable, and hedge against rising energy
costs. It is designed to meet the District’s long-term resiliency
goals and ensure safe, reliable power to key facilities during
public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events. In Yucaipa Valley, a
historically fire-prone region of Southern California, the
community has faced increasing risks, managing fires nearly every
two years.
“We are proud to work with Yucaipa Valley Water District to make
the community’s critical infrastructure more resilient. By
leveraging project savings, ENGIE is able to deliver critical
facilities' resiliency and reduce energy costs significantly,” said
Courtney Jenkins, Vice President of Energy Solutions from ENGIE
North America. “This initiative is projected to create $82 million
in net savings after covering all costs over the 28-year agreement.
The environmental impact of this project is substantial, with a
carbon emissions reduction equivalent to removing 2,105 cars from
the road annually.”
Following a project launch event at the Water Filtration
Facility in May, YVWD celebrated the start of facility work at the
Regional Water Recycling Facility during a groundbreaking ceremony
this week.
About YVWDYucaipa Valley
Water District is in San Bernardino County California. The District
service area includes properties in Riverside County, San
Bernardino County, Yucaipa and Calimesa. Yucaipa Valley Water
District is in YVWD is a special district whose core mission is to
provide reliable water and wastewater service to a 40 square-mile
region with 223 miles of drinking water pipelines and 27 reservoirs
with 34 million gallons of storage capacity.
About ENGIE North AmericaBased in Houston, Texas, ENGIE
North America Inc. is a regional hub of ENGIE, a global leader in
low-carbon energy and services. ENGIE (ENGI), is listed on the
Paris and Brussels Stock Exchanges. Together with our 97,000
employees around the globe, our customers, partners and
stakeholders, we are committed to accelerate the transition toward
a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more
environmentally friendly solutions. Inspired by our purpose, we
reconcile economic performance with a positive impact on people and
the planet, building on our key businesses (gas, renewable energy,
services) to offer competitive solutions to our customers. In North
America, ENGIE helps our clients achieve their energy efficiency,
reliability, and ultimately, their sustainability goals, as we work
together to shape a sustainable future. We accomplish this through:
energy efficiency projects, providing energy supply (including
renewables and natural gas), and the development, construction and
operation of renewable energy assets (wind, solar, storage and
more). For more information on ENGIE North America, please visit
our LinkedIn page or Twitter feed, https://www.engie-na.com/ and
https://www.engie.com.
- Yucaipa Valley Water District
Michael Clingan, External Relations
ENGIE North America
(832) 745-6057
Joseph Zoba, General Manager
Yucaipa Valley Water District
(909) 372-0041