Council receives update on town energy‑generation microgrid project; library site faces constraints

Town staff told the Moraga Town Council on March 26 that the town is preparing a request for proposals (RFP) for an energy‑generation “microgrid” intended to provide resilience to planned and unplanned power outages at municipal facilities.

Public Works Director and Town Engineer Sean Knapp described the project as a possible combination of rooftop and parking‑canopy solar, battery storage and backup generators. “This is a solar microgrid system, which is composed of, solar panels, could have a a backup generator, and it could have backup, power, power battery energy, storage,” Knapp said.

Knapp and consultant Larry Thiess said staff and the consultant Clean Coalition have completed site analyses for three town facilities — town hall/council chambers, the library and a town courtyard/emergency‑operations space — and are finalizing RFP language. Staff presented a planning assumption used for modeling: a notional cost of about $0.40 per kilowatt‑hour as a baseline for potential power‑purchase agreements and a 25‑year project horizon.

The council heard that the library parking lot is constrained by property and utility easements. Knapp said part of the front parking lot is on a parcel owned by Central Contra Costa Sanitary District and “they would not allow us to put canopies” that require foundations; another portion of the lot lies under PG&E high‑voltage lines that prohibit structures beneath them. Knapp also noted that mature redwood trees limit solar exposure on the library roof, and removing trees would trigger separate project decisions because the trees are on town property and influence roof maintenance and shading.

Staff said the RFP will allow proposers to offer either a town‑financed purchase or a developer‑owned power‑purchase agreement (PPA). Consultant Larry Thiess told the council the purchase‑price option could require upfront capital on the order of multiple millions of dollars (staff-level estimates were presented), while a PPA would let a developer own and operate the system and sell power to the town at a fixed price over the contract term. Thiess said the RFP financial scenarios include a generator‑only backup option (lower capital cost, estimated in the mid-six‑hundred‑thousand dollar range) and larger solar-plus-storage options with higher upfront cost.

Council members asked for several clarifications and next steps: include a rate‑of‑return analysis in the RFP evaluation metrics, keep generator‑only as an option, and present any library‑vs‑alternative‑site tradeoffs (staff said the Hacienda and other town sites had been considered previously but were excluded for technical or metering reasons). Staff said the RFP release is planned in the coming weeks with proposals due in a bid period through the summer and that council action on a selected proposer could come later in 2025 with construction possible in 2026–27.

No contract award was requested at the March 26 meeting; the item was an informational update and the council did not take a procurement vote.