Half Moon Bay council selects downtown boundary for PG&E microgrid grant application

Half Moon Bay city council on Oct. 7 directed Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) and city staff to apply for PG&E’s Microgrid Incentive Program for a community microgrid centered on downtown Half Moon Bay.

The council’s decision follows an extended presentation by Ross Fisher of Peninsula Clean Energy and interim city engineer Dale Lita, who presented technical options, site constraints and rough cost and land estimates for several candidate microgrid boundaries.

A microgrid, Fisher said, pairs local solar, battery storage and dispatchable loads behind the utility meter (or at the distribution level) so a defined area can “island” and keep serving critical facilities during extended outages. He told the council that PG&E increased available funding for the program to $30 million statewide the morning of the meeting and expected to fund roughly seven projects, with awards on the order of $3–4 million per project plus up to $1 million for interconnection upgrades.

Why it matters: Peninsula Clean Energy and the city emphasized coastal outages and fire- and storm-related vulnerability along the San Mateo County coast. The microgrid program scores projects on critical facilities served, outage history and other resilience criteria; selecting a competitive boundary is necessary to receive grant funding.

What the council heard: PCE presented five candidate boundaries and explained why some were infeasible. Large boundaries that would include the sand plant (referred to as “Sam” in the presentation) or long stretches of coast would require tens of acres and multi‑megawatt solar arrays and therefore were unlikely to be competitive. By contrast, Fisher said, a downtown boundary that would include the sheriff’s substation, community center, two schools and other facilities had a lower cumulative load (about 900,000 kilowatt‑hours annually), would require roughly a 640‑kilowatt solar PV equivalent and about three acres of conventional ground‑mount area (or less if carports/roof mounts were used), and therefore was more viable for the grant.

The council also heard a south‑side option (fire station through Seacrest School and the coast‑side senior center) whose annual load PCE estimated at about 2,000,000 kWh, requiring about a 1.4‑MW system and around six acres for a ground‑mount solution. Fisher said the south option could be viable with hybrid rooftop/carport siting but would carry higher land requirements and cost.

Council discussion and vote: Councilmember (name not specified in the record) moved that the city pursue the downtown option (identified as Option 4 in PCE materials). The motion was seconded (second not recorded by name). A roll call recorded three yes votes: Councilmember Johnson — yes; Councilmember Deborah Penrose — yes; Mayor Robert Brownstone — yes. Motion carries, 3–0.

Next steps and timeline: Fisher said PCE and staff must pick a boundary by Oct. 15 and submit a full application by Dec. 17. If funded, PG&E’s evaluation would take three to six months; after award the technical studies, permitting and construction would put likely in‑service dates in the 2028–2030 range.

Caveats and limits: PCE stressed that awards are competitive and not guaranteed, that islanding designs must meet minimum resiliency requirements (PCE noted a baseline of 24 hours of battery backup in the worst‑case no‑sun scenario), and that land use and interconnection remain open questions. City staff and council said they will pursue additional conversations with property owners (including the sand plant operator and potential partners) and asked staff to investigate land‑lease options as designs firm up.

Evidence: Presentation and discussion led by Ross Fisher, Peninsula Clean Energy, and Dale Lita, interim city engineer; council motion and roll‑call vote recorded on Oct. 7, 2025.