Gardena City Council on Oct. 28 approved contracts with SiteLogIQ Inc. to build a solar photovoltaic system, battery energy-storage and electric-vehicle charging infrastructure at the city’s GTrans facility and employee parking area, agreeing to the recommended five-year design-build and operations-and-maintenance package plus an extended-warranty option.

Director Crespo, who presented the item for the transit division, said the system will allow GTrans to shift high-demand loads (notably CNG compressor use) from the utility grid to battery power during peak periods. "Those generators will still fire up, but they will be firing up off of the batteries," Director Crespo said of the system’s operation, explaining the batteries will reduce peak-grid consumption and lower utility bills.

The council approved the staff-recommended contract amount presented at the December motion: $5,565,481.53 for the design-build and years 1–5 of operations and maintenance and performance guarantees, with authorization to exercise an optional extended-warranty and O&M term for years 6–10 at $154,173.65 and to set a project contingency of 20% (approximately $1,143,931.04). Staff told the council the project was funded from GTrans’s dedicated state and local capital funds and would have no direct impact on the general fund.

City staff estimated the project will save GTrans about $235,000 per year in utility costs tied to fleet fueling and charging and projected total net savings of about $4.1 million over a 25-year system life. "This project keeps pushing our sustainability goals and also allows us to save money at the same time," Director Crespo said.

Council members asked how the savings and payback were calculated and about staff and employee use of chargers. Councilmember Love asked whether the lifetime savings figure meant the system would both pay back the initial cost and still generate the stated additional savings; staff responded the 25-year figure was the multiplication of the annual savings estimate across the expected system life and that the payback would be in the neighborhood of 20 years given present assumptions.

On employee charging, staff said the initial installation will include chargers for some city fleet vehicles and approximately five employee parking stalls; the city will continue the current policy of allowing employees to charge at city facilities without a user fee to incentivize electrification.

The council approved the contract and related authorizations on a 5–0 vote (Serta, Henderson, Tanaka, Francis, Love).