Nevada County outlines resilience road map, eyes state funds and Pioneer Community Energy membership
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Summary
County staff briefed supervisors on a non‑regulatory resource resilience road map and urged using matching funds to leverage state and federal grants; Pioneer Community Energy membership was described as on track with service expected to start in October 2027.
Tricia Tillotson and county staff told the Board of Supervisors that a draft county resource resilience road map — a non‑regulatory document produced with consultant Rincon — will be released for public review in May and returned to the Board for consideration in July. The plan compiles a community greenhouse‑gas inventory, a vulnerability assessment, and draft voluntary measures across five categories, staff said.
The presentation emphasized grant readiness. “We have the CRC grant for $10,000,000,” Supervisor Hardy said, noting that state and federal money can fund energy‑efficiency and resiliency projects across county facilities. Planning director Brian Foss said the road map identifies actions to make the county more competitive for state funding and to clarify priorities for implementation. “The road map is being drafted to be a non‑regulatory document,” Foss said, and staff described a schedule of additional public workshops and targeted stakeholder meetings through spring before publishing the draft.
Staff also updated the Board on Pioneer Community Energy, a community choice aggregation to which Nevada County joined earlier this year. Mandy Stewart said Pioneer is procuring power for expanded member jurisdictions and that service is expected to begin in October 2027. County members will be notified and will be able to opt out if they prefer to remain with PG&E, Stewart said.
Supervisors signaled support for pursuing state funding opportunities tied to the resilience work and for creating a centrally managed matching‑fund pot that staff and the budget subcommittee can deploy. Staff emphasized that individual grant requests would return to the Board for formal approval where required. The Board advised staff to prioritize projects that best position the county to capture Proposition 4 allocations and other grants.
Next steps: staff will publish a second community survey in February, hold focus groups, and bring a draft road map to the Board in July for consideration and potential adoption.
