Board gives staff direction to start with smaller Flash microgrid boundary but to try to expand to include Lucerne

Deputy County Administrative Officer Ben Rickelman and Trane representative Michael Day briefed the board on two candidate service boundaries for the Flash predevelopment microgrid: a larger map (B4) that includes Lucerne and a smaller map (B5) that excludes Lucerne.

Rickelman said both boundaries "are viable options" but that the smaller B5 has "stronger project economics." Michael Day and Trane presented preliminary projections showing the larger boundary could reduce cash flow roughly 20—25% compared with a more compact boundary; they cautioned these are early feasibility figures.

Board members debated priorities: some supervisors favored maximizing the area served and urged staff to "make Lucerne work," citing equity and resilience; others recommended starting conservatively so the project pencils out financially. Trane explained technical tradeoffs: storage and solar size affect how long the microgrid can operate in island mode and winter recharge limits challenge larger boundaries.

After public comment (some callers urged completion of a county energy policy before project decisions; others favored broader coverage for resilience), the board reached consensus to start with the B5 boundary for the PG&E grant and initial feasibility work but gave explicit direction in the motion and staff guidance to pursue expansion where possible and to optimize subsequent design choices to cover as many people as reasonably feasible, including Lucerne if the feasibility work supports it.

Staff said PG&E will accept revisions and that the feasibility study will return options and cost estimates for final decisions. The board did not authorize construction funding; the grants fund predevelopment and CEQA-level analysis only.