Imperial, California - In what is expected to be a utility first, the IID Board of Directors approved a proposal today that will enable the district to offer solar energy to all of its low-income customers under a new community solar program.

Dubbed eGreen, the community solar program will serve Residential Energy Assistance Program participants as well as other IID energy customers who would like to receive the benefits of solar without the need for an individual rooftop system, which, for many customers in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, is out of their reach due to limited financial resources.

“Our goal is to provide all of our customers with an opportunity to support and benefit from clean, renewable, locally produced energy,” said Vicken Kasarjian IID’s energy manager. “There can be many barriers to developing a solar project on your own—eGreen will make renewable energy obtainable for everyone.”

The IID Board of Directors authorized staff to proceed with contract negotiation to develop a power purchase agreement of up to 60 megawatts with Regerate Power, LLC, the highest ranked respondent to a secondary request for proposal that was issued earlier this year.

In addition, the board also approved staff to enter into contract negotiations with Coachella Energy Storage Partners, LLC, to increase IID’s Battery Energy Storage System. CESP was the highest ranked respondent to a separate secondary request for proposal that was also issued earlier this year.

The battery storage expansion is expected to increase reliability, improve the efficiency of integrating intermittent resources into the IID grid and provide economic benefits to large commercial and agricultural customers as well as the local state prisons

IID currently has more than 14,000 customers who benefit from the district’ energy assistance program and can potentially qualify for the eGreen program. Additional details and information about the eGreen program and the battery storage expansion project will be available in the coming weeks.