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A solar-and-battery standalone grid that’s coming to SBCC will also provide a refuge for residents during emergencies.
No man is an island (at least that’s what John Donne said in 1624). But in the face of blackouts and an electric grid that’s never quite as reliable as we’d like, it’s sometimes wise to become an island of electricity — a microgrid.
Santa Barbara has the dubious distinction of having one of the least reliable electrical services in the U.S. The same geographic isolation that makes this such a fine place to live also makes it hard to get juice to, so we rely on a single power line crossing 40 miles of terrain prone to wildfires, earthquakes, and landslides. The county sees about double the amount of outages as the rest of Southern California Edison customers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency ranks us in the 99.4th percentile for natural disaster risk.
In response to these threats, Santa Barbara City College is planning to create a microgrid that will help protect it from outages and provide an electrified refuge for locals in times of crisis.
Microgrid 101
A microgrid is simply a small electrical grid with defined boundaries, as opposed to the giant set of electric grids that cover the United States. Microgrids normally operate as part of the regular grid, but when the power on the main grid goes out, they shift to “island mode.” To do this, a microgrid must have its own power source, and usually electrical storage, as well.
Microgrids typically cover a geographically defined college or business campus or remote settlement, but can include residential or commercial areas that decide they want to have more independence. (An individual house or building that can go it alone is called a “nanogrid.”)
As long as the larger grid is behaving, SBCC will be connected like anyone else. But when things go south, SBCC will detach and go it alone with enough battery power for eight to 24 hours.
There are about 700 microgrids in the U.S., accounting for less than 0.5% of U.S. electricity. Microgrids needn’t be powered by renewable energy, but they have grown in popularity as interest in renewable energy has soared. The main challenges are financial and legal, as different states have wildly different laws and regulations for microgrids. SBCC benefits from a generous state grant and a more progressive regulatory framework in California.
SBCC Goes Micro
SBCC has partnered with New Jersey–based Scale Microgrids to build 1.6 megawatts of solar arrays on campus, backed up with Tesla Megapack battery storage systems. As long as the larger grid is behaving, SBCC will be connected like anyone else. But when things go south, SBCC will detach and go it alone with enough battery power for eight to 24 hours. In those instances, SBCC will also operate as a “community resilience hub,” where residents can access emergency services or just charge their electronics.
The project is happening thanks to a $4.2 million grant from the California Energy Commission, with funds from the Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The microgrid will also have the benefit of lowering emissions and saving SBCC money, as well as reducing peak loads on the larger grid. Integrating battery storage reduces peak demand by storing solar energy during the day and discharging it during high-demand periods in the evening.
The project “actually started some years ago,” says Chris Renbarger, SBCC vice president of business services. “There was interest from some of our environmental faculty in revitalizing the solar on campus and creating a resiliency hub. The campus interviewed a variety of companies and settled on Scale, and with their help, applied for the California Energy Commission grant. … That grant helps pay for the project, but it also paves the way for us to do some educational activities surrounding environmental stewardship and energy generation through solar.”
Scale will build and own the project at no cost to SBCC, selling the electricity produced to the college at reduced rates, with savings of more than $100,000 in the first year. The potential savings to SBCC over the 25-year agreement is in the millions.
There will be one set of arrays on the east campus and one on the west, all located over parking lots to provide additional shade. Some trees will have to be removed, but all of them will be replaced, and coast live oaks will be replaced 10 to 1, as required by county law.
Although there are still some permitting hurdles to overcome, SBCC hopes to begin construction in the summer of 2027 and be up and running by the end of that year. “We’re doing that at the same time that we’re doing parking lot repavings,” Renbarger notes. “We want to make sure that we do those simultaneously, so we don’t have to trench or tear up the pavement more than once.”
Scale will build and own the project at no cost to SBCC, selling the electricity produced to the college at reduced rates, with savings over $100,000 in the first year. The potential savings to SBCC over the 25-year agreement is in the millions.
As for what would happen during an emergency, Renbarger says, “The campus has in the past and will continue to serve as an emergency gathering center for the community in case of disaster. We typically use our PE building, which is currently being reconstructed. It will be done in spring of 2028.
“So one of the great things about this project is that if there’s an emergency and power is out broadly, we will be able to support power in those buildings for a few days to make sure that residents have a place to gather and be comfortable and contact their loved ones.”
