No bids were submitted for a solar panel project by the April 12 deadline.
Twelve contractors came to a job walk for solar panels March 20 at Citrus College, Claudette Dain, vice president of finance and administrative services, said the same day a the Board of Trustees meeting.
At the time, Dain was hopeful that the school would receive good bids, she said, which are expected back April 12.
The project included potentially installing solar panels both on the hill south of the football field and in one of the parking lots, as well as possibly adding an electric vehicle charging station and batteries to store extra power produced by the solar panels.
“We’ve had a project that’s been in process for a little over a year,” said Fred Diamond, director of facilities and construction.
However, April 12 came and went and no bids were submitted, which means a delay in the project for solar power at Citrus College.
“There were no bids that were turned in,” said Diamond, “from all of the people who were at the bid walk nobody turned in a bid.”
It is unknown at this time why no bids were submitted.
“One of the things that occurs, especially with public works jobs, is that they have to be, who ever it is, all the contractors have to be bonded which is basically, that’s like their insurance policy,” Diamond said.
A bond, in relation to construction projects, protects the investor, in this case Citrus College, from any financial loss or interruptions caused by a failure, on the part of a construction company, to meet any contractual obligations. It is also known as a surety bond.
It is similar to a line of credit, in that a company can only be bonded for so much work at a time, Diamond said. When a company has too many projects going on at one time they are unable to receive a bond to cover an additional project.
The school’s administrators have the same energy engineer who helped the school put together a plan for the project researching to figure out why no bids were submitted.
Diamond would not identify the engineer.
Right now, the administration is trying to figure out whether to change the plans.
“So, we have to rethink everything,” said Diamond. “It doesn’t occur overnight.”
The contractors need to be surveyed and the plans may need to be rethought.
Other schools in the area are also looking into solar, and in Glendora they have already installed panels throughout the school district.
“All ten of our schools, our high school, our two middle school, our continuation high school and our six elementary schools, they all have solar installations.”said George Carney, energy manager at Glendora unified school district.
Glendora school’s have had a solar system for about a year.
“As far as the solar portion is concerned, there’s two locations that we’re looking at,” said Diamond. “One of them is in a parking lot, and then one of them is on the south facing side of the stadium, where you have the slope that goes up to the grandstands. Which is a perfect location because it’s got the perfect angle and it’s facing the south side; that’s where you want to hit because it gives you the optimum efficiency.”
This is due to the angle of the Earth in relation to the sun. In the summer, when the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, sunlight hits from pretty much directly overhead, but in the winter, when the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, sunlight hits at an angle from the south. Making solar panels angled to the south optimal.
“When we put our solar system in, it didn’t cost the district a cent, because we did what’s called a power purchase agreement,” said Carney. “A power purchase agreement works like this, the solar company, in our case it was PFMG of Huntington Beach, they install, finance, maintain, they do everything without any charge to us. In return, we agree to buy our solar output from these facilities, from them, for 25 years at a fixed contractual rate, which works out to about 55% of what Edison’s rates were at the time of the agreement.”
Rather than participating in a power purchase agreement, which, basically, is when a company leases solar panels and reaps the benefits of various government incentives, Diamond said that Citrus intends to pay for their own panels.
“One of the big reasons why it takes so long is because you have to have, it’s called an interconnection agreement with the utility and in our cases the utility is Southern California Edison,” Diamond said.
When schools in the area install solar panels, they are tying into the grid with the utility company and the energy produced by the solar panels can cause issues with the utility.
In response, utility companies have begun using a time of use rate plans, in which rates for power change throughout the day based on usage. Costs increase during peak usage hours and go down in the middle of the night.
“We are just finishing our first full year of solar activity and it’s looking like or overall saving for this first year is about $150,000,”Carney said. Adding, that he’d have more exact data in about a month or so.
Because of the time of use rates, one option the school’s administration is considering is battery storage.
Battery storage would benefit the school by allowing any extra power produced by the solar panels to be stored, rather than that power going into the power grid.
Glendora schools do not have battery storage, however, it is something that administrators in the district are looking into for the future, Carney said. “At the time, two or three years ago, when we committed to the solar thing the battery technology was not worth it at that point.”
Southern California Edison uses time-of-use rates, or rates that vary based on the time of day that power is consumed.
Currently, Edison pays those who produce more power than they use, however, the rate may not cover any costs incurred outside of solar generated power.
For example, if Citrus installed solar panels without battery storage, Edison could pay the school for any power that is put into the grid by the solar panels. But solar power can only be generated during the day, so Citrus would still need to purchase power from Edison. If the rate that Edison pays Citrus for the solar power they generate during the day is less than the rate Edison charges for the power it needs to operate at night, then Citrus would only be making a fraction of what it pays.
Storing extra power in a battery would help prevent this, because, ideally, the battery would store power produced during the day when rates are lower and then release the stored power when rates are higher.
There is also the possibility of one or more electric vehicle charging stations. Although it could reduce the amount of parking in a lot by a few spaces, it could put Citrus ahead of other local community colleges.
