Overview of Recommended Actions from Plan.

Full Plan (100 pages) available: http://www.sandag.org/uploads/publicationid/publicationid_1476_10631.pdf

Regional Energy Goals - Action Plan overview:

Recommended Actions to Promote Energy Efficiency and Conservation

SANDAG
EE-1.
Provide energy efficiency planning assistance to local governments through the SANDAG Sustainable Region Program.

Local Governments
EE-2.
Establish building energy rating and disclosure policies that inform building owners of their energy usage.
EE-3.
Develop a policy to include energy star appliances in new construction.
EE-4.
Exceed Title 24 energy requirements for new construction through regulations or incentives that work toward an overall goal of zero net energy new homes by 2020 and zero net energy new commercial buildings by 2030.
EE-5.
Increase enforcement of building energy requirements to reduce the rate of noncompliance.
EE-6.
Promote policies that lead to energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings.
EE-7.
Support increased use of solar water heating in residential, pool, and commercial uses to offset natural gas demand (e.g., pre-plumb policies).

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
EE-8.
Develop model language for a range of policies that seek to reduce energy use in existing buildings and new construction.
EE-9.
Develop a whole-building retrofit program to improve energy efficiency in existing residential, commercial, municipal, and other buildings.
EE-10.
Establish financing programs (using public or private sources) that residents and businesses can access to conduct energy assessments and make energy efficiency retrofits to existing buildings, as well as other energy-related improvements such as distributed photovoltaic installations.
EE-11.
Conduct an assessment of the regional building stock to determine the potential magnitude of energy savings, their contribution to the energy efficiency and conservation goal, and geographical concentrations of retrofit opportunities.
EE-12.
Provide information and resources to help residents, businesses, developers, builders and others improve energy efficiency and conservation in new and existing buildings.

Recommended Actions to Support Renewable Energy

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
RE-1.
Identify potential locations in the region that could accommodate utility-scale renewable energy infrastructure.
RE-2.
Explore options to pre-permit zones of appropriate land for renewable energy development.
RE-3.
Identify existing barriers to siting large-scale renewable energy installations (e.g., renewable energy parks) in the San Diego region.
RE-4.
Support cost-effective transmission access and related infrastructure that will help the region meet or exceed requirements for procuring electricity from renewable resources while protecting environmental and other resources.
RE-5.
Monitor the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) and related state efforts and consider its recommendations in future regional planning.

Recommended Actions to Support Distributed Generation

Local Governments
DG-1.
Revise, or support revision of, local zoning policies, homeowner association codes, and other codes to remove hindrances and promote installation of PV or other distributed renewable energy systems (e.g., require or provide incentives for new construction to pre-wire for PV installation).
DG-2.
Explore opportunities and applications for local governments to demonstrate and deploy advanced energy storage with distributed generation technologies.

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
DG-3.
Combine energy assessments and energy efficiency improvements with installation of distributed energy generation systems to reduce system costs and maximize energy savings.
DG-4.
Establish financing programs (using public or private sources) that residents and businesses can access to install distributed energy systems such as PV and combined heat and power systems as well as conduct energy assessments and make energy efficiency retrofits to existing buildings.
DG-5.
Continue to monitor and support a feed-in-tariff or other policies that will facilitate increased, cost-effective installation of small-scale renewable energy systems like solar photovoltaics.
DG-6.
Identify local barriers to DG installations and provide supportable and applicable solutions across jurisdictions to reduce confusion for builders, contractors, and officials, about technologies, costs and benefits.
DG-7.
Conduct analysis of potential applications for CHP systems in the region (e.g., industrial, hotel, etc.).
DG-8.
Promote the use of high efficiency distributed generation technologies like combined heat and power.
DG-9.
Encourage local home builders to participate in the New Solar Homes Partnership to install solar photovoltaics on new homes in the region.

Recommended Actions for Energy and Water

Local Governments
EW-1.
Increase energy conservation and efficiency of water end-uses in the residential and commercial sectors, with priority on the largest end uses of water (e.g., landscape irrigation, toilets, and showers) and the water end-uses with the most embedded energy (e.g., dishwashers, residential clothes washers and commercial laundries, and showers).

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
EW-2.
Identify existing or develop new financing mechanisms that end users can utilize to reduce water-related energy consumption (e.g., purple pipe to support use of reclaimed water), such as those available for energy measures (e.g., on-bill financing [property tax or utility] and low interest loans).
EW-3.
Integrate measures that save water and energy into any regional retrofit program(s) to incorporate energy efficiency and distributed generation into the existing building stock.
EW-4.
Promote energy efficiency, demand response and self generation efforts to local governments that own or operate water pumping stations and water or wastewater treatment facilities.
EW-5.
Support or identify uses for existing unused reclaimed water to decrease the amount of energy needed to meet the water needs of the San Diego region.
EW-6.
Identify and support programs for residential re-use of gray water to decrease the amount of energy needed to meet water needs.
EW-7.
Support landscape design educational programs to help residential customers install low water use landscaping, thereby reducing water-related energy use.

Recommended Actions to Support Peak Demand Reduction

Local Governments
PD-1.
Participate in peak demand reduction programs and undertake peak demand reduction measures at local government facilities.
PD-2.
Exceed Title 24 energy requirements for new construction through policy or incentives that work toward an overall goal of zero net energy new homes by 2020 and zero net energy new commercial buildings by 2030.
PD-3.
Develop policies to reduce energy use in existing buildings.

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
PD-4.
Support fair and reasonable rate designs and incentives that encourage customers reduced electricity consumption during peak demand periods.
PD-5.
Support the establishment of building retrofit programs or other mechanisms that can reduce energy consumption during periods of peak demand, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
PD-6.
Provide information and resources to help residents, businesses, developers, builders, non-profits, agencies, jurisdictions, schools, colleges and universities, and other institutions understand individual and community costs associated with peak electricity demand.
PD-7.
Monitor regional peak demand and measure the impacts of efforts to reduce peak demand.

Recommended Actions to Support the Smart Grid

SANDAG, Local Governments, or Other Regional Entities
SG-1.
Support efforts to modernize communications across the electricity grid through implementation of smart grid technologies and strategies in the San Diego region.
SG-2.
Support mechanisms that encourage installation of smart appliances that interface with smart meters and provide real time electricity pricing information to electricity consumers.
SG-3.
Support rate structures that reflect the real time price of electricity.
SG-4.
Support the rollout of advanced metering infrastructure that enables electric vehicles, distributed generation systems, and electricity consumption to be accurately monitored by end-users and the utility.
SG-5.
Support educational information on the regional deployment of the smart grid and smart meters.
SG-6.
Support regional entities such as universities and the utility in acquiring state and federal funds to implement components of the smart grid in the San Diego region.

Recommended Actions for Supporting Replacement of Inefficient Natural Gas Power Plants

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
NG-1.
Support the re-powering, replacement, or removal of older, inefficient coastal power plants in the region with the most efficient natural gas technology or renewable sources in other areas, or transmission upgrades, as needed -- consistent with state policy direction to address aging power plants and those with once through cooling.
NG-2.
Monitor the availability and price of natural gas.
NG-3.
Monitor and evaluate regional natural gas storage and pipeline capacity to accommodate future demand.
NG-4.
Support policies that reduce regional exposure to natural gas market volatility.

Recommended Actions to Support Increased Use of Alternative Transportation Fuels

TF-1.
Create an action plan that incorporates alternative fuel vehicles into SANDAG and local government-owned vehicle fleets, and the vehicle and equipment fleets of contractors and funding recipients, such as the vehicle fleet for the SANDAG vanpool program or for local government trash haulers.
TF-2.
Use the Regional Alternative Fuels, Vehicles, and Infrastructure Report and the RES as tools to support the integration of alternative transportation options into local government fleets, planned regional transportation projects, and future updates of the Regional Transportation Plan and the Regional Comprehensive Plan.
TF-3.
Develop a regional approach to infrastructure planning for alternative fuels by facilitating continued development of a public-private strategic alliance.
TF-4.
Support electricity and natural gas tariffs that encourage their use as transportation fuels.
TF-5.
Develop streamlined permitting requirements and standardized design guidelines and siting criteria for all types of electric charging stations (e.g., single- and multi-family residential, commercial, public access, etc.).
TF-6.
Accelerate the transition to plug-in hybrid electric and battery electric vehicles by developing a regional plan for the installation of a public access electric car charging network, as recommended in the Regional Alternative Fuels, Vehicles, and Infrastructure Report.
TF-7.
Analyze the potential impacts of widespread plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle deployment on the electricity grid.

Recommended Actions for Land Use and Transportation Planning

SANDAG
LUTP-1. Continue to encourage and assist local governments in implementing smart growth development (e.g., incorporating Potential Smart Growth Opportunity Areas into adopted land use plans, identifying new areas, and developing Planned Opportunity Areas) in part as a means to lower total vehicle miles traveled, save energy, and lower GHG emissions.

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
LUTP-2. Support policy measures that promote the general characteristics of a low-energy demand built environment (described above), energy efficient transportation choices, and alternative fuels and vehicles in future updates of the Regional Transportation Plan, and Regional Comprehensive Plan, such as:
a. Investments in pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit travel,
b. Measures to reduce transportation demand like telecommuting, congestion and road pricing as well as parking pricing and reform,
c. Compact, walkable, mixed-use and human-scale smart growth community design,
d. Measures to optimize the efficiency of vehicle travel conditions, and
e. Infrastructure to support alternative fuel vehicle charging and fueling.
LUTP-3.
Coordinate public investments related to transportation, energy, water supply, parks and open space and others in a manner that supports energy savings and climate change goals.
LUTP-4.
Explore opportunities to support one or more demonstration projects in the region that exemplify adopted smart growth principles along with comprehensive energy saving strategies such as distributed photovoltaic installation and energy efficient improvements in building retrofits or new construction.
LUTP-5.
Include comprehensive estimates of energy consumption and GHG emissions for land use and transportation planning scenarios at the regional, local, and project levels.

Recommended Actions for Energy and Borders

SANDAG
EB-1.
Encourage regional coordination on energy and climate change issues in the border region that come within the purview of SANDAG including the Borders Committee, Committee on Binational Regional Opportunities, and the Regional Energy Working Group.
EB-2.
Support measures related to cross-border goods movement that reduces petroleum use and GHG emissions from heavy duty vehicles.

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
EB-3.
Support the integration of energy-saving measures for buildings, transportation and overall project design for the (re)development of the land Ports of Entry between San Diego and Baja California.
EB-4.
Encourage conservation, energy efficiency, and peak demand reduction in San Diego and Baja California that relieve stress on the shared regional electricity system.
EB-5.
Support coordination with binational stakeholders to explore opportunities for developing renewable energy that benefits the binational region.

Recommended Actions for Clean Energy Economy

SANDAG, Local Governments, or other Regional Entities
CE-1.
Promote the integration of Clean Energy workforce training initiatives into existing workforce systems.
CE-2.
Support existing and future pathways to provide technical training for clean energy jobs to help integrate students and newly trained workers into the local workforce.
CE-3.
Support the development and implementation of clean energy workforce training programs amongst the region’s private and governmental organizations and labor unions.
CE-4.
Support local workforce training and education on Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) rating and whole-building improvements.
CE-5.
Support training and education to building officials and associated building trades on energy codes.
CE-6.
Collaborate with regional economists to identify metrics for measuring the clean energy economy, such as levels of investment, number of businesses, total jobs, etc.