17670.
For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:(a) “Community school” means a school that mitigates the educational disadvantages associated with poverty and improves pupils’ attendance, behavior, and achievement by operating as a hub of community resources, providing integrated educational, health, and mental health services to pupils with a wide range of needs.
(b) “Energy Commission” means the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
(c) “Local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school.
(d) “Priority development community” means any of the following:
(1) A disadvantaged community identified pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
(2) A low-income community, as defined in Section 39713 of the Health and Safety Code.
(3) Locations within one-half mile of a low-income community.
(4) An enterprise zone.
17671.
(a) (1) For the 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23 fiscal years, the sum of three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) is hereby appropriated in each of those fiscal years from the General Fund to the Energy Commission to administer a program to provide resiliency grant funding and technical assistance to local educational agencies for the installation of energy storage systems.(2) Notwithstanding any other law, the amount appropriated in paragraph (1) shall not be deemed to be “General Fund revenues appropriated for school districts,” as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 41202, and shall not be included within the “total allocations to school districts and community college districts from General Fund proceeds of taxes
appropriated pursuant to Article XIII B,” as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 41202, for purposes of meeting the minimum funding requirements for school districts and community college districts imposed by Section 8 of Article XVI of the California Constitution.
(b) (1) A local educational agency that seeks grant funding pursuant to this chapter shall apply to the Energy Commission. The Energy Commission shall establish quarterly application deadlines for these purposes.
(2) The Energy Commission shall allocate resiliency grant funding to local educational agencies in the following order of priority:
(A) Community schools.
(B) Projects for school facilities, including school campuses, administrative offices, and operations
facilities, in priority development communities that are also in high fire threat districts or in locations that have experienced at least one public safety power shutoff event, if funding for the site is not available from the equity resiliency budget of the self generation incentive program established pursuant to Section 379.6 of the Public Utilities Code.
(C) Projects for school facilities in priority development communities that are not in high fire threat districts but are in locations that have experienced at least one public safety power shutoff event.
(D) Projects for school facilities in high fire threat districts, or in locations that have experienced at least one public safety power shutoff event, but that are not in a priority development community.
(E) Projects for school facilities that have existing
solar energy systems, or solar-plus-storage systems.
(F) Projects for schools that serve as community emergency centers.
(G) Projects for a local educational agency that includes an energy resiliency plan in an application for modernization funding to the Office of Public School Construction.
(c) A local educational agency shall not use a sole source process to award grant funding pursuant to this chapter. A local educational agency may use the best value criteria, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) of former Section 20133 of the Public Contract Code, as that section read on December 31, 2014, to award grant funding pursuant to this chapter.
(d) (1) A grant provided pursuant to this section shall cover 80 percent of the
project cost, except for a low-income school, in which case the grant shall cover 95 percent of the project cost.
(2) Project cost includes the costs of any of the following:
(A) An energy storage system and associated components.
(B) Energy controls to operate the energy storage system during an outage of the electric grid.
(C) Electrical work and equipment needed to configure the connection of the solar and energy storage systems so that they can operate during an outage of the electric grid.
(D) Electrical work to isolate circuits to be served by the energy storage system.
(3) A project is eligible for funding if it is
financed and owned by the local educational agency or financed and owned by a third party that has a power purchase or energy services agreement with the local educational agency.
17672.
(a) The Energy Commission shall provide local educational agencies with preapplication funding for technical assistance to support development of an application for a resiliency grant pursuant to Section 17671. Eligible technical assistance services may include, but are not necessarily limited to, all of the following:(1) Analysis of historical energy usage and strategies for using energy storage to reduce utility costs and for using energy storage to provide electricity during an outage for a specified duration.
(2) Analysis of schoolsite conditions.
(3) Meetings with facility managers to determine resiliency plan
objectives.
(4) Development of an application for a resiliency grant.
(b) A resiliency grant may include funding for additional technical assistance, including any of the following:
(1) Preparation of a competitive solicitation proposal for the installation of equipment and electrical work.
(2) Review and evaluation of responses to the solicitation.
(3) Provide contracting, project management, and commissioning oversight support.