Driving Down Emissions and Creating Prosperity: How PG&E Helps Large Customers Achieve Energy Efficiency Upgrades Saving Millions

By Paul Doherty

What do Veterans Affairs, State Hospitals and the California Department of Motor Vehicles have in common? They’re examples of large energy customers that worked with PG&E to electrify and decarbonize their facilities, resulting in millions of dollars in annual customer cost savings and substantial energy usage and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

PG&E’s Energy Consulting Services (ECS) team designs and builds new energy and water related infrastructure for a wide range of customers including cities and counties, universities, hospitals, federal and state agencies, water treatment facilities, and commercial businesses throughout PG&E’s Northern and Central California service area.

In addition to the VA, State Hospitals, and DMV, customers include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Veterans Affairs (VA), the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the United States Army and the US Coast Guard among many others.

Services the ECS team provides to customers include:

• LED lighting upgrades
• High efficiency boilers and chillers
• Conversion of gas to heat pumps
• On-site solar generation
• Battery energy storage
• Building management systems (BMS)
• Back-up generation
• Low-flow water fixtures
• EV chargers

Customers that have used these services typically see cost, energy, and CO2 savings of 20-40% annually.

“We provide a one-stop-solution that identifies, designs, and implements behind-the-meter energy, water, and infrastructure measures for our largest customers. Annual energy cost savings generated from the measures are used to finance/pay for the projects themselves — including through the use of on-bill financing. The magic is that these are ‘energy performance projects’ in which the annual energy costs savings yielded by the project measures are repurposed to pay back the loans used to procure the upgrades; so we’re driving down carbon emissions and saving customers money — delivering clean and resilient energy solutions while creating prosperity for all,” said John Garnett, a Product Manager on the ECS team.

Project Spotlight: Veterans Affairs

PG&E’s team initially partnered with the VA to identify and implement efficiency and infrastructure improvements at several VA facilities across California: in San Francisco, Fresno, Livermore, Menlo Park, Martinez, Mather, and McClellan.

VA’s goals were clear: increase energy efficiency, conserve water, sure-up aging infrastructure, and fund as much as possible with project-generated savings.

PG&E, and its competitively selected contractor, embarked on rigorous audit work at each site, conducting lengthy visits, analyzing energy usage and billing data, designing and pricing replacement equipment systems, and generating draft final reports for review by VA.

This culminated in an intensive selection process during which VA together with PG&E and its contractor picked those measures best suited to meet VA’s needs at each location. LED lighting, HVAC upgrades, new roofing, solar PV, new boiler and chiller plants, electrical system replacements and control upgrades made the cut.

The effort has resulted in an annual reduction in energy usage by 6 million kWh of electricity/year and 400,000 therms of gas/year which translates to a $1.4 million reduction of annual energy costs and a reduction of 6,600 metric tons of CO2/year.

PG&E is working with the VA on a follow-up phase for its San Francisco facility, focusing on additional infrastructure upgrades, sophisticated controls, and on-site renewable generation and battery energy storage. 

Project Spotlight: CA Dept. of State Hospitals (DSH), Coalinga 

DSH-Coalinga is a 1,500-bed maximum security state psychiatric hospital with several large administrative and patient buildings. 

DSH’s objectives were like those of the VA: cut energy and maintenance costs; cut carbon emissions; upgrade aging infrastructure; provide a funding solution so no additional capital expenditure would be needed.

PG&E’s team, with its competitively selected contractor, met weekly over six months with DSH and State stakeholders to identify, analyze and prioritize all possible measures. DSH ultimately selected six bundles for installation: 

• LEDs, inside and out
• Modernized building controls
• Optimized central plant (water-side economizer, low-ton “trim chiller”, and VFDs)
• Conversion to variable-volume air handling units
• Replacement of roof-top condensing units with a more efficient system
• Rightsized boiler burner tips

The upgrades — completed in 2023 — resulted in a 35% reduction in energy usage and costs, resulting in annual savings to the customer of at least $1 million a year. Other benefits include greater patient and staff comfort, improved system reliability, higher air quality, and an integrated and easy to manage building control system. 

Project Spotlight: California DMV 

The DMV with the support of PG&E’s energy consulting team set out to upgrade all of its older systems, solve comfort issues, and cut energy costs and carbon emissions at its campus headquarters in Sacramento.

The facility consists of three office buildings and a large central plant all comprising more than 840,000 square feet. Ultimately, DMV, PG&E and its contractor settled on the following measures that met the DMV’s criteria and were selected for installation:

• LED lighting and controls
• HVAC controls
• HVAC fan array replacement/consolidation
• Rooftop PV upgrade and repair

Since completion in 2021 the project has resulted in a 30% reduction in energy (electricity and gas) use, a more than $600,000 reduction in DMV’s annual energy-related costs, and as much as 2,700 metric tons of CO2 emissions eliminated year over year.

Energy Consulting Services Expansion

The ECS team continues to make an impact across the state — including upcoming projects with Vandenberg Space Force Base, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), a prominent private university, and a large county in Northern California--and is expanding its reach to include projects for retailers, hotels, national parks, and heavy industry.

Consistent with PG&E’s mission of delivering clean and resilient energy for all, the team plans to build solar and battery supported microgrids and to install more EV charging infrastructure.

PG&E business and commercial customers can email John Garnett (John.Garnett@pge.com) or David Carter (David.Carter2@pge.com) to learn more about PG&E’s energy consulting services.