The San Diego region is
poised to become an example of how cooperation and innovation can
bring the promise of more efficient and sustainable energy to
everyday living. 

Mayor
Jerry Sanders joined clean energy leaders today to announce Smart
City San Diego, a collaborative combining the resources of a broad
mix of organizations to develop and implement local initiatives
that will improve the San Diego region’s energy independence,
empower consumers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and drive
economic growth. 

Smart City San Diego is a new collaborative among
the City of San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E),
GE, UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego. 

Working
together, these leaders from government, business, education and
non-profit will maximize synergies to drive existing energy
programs forward, identify new opportunities, embrace additional
collaborators, and move the San Diego region beyond today’s
boundaries of sustainability.

style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;”>”With
the San Diego region currently preparing for one of the largest
initial deployments of electric vehicles in the country, the first
priority for Smart City San Diego is to expand current projects to
implement a comprehensive electric vehicle
infrastructure,” said San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders.

“This is
the first of many initiatives that our partners throughout the
region will undertake to make San Diego the foremost
resource-conscious community in the United
States.” 

Electric
vehicles offer tremendous benefits to consumers and the city while
posing significant challenges.  On the plus side,
electric vehicles could reduce U.S. oil importation by 52 percent,
and electricity costs per mile are expected to be approximately
one-quarter to one-third the cost of gasoline per
mile. 

However,
grid reliability, consumer impact, public charging and alternative
fuel options are obstacles to conquer to ensure safe, efficient
integration.

To prepare
the city and address the wide range of challenges, Smart City San
Diego has created a comprehensive plan, including five key electric
vehicle initiatives: 

1. Utilize smart technology to enable rapid electric vehicle
   growth while ensuring safe, reliable and efficient power delivery
   for consumers.  UC San Diego, SDG&E and GE will
   demonstrate smart technologies to identify when and where charging
   will occur, as well as work with electric vehicle owners to better
   manage charging loads.
   
   
   
   



2. Streamline home and public charging deployment processes. 
   SDG&E and the City of San Diego will work toward developing an
   efficient electric vehicle permitting process to ensure easy and
   rapid deployment of electric vehicle chargers for home and
   public-access locations.
   
   
   
   



3. Research and demonstrate systems to power electric vehicles
   through clean, renewable energy sources, such as solar.  UC
   San Diego, GE and SDG&E will test the technical and economic
   feasibility of achieving zero tailpipe emissions, leveraging UC San
   Diego’s extensive solar and fuel cell renewable energy generation
   infrastructure.   CleanTECH San Diego will serve as
   connective tissue between anticipated technology needs in the
   electric vehicle sector and the San Diego region’s
   innovators.
   
   
   
   



4. Deliver economic growth for San Diego.  CleanTECH San
   Diego and the City of San Diego will help quantify the economic
   impacts of the electric vehicle initiatives, including cluster
   growth, incremental job growth and training needs, to ensure the
   city continues to prosper and benefit from this new industry.
   
   
   
   



5. Study consumer behavior to better understand their decisions
   and identify additional electric vehicle initiatives.  The
   collaborators plan to enlist a consumer focus group comprised of 50
   UC San Diego students, faculty, and staff who will be offered
   commercial leases on electric vehicles, charging their vehicles
   through UC San Diego’s planned electric vehicle
   infrastructure.

“Increasingly, competitiveness will be determined by our ability
to grow in a prosperous yet sustainable manner,” said Bob Gilligan,
vice president, Digital Energy, GE Energy Services. “GE is helping
San Diego and cities around the world strike a balance between
these seemingly contradictory goals.  Through technology
innovation, like two-way communications between electric vehicle
chargers and the local utility, we can deliver both clean and
reliable solutions to meet our 21st century energy needs.”

“UC San Diego is committed to
working with our partners to develop and demonstrate innovations
that will enable carbon-free transportation” Marye Anne Fox,
chancellor of UC San Diego.

“Through our collaboration, and the university’s significant
investment in renewable energy generation and storage, smart grid
communication infrastructure and the expertise of our faculty and
staff, we are poised to help with the successful adoption of
electric vehicles in San Diego and eventually mainstream America,”
said Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of UC San Diego.

In addition to delivering a holistic electric vehicle
infrastructure, Smart City San Diego has identified a host of
efficiency and renewable energy objectives to drive the clean
energy evolution, including: 

• Supporting California goals for localized electricity
  generation and 33 percent renewable energy by 2020
  
  
  
  



• Empowering consumers with real-time knowledge and
  intuitive technology to manage their energy
  usage  
  
  
  
  



• Minimizing the need for additional infrastructure by
  optimizing and automating the electric grid with two-way
  communications and monitoring technologies
  
  
  
  



• Demonstrating the value and impact of innovation to the
  San Diego region and the community through public
  smart grid projects and displays 

“We are
working together with our customers and the community to create an
innovative and sustainable energy future with the utility as the
platform for reliability and customer information,” said Jessie
Knight Jr., chairman and CEO of SDG&E.  “By
doing this we provide our customers with the ability to use new
technologies that will help them save energy, while providing
environmental benefits for all.”

“We are
proud to participate in this impressive collaboration of business,
education and non-profit organizations,” said Jim Waring, chairman
of CleanTECH San Diego.

“ Working together, this effort will stimulate
innovation and advance the adoption of clean technologies and
sustainable industry practices for the economic, environmental and
social benefit of the greater San Diego region.”