Good afternoon,
San Diego County leaders.

As you may have seen in recent national media reports, the Water Authority and the City of San Diego are jointly proposing the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility project to help protect homes and businesses from power outages, especially during heat waves and peak demands. By using existing resources, the San Vicente project would create a “water battery” that could store solar and wind power for when it’s needed, unlocking America’s clean energy future.

As proposed, the San Vicente project could play a central role in helping achieve the State of California’s goal of 100% clean energy supply by 2045. In 2021, under the leadership of California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and help from San Diego County’s legislative delegation, the state invested $18 million in the project. That is funding initial design, environmental analysis, and technical and feasibility studies required to prepare the project for state and federal regulatory and licensing review processes.

Negotiations are underway with a private firm to carry out the feasibility analysis and preliminary design. If the project is approved, the public agencies would benefit by receiving payments from the private developer as compensation for land, water and other resources contributed; these payments could be used to reduce the cost of water for ratepayers throughout the county.  

Over the next few months, Water Authority and City of San Diego staff will continue performing environmental and limited geotechnical surveys near San Vicente Reservoir and provide updates to community groups.  

I’m very excited about the potential for us to deploy the nation’s largest and oldest form of energy storage right here in our backyard to help keep the lights on. It’s a proven clean technology that is primed to play a key role in building a reliable low-carbon power grid.  Click here to learn more about the project.

Sandra L. Kerl
General Manager
San Diego County Water Authority