California Public Utilities Commission Distributed Energy Resource Program Data Working Group

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) selected the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, with support from LARC, to facilitate a Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Data Working Group.

Student standing on ladder to see solar panels on storage facility.

2024

Fostering Community Solar: A Student-Led Collaborative Program between UCLA and EIA University

Funded by an award from the 100K CLIMA Grant Competition, UCLA and EIA University are collaborating on a student-led comparative case study of community solar projects in Los Angeles, CA and Medellin, Colombia.

Electric distribution and generation in the foreground with natural gas infrastructure in the background.

2023

Mindful Gas Decommissioning

California’s goal of decarbonizing the state’s energy sector by 2045 requires an accompanying strategic approach to the decommissioning of the extensive gas infrastructure.

2022

Equitable Electrification of Existing Buildings: A Pathway to Decarbonization

Building electrification is the most viable solution to reducing building greenhouse gas emissions, with the added benefit of improving air quality. Yet, electrification of existing buildings is difficult. Often times, a homeowner or landlord experiences unexpected complications when trying to retrofit their building.

Electric distribution infrastructure in Los Angeles.

2022

LADWP – LA100 Equity Strategies Initiative

As part of the LA100 Equity Strategies study, CCSC estimated residential service panel capacities throughout the LADWP service territory to assess what upgrades may be needed to support comprehensive electrification.

2020

Community Solar Opportunities Map

Where is the best place to put solar panels in your neighborhood? The solar opportunity map is a web tool built to assist community-based organizations to access data necessary to identify high potential sites for community solar or resiliency centers within LA County.

An aerial view of a single family home neighborhoods on the Westside of Los Angeles.

2020

UCLA Energy Atlas

The UCLA Energy Atlas is the first of its kind interactive web atlas that provides access to the largest and most disaggregated building energy data available in the nation. It now comprises data from both Southern California and the Bay Area.

2020

Water Management Conservation and Planning

This project analyzed the environmental and economic impacts of proposed state regulations for water use. This grant has high policy impact for managing urban water budgets. CCSC brings novel understandings about water use by urban park departments in California and how much is needed to maintain vegetation health with an emphasis on trees.

2019

2019 Environmental Report Card for Los Angeles County Water

This 2019 Sustainable LA Grand Challenge Environmental Report Card for Los Angeles County Water provides an in-depth look at the region’s efforts to move toward a more resilient local water supply. This…

2019

Los Angeles Sustainability Plan

The County of Los Angeles has developed the first county-wide sustainability plan, and has contracted with UCLA, in collaboration with the engineering firm Buro Happold, and with Liberty Hill Foundation.…

2018

The Healthy Home Study

As California moves forward with its aggressive agenda to decarbonize its energy system, care must be taken to assess the degree to which its pursuit of various energy system transformation pathways is likely to result in additional benefits for Californians. One extremely important category of benefits is the reduction of health risks that result from exposure to natural gas combustion by-products, both from appliances within homes and from grid scale generation stations.

2017

Evaluation of Community Scale Solar Water Heating in Los Angeles County

Reliance on Natural Gas for Residential Water Heating Inexpensive natural gas and the historical subsidization of its use as a source of thermal energy has led Southern California to depend heavily on natural gas for residential heating. As of…

2016

An EPIC Challenge: Accelerating the Deployment of Advanced Energy Communities

In 2016, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded an Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) grant to UCLA to accelerate the deployment of Advanced Energy Communities (AECs). In partnership with the…

2016

Climate Change in Los Angeles County: Grid Vulnerability to Extreme Heat

In this project, UCLA and Arizona State University researchers developed a sophisticated and in-depth description of future electricity demand, grid response, and vulnerability due to increased heat events in Southern California Edison territory under current and future climate scenarios. The project's findings enable innovative grid management and operation strategies and identify adaptation guidance.

2016

LA Water Hub

The Water Hub is a dynamic visualization and mapping platform (http://waterhub.ucla.edu); an online data repository for viewing and finding water-related information in Los Angeles County.

2015

Ecological and Environmental Effects of Turf Replacement in Southern California

Pilot Study of the Ecological and Environmental Effects of Metropolitan’s Turf Replacement Program Study Objectives The principal objectives of this study are to identify and, to the extent possible, to…

2015

Energy and Air Quality Environmental Report Card

In conjunction with Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, CCSC staff contribute to the the development of environmental report cards to evaluate LA county’s progress towards environmental sustainability. In 2015, UCLA’s Institute…

2015

LARC – The Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability

Mission The Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability is a membership organization, fostering a network of local and regional decision-makers in the Los Angeles County region to…

2013

The Role of Local Water Resources in the Water Sustainability of Los Angeles

Like many cities in semi-arid regions, Los Angeles relies on extensive, centralized redistribution projects for its water supply. Water is transported hundreds of kilometers to support agricultural and urban activities…

Publications

Total records: 75

Quantifying the electric service panel capacities of California’s residential buildings

Eric Daniel Fournier, Robert Cudd, Samantha Smithies, Stephanie Pincetl

Published Work | 2024 | Energy Policy

California Public Utilities Commission Distributed Energy Resource Program Data Working Group

Fostering Community Solar: A Student-Led Collaborative Program between UCLA and EIA University

Mindful Gas Decommissioning

Equitable Electrification of Existing Buildings: A Pathway to Decarbonization

LADWP – LA100 Equity Strategies Initiative

Community Solar Opportunities Map

UCLA Energy Atlas

Water Management Conservation and Planning

2019 Environmental Report Card for Los Angeles County Water

Los Angeles Sustainability Plan

The Healthy Home Study

Evaluation of Community Scale Solar Water Heating in Los Angeles County

An EPIC Challenge: Accelerating the Deployment of Advanced Energy Communities

Climate Change in Los Angeles County: Grid Vulnerability to Extreme Heat

LA Water Hub

Ecological and Environmental Effects of Turf Replacement in Southern California

Energy and Air Quality Environmental Report Card

LARC – The Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability

The Role of Local Water Resources in the Water Sustainability of Los Angeles

Publications

Quantifying the electric service panel capacities of California’s residential buildings

Advancing a Net Zero Urban Water Future in the United States Southwest: Governance and Policy Challenges and Future Needs

LADWP LA100 Equity Strategies Chapter 13. Energy Affordability and Policy Solutions Analysis

A Holistic Assessment of Building Energy System Transition Pathways in Under-resourced Communities – Final Report

Building an interactive web mapping tool to support distributed energy resource planning using public participation GIS

Seeking Common Ground Between Theology and Sustainability Science for Just Transitions

A tale of urban forest patch governance in four eastern US cities

Net GHG Emissions and Air Quality Outcomes from Different Residential Building Electrification Pathways within a California Disadvantaged Community

Cities are not isolates: To reduce their impacts a change in urban-rural interdependencies and the direction of modernity are required

Community Scale Solar & Energy Resilience in California’s Disadvantaged Communities

An Evaluation of the Motivations Regulating the Privacy of Utility Customer Data Through Legal Philosophies and Precedents

Are Residential Energy Efficiency Upgrades Effective? An Empirical Analysis in Southern California

What Will it Take for an Energy Transition to be Just?

Municipal Stormwater Management Spending in California: Data Extraction, Compilation, and Analysis

Sustainable Cities and the Question of the Climate. Comments to the CA State Assembly Transportation Committee March 2022

Building an Interactive Web Mapping Tool to Support Distributed Energy Resource Planning Using Public Participation GIS

Climate change risk and adaptation costs for stormwater management in California coastal parklands

Step Back from Scientific Hubris – Dr. Stephanie Pincetl talks with Nature Sustainability

Climate Change, Extreme Heat, & the Future of LA’s Electric Power System

The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health

Stay-at-Home Orders during the COVID-19 Pandemic Reduced Urban Water Use

Implications of the timing of residential natural gas use for appliance electrification efforts

Developing a common approach for classifying building stock energy models

Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches

On energy sufficiency and the need for new policies to combat growing inequities in the residential energy sector

Net solar generation potential from urban rooftops in Los Angeles

Cities treated as things: imagining post-fossil cities

The Effects of Current Energy Consumption Privacy Rules on the Development of Municipal GHG Emissions Inventories and Forecasts

Political & Economic Drivers of Wildland-urban Interface (WUI) Development in California

Climate Change in Los Angeles County: Grid Vulnerability to Extreme Heat

Groundwater Exchange Pools and Urban Water Supply Sustainability: Modeling Directed and Undirected Networks

California’s Changing Energy Landscapes: CCSC Comments on the California Public Utilites Commission’s Draft Green Book on Customer Choice

Building Energy Use Goals in California

The economic value of local water supplies in Los Angeles

Open data and Stormwater Systems in Los Angeles: Applications for Equitable Green Infrastructure

Systems Analysis and Optimization of Local Water Supplies in Los Angeles

Evaluating the Effects of Turf-Replacement Programs in Los Angeles County

CCSC’s Dr. Stephanie Pincetl Presenting the Energy Atlas at the #LGSEC Quarterly Meeting in San Diego, on June 2, 2017

Dr. Felicia Federico gives AEC project presentation to LA County Supervisor, Hilda Solis’, district.

Achieving California’s 2030 Renewable Portfolio Standard and Electricity Sector Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Target

Whither Urban Water Policy in California: Regional Implications

2016 LA Energy Atlas Annual Report

Fact Sheet: Climate Change in Los Angeles County – Grid Vulnerability to Extreme Heat

Grid Vulnerability Due to High Heat

Structural, geographic, and social factors in urban building energy use: Analysis of aggregated account-level consumption data in a megacity

Natural Gas Use in L.A. County: Analysis from the L.A. Energy Atlas

Natural Gas Use in LA County: An Analysis from the UCLA Energy Atlas

Fact Sheet: LA County Groundwater Management

Fact Sheet: LA County Water Supply Management

Fact Sheet: The California Center for Sustainable Communities (CCSC)

Energy Atlas Overview and Presentation

Cities as Novel Biomes: Recognizing Urban Ecosystem Services as Anthropogenic

Water Management in Los Angeles County: a Research Report

Fact Sheet: LA County Water Data Infrastructure

Can Smart Cities Exacerbate Inequality?

The Grid: An informational primer for advocates of distributed renewable energy

Water and Energy Systems in California

‘Greening’ the Mix through Community Choice