Overview
The County of Santa Barbara has outlined a path to adapt our local electricity system to one that provides clean, reliable, resilient, and community-powered energy for all of Santa Barbara County, especially those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This is called energy assurance.
The climate crisis necessitates a transition away from natural gas use in our buildings and away from gasoline and diesel in our vehicles towards cleaner sources of electricity. For this reason, we are focused on energy assurance for our electricity system.
What is Energy Assurance?
Energy assurance is a combination of energy reliability — that is, how we keep the power flowing; energy resiliency — how we restore power as quickly as possible; and community power — how we provide publicly accessible emergency power.
Reliable Electricity
How do we maintain the flow of carbon-free electricity to all unincorporated Santa Barbara County residents, businesses, and organizations, especially those who are most vulnerable?
Resilient Electricity
How do we prepare for outages; minimize their duration; and protect all unincorporated Santa Barbara County residents, businesses, and organizations, especially those who are most vulnerable, during power outages?
Community Power
How do we provide publicly accessible centralized services for emergency power during outages, especially for those who are most vulnerable?
Energy Assurance
Energy assurance is a combination of energy reliability–that is, how we keep the power flowing; energy resiliency–how we restore power as quickly as possible; and community power–how we provide publicly accessible emergency power.
The goals and strategies that make up the Energy Assurance Plan support the County’s climate action vision statement and equity guardrails developed during the creation of the 2030 Climate Action Plan. The County is committed to supporting all Santa Barbara County residents—especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and power outages—to achieve energy assurance.