Feasibility study will firm costs, PG&E needs boundary; board gives staff direction but not funding commitment

County staff and Trane said the feasibility study is intended to firm costs, assess technical feasibility and provide the options the board will use to decide whether to proceed. Ben Rickleman told supervisors the grant funds predevelopment work (environmental and engineering) and that the county's involvement in ownership or capital funding has not been decided.

Staff said PG&E is 'protective of individual customer data' and expects a defined microgrid boundary in the grant award paperwork; that requirement is the operational reason for selecting an initial boundary now. The board provided consensus direction to start feasibility using the smaller B5 boundary and to give staff policy intent to try to expand coverage to include Lucerne if feasible. There was no formal motion or roll-call vote recorded.