Siemens Digital Grid Teams with City of Santa Clara/Silicon Valley Power to Kick off California’s Transit Revolution

The CEC has awarded Siemens Digital Grid and the city of Santa Clara/Silicon Valley Power a grant to develop a blueprint to help the city achieve electric vehicle (EV) readiness. The funding will be used to create a plan that accelerates the deployment of transportation electrification within Santa Clara, and incorporates a holistic and futuristic view of planning for an EV future. The blueprint will help California revolutionize the way its residents travel. The $200,000 grant has been made available by the CEC’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.

“Electrifying transportation is a priority for Santa Clara. We will use the grant to prepare our city and our utility for a future increasingly leveraging EVs for their many economic and environmental benefits,” said John Roukema, chief electric utility officer, Silicon Valley Power. 

“The strategic plan will be developed using Siemens’ EV-Implementation Framework (EV-IF), a technical approach that Siemens designed to catalyze electro-mobility at the community level.  As part of the engagement, Siemens will also leverage its global learnings from the manufacture, deployment, and operation of EV chargers for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles; make-ready electrical equipment; and charging management software. Siemens also brings its expertise in integrating turn-key solutions for utility EV charging and grid infrastructure, critical elements in preparing EV-ready communities,” said Chris King, chief policy officer for Siemens Digital Grid.

Throughout the project, Siemens and the city of Santa Clara/Silicon Valley Power will collaborate to apply learnings from the local, national, and global level to guide the blueprint. The plan will employ a strategic approach that starts with long-term electrification targets and develops a roadmap that lays out, step-by-step, how those targets will be achieved. In addition, the partnership will identify benefits for commercial stakeholders through the integration of successful EV business models, thereby supporting access to finance.

The available grant funding, a portion of which has also been awarded to other teams, represents the first phase of a two-step process. Once the blueprints have been completed, awardees will have the opportunity to submit their completed plans to compete for implementation funding.

Siemens Digital Grid and the city of Santa Clara/Silicon Valley Power intend to kick off the assignment within the next few weeks, and to complete the work within 12 months.