Gomez said the microgrid will substantially decrease the casino’s electricity expenditure, increase energy independence, reduce carbon footprint and provide energy backup for long- and short-term power outages. He has also obtained grant funding for the project and continues to work on obtaining additional funding to support the project costs with assistance from Shea Hughes, Director of Business Development and Bryan Curtis, who provided project management and engineering support throughout the development process. Gomez has led the project development, designing the microgrid around the needs of SCR and the community.

“It secures the community’s long-term energy sovereignty and will inspire more public and private sector distributed energy development efforts on Tribal lands.” “The impact of the Soboba Microgrid project goes beyond kilowatt-hours and savings,” Guillermo Gomez, Business Development Manager at Scale Microgrids, said. The company said that Tribal communities historically suffer from higher service costs, higher interconnection fees, more blackouts or brownouts and remote and distant service locations. In addition to reducing the facility’s GHG emissions footprint by the equivalent of 4,800 passenger vehicles, the system will enable mission critical operations to continue during utility outages. The advanced microgrid controls know when the utility costs are highest or if there is an outage, proactively selecting the optimal energy source.

Scheduled to be completed in June 2024, Scale is building a microgrid with solar photovoltaic energy production and battery energy storage. The company will build and install a renewables microgrid, pairing 1.5MW of rooftop solar and a 6MWh energy storage system. Building on its past success with solar projects at the Soboba Indian Reservation, the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians has partnered with Scale Microgrids for a project at its Soboba Casino Resort.

Soboba casino hotel project plans