San Diego Community Power is a community choice energy program that gives customers an option to run their businesses and homes on significantly higher levels of renewable power at competitive rates. Since 2021, Community Power has grown to serve nearly a million municipal, business and residential power customers in the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, Encinitas, La Mesa, National City and Imperial Beach as well as the unincorporated communities in San Diego County.
In 2024, Community Power launched Solar Battery Savings, a residential battery incentive program that provides upfront rebates and ongoing performance incentives for solar-plus-storage systems. A key priority of the program is expanding access to battery storage in historically underserved neighborhoods throughout Community Power’s service territory. Referred to as Communities of Concern, these communities often face the greatest barriers to participation in customer and clean energy programs.
Challenge
To support successful program implementation and customer access, Community Power needed a secure and scalable way to identify multiple eligibility criteria, including:
- If a customer lives within a designated Communities of Concern census tract
- If a customer is eligible for alternate rates or assistance programs
This information needed to be:
- Easily accessible to program-approved contractors working with customers in the field
- Intuitive to use during customer consultation and eligibility verification
- Secure and protected from public exposure
- Flexible to scale across a large service area and support program updates
In addition, Community Power needed an internal tool to track battery installations over time and visualize program adoption across the region.
Technical Solution
Quartic developed a GIS-driven solution using ArcGIS platforms to support both program-approved contractor field operations and internal program tracking. First, Quartic aggregated multiple datasets to identify Communities of Concern census tract data and qualifying customer program information using ArcGIS Pro and publishing them to ArcGIS Online.
To support field operations, Quartic built a secure mapping tool using ArcGIS Experience Builder. This tool is integrated into the contractor portal and enables contractors to:
- Search by customer account number or address
- Instantly verify program eligibility and applicable rebate levels
- View results through a clean, user-friendly interface
Quartic also supported ongoing operations by regularly updating the mapping tool census tract data throughout the pilot and full program rollout. This included developing a Batteries Installed Over Time application using ArcGIS Instant Apps. This tool uses a time slider to demonstrate the geographic distribution and growth of installed battery systems, helping Community Power monitor adoption and program impact.
“The success of the 2024 Solar Battery Savings pilot helped demonstrate how GIS technology can support the expansion of equitable battery storage programs at scale. Quartic’s easy-to-use mapping tool streamlined eligibility verification for program-approved contractors and continues to be a key component for customer participation.”
-Riley Burrell, GIS Analyst, Quartic
Software/Technology
- ArcGIS Pro
- ArcGIS Online
- ArcGIS Experience Builder
- ArcGIS Instant Apps
Results
The 2024 Solar Battery Savings pilot program delivered strong early results. By streamlining eligibility verification and improving connections between approved contractors and potential participants, the pilot enrolled around 1,500 customers. The pilot also supported the installation of 2,000 batteries, which provided about 13 megawatt-hours across the San Diego region.
Building on this success, Community Power launched the full program in the fall of 2025. The multi-year investment will help put solar and storage in reach for thousands of households while strengthening the region’s clean energy grid. The long-term goal is to deliver 90 megawatt-hours of local battery capacity, contributing to Community Power’s larger goal of 150 megawatts of distributed energy resources by 2035 – enough electricity to power between 60,000 to 150,000 homes for a year.
“Quartic’s GIS tools made it easy for our approved contractors to confirm a customer’s eligibility to efficiently get them enrolled in Solar Battery Savings. The Quartic mapping tool has been instrumental in growing from a pilot to a full program and increasing equitable access to battery storage in our communities.”
–Emily Fisher, Senior Program Manager at San Diego Community Power
This project demonstrates how GIS technology can support equitable access to clean energy by connecting data, field operations and program outcomes in a single, scalable system.
