Stockton East Water District (SEWD) Solar Project

The Stockton East Water District (SEWD) is developing a 2.2-megawatt behind-the-meter solar photovoltaic energy generation facility paired with a 7,832 kWh battery energy storage system on approximately 5.3 acres at its Dr. Joe Waidhofer drinking water treatment plant in Stockton, California. The project, structured as a Solar Power Services Agreement (SPSA) with Lepton CS, LLC, includes the full lifecycle responsibility of design, construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of the system, which will provide renewable energy directly to the plant without altering existing water treatment infrastructure. The facility will feature ballasted and ground-mounted solar arrays, inverters, transformers, and metering equipment tied to PG&E’s grid under the Net Billing Tariff, enabling energy cost reduction through offsetting grid purchases. Construction is expected to take approximately six months, followed by a 30-year operational term with the option to extend, during which the system will operate remotely with automated monitoring and up to two annual maintenance visits, requiring no permanent on-site staff. The project has been classified as ministerial under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15268, eliminating the need for discretionary environmental review and streamlining approval through a Zoning Compliance Review under San Joaquin County Development Code Section 9-409.430(a)(2), which confirms conformity with P-F zoning and the General Plan Public land use designation. The only required supporting documentation is the Statutory Exemption Report (Attachment A), which provides the technical and legal basis for this exemption. Submission of the proposal involves a completed application form and the report, delivered physically to SEWD or the San Joaquin County Clerk’s office; no electronic submission process is specified. Contract administration details such as payment instructions, accounting codes, invoicing methods, or federal acquisition regulation clauses are not applicable, as this is a local government energy services agreement rather than a federal procurement. Contact for the project is Justin Hopkins, General Manager of SEWD, with technical coordination handled by David Strohm and project management by Garrett Hollingsworth, and ownership and operational control remain with the contractor throughout the term of the agreement.