Energy rebate awarded to tribal casino (Sacramento)

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. awarded Cache Creek Casino Resort a $1.1 million rebate for the energy it saves using a thermal energy storage system that was completed at the casino resort last year.

It’s one of almost a dozen PG&E rebates the casino has received over the past several years for a variety of energy saving initiatives, though this one is the largest, said John Mobry, an account executive for PG&E.

In fact, it’s one of the largest-ever rebates by PG&E in the Sacramento region, he said. A more typical rebate is in the “tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.

“It’s a large rebate because the energy savings is large,” Mobry said. “The more a customer saves, the larger the rebate.”

Cache Creek Casino Resort partnered with PG&E and the Sacramento office of Trane, which provides energy systems equipment, to develop the thermal energy project. It allows the casino to take its central chiller plant off-line during peak hours of the day, when electricity is most expensive. The system cools water at night when energy demand is lower and temperatures are cooler. The water is stored in a tank for use in chillers during the day.

Read the full story in the Sacramento Business Journal.