September 10, 2023. In response to our request for information about the grant awarded to Indian Energy, the California Energy Commission provided the following response:
In selecting the lead company to complete LDES-22-01, the grant you requested information on, the Energy Commission’s selection process complied with Public Resources Code section 25643(d)(1), which provides a mechanism to provide LDES awards for prior CEC grantees, and Public Resources Code section 25645(c), which prioritizes projects “providing under-resourced communities with increased reliability and resiliency.” To fulfill the objectives of Public Resources Code section 25645(c), the CEC specifically looked to award a grant that would benefit a Native American Tribe in California and Indian Energy LLC has a strong relationship with several California tribes and is considered a reputable company by all of them.
Indian Energy has a long history with the Energy Commission as a grant prime awardee and as a key subcontractor to other Energy Commission Grant Awardees that goes back almost a decade.
This favorable history started with PIR-12-033 relating to a Camp Pendleton Area 52 FractalGrid Demonstration Project, Awarded 6/30/2013 and completed 3/31/2015.
Indian Energy is currently managing two separate grants that the Energy Commission competitively awarded to them in 2020 and the Energy Commission staff has managed and tracked those projects for the last three years. (Agreement numbers EPC-19-046 and EPC-19-051). Indian Energy has satisfactorily completed the duties required by the Energy Commission and they are a company in good standing.
When the Energy Commission staff started to develop the proposed grant for the Viejas Tribal site, Energy Commission staff conducted a robust assessment of Indian Energy’s capacity to fulfill the objectives of the project that included a full company financial review by one of the Energy Commission senior staff members that is familiar with these levels of technical and business activities, interviews with companies that have worked with Indian Energy staff and interviewing several members of the Indian Energy team.
Additionally, the Energy Commission staff has completed several site visits and project reviews with the Indian Energy team and the Viejas Tribal members.
The Energy Commission continues to monitor the project and ensure the project meets carefully crafted milestones that limits eligible invoicing prior to any project reimbursements. These milestones include satisfactory equipment testing, satisfactory manufacturing and demonstration site visits, satisfactory mechanical completion, and satisfactory commissioning.
The Energy Commission is very satisfied with the performance to date of Indian Energy and expects the company and the project to continue successfully.
The Budget provided by the California Energy Commission for this project indicates that the Indirect Cost and Profit of the current grant is $277,200. Fifteen percent of that profit is $41,580 which in theory should be due to our tribe along with the return of the $2.5 million investment paid to Indian Energy to acquire 15% of the business. However the exact terms of this investment agreement are unclear at this time.