The City of Redmond has received a $40,000 grant from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to go toward a solar installation project.

The grant is the result of the city’s participation in PSE’s Green Power Challenge (GPC) in 2014. Throughout the year, the city worked with PSE to get more residents and businesses to convert to more renewable energy sources. The challenge was part of PSE’s Green Power Program (GPP), a voluntary program that allows the utility’s residential and commercial customers to opt in to support additional renewable energy production in the region.

Heather Mulligan, market manager for the GPP, said the renewable energy in the program goes above and beyond what PSE offers.

The GPC Redmond participated in also involved the cities of Puyallup and Issaquah. Mulligan said it was a way for PSE to increase awareness and participation in the GPP.

The challenge had a couple different components, she said.

The first was for each city. The cities were each given a number they had to reach in terms of PSE customers signing up for the GPP for the first time.

Cathy Beam, a principal planner for the City of Redmond, said the city’s goal was to get 252 new customers onto the GPP.

“We easily met that number,” she said, adding that Redmond surpassed its goal by about 200 percent. “Our businesses and residents really stepped up.”

Beam added that the PSE goal would have brought the city’s total number of customers on the GPP to 1,675. As of Dec. 31, 2014, she said there are 2,160 PSE customers in Redmond on the GPP. Compared to participation in the program on Dec. 31, 2013, that is a growth of 52 percent. In addition, Beam said communities typically see a 3.7-percent participation rate in the GPP. Redmond’s participation rate is now at 6 percent.

“The City of Redmond appreciated the opportunity to participate in PSE’s Green Power Challenge Program and I am proud our city did so well,” said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. “Our residents and business owners believe in the importance of green power to reduce our carbon footprint.”

Beam said the city also wanted to lead by example, saying that City Hall is now on all-green electric power, as of Jan. 1.

By reaching its PSE-set goal, Redmond received $20,000.

Mulligan said the second part of the challenge was a competition among the three cities to see which community could get the highest percentage of new customers to sign up for the GPP. Redmond won this challenge and received another $20,000 for its success.

“The purchase of green power for City Hall enabled the city to lead by example,” Marchione said. “Together our community won the challenge and secured a $40,000 grant for a solar installation project on the municipal campus.”

Beam said the details of Redmond’s solar installation have not been determined yet but they do know it will be somewhere on the City Hall campus. She said the city will be working with PSE on the project, as well.

Mulligan said when signing up for the GPP, customers can choose from two options.

The first option is a $4 flat fee added to customers’ bill for a 320 kilowatt-hour (kWh) block of renewable energy. Mulligan said customers can add to this in $2 — or 160 kilowatt-hour — blocks.

The second option is based on customers’ usage. Mulligan said if customers want all of their electricity to be from renewable energy, it is an additional cost of $0.0125 per kWh. According to the PSE website, this comes out to about $10-$12 per month for the average household.

“The environmental benefit is equivalent to taking a car off the road for a year,” the website states.

Mulligan said PSE has been doing GPCs since 2006. Most have been with individual cities and last year’s challenge with Redmond, Puyallup and Issaquah was the  utility’s second multi-city challenge. Since 2006, Mulligan said PSE has worked with about a dozen cities altogether.

“The real goal (of the GPP) is to create a market for renewable energy projects,” she said.

Some examples of renewable energy sources include wind, solar, livestock methane and low-impact hydro.