For years, conversations about growth in Placer County have centered on familiar constraints: transportation, housing, land, and water.
Energy increasingly belongs in that conversation.
As California electrifies more of its economy and some emerging industries require enormous amounts of power, communities will have to think more carefully about where electricity comes from, what it costs, and how much demand the system can accommodate.
Alice Dowdin Calvillo sees that shift from an unusual vantage point. She serves on the Auburn City Council and chairs Pioneer Community Energy, giving her a view of both local growth decisions and the energy system supporting them.
Today, she isn't particularly concerned about whether there is enough electricity to serve Pioneer's existing territory. "There's enough power," Dowdin Calvillo said.
What interests her is what could change that equation.
She points to data centers as one example. None are currently proposed in Auburn or, to her knowledge, elsewhere in Pioneer's service area. But the amount of electricity required by a large data center illustrates how quickly a major new user can alter assumptions about local demand.
That connection matters for a growing county like Placer.
Economic development is usually discussed in terms of attracting employers and investment. Energy planning tends to happen in a different room. Increasingly, the decisions made in one will affect what is possible in the other.
Cost is part of the equation.
Dowdin Calvillo said Pioneer can generally purchase electricity at costs that allow it to offer lower prices than PG&E. She sees those rates as one factor that can matter when businesses evaluate Placer County.
But Placer's energy story isn't only about how much electricity costs.
In the foothills, it also intersects with one of the region's most persistent environmental and public safety challenges.
Biomass uses forest and other green waste to generate electricity. For communities around Tahoe, Auburn, and Colfax, Dowdin Calvillo sees potential value on both sides of that equation: material that needs to be removed for forest health can also become an energy source.
"So, biomass not only gets rid of a lot of that forest waste, and we're always talking about forest health in Placer County, especially up near Tahoe and Auburn and Colfax where wildfire is so present, but it also enables you to make electricity," she said.
The obstacle is cost.
Biomass is expensive, which is why Pioneer has worked with the state on programs that could help make projects financially viable. Grass Valley is developing a biomass facility, and Pioneer hopes to purchase power from it.
Taken together, these issues point to a broader shift.
Electricity is becoming connected to questions that Placer County has often considered separately. What kinds of employers can the region support? How does the county manage growth? Can forest material that needs to be removed become part of the energy supply? What happens when a major new electricity user wants to locate here?
Those questions won't be answered by utilities alone.
For Placer County's business community, the reason to pay attention isn't simply whether electricity rates rise or fall. It's that energy is becoming another factor shaping what kinds of economic growth are possible, where that growth happens, and what infrastructure the county will need to support it.