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Ava Community Energy presents impact report to Piedmont; donates loan for pool heat pumps and spotlights local programs
Summary
Ava Community Energy CEO Howard Chang presented the agency’s first impact report and highlighted local programs, the organization’s savings and reinvestments; Piedmonters for Inclusive Education also presented a $5,452 donation to the Recreation Department’s Sidekicks program.
Howard Chang, chief executive officer of Ava Community Energy, summarized the public agency’s first impact report during Piedmont’s April 20 council meeting and underscored several local investments and programs.
Chang said Ava—formerly East Bay Community Energy—serves a large territory that includes Alameda County and parts of San Joaquin County, reported roughly 96% local participation in its service and said that, since launch, the agency has delivered around $184 million in customer savings and reinvested nearly $110 million in grants, sponsorships and incentives. "Since our launch we've provided about $184,000,000 in savings to our customers," Chang said.
Chang highlighted programs that affect Piedmont residents: a default Renewable 100 product for municipal accounts, a Bright Choice product that can offer discounts, a smart-home EV charging incentive that pays an upfront $75 and an ongoing $25 enrollment incentive, direct-to-customer e-bike incentives and a new $15 million smart-home battery program to support solar-plus-storage and community resilience hubs. He also thanked Mayor Betsy Anderson for her leadership as an Ava board member and noted that Ava provided a no-interest loan to the city to buy heat pumps for the new pools (staff and council referenced the pool loan during the presentation).
Council members asked about opt-out procedures (how roughly 4% to 5% of customers leave the program) and about how customers enroll or opt down to different products. Chang explained that customers can opt out or change products via Ava's website or by calling the call center and said the agency surveys customers who opt out to better understand their reasons.
Earlier in the meeting, Betty Rojas, board president of Piedmonters for Inclusive Education, presented the Piedmont Recreation Department’s Sidekicks program with a community check for $5,452 and described the program as training teen mentors to support neurodivergent children in after-school and summer programming.
Why it matters: The presentation underlined local ties between the city and its community-choice energy provider and summarized the choices residents have about electricity products, incentives for electrification and local investments Ava has made in transportation and home-energy programs. Council members thanked Ava for the agency’s partnership on the pool project and asked staff to continue public outreach on enrollment and product choices.
Next steps: Ava will provide copies of its impact report; council and staff indicated they will continue coordination on local projects and on the electrification task force work that intersects with Ava programs.
