To: Marketing Subcommittee, Community Advisory Committee, Board of Directors, Appropriate Staff
From: Audrey Ichinose
East Bay Clean Power Alliance, California Alliance for Community Energy Re: Public Comment for 11/4/22 Marketing Subcommittee meeting Members and Staff,
Thank you for taking this written public comment. I cannot attend “in person.” The East Bay Clean Power Alliance is one of the many groups and individuals that helped to establish EBCE. We support its pursuit of clean and affordable electricity, local economic development and climate justice and equitable outcomes for all.
Given today’s extraordinary circumstances, I wanted to alert the Marketing Subcommittee to the actions of other entities that pursue similar goals to EBCE’s. Here are just a few examples of the many efforts being made locally, and internationally, to mobilize ratepayers on behalf of their programs.
• Hopefully you did not miss this important initiative launched by the City of San Leandro. The City of San Leandro’s 2022-23 Resilience Hubs Initiative will support the development of a network of resilience hubs, spaces and blocks, centering the most vulnerable populations while integrating disaster preparedness, climate solutions and community care into neighborhoods and community-serving sites - from places of worship to community centers. • A sister CCA, Peninsula Clean Energy, recently invested in a new 3-MW solar project to benefit disadvantaged customers. The Dos Palos Clean Power project includes inland service territory, affording over 1,000 income-qualified ratepayers in San Mateo County and the City of Los Banos emissions-free electricity at a 20% bill discount. Renewable America is developing, financing, constructing and maintaining operation of the project in Merced County. It is expected to be online in August 2023. Read more:
https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/10/peninsula-clean-energy-new-3- mw-solar-project-disadvantaged-customers/
• Octopus Energy, the UK’s 4th largest electricity retailer, has just started a program to pay its customers for collectively curtailing their electricity. The program resembles the Flex Alerts called in August that enabled CA to avoid rolling blackouts, but pays customers for participating! Especially appealing is its low-cost approach to grid reliability. For more (and to see its promotional pink plush octopuses: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/utilities/this-winter-uk-households-can-get-paid-to-help-prevent-grid-blackouts?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=232214481&_hs enc=p2ANqtz-9eSpvhYCCHtA3Pyg2ecOGG1bmjKpx0YEnWmjGpg1b01Xcznx4SRJrFo4U0gC ogRRGhUJHZbxZNij4UzIz1v2cIjuIk7w&utm_source=newsletter