To: Board of Directors, Ava Community Energy
From: Audrey Ichinose
East Bay Clean Power Alliance
California Alliance for Community Energy
Re: Item #3, Public Comment, Board of Directors Meeting, March 20, 2024 Thank you for taking this Public Comment.
I wish to follow up on the extremely useful discussion regarding the definition of Resilience Hubs (RH) at the March 18 CAC meeting concerning Resilience Hubs (Item #5).
The discussion marked a great start in our agency’s response to the critical needs of our many and varied disadvantaged communities, especially now that unpredictable, severe climate effects can no longer be denied.
The discussion was very fruitful, but one important topic was missed: how to pay for the establishment and operation of RHs. We need to think hard about how to pay for facility operations and staffing. This has a direct bearing on the sustainability of RHs in the long run. Given the emerging challenges of climate effects, it should not be left to short-term grant funding.
One possible approach to financing is to regard Resilience Hubs as facilities akin to local government facilities, not unlike fire houses, police stations, senior centers, etc.
If we look at RHs in this way as part of a city's energy infrastructure, we might go a long way toward making RH financially self-sustaining.
Is this approach realistic? Could RHs fit into the larger picture of local distributed energy resources, while also benefiting underserved communities and promoting local jobs and businesses?
We could start by answering some basic questions:
• How are fire houses, police stations, etc. that have solar/storage treated in terms of city budgets re 1) initial investment and 2) ongoing budgetary expenses and revenue?
• How does the IOU (and Ava as part of the energy supplier) treat these local government facilities? Do the latter receive any price breaks? Do member municipalities aggregate their solar/storage, and how do they benefit from any surplus generation?
• If member municipalities could individually or collectively aggregate RH solar/storage, how could they benefit from any dispatchable generation? Thank you for taking this public comment.