CEO Report Item 13
CEO Report Item 13
To: Ava Community Energy Authority
From: Howard Chang, Chief Executive Officer
Subject: CEO Report (Informational Item)
Date: November 20, 2024
________________________________________________________________________ Recommendation
Accept Chief Executive Officer (CEO) report on update items below.
Executive Committee Meeting
A meeting of the Executive Committee was held on November 6, 2024. Members received updates on the SMUD Contract Extension and on the Resilience Hub Initiative Technical Assistance program. The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at 9am.
Marketing, Regulatory and Legislative Subcommittee Meeting The October 18, 2024 Marketing, Regulatory and Legislative Subcommittee Meeting was canceled. The next MRL meeting will be held on Friday, December 20, 2024 at 12pm.
Community Advisory Committee Meeting
On October 15, 2024, Ava’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) had a productive, in-person ‘meet & greet’ and strategic planning session with Ava staff. This provided an opportunity for CAC members to 1) meet one another and Ava staff; and 2) identify key priorities that will be featured in the Committee’s updated Work Plan for 2025 and beyond. The next Community Advisory Committee meeting will be held on November 18, 2024 at 6pm.
Financial, Administrative and Procurement Meeting
The November 13, 2024 Financial, Administrative and Procurement did not achieve a quorum.
Staff presented an informational session with Director Andersen, reviewing our financial audit, budget comparison, on-bill credit distribution, and Critical Municipal Facilities Program. The next meeting of the Financial, Administrative and Procurement Subcommittee will be held on March 12, 2025 at 1pm.
CEO Report Item 13
2025 Ava Public Meetings Calendar
The 2025 Public Meetings Calendar has been published. It is available on the public meetings page at: https://avaenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2025-Ava-Community-Energy-Public-Meetings-Schedule.pdf Health-e Communities launch
The Health-e Communities program was launched in early October. The pilot program provides the free installation of an induction range along with air quality monitoring directly before and after installation. The goal is to install 200 induction ranges in Ava customer households for CARE/FERA or affordable housing unit residents. Outreach is being done directly to known CARE/FERA customers with early efforts already producing 70 applications. Our installation partner, Franklin Energy is performing site assessments to determine that there is adequate electrical support for the installation. Approximately 10 site assessments have been completed to date. More information can be found at https://avaenergy.org/go-electric/induction-cooking/health-e-communities/.
Fremont R100 Opt-up and R100 Cost Allocation Methodology update On July 17th, 2024, the Board approved the Fremont City Council’s request to default most customers within the City to Renewable 100 (R100). Fremont’s default rate transition is currently scheduled to be implemented as follows: 1) Residential customers in August 2025; and 2) commercial/industrial customers in August 2026. Bright Choice will remain the default option for those on customer discount programs such as CARE/FERA and Medical Baseline. Since there are no changes or impacts to the Bright Choice discount or Renewable 100 premium (the Ava Value Proposition) in our current fiscal year 2024-25, if needed the Renewable 100 Cost Allocation Methodology discussion will take place in the spring alongside the 2025-2026 Budget.
Note that we continue to see material price increases in renewable energy costs going into 2025.
CCA's have signed over 18GW of Clean Energy Resource PPAs CalCCA recently announced that CCAs in California have signed 346 long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), securing 18,285 MW of new clean energy resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage, and demand response technologies. The agreements represent a record 4,300 MW added in the past year, the largest annual increase to date. CCAs now have 116 operational clean energy projects, over 7,900 MW in total, that serve 14 million customers in California – about 1/3 of the state's population. These projects include diverse energy sources and significant investments in energy storage and are located in 30 California counties, from Humboldt County in the north to San Diego County in the south, as well as in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. CCAs have committed over $37 billion to build and operate these resources, supporting more than 36,000 construction jobs. CCAs are also leveraging innovative financing tools to reduce energy costs by up to 10% through energy prepay financing structures. Ava has completed ~$3bn in energy prepays that are entirely off balance sheet to date.
CEO Report Item 13
More information can be found at https://cal-cca.org/california-ccas-secure-18-gw-in-contracts-with-new-build-clean-energy-resource/ Insights from Board and Conference Gatherings:
The fall is a very busy time of year for energy industry gatherings, where over the last month I have attended the CAISO Symposium, Bond Buyer conference, CalCCA Board retreat, CCPower board retreat, California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA) meeting, California Energy Storage Association (CESA) dinner, Transatlantic energy infrastructure Conference in Berkeley, Direct Pay Clean Energy Incentives Conference. • The major discussion point across all conferences is on how to address affordability, while balancing reliability and our clean energy goals
• Good progress on regional coordination through Pathways Initiatives that has strong support by CAISO, CPUC, other regional PUCs and balancing authorities, CA Labor, and LSEs. More to come in the upcoming legislative session on this. • Increasing interest in CCA tax-exempt bond issuances related to energy prepays.
CCCFA is a top 5 tax-exempt issuer in the US
• Discussion of project ownership, initially through CCPower, and the most efficient financing models related to this.
Ava in the Community
To raise awareness of our service, support our community, and stay close to our customers, Ava sponsors and staffs events throughout our service territory all year long. Stop by to say hello at any of these upcoming events. All events between October 19 – the end of the year:
Date Event Location
10/19/2024 Berkeley Harvest Festival Cedar Rose Park
10/25/2024 Emeryville Movies in the Park Huichin Park
10/26/2024 Oakland Roots VS. Birmingham Legion FC CSUEB Pioneer Stadium, Hayward
11/3/2024 Oakland Dia de Los Muertos Fruitvale, Oakland 12/6/2024 It's a Wonderful Night San Leandro
CEO Report Item 13
New Employees
Dominic Faria
Dominic joined Ava’s Public Policy team on September 17, 2024 as a Senior Coordinator.
Dominic will help lead Ava’s Federal policy advocacy efforts and assist with Ava’s policy communications strategy.
Before joining Ava, Dominic spent three years working for the late Senator Dianne Feinstein in her San Francisco district office. While there, he served as a Senior Field Representative specializing in wildfire, forestry, public lands, and energy policy, and was the Senator’s primary point of contact for Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada region. His work primarily consisted of stakeholder outreach and relationship-building, constituent services, and policy research and advocacy.
Dominic holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, Davis and a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School. He’s a life-long Bay Area resident with a deep passion for Bay Area sports.
Ben Weber
Ben joined Ava on September 24, 2024 as a Salesforce Developer. As the Salesforce Developer, he will be responsible for supporting new projects, maintaining the Salesforce org, and working with other teams within Ava to implement new solutions to their Salesforce needs.
Prior to joining Ava, Ben worked as a consultant with CloudMasonry in the Salesforce ecosystem. In that capacity, Ben worked with a variety of clients in the energy, non-profit, and banking sectors to implement and build out their Salesforce instances.
Ben has a B.S. in Computer Science from Indiana University.
Olivia Vasquez
Olivia joined Ava on October 8, 2024 as the Power Resources Data Analyst. She will support the Power Resources team’s needs for data analysis, automated infrastructure, and data visualization with dashboards.
Prior to joining Ava, Olivia worked at LevelTen Energy, where she streamlined business analytics and managed data quality for a variety of energy data streams. She also worked as a data analyst for a conservation company specializing in bioacoustics.
Olivia holds a dual B.A. in Computer Science and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College.
Ethan Yung
Ethan joined Ava on October 15th, 2024 as a Senior Data Engineer. As part of the Technology & Analytics team, he is responsible for developing and improving upon the agency's data systems, which enable insight into the grid, service area, and program implementation.
Prior to joining Ava, Ethan held a variety of data engineering and analytics roles. Most recently, he was a Research Analyst at Komodo Health, where he conducted analyses on population health outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system.
CEO Report Item 13
Ethan has a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from UC Berkeley. He is a proud Oakland resident and ebike commuter.
Molly Elizabeth Sandick
Molly joined Ava on September 17, 2024 as an Executive Assistant. She will provide high level administrative and operational support to the CEO, CCO, and future C-suite hires, maximizing leadership efficiency and effectiveness.
Prior to joining Ava, she worked as an Administrative and Executive Assistant at Google for 9 years, supporting several Senior Executives across the company.
Molly has a B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley and is pursuing an ALM in Management from Harvard. She has lived in in the Bay area for over a decade and currently resides in San Francisco.
Lisbeth Gallegos
Lisbeth joined Ava on October 17th, 2024 as a Marketing Associate. She will play a key role in launching local development initiatives and driving awareness and engagement for Ava’s programs.
With over seven years of marketing experience, Lisbeth has led B2B and B2C projects in digital marketing, campaigns, local outreach, and public relations. In her previous role at a marketing consultancy, she managed client accounts as lead project manager, collaborating with internal and external teams to execute diverse marketing projects and develop multi-channel strategies.
Before that, Lisbeth worked at American Airlines in Miami, organizing engagement events to strengthen customer relationships across Latin American hubs.
Lisbeth holds a dual-degree Bachelor’s of Business Administration in International Business and Marketing from Florida International University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, learning new languages, and exploring her passion for crafts.