Adrian Bankhead <[email protected]>
public comment for CAC and Board Meetings
Audrey Ichinose <[email protected]> Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 4:35 PM To: Adrian Bankhead <[email protected]>
Cc: Ayla Paz <[email protected]>, Jessica Tovar <[email protected]> Dear Adrian,
Can you please distribute this comment to CAC, Board of Directors, and Staff? I hope I am not too late on this.
Thanks!!
Audrey Ichinose
July 14, 2025
From: Audrey Ichinose, People’s Clean Power Alliance and the California Alliance for Community Energy (CACE)
To: Board of Directors, CAC members, Staff of Ava Community Energy Re: LDBP Strategic Roadmap Overview
As an early advocate for community energy in general and of Ava Community Energy, in particular, I want to express my great appreciation for this effort to determine next steps in the further implementation of the LDBP and customer programs. This effort speaks so well of the Staff’s goodwill, commitment and diligence in carrying out our CCA’s mission. So thank you, and let’s keep it going in spite of the outrageous obstacles being thrown in our way.
At the same time, I’d like to draw attention to a gap that’s beginning to open up between the LDBP, adopted in 2018, and the fluid, innovative clean energy world we know today. No example of this gap can be better--or more humorously--captured than what was in store for the fans at Sunday’s NASCAR stock car races in Sonoma. NASCAR officials were planning to stage a demonstration run of a prototype EV race car! While they have not yet scheduled any real races with this new type of car, they intended to seriously promote it as a product of the future. Though some might miss the noise, smoke, and even crashes of the old stock cars, who cannot fail to delight in a vehicle that accelerates at the push of a button bearing a rocketship logo! The future of DER and clean energy is undeniably here, and the need to update aspects of the LDBP is signaled by the fact that “Microgrids” does not appear in the Powerpoint charts. “VPPs” (Virtual Power Plants) may come the closest, but it does not accurately capture how solar+storage can be routinely shared on a small scale by small communities or congregants in Resilience Hubs. In addition, VPP’s miss the foundational idea of people taking a hand in generating their own electricity, thereby better controlling 7/15/25, 12:52 PM Ava Community Energy Mail - public comment for CAC and Board Meetings https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=703fa6ea73&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-f:1837667313142127153&simpl=msg-f:1837667313142127153 1/2 their household costs and protecting themselves against the escalating hazards of a warming climate.
An adjunct to consider here are electric school buses, which can be used as mobile microgrids. Like near perfect puzzle pieces, electric school buses fit so well into the unused slots of daily electrical charging and of timely discharging, in and around their transportation function. Needless to say, the buses could generate significant savings for all communities, reduce waste and inefficiencies, and because of their mobility, serve as backup for power losses wherever they occur. I hope that Ava Community Energy can develop a comprehensive plan so that all of its communities, especially the small, can benefit from these mobile microgrids.
Thank you very much.
7/15/25, 12:52 PM Ava Community Energy Mail - public comment for CAC and Board Meetings https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=703fa6ea73&view=pt&search=all&permmsgid=msg-f:1837667313142127153&simpl=msg-f:1837667313142127153 2/2