CEO Report Item 10
CEO Report Item 10
TO: Ava Community Energy Board of Directors
FROM: Howard Chang, Chief Executive Officer
SUBJECT: CEO Report (Informational Item)
DATE: September 17, 2025
________________________________________________________________________ Recommendation
Accept Chief Executive Officer (CEO) report on update items below.
Executive Committee Meeting
An Executive Committee Meeting was held on Wednesday, September 3, 2025. Members received updates on the Customer Programs Strategic Roadmap and an informational presentation on the Slice of Day RA Requirements. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, at 3pm.
Marketing Regulatory and Legislative Subcommittee Meeting A Marketing Regulatory and Legislative Subcommittee Meeting was held on Monday, July 21, 2025. Members received updates about legislative priorities and Understanding the Drivers of PG&E Rate and Cost Growth, and a primer on the PCIA. The next Marketing, Regulatory and Legislative Subcommittee meeting will be held on Friday, October 17, 2025, at 10am.
Long-Term Projects Update
Two Ava projects from long-term agreements achieved their Commercial Operation Date in August of 2025.
• Kola Energy Storage (Kola): The Kola project is a 125 MW / 500 MWh battery energy storage facility that is part of a larger 400 MW / 1600 MWh facility located in Ava’s service territory. The development of the facility created over 100 union jobs during the construction phase and will generate approximately $100 million in additional tax revenue to San Joaquin County over the life of the project. Kola achieved Commercial Operation on August 1st, 2025, and has a delivery term of 20 years. • Hanford Energy Storage (Hanford): The Hanford project is a 16 MW / 64 MWh battery energy storage facility co-located with an existing natural gas facility. Ava has an agreement for 16 MW of Resource Adequacy (RA) from the battery. The addition of battery storage at the facility will reduce the run-time of the co-located natural gas facility and lower overall emissions from the gas plant. The Hanford battery was completed and achieved Commercial Operation on August 20
th, 2025.
CEO Report Item 10
1 Kola Energy Storage Facility, San Joaquin County, CA
Municipal Fleet Electrification Update
Over the course of several years, Ava provided no-cost technical assistance to its member jurisdictions by funding and leveraging the industry expertise of a consultant team to develop 10-year fleet electrification plans. Each plan included a schedule for replacing every gas and diesel vehicle with an appropriate electric model, charging infrastructure recommendations, a total cost of ownership analysis, and a greenhouse gas reduction analysis. These plans were developed for 13 jurisdictions within Ava’s service area at the time.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) then released a Grant Funding Opportunity (GFO) to help fund government fleet EV charging infrastructure. Ava then provided further no-cost technical assistance to the 5 jurisdictions that met the GFO requirements by funding a consultant to develop and submit a grant application for each jurisdiction. These applications leveraged the fleet electrification reports previously developed for each jurisdiction. 3 of those applications were then awarded a total of $7.6M in grant funding from the CEC. All 3 Grant Agreements have now been executed, and each will fund the installation of at least 100 fleet EV charging ports.
Grant Funding Awards
CEO Report Item 10
Jurisdiction CEC Funding Match Funding Total Funding
Alameda County $3.7M $5.2M $8.9M
City of Livermore $1.6M $3.1M $4.7M
City of Oakland $2.3M $3M $5.3M
$7.6M $11.3M $18.9M
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 between September 17 and October 22. Learn more at https://avaenergy.org/about-ava/meetings-events/events/ Date Event Location
9/18/2025 Stockton Coffee Office Hours Trail Coffee in Stockton 9/20/2025 Family Day at the Park, Stockton Weber Point Park 9/21/2025 Piedmont Harvest Festival Piedmont Main Park
9/21/2025 Berkeley Sun Day Willard Park
10/4/2025 Emeryville Harvest Festival Huchiun Park
10/4/2026 Stockton Pride 926 N Yosemite St,
Stockton, CA 95203
10/12/2025 Tracy Pride Lincoln Park
10/19/2025 Cycle of Hope Dublin
Community Sponsorship Recipients
Three times a year, Ava awards sponsorships to community organizations across our service area. Funding areas include (but are not limited to) sports, art, music, and STEM. More information, eligibility criteria, and a link to apply for the next round of sponsorships can be found at https://avaenergy.org/community/grants-sponsorships/community-sponsorships/. The most recent sponsorship recipients are:
Recipient Org City Sponsorship Amount
Emeryville Celebration of the Arts Emeryville $2,360
Young STEAMers Fremont $2,500
FTC SciRavens Fremont $2,500
Invent the Future Fremont $1,540
2204 Rambots – California Crosspoint
Academy
Hayward $2,500
Down by the Bay Nursery Hayward $2,500
A Safe Place Oakland $1,950
CEO Report Item 10
Alameda Health Systems Foundation Oakland $2,500
Lake Merritt Institute Oakland $2,500
Oakland Triathlon Club Oakland $1,000
EHS Girlsl4Sports Dublin $1,610
Emerald HOSA Dublin $870
Kids Bike Lane Livermore $2,500
New Haven Schools Foundation Union City $2,447
Regional Parks Foundation Alameda and Contra
Costa County
$2,500
Emergency Food Bank Stockton $2,000
Improve Your Tomorrow Stockton $2,500
Tracy Earth Project Tracy $2,500
Tracy Community Connections Center Tracy $2,500
Customer Support Call Trends Over Time
The Ava customer support team fields an average of 1,200 calls a month, with peaks in the months leading up to a new enrollment or default service plan change, such as the City of Fremont’s most recent residential transition from Bright Choice to Renewable 100. The annual call volume cycle sees, independent of other activities, higher calls in December/January and July/August, coinciding with peak winter and summer bills.
This year the customer support team saw record call levels due to continued activity from new Ava communities, Stockton and Lathrop in August, as well as high summer bills – especially in San Joaquin County, which has higher summer bills due to air conditioning, as well as Fremont’s transition to Renewable 100.
CEO Report Item 10
The customer support team was prepared for these call volumes based on previous experience with summer bills and these high engagement events.
New Employees
Penelope (Penny) Bach
Penny joined Ava on September 8, 2025, as the Program Manager for Ava Charge.
Penny’s responsibilities include leading the cross functional project delivery and the overseeing full program lifecycle for Ava Charge.
Penny brings 10+ years of experience working in the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging industry. Prior to joining Ava, Penny worked at Amazon as Sr. Program Manager for the deployment of Level 2 and Level 3 EV chargers at scale for Amazon’s fleet of electric delivery vans. Penny also spent 4 years working at Rivian Automotive as Sr.
Analyst for Rivan’s Level 3 DC Fast Charging Network. Before Rivian, Penny worked at ChargePoint, Inc. designing and executing EV charging deployment programs for Commercial Real Estate properties and Multifamily communities.
Penny has a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Western Governor’s University, and a B.A in Humanities and Liberal Arts from California State University, Fullerton. She is Project Management Professional (PMP®) certified, and LEED AP BD+C certified from US Green Building Council.
Brendan Abatecola
Brendan Joined Ava on August 11th, 2025, as Project Manager, Infrastructure Delivery. He will be supporting the Local Development team by managing delivery and execution of the Critical Municipal Facilities (CMF) solar + storage portfolio.
Prior to Ava, Brendan worked as a Project Manager at Prime Electric, where he managed a portfolio of commercial solar PV + BESS projects as well as helped to develop the renewable energy group’s engineering team. Before that Brendan was a Project engineer at Sprig Electric where he worked on PV+BESS design and drafting as well as assisted the Project Management team with project execution. Brendan has over 7 years of experience in the development and construction of solar PV + BESS projects including experience with financial payback analysis, PV system/production modeling, and electrical design. Brendan holds a B.A in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara as well as a professional certification for Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies from the Stanford School of Engineering.
Thomas Roccanova – PR Contracts Manager (July 10, 2025) Thomas Roccanova joined Ava in July 2025 as a Power Resources Contracts Manager. In this role, he supports Ava’s customer programs by managing contract administration for distributed energy resources, load modification programs, vehicle charging, and demand response products. He also develops strategy and leads processes to oversee contracts and financial settlements.
Before joining Ava, Thomas spent 2.5 years advancing fleet electrification projects with corporate customers at Revolv. Prior to Revolv, he spent 8 years at SunPower/Total Energies, originating and developing commercial-scale solar and energy storage projects.
Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Economics and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.