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VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY ALLIANCE
Staff Report – Item 10
TO: Board of Directors
FROM: Alisa Lembke, Board Clerk / Administrative Analyst SUBJECT: Summaries of Community Advisory Committee’s (CAC) December 18, 2025 and January 22, 2026 meetings, and copies of 2025 Task Group Year End Reports DATE: February 12, 2026
This report summarizes the Community Advisory Committee’s meetings held in person and via Zoom webinar on December 18, 2025 and January 22, 2026.
Thursday, December 18, 2025 Meeting:
A. Review and approve CAC Draft 2025 Task Group Year-end Reports. Each Task Group prepared a draft 2025 year-end report summarizing their activities, accomplishments, challenges and future opportunities. The CAC approved the 1) Legislative & Regulatory, 2) Programs & Outreach, 3) Bioenergy, and 4) Strategic Plan Task Group 2025 Year-End Reports. (7-0-0) Attached for the Board’s information are the Year-end Reports.
B. Review draft CAC Local Energy Task Group “Charge”. The CAC reviewed the first draft of the newly formed Local Energy Task Group “Charge”. The CAC and Staff provided their input on the draft. The final draft will be presented to the CAC at their next meeting along with other draft Task Group Charges.
C. Formation of 2026 Task Groups. The CAC briefly discussed what Task Groups should be formed in 2026. The CAC resolved to reaffirm the formation of the Legislative & Regulatory and Programs & Outreach Task Groups for 2026. (7-0-0) At the CAC’s October 23, 2025 meeting, the Local Energy Task Group (LETG) was formed for 2026.
Staff asked that each Task Group prepare a draft Charge for review and feedback for the CAC’s next scheduled meeting.
D. Election of Chair and Vice Chair for 2026. Keith Taylor will serve as Chair and Rahul Athalye will serve as Vice Chair for 2026.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 Meeting:
E. Review and approve draft 2026 CAC Task Group Charges. The CAC reviewed and approved the draft Charges for each of the 2026 Task Groups. (6-0-0) A summary of each Task Group Charge follows:
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2 1. Legislative & Regulatory: Provide feedback, recommendations on potential VCE positions on legislation, and technical and strategic input to VCE staff on key legislative and regulatory issues facing VCE and the CCA community in general in 2026.
2. Programs & Outreach: Assist in the development of public information strategies, planning, and materials related to VCE customer marketing, outreach, policies, and programs.
3. Local Energy: Compile and organize educational materials on LER technologies and applications that could be appropriate for VCE’s service area and identify potential Local Energy Resources (LER) applications that would be beneficial in VCE’s territory and will develop brief initial descriptions.
F. Receive Power Portfolio update. Staff provided an update of VCE’s Power Portfolio. CAC members and Staff discussed items such as: compliance periods, power procurement, load forecast, and portfolio performance.
G. Receive 2025 year in review: Customer Care and Marketing. The CAC received highlights of customer care, marketing and programs in 2025. Staff provided an overview of the current and past programs and detailed information about Customer interaction and participation in UltraGreen and programs. CAC Members and Staff discussed items such as: Opt Out rate, savings to customers and how to get this information out to VCE’s customers, and Phase 2 of the Electric Vehicle program “Charge Your Ride”.
Attachments:
1. Legislative and Regulatory Task Group 2025 Year End Report
2. Programs and Outreach Task Group 2025 Year End Report
3. Bioenergy Task Group 2025 Year End Report
4. Strategic Plan Task Group 2025 Year End Report
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VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
LEGISLATIVE & REGULATORY TASK GROUP (LRTG)
2025 YEAR END REPORT
Members: Lorenzo Kristov
Jennifer Rindahl (until November 2025)
Rahul Athalye
Ari Halberstadt
Keith Taylor
Primary Staff Contacts: Mitch Sears, Yvonne Hunter
2025 Charge:
Work with VCE staff and VCE’s lobbyist to:
• Provide feedback, technical information and strategic advice to VCE staff on key legislative and regulatory issues facing VCE and the CCA community in general in 2025, including legislation and regulatory issues related to VCE’s Legislative and Regulatory Platform, Strategic Plan and Environmental Justice Statement. • Provide periodic reports to the CAC about legislation and regulatory issues. • Lead CAC discussions to solicit recommendations from the CAC to inform VCE positions on key legislation and regulatory proceedings. • Contribute to VCE’s engagement with legislators, regulatory proceedings and other stakeholders.
• Receive periodic updates about and discuss CalCCA legislative and regulatory priorities, emphasizing how VCE can most effectively contribute. • Discuss and evaluate potential 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Platform positions related to transport electrification and consideration of wildlife, open space and other impacts of new generation and storage facilities. • Work with staff to periodically review and update VCE’s Legislative and Regulatory Platform for consideration by the CAC and the VCE Board.
Highlights of Activities and Accomplishments in 2025
During 2025, the Leg/Reg Task Group met bi-weekly with staff and VCE’s lobbyist and worked closely with them. During 2025 the Task Group:
1. Reviewed pending legislation; provided feedback, technical and policy information, and strategic guidance on legislative and regulatory issues; discussed and recommended VCE positions and legislative strategies for pending legislation and regulatory issues. Salient energy related issues for the Legislature in 2025 included energy affordability, wildfire risks and costs (following the Los Angeles fires in January), safety of utility-scale batteries (following the Moss Landing fire), and uncertainties around the growth and impacts of extremely large loads (data centers) anticipated in the next several years. Special attention Item 6
was devoted to discussing and advising on how best to engage legislators and regulators on issues of key importance to CalCCA and VCE.
2. Reviewed and discussed California state budget issues that affect matters of concern to VCE and all CCAs. For example, after the successful Demand Side Grid Services (DSGS) demonstration program in the summer, a program utilizing customer participation to provide grid relief during extreme peak load conditions, funding for the program was cut from the final budget. Restoration of DSGS funding is expected to be a 2026 legislative issue, as well as other measures to advance customer-side participation in and compensation for electric grid support.
3. Discussed and provided input on selected regulatory proceedings of interest to VCE. These included PCIA, the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) and Resource Adequacy (RA) proceedings. Other proceedings discussed by the LRTG included the following. • In the CPUC RA proceeding on the new Slice of Day structure, the CPUC rejected proposals by CalCCA and CCAs including VCE, to allow hourly trading of capacity between LSEs, a measure which could have reduced VCE’s RA costs. • In the SGIP proceeding, VCE, CalCCA, and other CCAs advocated for changes to make CCA customers eligible to receive SGIP benefits, and the IOUs supported these changes. However, the CPUC denied the relevant Advice Letters submitted by CCAs. • The current CPUC Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) proceeding, which requires VCE to file its own plan, was delayed during the year and will be a major topic in 2026. • Late in the year the CPUC opened a new proceeding on Demand Response, which is at an early stage and will be continued in 2026.
4. Provided periodic updates to the CAC on key legislative and regulatory issues.
5. Received and discussed periodic updates about CalCCA legislative and regulatory activities, including critical opportunities for VCE to engage and lobby its legislators and provide input to CPUC and CEC proceedings.
6. Discussed proposed legislation to implement the Pathways Initiative (SB 540, revised as AB 825 at end of session). The Task Group provided comments about the proposal to staff and made a presentation about it to the full CAC. Following discussion of the Pathways bill in the LRTG and at CAC meetings, VCE did not take a position on the legislation.
7. Updated the Legislative and Regulatory Platform for 2026 for review by the CAC and VCE Board, including adding positions related to transport electrification and consideration of wildlife, open space and other impacts of new generation and storage facilities.
Challenges
1. Identifying those legislative and regulatory topics where VCE has a significant interest and can make a difference given VCE’s limited resources. This is particularly challenging with regard to CPUC proceedings because there are so many that affect retail electricity customers, they continue to proliferate, they are extremely chronophagic and there is no VCE staff person assigned to track regulatory activities.
2. How to be most effective in the legislative and regulatory arenas given VCE’s limited resources.
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3. How best to respond to the often negative views of CCAs by regulatory agencies and some legislators and change the narrative to a positive message about the role of CCAs in the energy landscape.
Opportunities
1. Play a role in educating VCE staff, the CAC, VCE board and CalCCA about policy and regulatory developments and ways to advance opportunities and benefits for deploying distributed energy resources (DER). For example, the CPUC Integrated Resource Plan proceeding will be an important venue in which to explore beneficial DER projects, since VCE must prepare and file its own IRP. In 2026 the new CAC Local Energy Task Group is expected to focus on identifying and evaluating practical DER-related opportunities..
2. Continue to monitor and where feasible engage with legislative opportunities that can benefit VCE customers, such as Demand-Side Grid Support, Virtual Power Plants, and EV bi-directional charging.
3. Pursue ways for VCE to become more engaged with CalCCA and other CCAs. Of particular importance will be to work with CalCCA to educate legislators and their staff about PCIA and the negative impacts on ratepayers served by CCAs that have resulted from continual changes to the methods for determining PCIA to favor the IOU bundled service customers.
For example, CalCCA recently filed a legal action (“Writ of Review”) identifying inappropriate retroactive ratemaking in the CPUC’s latest decision on PCIA. It will be important for VCE to follow this and other relevant activities related to PCIA.
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VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
PROGRAMS & OUTREACH TASK GROUP (POTG)
2025 YEAR-END REPORT
Members: Mark Aulman
David Springer
Diccon Westworth
Primary Staff Contacts: Rebecca Kuzynski
2025 Charge:
Collaborate with VCE staff and consultants on policies, procedures and programs aimed at improving the customer experience and customer satisfaction in VCE, including:
1. Assist in the development of public information strategies, planning, and materials related to VCE customer marketing, outreach, policies and programs. As requested by staff, review draft materials and provide comments as appropriate; assist with customer-facing community outreach to, and liaison with, member communities.
2. Help define audience segments within VCE’s service area and consult on appropriate messages and communications approaches; provide a sounding board to assist in message development and copy testing. Conduct review of marketing materials at the draft (pre-release) stage upon request from staff. Assist with planning for focus groups in VCE service territory to better assess customer needs and preferences.
3. Assist with identification of statewide program opportunities and development of strategies for disseminating information on eligibility, rebate amounts, stacked incentives, and other details; assist Staff with finding and applying for external funding for potential programs.
4. Collaborate with Staff on an annual update to the 3-year Programs Plan, discuss 2025 program implementation with Staff; assist with the update of 2022 program design/implementation forms and program prioritization for implementation in 2025.
5. As requested by the Director of Customer Care and Marketing, provide outreach and messaging support for the efforts of other CAC task groups, as well as outreach to VCE's participating jurisdictions to encourage collaborative dissemination regarding programs, energy savings tips, rebates/incentives etc. on their websites and social media platforms.
6. Provide summaries and updates at monthly CAC meetings on Task Group activities.
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Highlights of Accomplishments:
• Assisted in the development of Phase 2 of the EV rebate pilot program (Charge Your Ride) which will provide low-income residents with EV rebates of $3500, p to $35,000 in charging incentives (per project) for multi-family properties, and enhanced customer support through Electric Advisor to help shepherd multi-family property owners through the rebate and installation process. POTG reviewed program elements several times over the course of 2025 and was instrumental in helping staff to finalize the program, including marketing and outreach strategy, program design elements, and incentive amounts.
Charge Your Ride was approved at the Board’s November 2025 meeting. • Assisted in refining Strategic Plan Goals related to Programs, Marketing, and Outreach.
The Strategic Plan was approved by the Board in 2025, after several public-facing workshops and deploying other feedback gathering tools. • POTG members continue to keep a finger on the pulse of, and help develop materials for, customer-facing materials to navigate and benefit from incentive programs such as TECH Clean California, an initiative to hasten the transition to electric space and water heating in residential homes.
• POTG members continue to brainstorm with staff on how to best support low-income households in the adoption of electrification, as well as steps VCE can take to include renters.
• Provided input on the design and marketing of programs developed through 3rd party partnerships, including:
o REDWDS or Responsive, Easy Charging Products with Dynamic Signals - Received initial approval for funding from the California Energy Commission. Implementation of this program is expected to begin in 2024.
o Smart Home Energy and Load Flexibility (SHELF) program – VCE is working with UC Davis and Panasonic to develop a program that is designed to shift residential load by offering load modification technologies along with dynamic rates, to residential customers.
• Due to limitations on staff time, POTG efforts are invaluable. Members may move forward to support staff on specific items that best suit their interests and industry expertise.
Lessons Learned – Challenges and Opportunities:
Challenges:
• Limited staff time to develop, market, and manage programs, especially as programs continue to grow in complexity and scope.
• Partnerships have proven to be time-consuming but productive.
Opportunities:
• Continue to learn from experiences of other CCAs on programs that have worked well for their customers.
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• Potential to add staff and/or hire consultants to help with program implementation. • Engage with Staff on availability of funding as reserves build. • Support Staff with specific needs as time permits, such as ideas for and review of website updates, strategies to maximize customer access to incentives, and identification of future program and outreach needs.
• Collaborate with Yolo, Woodland, Davis, and Winters Climate Action Commissions and Cool Davis.
• Potential to collaborate with other public utilities.
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VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
BIOENERGY TASK GROUP
2025 YEAR-END REPORT
Members: Danielle Ballard
Diccon Westworth
Mark Aulman
Staff Lead: N/A (was Director of Power Procurement)
Summary:
The charge of the Bioenergy Task Group is to collaborate with VCE staff on development of recommendations to the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) on bioenergy electricity generation which may be applicable to Valley Clean Energy.
Specific tasks enumerated in the 2025 charge and respective outcomes to date:
Task 1: Identify bioenergy-based power generation technologies and resources which are currently available or may become available to Valley Clean Energy. Outcome to date: While VCE potentially could benefit from the addition of baseload resources such as bioenergy to its portfolio in the 40-50MW range, adequate resources have not been identified to date. The Task Group agrees with staff that VCE could benefit from the creation of a small-scale request for information (RFI) solicitation relating to the potential availability of small, locally situated projects. There are no results to report at this time.
Task 2: Engage with external information sources including subject matter experts, relevant stakeholders, other CCAs, and others. Outcome to date: The categories of information pertinent to 2025 Task Group Charge are yet to be determined, due to the absence of an appropriate RFI solicitation.
Task 3: Provide summaries and updates at monthly CAC meetings on Bioenergy Task Group activities, including recommendations as appropriate. Outcome to date: Task Group meetings and participation by CAC members have been paused, effective December 2024, contingent on staff assessment of a RFI solicitation relating to small-scale, locally sited projects. As of December 2025, resumption of Task Group activity has not been requested by staff, and for this reason Task Group activity remains suspended. Resumption of Task Group activity may occur if requested by staff.
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1 VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
STRATEGIC PLAN TASK GROUP (SPTG)
2025 YEAR END REPORT
Members: Danielle Ballard (Chair)
Lorenzo Kristov
Rahul Athalye
Ari Halberstadt
Primary Staff Contacts: Edward Burnham, Mitch Sears
2025 Charge
The CAC Strategic Plan Task Group will assist VCE Staff with the planning and development of a Major Update focusing on VCE achieving better energy outcomes for its customers and communities by guiding the organization’s actions. The original 3-year (2021-2023) Strategic Plan was approved by the Board on October 8, 2020; on July 13, 2023, the Board adopted Strategic Plan Guidelines for a comprehensive alignment “rolling” approach; and, on September 14, 2023, the Board approved the 2021-2023 strategic plan minor update and extension of the plan through the end of 2025.
Specifically, the Task Group will:
(1) conduct a more detailed comprehensive review/update, including a review of VCE’s Vision/Mission and existing goals and objectives,
(2) participate with Staff in conducting workshops at various levels of the organization, including community stakeholder engagement, to obtain input to be incorporated into the Major Update,
(3) focus on incorporating changing legislative, regulatory, customer, economic, and other requirements into the Major Update,
(4) identify changes in the overall CCA environment (economics, policy, technology, etc.) and describe their relevance for VCE,
(5) provide summaries and updates at monthly CAC meetings on Task Group activities.
Highlights of Accomplishments in 2025
During 2025, the Strategic Plan Task Group met regularly in support of the development of the 2026-2029 Strategic Plan Major Update including the following activities:
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2 1. Strategic Planning Review Framework: VCE followed its Board-adopted Strategic Plan Guidelines, which emphasize a balanced, multi-year approach for analysis of the major update.
2. Stakeholder Engagement: The Strategic Plan Task Group participated in the two public workshops focused on financial strength, procurement, community engagement, and decarbonization. STPG also included the customer survey feedback, which was distributed to over 45,000 contacts, gathering both quantitative and qualitative responses.
3. Draft Development and Iteration: The initial Major Update draft in early 2025, incorporated feedback from the Task Group, the full CAC, public workshops, and survey results. Key themes included affordability, local distributed energy resources, and support for vulnerable customers.
4. Plan Refinement: Based on input, objectives were revised to emphasize cost-effective renewable energy strategies, rate competitiveness, and community resilience. a. Notably, Goal 2 was updated to reflect current renewable energy projections, project costs, and enable VCE to develop strategies for local distributed energy resources, as described under Objective 2.3.
5. Board and CAC Review: Draft versions were reviewed by the CAC in July and August 2025, with a final Board workshop in September 2025 based on recommendations from the SPTG.
The Strategic Plan Task Group concluded with the adoption of the Strategic Plan. The Board adopted the 2026-2029 Strategic Plan at the October 14, 2025, meeting, located here.