DATE: September 16, 2024
TO: Council Sustainability Committee
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT Ava Community Energy’s Community Solar Program – Update
RECOMMENDATION
That the Council Sustainability Committee (CSC) reviews and comments on this informational report.
SUMMARY
In February 2023, the City of Hayward agreed to partner with Ava Community Energy and support a community solar program. The City was to assist with outreach to and enrollment of low-income households. The program, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has been modified and the City will no longer play a role. Low-income customers will be selected at random and automatically enrolled in Ava’s Solar Discount program.
BACKGROUND
Ava Community Energy offers two electricity products – Renewable 100 and Bright Choice. Hayward’s default electricity product is Renewable 100, which is 100% renewable energy, and the cost is ¼ of a penny more than PG&E rates. Bright Choice has less renewable content and its rates are 5% lower than PG&E rates. Hayward’s low-income customers, those enrolled in CARE or FERA, are automatically enrolled in the Bright Choice product. Customers enrolled in the CARE/FERA programs receive an 18 to 20% discount on their bill. Approximately 30% of Hayward households are low-income customers.
In the Fall of 2022, staff was presented with an opportunity from East Bay Community Energy, now known as Ava Community Energy, to participate in a community solar program to benefit low-income customers in Hayward. Enrolled customers would be allocated 100% solar electricity and would receive a 20% bill discount. Staff recommended that the City participate as a community sponsor to support the program and help enroll Hayward households.
Ava was one of several community choice energy programs implementing the Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT), which was a program of the CPUC. The program required participating solar projects to be located in Ava’s service area and within a disadvantaged community. The CPUC required each solar project to have a community sponsor to support the developer’s proposal. The role of the sponsor was to demonstrate interest from the host community and to support outreach to customers for program enrollment. The CGST program also required that participating households must live within five miles of the solar project site.
The program would have been presented to the CSC, but the Committee did not have a meeting in January 2023 and a letter of commitment was needed from the City by February 2023. On January 25, 2023, the Council Infrastructure Committee considered a report about the proposed community solar program and unanimously recommended that Council approve Hayward’s participation. On February 21, 2023, Council adopted Resolution 23-041 approving Hayward’s participation in the community solar program.
DISCUSSION
After a competitive solicitation, Ava selected Prologis to develop five solar projects, including a 0.56 MW rooftop installation at 19202-19240 Cabot Boulevard in Hayward. In June this year, the CPUC discontinued the CSGT program and consolidated it into another CPUC-sponsored community solar program. One reason for the change was that the CPUC found that the voluntary enrollment process required by the CSGT program was inefficient and ineffective. Both the old and the new programs will enable Bright Choice customers to receive 100% renewable energy and receive a 20% discount on their bill. Eligible customers must be enrolled in CARE/FERA. Customers enrolled in the Solar Discount program will have a combined discount totaling approximately 40%.
Ava's projects with Prologis will proceed, but no longer with the same parameters that were presented to Council in 2023. The changes are summarized as follows:
The solar projects no longer require a community sponsor and the City will not assist with outreach to and enrollment of low-income households.
Participating households are no longer required to reside within five miles of the project site.
In 2023, it was expected that the 0.56 MW solar project on Cabot Boulevard would benefit 161 low-income customers in Hayward.
With the new program, Ava will automatically enroll approximately 800 customers across all of Ava territory as a result of the five Prologis solar projects.
Participants must still be enrolled in CARE/FERA and located in a disadvantaged community (“DAC”) in Ava service territory.
Eligible customers will be selected at random, auto-enrolled, and receive a “welcome packet” explaining the Solar Discount program.
Enrolled customers will receive a 20% discount on their total electric bill and receive 100% renewable energy.
The five solar projects developed by Prologis will expand the capacity of Ava’s existing "Solar Discount" program. The program currently has approximately 3,000 customers enrolled and the five solar projects will support an additional 800 customers. In total, the Solar Discount program will benefit 3,800 customers across Ava’s service territory.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
While most Hayward customers are enrolled in Renewable 100, customers on income or medical-related discounts are enrolled in Bright Choice. Approximately 30% of Hayward households are enrolled in CARE or FERA and receive an 18 to 20% discount on their bill. Customers enrolled in the Solar Discount program receive an additional 20% discount for a total discount of approximately 40%.
Ava has approximately 630,000 residential accounts in its service territory and roughly 20%, or 124,000, accounts are CARE/FERA customers. Approximately 12 percent of Ava’s CARE/FERA customers are in Hayward. If the 800 new Solar Discount customers are proportionally located in Hayward, Hayward will gain approximately 100 customers in the program.
FISCAL IMPACT
Ava’s Solar Discount program has no fiscal impact on the City’s General Fund or other funds.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item relates to the Strategic Priority of Champion Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice. This item specifically relates to the following project:
Project CP1: Implement Year 1 Programs from the adopted GHG Roadmap
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
Community choice energy was identified in the City’s original Climate Action Plan as the program with the greatest potential to reduce community wide GHG emissions. In 2018, Hayward’s participation in what was then East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) resulted in the 20% GHG reduction goal for 2020 being met two years early. In 2019, due in large part to EBCE, Hayward’s emissions were 25.7% lower than the 2005 baseline. However, in 2021, the carbon content for Bright Choice decreased significantly while PG&E increased the GHG free portion of their product to 93%. Fortunately, Bright Choice emissions have since decreased. In 2022, Bright Choice was just over 70% carbon free and for 2024, the target is 81%.
PUBLIC CONTACT
No public contact was made for this agenda item.
NEXT STEPS
The solar projects that will benefit low-income customers are expected to come on line by the end of 2025. Staff will continue to work with Ava Community Energy to identify and implement programs that benefit Hayward customers, especially low-income customers.
Prepared by: Erik Pearson, Environmental Services Manager Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Public Works
Approved by:
____________________________
Dustin Claussen, Interim City Manager
CARE is the California Alternate Rates for Energy program and FERA is the Family Electric Rate Assistance program. https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/SolarInDACs/#CSGT
For the Community Solar program, the CPUC has indicated that a disadvantaged community is a census tract in the top 25% as shown in either CalEnviroScreen 3.0 or 4.0. The February 21, 2023 Council report included, as Attachment III, a map of the DAC census tracts in Hayward. https://hayward.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6002335&GUID=13A1C464-70BB-4948-9A63-EE68FC3D414B&Options=&Search= https://hayward.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6031664&GUID=42A91303-1E8C-454B-B805-7423902F17BB&Options=&Search= Press release: https://avaenergy.org/news-and-events/ava-partners-with-prologis-to-develop-five-local-community-solar-projects/ https://avaenergy.org/solar-discount/