FAQ

Ava Community Energy (Ava), formerly called East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), is your local, not-for-profit electricity generation provider. Ava is a Community Choice Energy Aggregation (often referred to as a CCA or CCE) program. State law allows cities and counties to pool the electricity demand of their residents and businesses for the purpose of buying electricity on behalf of those customers as part of a CCE program.

Ava’s electricity generation service replaces PG&E’s electricity generation service. Ava Community Energy generates power with higher renewable content than PG&E, and sells it to our customers at lower rates than PG&E. Other than receiving more renewable electricity at competitive prices, all other aspects of your electricity service remain the same. PG&E continues to deliver the electricity, maintain the power lines, handle billing, and respond to new service requests and emergencies. If you want to stay with PG&E for your electricity, you can opt out of Ava Community Energy.

Ava launched service in 2018 to most residential, municipal, and commercial accounts in Alameda County. Ava now serves Alameda County and 14 of its member cities (Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, and Union City) as well as the City of Tracy. The Cities of Stockton and Lathrop will begin Ava service in April 2025. The City of Alameda is not eligible as it has its own municipal electric utility.

No. Ava procures electricity for our customers, and PG&E delivers electricity to your home or business. PG&E also continues to handle the billing, turn on and off power when you move, maintain the power lines, and resolve outages. Those who prefer to have PG&E continue to buy their electricity can choose that option.

Yes, absolutely. PG&E crews in their distinctive blue trucks will maintain the lines and repair them as needed.

Cities and counties throughout California are also opearting similar programs. As of July 2024, there are 25 operational Community Choice Energy programs (CCEs) in California, serving more than 14 million customers, and that number is estimated to grow. Details at https://cal-cca.org/cca-impact/

No! Ava does not go door-to-door to customers’ homes nor does Ava have any relationship with gas service providers. If someone comes to your door representing themselves as being with Ava, please ask for their name and then report them to Ava and/or local authorities.

No. By law, Ava can only be funded through revenues—revenue is used to reduce or stabilize rates, incentives, local renewable projects, and customized programs such as energy efficiency services and rebates. Ava’s budget is completely separate from the general funds of participating local governments and is approved by the Ava board before the start of the fiscal year on July 1 each year.

Local east bay cities founded Ava in 2018 to help save money and achieve climate action plan targets, among other goals. Residents and businesses in our service area are automatically enrolled in our service -that’s the way the law governing the formation of CCE programs like Ava was written (see California Assembly Bill 117). Your city council voted for your city to join Ava. Nevertheless, if you wish to remain with PG&E, you may do so by opting out of Ava here.

Ava replaces PG&E as the default electricity generation provider throughout Ava’s service area. Anyone with a PG&E electric account in these areas was automatically enrolled in Ava. You do not need to take action to become an Ava customer – enrollment is automatic (per Assembly Bill 117).

Customers may opt out of Ava and choose PG&E service. To do so, visit this page and complete the form, or call our call center at +1 833.699.3223 and use the automated phone system, or talk with a customer service representative (available 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekdays).

Customers who opt out of Ava service within the first 60 days of Ava service may return to Ava at any time. Based on state law, customers who opt out after the first 60 days of service with Ava must wait one year before returning to Ava.

Customers may be charged a one-time termination fee of $5 per residential account or $25 per commercial account.

You may opt out of Ava electric generation service at any time by calling +1 833.699.3223 or by completing the opt-out form here. You will need your PG&E account information to begin the opt-out process.

If returning to PG&E generation service after receiving Ava service for more than 60 days, PG&E requires that you choose one of the following options:

Option 1: Return to PG&E generation service at the end of the current billing cycle. You will be billed at PG&E’s transitional rates for a six-month period, and PG&E’s standard bundled electricity rates thereafter.

Option 2: Give six month’s advance notice of your intent to return to PG&E generation service. At the end of the six-month notice period, you will be returned to PG&E service and billed PG&E’s standard bundled electricity rates.

If you are on Ava’s Bright Choice service, you are paying 5% less every month on your PG&E bill than you would have otherwise paid for electric service with PG&E. Your PG&E bill now includes charges from Ava Community Energy and a monthly Generation Credit from PG&E (because you are no longer buying electricity from their power plants). The Generation Credit more than offets Ava charges and PG&E fees. You had been previously paying PG&E for electricity generation, as well as for transmission and distribution. Now, your bill shows that you’re receiving electricity from Ava and transmission and distribution from PG&E.

Please see this web page for more information on how to understand your bill. Note that customers on Renewable 100 service pay a little bit more (typically about $1 more per month than PG&E) for 100 percent renewable energy.

What makes Ava so powerful is that it supports clean energy market competition in three ways:
1. Ava buys power through a competitive process that encourages private energy companies to compete to provide more clean, renewable power at lower costs.
2. Ava is a local government agency with low overhead costs. Ava has maintained an A Credit Rating from S&P Global.
3. Because there are no shareholder investors expecting dividends, Ava can reinvest net revenue into the community and keep rates low.

Ava electricity rates are set through a transparent public process and approved by the Ava Board of Directors, local elected officials from all participating jurisdictions. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in publicly noticed hearings for each step of the process.

Ava’s rates are pegged to PG&E generation rates. In general, when PG&E updates their rates, Ava rates will also be adjusted accordingly to maintain our customer discount. Ava’s value proposition, which sets the discount from PG&E generation rates, goes through a public rate setting process once per year.

Ava default service plan level is dependent on jurisdiction and timing of enrollment. Your city’s City Council determines the default service for customers in your jurisdiction. For more information and to find your service level, check out our webpage at AvaEnergy.org/terms/.

Yes. If you receive a low-income discount on your electricity bill through the CARE, FERA or Medical Baseline Allowance programs, that discount will continue to apply as an Ava customer. Renewals and new enrollment applications are still handled by PG&E – visit pge.com/financialassistance for more information.

Yes. The conservation incentive is applied by PG&E (not by Ava) but impacts your bill the same way whether you are on Ava service or not. For a detailed example, see page two of this document (PDF) under the section entitled “Unbundling of Total Rates.” In that section, there is a Generation charge of $0.16890 per kWh. That is PG&E’s rate, which will be replaced by Ava. Below that you see “Conservation Incentive Adjustment.” That is the baseline treatment. Whether you are a PG&E customer for generation service or on Ava, that treatment remains the same. So no matter what tier of usage you have in a given month, Ava’s rates will reflect the value proposition proposed depending on which service you are on (Bright Choice or Renewable 100).

Yes, Ava supports the same Time-of-Use rate schedules as PG&E.

You can run a rate comparison online at pge.com/myrate to get an estimate of your charges on different rates. Note that the rate comparisons use your last 12 months of usage to calculate your estimated charges.

No. SmartRate is a program offered only to PG&E generation customers. However, Ava customers can sign up for a similar service through companies that offer demand response programs. The California Public Utilities Commission maintains a list of these companies.

A RIN is a variation of letters and numbers that indicate a customer’s rate. Ava’s RINs vary based on rate schedule (B1, B19, TOUC, etc.), Ava product (Bright Choice, Renewable 100) and PCIA vintage year. The RIN can be used to program smart technologies to optimize your usage and costs on your rate schedule.

As part of the load management rulemaking,the California Energy Commission (CEC) is expanding efforts to increase efficiency and demand flexibility in California’s electricity grid. Part of the requirements that the CEC has proposed include developing a standardized rate identification number (RIN).

RINs will start being printed on bills in April 2024 for all time varying rates. Your Ava RIN will be printed on the Ava page of your bill on the right hand side. RINs will also be accompanied by a QR code on the bill that houses the RIN for ease in programming smart technology. For more information about RINs, visit pge.com/rin

No, you will continue to receive one monthly bill from PG&E that includes Ava charges. The general look, appearance, and setup of your bill will not change, although Ava electricity supply charges will replace PG&E electricity supply charges. A full description of how to read your bill is available here.

That’s the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment or PCIA, sometimes called an “exit fee.” It will appear on your bill as a separate line item under the PG&E Electric Delivery Charges. PG&E has various long-term contracts for buying electricity for its customers; some are as long as 20 years. It bought power based on the number of customers it serves. When customers switch to Ava, PG&E needs to provide less electricity but still has to pay for the amount of power in its long-term contracts. So PG&E sells the excess power on the open market. Sometimes PG&E’s excess contracted electricity sells for less than what PG&E paid for it. That difference is charged to Ava customers under the guidance of the California Public Utilities Commission.

What’s most important to know is that Ava’s rates—including the PCIA charge—will still be competitive with PG&E’s rates. Even after paying the PCIA, Ava customers on Bright Choice save 5% compared to what they otherwise would have paid for PG&E generation service.

Most Ava customers see a Generation Credit on their PG&E bill each month (usually on page 3), showing what they would have paid PG&E for generation service. The Generation Credit appears because PG&E first charges customers the fully-bundled retail cost per kilowatt-hour, which includes transmission, distribution, generation, fees, taxes, etc. Then for Ava customers they remove the cost of generation service from that total, and issue that amount as a Generation Credit. Ava provides the generation service, and our charges replace that Generation Credit.

In two cases customers do not see a Generation Credit: solar net energy metered accounts, and customers who use minimal amounts of electricity. These customers pay PG&E’s Minimum Delivery Charge instead of paying per kWh for PG&E electric delivery service. These accounts are not charged by the kilowatt-hour for electric delivery service, they are charged a daily fee instead.These customers do not pay a fully-bundled retail cost per kilowatt-hour, and are never charged by PG&E for generation service, so there is no need for PG&E to issue a kWh-based Generation Credit.

If these customers are interested in comparing their Ava charges to what they would have paid PG&E for generation service, they can calculate a “proxy” Generation Credit by multiplying their monthly kWh consumption times the generation rate(s) in their PG&E rate schedule (available here https://www.pge.com/tariffs/index.page). It is important to note that customers who do not receive a Generation Credit on their bill are still saving 5% compared to PG&E rates if they are on Ava’s Bright Choice service.

No. PG&E must provide the same transmission and distribution rates for all customers in their service area whether or not they receive electricity from PG&E or a Community Choice Energy program such as Ava.

Yes, the PG&E employee discount is exactly the same dollar value whether you are on Ava generation service or PG&E bundled service.

Yes. Twice a year, in Spring and Fall, you will see the California Climate Credit appear on your PG&E bill. This credit is your share of money from California’s Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program. You will see this credit whether you are a customer of Ava or PG&E.

Unfortunately, Ava does not offer this. Customers on Ava service can have budget billing for their PG&E charges, but not for their Ava charges. You will still receive one bill, but with some month to month fluctuation that corresponds to the generation charge.

Ava will use the same rate schedules as PG&E, including those rates specific to agricultural customers such as AG-1, AG-4, and AG-5. The current rate sheet can be found on the website here.

Enrollment is by account, so you’ll be able to see all your accounts and decide what is best for each one.

Any existing direct access arrangements will not be automatically enrolled in Ava’s program. Direct Access (DA) service is retail electric service where customers purchase electricity from a competitive provider called an Electric Service Provider (ESP), instead of from a regulated electric utility. However, those customers can choose to become Ava customers. Special direct access termination provisions may apply.

No, Ava is not a company. Ava, a joint powers authority formed in 2016, is a locally controlled, not for profit public agency covering most of Alameda County and also the City of Tracy. It provides residents and businesses in those communities with an option to have more of their electricity supplied from clean, renewable sources—such as solar and wind—at competitive rates.

When customers are enrolled with Ava, they help empower local control of electricity procurement decisions. Rather than paying profits to shareholders, Ava’s net revenue (after buying power and administrative expenses), can be used to help stabilize electricity prices, provide incentives for more solar installations, support energy efficiency programs, develop more local renewable energy sources in and near our service area, and invest in innovative clean technologies and energy-related job training—all while keeping electricity rates competitive with PG&E.

Representatives from Alameda County and participating cities govern Ava. The Board of Directors is composed of local elected officials representing each of the participating communities. The Board sets rates and determines the mix of power sources. There is a small (currently about 90 employees based in Oakland) staff to run day-to-day operations and provide customer support. The entire process is completely transparent, with all Board meetings open to the public. For more information visit our Governance page.

In 2002, Assembly Bill 117 was enacted into law to establish Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) opportunities in California, now referred to as Community Choice Energy (CCE). It allows a city or county (or groups of cities or counties) to become the default electric supplier in its jurisdiction(s). By doing so, it offers an opportunity for Californians to locally influence the sources of their electricity. Marin Clean Energy (now called MCE Clean Energy) was California’s first CCE program launched in 2010. For more information visit our trade association website.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the entity that regulates all California energy providers, approved the Ava Implementation Plan in October 2017 (which has been amended several times – see our Key Documents page). The Plan discusses rate design, plan to buy electricity, and how we will carry out all the functions the CPUC requires. Ava must comply with various reporting requirements issued by the CPUC and the California Energy Commission.

The County of Alameda issued a $3.7 million loan to launch Ava in 2018. Ava paid off this loan in full in 2019.

To date Ava has signed 23 contracts to build over 1,225 megawatts of wind, solar, and geothermal power, and over 632 megawatts of battery storage. The intent is to purchase as much renewable electricity as possible from sources located in California at prices that remain competitive with PG&E. Ava is subject to reporting requirements, just like PG&E, including a Power Content Label that is published annually in October for the previous year’s electricity.

Ava’s goal is to be 100% carbon-free for all of our customes by 2030, 15 years before the state’s goal date.

The electricity is delivered by PG&E, because they own and manage the electricity delivery infrastructure in our area. Ava generates or buys the same amount of electricity that customers use, and feeds it into California’s electric grid. Ava provides clean electricity to the grid with higher renewable content. The advantage of Ava is that Ava has lower rates, we offer additional energy programs and incentives for our customers, and we are on track toward our goal of 100% carbon-free power for all customers by 2030.

There are a number of reasons why the greenhouse gas emissions intensity for Bright Choice was relatively high (496 lbs CO2e/MWh) in 2022 compared to the state utility average (422 lbs/MWh) and PG&E (56 lbs/MWh). The primary difference in Ava’s electricity supply is the amount of nuclear power. As reflected in our 2022 (most recent) Power Content Label, Ava’s power supply for Bright Choice was 0.2% nuclear, whereas the state average was 9.2% and PG&E was 49.3%. Nuclear power is not renewable, but it is considered emissions-free in those calculations.

Ava elected to not accept the nuclear power allocation from PG&E. Our Board voted, with strong input from the public, to take that step knowing that one consequence was having a temporarily higher emissions factor. Ava is on a path to 100% carbon-free for all customers by 2030. Our plan aims for Bright Choice to be sourced from at least 54% renewable and 71% carbon-free resources in 2023. We’re on a fast path to decarbonizing our customers’ electricity!

Ava is required to report to the California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission on an annual basis to verify the amount of renewable energy procured for our customers. This is the same standard used by all California utilities, including PG&E, for verification purposes. Each megawatt-hour of renewable energy is tracked in the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS).