East Bay Community Energy Wins Environment + Energy Leader Top Project of the Year for Work on Community Resiliency

The winning resiliency program provides backup for critical loads during grid outages while reducing customer energy bills.

Oakland, CA – July 20, 2023 – East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), one of the country’s top clean energy providers, today announced that it has won Environment + Energy (E+E) Leader’s 2023 Top Project of the Year Award for its Resilient Critical Municipal Facilities Program. This accolade recognizes EBCE as an exemplary leader making great strides in energy or environmental management.

While facilities like police stations, fire stations, community centers and libraries can’t afford to go dark during power outages, local governments often lack available staff time, financial resources or technical expertise to advance resilient energy projects. EBCE’s Resilient Critical Municipal Facilities Program’s innovative and scalable model provides resiliency backup for critical loads during grid outages while reducing customer energy bills. The project will serve over 75 facilities in at least 10 cities across the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Resilient Critical Municipal Facilities program’s outstanding qualities and remarkable achievements captivated the attention of the E+E’s distinguished panel of judges. As one judge noted, “East Bay Community Energy was able to develop a project that provides essential service facilities with reliable, clean energy. They were able to make this a financially attractive, low-risk project for several municipal customers.”

Through Resilient Critical Municipal Facilities, EBCE helps reduce customer energy bills, its own wholesale energy procurement costs and overall reliance on existing diesel-powered generators. The program is emblematic of the EBCE’s continued efforts to reduce barriers to solar and storage deployments for local governments and to increase community resilience in its service areas.

East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) is a not-for-profit public agency that operates a Community Choice Energy program in the California Bay Area for Alameda County and fourteen incorporated cities, serving more than 1.7 million residential and commercial customers. EBCE initiated service in June 2018 and expanded to Tracy in neighboring San Joaquin County in 2021 and will expand service to Stockton in 2025. As one of 24 community choice aggregation (CCA) programs operating in California, EBCE is part of the movement to expedite the climate action goals of their communities and those of California. EBCE is committed to providing clean power at competitive rates while reinvesting in its local communities and offering innovative energy programs. For more information about East Bay Community Energy, visit ebce.org.

For over a decade, the Environment + Energy Leader Awards have celebrated excellence in the world of environmental, sustainability and energy management. Award recipients are acknowledged as industry leaders, and featuring a Top Project or Top Product of the Year Award badge signifies their outstanding contributions. Companies seeking sustainable and energy management solutions trust that E+E Product of the Year Award winners offer a comprehensive array of vetted products to guide their decision-making. Project of the Year Award winners exemplify how sustainability and energy management projects can successfully enhance the profitability of other companies.