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If the City Council adopts Option 3, the estimated increase in annual cost for residential <br /> accounts is $5.00 per month or $60.00 per year per account. Commercial accounts will <br /> also experience an increase. Due to the variety of commercial accounts the estimated <br /> increase was calculated for the commercial sector as a whole, which is estimated to be <br /> $2.7 million per year. <br /> BACKGROUND <br /> EBCE formed in 2016 as a joint powers authority to provide cleaner, greener energy at <br /> lower rates to customers throughout Alameda County. EBCE purchases electricity and <br /> works with PG&E, who delivers the power, maintains the grid and bills customer <br /> accounts. EBCE customer accounts are still entitled to PG&E's special pricing, <br /> efficiency programs, and rebates. EBCE began services to municipal and <br /> industrial/commercial customer accounts in June 2018 and to residential customer <br /> accounts in November 2018. <br /> When EBCE launched in 2018, three electricity products were offered: <br /> • Bright Choice —which provides 38 percent renewable energy with 85 percent <br /> carbon free' energy at 1.5 percent lower rates than PG&E2. <br /> • Brilliant 100 —which provides 40 percent renewable energy with 100 percent <br /> carbon free energy (60 percent being large hydro power) at rates equal to PG&E. <br /> • Renewable 100 —which provides 100 percent renewable energy with 100 <br /> percent carbon free energy at rates one penny per kWh more than PG&E. <br /> EBCE also created the Local Development Business Plan program which allocates <br /> approximately $6.5 million per year to local development initiatives such as funding for <br /> solar + storage projects and electric vehicle charging infrastructure development <br /> (CALeVIP). The CALeVIP project is a multi-year development program in which the <br /> California Energy Commission is matching EBCE's investment amount. This program <br /> could be a great resource for the City toward implementing CAP 2.0 actions. <br /> To ensure fiscal stability, the EBCE Board adopted a financial reserve policy in 2018 <br /> establishing reserve fund targets along with minimum and maximum contribution limits, <br /> for the purposes of establishing supporting agency credit, finance necessary collateral <br /> postings, and to support the Local Development Business Plan funding. The fund <br /> balance currently stands at just over$90 million. Included in this reserve is an allocation <br /> for the Rate Stabilization fund with $4.2 million set aside to assist with smoothing rate <br /> increase impacts on its customers. <br /> 1 According to California's renewables portfolio standards, eligible renewable energy sources include <br /> biomass and biowaste, geothermal, eligible (small) hydroelectric, solar, and wind. All renewable energy is <br /> also carbon free energy. The two sources of carbon free energy that are not renewable are nuclear and <br /> large hydroelectric. <br /> 2 PG&E's 2018 power mix was 39% renewable, 13% large hydroelectric, 34% nuclear, and 15% natural <br /> gas. <br /> 2 <br />