DATE: June 15, 2021
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT
East Bay Community Energy Default Product: Adopt a Resolution Selecting a Default Electricity Product from East Bay Community Energy
RECOMMENDATION
That the Council adopts the attached resolution (Attachment II) selecting Renewable 100 as the new default product for Hayward customers served by East Bay Community Energy to take effect January 1, 2022.
SUMMARY
When East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) launched in 2018, Council chose Brilliant 100 (100% carbon free electricity) as the default product for Hayward. In 2020, when it appeared that Brilliant 100 would no longer be offered, Council provided its ranked choices for a replacement. Council's top choice was to maintain Brilliant 100 with a subsidy and Council's second choice was to make Renewable 100 the default. The EBCE Board extended Brilliant 100 for one more year, but it will not be offered as of January 1, 2022.
Review by?Council Sustainability Committee?- On May 10, 2021, the Council Sustainability Committee (CSC) considered the following three options for a new default product from EBCE, to be effective January 1, 2022:
1. Renewable 100 as the default for all customers with the exception of residential customers that receive income or medical-related discounts. This option would maximize greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, but would result in rate increases for most customers.
2. Renewable 100 as the default for non-discounted residential customers. All other customers would move to Bright Choice. This option would cause Hayward's GHG emissions to increase and would result in rate increases only for residential customers that do not receive income-qualified or medical-related discounts. Commercial customers would default to Bright Choice and would experience a small decrease in rates.
3. Bright Choice as the default for all customers. This option would cause the largest increase in Hayward's GH...
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