East Bay Community Energy

East Bay Community Energy Logo

East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) has been Hayward’s power supplier providing a cleaner, greener, and more affordable choices for electricity since 2018. EBCE is a Community Choice Energy program, also known as Community Choice Aggregation, which allows public agencies to purchase electricity on behalf of their community members, instead of relying on PG&E to both procure and deliver energy. EBCE provides Hayward with more local control over our sources of energy as well as resilience and efficiency programs. Pacific Gas & Electric continues to provide customer billing, transmission, and distribution services.

East Bay Community Energy Website

Default Electricity Product

When EBCE launched in 2018, the Hayward City Council selected Brilliant 100, EBCE's 100% carbon free product, as the default electricity product for the Hayward community. Customers enrolled in income or medical-related discount programs were enrolled in the lower cost Bright Choice product. With Brilliant 100 rates equal to PG&E, Hayward customers experienced no change in their cost of electricity. Brilliant 100 also allowed Hayward to achieve its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goal two years ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, due to the high costs of hydro power, Brilliant 100 will no longer be offered as of January 1, 2022. 

In summer 2021, the City of Hayward chose a new default electricity product. The choices were Bright Choice, a slightly cheaper product with higher emissions, and Renewable 100, a 100% renewable energy product with a modest rate increase. Bright Choice generation rates are 1% lower than PG&E. When transmission rates are included, Bright Choice saves the average residential household 0.41% on their monthly bill (or $0.46). Bright Choice would also cause Hayward's overall GHG emissions to increase. Renewable 100 is sourced entirely from wind and solar power from California and the cost varies depending on how much energy a customer uses. Renewable 100 costs an extra $0.01 per kWh. If Renewable 100 were chosen as the default, the average residential household would pay 3.7% or $4.11 more per month. The average small/medium commercial customer would pay up to 4.4% more per month. Large commercial customers, less than 5% of Hayward’s commercial accounts, would pay up to 5.8% more per month. If Renewable 100 is chosen as the default, customers may opt down to Bright Choice for lower cost electricity.

On July 6, 2021, the City Council voted to make Renewable 100 the new default product for Hayward customers served by EBCE. Customers enrolled in income or medical-related discount programs and customers who had previously opted down to Bright Choice will remain on Bright Choice when all other customer accounts are switched to Renewable 100 on January 1, 2022.

Benefits of EBCE

Local Control

  • EBCE is a joint powers authority whose members include 13 of the 14 cities in Alameda County, the County of Alameda, and the City of Tracy. The City of Alameda is served by its own electric utility.
  • The EBCE Board of Directors is made up of city council members from each member jurisdiction. Hayward’s representative on the Board is Council Member Márquez and Hayward’s alternate Board member is Council Member Wahab.
  • The EBCE Board of Directors meets regularly. Meeting information is available at https://ebce.org/meetings/

Green Power

  • Cleaner electricity from EBCE allowed Hayward to achieve a 25.7% reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions between 2005 and 2019. Hayward’s goal was to reduce GHG emission 20% by 2020. Click here for more information about Hayward’s GHG goals and emissions.

Local Programs

Here are a few of the many EBCE programs available to Hayward customers.

Discount Programs

The CARE Program provides low-income customers a 35 percent discount on their electric bill and a 20 percent discount on their natural gas bill. The FERA Program provides low-income customers an 18 percent discount on their electric bill. More information about financial assistance programs is available here.

Other Community Choice Energy Programs in California 

There are many community choice energy programs throughout California. For information about other programs, please visit  https://cal-cca.org/powered/.  

Previous Reports to the City Council