East Bay Community Energy

Nick Chaset, the founding CEO, oversees all power procurement and investment decisions under authority delegated by the board of directors. The board, composed of one elected official from each member jurisdiction, approves all power purchase agreements exceeding five years in duration. The agency's investment committee — a subset of the board — reviews major sourcing contracts prior to full board ratification.

EBCE is the default electricity generation supplier for its member communities, while PG&E continues to own and maintain the transmission and distribution infrastructure, handle customer billing, and manage outage response. This arrangement was mandated by California's Community Choice Aggregation statute. Customers may opt out of EBCE service and return to PG&E for generation at any time.

All project financing comes from ratepayer revenue collected through customer bills. EBCE does not receive state or federal appropriations for procurement. The agency enters into long-term power purchase agreements with developers, who independently finance project construction. EBCE's creditworthiness is backed by the load-serving obligation of 37 municipalities rather than by any dedicated tax stream.

The agency operates a community development program funded by net operating revenues. This includes a workforce training initiative that places graduates with clean-energy contractors, a bill credit program for low-income ratepayers, and an electric vehicle incentive program for rideshare drivers. These programs are governed separately from procurement decisions and reported in an annual community impact statement.

The agency already serves more than a dozen communities outside its original Alameda County boundaries, including the cities of Tracy, Stockton, and Lathrop in San Joaquin County. Expansion occurs when additional municipalities vote to join the joint powers authority. In 2024 the agency began exploring service expansion into additional Central Valley communities, per board meeting minutes.