Ava Community Energy Launches New Virtual Power Plant Initiative In N. California

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Ava is a not-for-profit public power provider in the San Francisco Bay Area in Alameda County, which is across the bay from San Francisco. It also provides power in the cities of Tracy, Stockton, and Lathrop, which are not in the Bay Area, but are fairly near it. Ava has over two million customers both residential and commercial combined.

Recently, Ava launched a new virtual power plant initiative for its customers. Howard Chang, CEO of Ava Community Energy, answered some questions about it for CleanTechnica.

What is your new Virtual Power Plant initiative and what are its benefits to your customers?

Ava’s VPP program seeks to help customers get the most out of their energy investments by optimizing all their connected devices against one another and against the needs of the grid, without impacting the residents’ enjoyment of their home or vehicle. Ava’s VPP program also helps renewable energy go further — helping lower costs for the customer. 

About how many customers are, or will, participate in it?

We are working to enroll at least 5,000 vehicles or chargers in our SmartHome Charging program, the first phase of our VPP. We haven’t established targets for subsequent phases of the program yet.

What is the size of the VPP in MW/MWh?

Ava’s VPP is intended to scale over time. In the first phase, we are focused on learning how to create the most value in the context of bill savings as well as lower energy costs for all, while ensuring customers’ needs provided for by their devices — like EVs — are met. This is a core challenge we need to understand to ensure that our VPP can scale, and is durable over time. 

What benefits does your VPP provide to the grid?

VPPs aggregate distributed energy resources, such as electric vehicles and home batteries, so they can be controlled remotely to enhance grid reliability and lower costs. With the VPP program, Ava seeks to relieve stress on the grid by enabling consumption or discharge of distributed resources at optimal times. 

How many batteries are in it?

We’re only getting started. Ava SmartHome Charging, the first phase of our VPP that focuses on EVs and EV chargers, launched earlier this month. Our next VPP program to launch will focus on batteries, and is planned for the end of this year.

What is Ava SmartHome Charging for EV drivers? What are its benefits and how many of your customers are using it?

Ava SmartHome Charging is the first live pillar of Ava’s VPP program. Participating customers who drive EVs and charge their vehicles at home can earn up to $100 a year in incentives plus realize savings on their charging-related energy bill. We just announced the program and aim to enroll at least 5,000 vehicles by the end of the program’s first year, and 10,000 vehicles by the end of the program’s second year.

About how many of your customers currently own and operate EVs?

There are over 144,000 EVs registered in Alameda and San Joaquin counties as of 12/31/24.

About how many of your customers have residential solar power systems?

Ava serves approximately 75,000 households with solar power systems.