In a recent interview with APPA, Tim Haines, general manager of California public power utility Alameda Municipal Power, details the utility’s community engagement efforts and discusses the steps the utility has taken to achieve 100% clean energy since 2020.
Alameda City Manager Jennifer Ott appointed Haines as General Manager of Alameda Municipal Power in September 2024. Prior to that appointment, he served as the utility’s Interim General Manager since May 2024.
In the Public Power Now podcast interview, Haines was asked to discuss the ways in which AMP engages with its customers and the Alameda community and provided additional details on a free Green Homes Tour for Alameda residents that AMP sponsored.
The Alameda Green Homes Tour showcased Alameda homes that have implemented a number of sustainability, energy efficiency and electrification solutions, he noted.
“AMP staff hosted a morning webinar that informed attendees of the specific challenges that climate change is bringing to Alameda. We're an island, and in the San Francisco Bay, and as a consequence view the effects of climate change as an existential threat.”
The solutions that homeowners are implementing to those challenges “is a part of the webinar and the rebates and incentives available that can make these home upgrades more affordable and feasible were also highlighted in the morning.”
In the afternoon, several customer owners “opened their homes and welcomed community members in to hear about their green home upgrades and the process that they went through to go from a concept to various degrees of completion in their electrification. I myself learned quite a bit.”
But what really stood out to him “is just how difficult it will be to meet our decarbonization goals because we're going to be relying so extensively on our businesses and residents in order to be able to electrify their facilities,” Haines said.
“To help demystify the process that is in front of our businesses and families AMP has a dedicated customer programs team for community engagement and outreach,” he noted.
“Their role is to design, implement, manage robust rebate programs, provide technical assistance services, equity-focused energy efficiency access and educational resources all to the benefit of the customers, while it's also supporting AMP and the city’s sustainability goals,” Haines said.
“We're lucky in that we have here in Alameda a very active community that's involved and interested in Alameda's 100% clean power and the promotion of our climate action and resiliency plans,” he said in the podcast episode.
“AMP is committed to supporting our customers in their electrification and the clean transportation solutions. Community engagement opportunities like the Alameda Green Homes Tour were vital and part of the necessary steps that we need in order to be able to educate our fellow Alamedans and growing their confidence that they can take steps that are contributing to the goals of the sustainability that we have here in Alameda.”
AMP has achieved 100% clean energy since 2020. In addition, the city of Alameda has the lowest greenhouse gas emitting community in Alameda County and is one of the lowest in the state of California.
“One of the things that we have with AMP being able to achieve 100% clean energy is that we have an obligation to the community to continue to be able to make good on that promise that we will continue to be able to rely on clean energy to supply their service,” Haines noted.
The utility began those steps back in the 1980s. “Alameda Municipal Power began to lay the groundwork for a long-term commitment to renewable energy. We took large ownership stakes in the Northern California Power Agency geothermal and hydroelectric projects,” he said.
Haines noted that in 2000-2001, California experienced energy crises. “The organization leaned even more heavily following that into procuring cost effective renewables, both for the environmental benefits, but also as a financial hedge against increasing gas and power market costs.”
With the continued support of AMP’s public utility board and the community for environmental stewardship, “we've taken a step-by-step approach to expanding our green portfolio. We began selling renewable energy credits at one point to help ease rate increases tied to additional renewable purchases,” Haines said.
“Ultimately, we closed the gap in 2020 as AMP ended our REC sales and load steadily declined following the Great Recession. So with that, we were able to achieve the 100% clean energy and that's what we continue today.”
