The following is a transcript of the May 19, 2025, episode of Public Power Now. Learn more about subscribing to Public Power Now at Publicpower.org/Podcasts. Some quotes may have been edited for clarity.
Paul Ciampoli
Welcome to the latest episode of Public Power Now. I'm Paul Ciampoli, APPA’s News Director.
Our guest on this episode is Tim Haines, general manager of California public power utility Alameda Municipal Power. Alameda City Manager Jennifer Ott appointed Tim as General Manager of Alameda Municipal Power in September 2024.
Prior to that appointment, Tim served as the utility’s Interim General Manager since May 2024. Tim, thanks for joining us on the podcast.
Tim Haines
Thank you very much, Paul. I look forward to our conversation.
Paul Ciampoli
Tim, just to get our conversation started in terms of preparing for this interview, one of the things that jumped on to these in fact you have over three decades of experience in the energy and water industry.
Could you provide additional details on your career?
Tim Haines
Paul, if you don't mind, my profile is pretty complete in my LinkedIn, and so perhaps your guests, if they have any interest in taking a look at that, might go there.
What I'd like to do is focus on Alameda and AMP and so I came here as the interim general manager, never intending to spend more than six months.
I'd been approached by people in the industry that I have a lot of respect for and asked me to give consideration to come here and provide some assistance while they were going through the recruitment for the new general manager. Gradually, that changed.
In the first week that I was here, I had a conversation with the line working supervisor and what struck me in the conversation is he told me that employees were really excited about what the new general manager would bring, but they were also nervous.
They were excited about the opportunity to fix problems that had lingered for years, but they were concerned that the new general manager would come in with an agenda for change that really didn't include addressing those problems, focusing instead, perhaps, on the shiny new toy. Initially, I filed that away to pass along to the city manager and the new general manager in what I assumed would be my debrief.
As time moved along, I was further drawn in as I became more familiar with the AMP challenges and the employees. At the same time, I was very impressed with the Alameda city manager, Jennifer Ott, and the collegial approach that she had taken with the department heads.
Tying it all together was just the professionalism and trust that I encountered with the Alameda Public Utilities Board and then the real sense of welcoming that I felt with the Alameda community. I had begun my career at SMUD, where public power had been etched into my DNA.
But accepting this position was, in effect, a return to my roots. I'd been semi-retired, pretty happy as semi-retired, but I saw solvable problems here and I had a desire to help, and in retrospect I think that it was the right decision to make.
That's how I came to be here and how it is that you and I are having this conversation.
Paul Ciampoli
Tim, as you know, one of the benefits of a public power utility is its ability to directly engage with customers through community events. And I noticed that this month AMP sponsored a free Green Homes Tour for Alameda residents.
So two-part question -- one, could you offer additional details on this tour and also discuss other ways in which AMP engages with its customers and the Alameda community?
Tim Haines
The Alameda Green Homes Tour showcased Alameda homes that have implemented a number of sustainability, energy efficiency and electrification solutions.
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 of our 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 me 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Paul Ciampoli
You mentioned 100% clean power and that's a nice segue to my next question, which is noting the fact that AMP has achieved 100% clean energy since 2020.
So against that backdrop and just in terms of further background on that 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. So what are the steps utilities taken to achieve these milestones?
Tim Haines
Fairly substantial, as you might imagine, and before I begin to take you through the steps -- 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.
We 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.
In 2000-2001, California had its 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.
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.
Paul Ciampoli
And a quick follow up -- obviously there's a trend in terms of pairing solar for example with energy storage. Just curious -- does AMP have energy storage now and if not any interest in that possibly long term?
Tim Haines
We're interested in energy storage.
We rely extensively on our partnership with the Northern California Power Agency and so what we are working with are other members of NCPA that are interested in storage and we're working toward being able to achieve the potential for entering into some power purchases that would include a battery component. We're not there yet, but that's a priority of ours.
Paul Ciampoli
Tim, just to wrap up our conversation, I wanted to give the opportunity to tell our listeners what your long-term goals are for AMP.
Tim Haines
AMP’s clean energy initiatives help shape the city of Alameda's climate action and resiliency goals and achievements such as…the 29% GHG reduction that has been so far achieved.
We're going to continue to be in lockstep with the city through our shared goals of reducing emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.
We’re prioritizing electrification and electric energy generation through updated infrastructure, participation in new community projects that support clean energy resources and program rebates and incentives to help empower Alamedans to electrify.
AMP is also exploring new clean energy resources like we've just mentioned, the battery technology, additional solar EV charging stations in order to be able to achieve those goals. We actually see an opportunity for participating in a City Aquatic Center, where we are going to help to electrify it entirely, and with that, what we're going to do is be able to see about being able to demonstrate some of the electrification initiatives that we promote, our customers undertake and education opportunities that we have there in order to be able to help them come along on their own journey.
And so our goal is to be able to continue to move forward with the decarbonization of the economy of Alameda and we feel as though we're well positioned in order to be able to fulfill that role.
Paul Ciampoli
OK, great, Tim. Well, thanks again so much for taking the time to speak with us. I'd love to have you back as a guest at some point in the future where we could talk about some of the topics discussed today or other topics. Certainly be interested as a starting point to get an update on that City Aquatic Center electrification project that you mentioned, for example.
Tim Haines
I would love to and so let's make it a point to get together. We intend to make a decision on the measures that we will include in our participation in the Aquatic Center later this year. So perhaps sometime in 2026, we can revisit that.
Paul Ciampoli
Well, thanks again, Tim.
Tim Haines
Thank you, Paul. Look forward to our next conversation.
Paul Ciampoli
Thanks for listening to this episode of Public Power Now, which is produced by Julio Guerrero, Graphic and Digital Designer at APPA.
I'm Paul Ciampoli and we'll be back next week with more from the world of public power.
