Conversation Highlights from the 2025 CalREN Forum
Thank you to everyone who joined us for CalREN’s 2025 Stakeholder Forum! This year, we focused our discussion on equitable electrification. It was an honor to join regional energy network leaders and other key stakeholders from across California to discuss the future of electrification programs, strategies for reaching hard-to-reach communities, and the importance of equity and resilience in our energy systems.
Didn’t make it to the Forum this year? Check out the slide deck for all the details or read up on the key takeaways from our breakout room discussions below. You can also view a recording of the full Forum at the bottom of the page.
Affordability
1. Communications Must Transcend Bill Savings and Highlight Broader Financial Benefits
While bill savings are essential for struggling California families and businesses, communication efforts about energy affordability cannot focus solely on potential bill savings. Programs must provide customers with a more comprehensive picture, including one-on-one energy bill analysis and information on demand response (DR) rates that can lead to bill savings. Programs need to be transparent about the fact that electrification may marginally increase or decrease energy bills, while highlighting other benefits such as healthier indoor air quality, reduced emissions, advanced efficiency through smart technologies, and greater grid resilience. Program evaluations should also measure participants’ actual post-electrification energy bills to provide insight into the real changes customers experience.
2. Renters Require Dedicated Strategies and Landlord Collaboration
Serving the rental population is a major hurdle to equitable electrification because they are often unable to initiate major upgrades to their homes. Coordinating with landlords has proven to be a successful program strategy to effectively deliver electrification benefits to a segment of the population that is frequently overlooked or underserved by standard homeowner-focused incentives.
3. Programs Must Be Designed with Flexibility, Simplicity, and Technical Solutions
To maximize participation, programs should avoid overly strict customer filtering based on uncertain bill assessments, recognizing that many participants value non-bill benefits. Effective outreach can start with tangible, high-impact measures like clean cooking appliances to build trust and initial adoption. Furthermore, there must be a concerted effort to overcome persistent technical challenges, such as ensuring compatibility and communication between grid systems, smart devices (like thermostats), and modern high-efficiency technologies (like mini-splits and heat pump water heaters). Addressing workforce development is also essential for sustainable, long-term implementation.
Resilience and Non-Energy Benefits
Non-Energy Benefits are a Critical Piece of the Equitable Electrification Puzzle
Energy upgrades aren’t just about saving energy; they are a path to improving quality of life in areas with high health risks, heat, and housing costs.
Improving air quality and reducing emergency room trips due to better home performance are essential benefits that aren’t captured in kilowatt-hours or therm savings metrics.
While electrification can sometimes raise utility bills, focusing on strategies that manage or offset these costs is vital.
Fuel switching from non-regulated fuels like propane to electricity can bring expansive benefits, including significant bill savings, improved air quality, higher efficiency, and better performance.
There is a clear need to develop strategies and programs to reach and serve small unsubsidized multi-family property owners to ensure the benefits of electrification are distributed equitably across all types of housing.
2. Disaster Resilience Must Be Integrated into Electrification Programs
The connection between high-performance buildings and disaster preparedness is a powerful and practical entry point for energy efficiency and electrification. Simple measures like air sealing act as a hardening benefit for wildfires because they prevent a path of entry into the building. This link between efficiency and fire resilience makes a strong case for holistic funding and program design.
3. Collaboration and Program Simplification are Essential to Scale Impact
It can be complicated to leverage multiple programs to complete energy projects, but it is often necessary to cover the high initial costs of electrification projects. Dedicated assistance and state-level efforts to simplify and make it easier for households to access and combine different support programs are both needed to increase electrification adoption. Layering programs and simplifying the administrative landscape will help communities to maximize their resilience.
To get the word out about energy programs, RENs and others should find and fund community-based organizations (CBOs) to support deep outreach and community building. These organizations are critical for building the community trust needed for program success and ensuring participation from hard-to-reach groups.
Workforce and Codes & Standards
1. Defining the Scope of Clean Energy Jobs
Clean energy jobs can span a diverse range of roles, from highly technical trades to professional policy consultation. The group’s discussion focused on skilled trades, energy auditors, and professional services, but emphasized the diversity of the clean energy industry. This broad sector underscores the need for workforce development programs that offer diverse pathways to cater to varied skill sets and career ambitions within electrification
2. Prioritizing Deep Engagement with Disadvantaged Communities and Underserved Youth
Programs must meet people where they are, moving beyond digital engagement or token outreach to physically travel to the regions we serve and meet with people face-to-face. We might be aware of surface level challenges and barriers across California (e.g., language barriers), but without building strong local relationships we won’t understand community-specific challenges. Deep engagement with the communities we serve is the best way to build trust, understanding, and ultimately to create long-term impact.
3. A Critical Need for Comprehensive Program Connections
Cross-stakeholder collaboration is key to building the electrification workforce. Portfolio Administrators (PAs) and program implementers from across the state should connect regularly to share best practices and lessons learned.
The discussion touched on how comprehensive workforce development programs are the best way to ensure that training aligns with industry standards and leads to sustained employment and community benefits.
