On Thursday, January 29th, Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance (VCREA) honored its partners for strides in energy savings at the 2nd Annual VCREA Leadership Reception. The event brought together partners and stakeholders to meet, acknowledge the program’s 2014 community impact, and assess goals for the upcoming year. Three new awards were introduced and presented at the event.

Douglas Tucker, the Mayor of Fillmore, accepted The Emerging Energy Leader Award on behalf of the City of Fillmore. The Emerging Energy Leader Award recognizes leadership of significant energy savings in a VCREA partner’s own facilities, programs and community outreach. Since 2006, the City of Fillmore has achieved more than 10 percent energy savings through the implementation of energy efficiency programs. In 2014 alone, the City also completed an Energy Action Plan to help identify objectives and strategies to help the city realize its long-term energy efficiency goals and achieved “Gold Tier” denomination in Southern California Edison’s Energy Leader Partnership Program, moving from “Valued Partner” and skipping over “Silver Tier” status.

“It is encouraging to see the efforts of all our partners making such a noticeable impact on energy usage throughout the County,” said Sue Hughes, Deputy Executive Officer, VCREA. “Together we are carrying out the mission of being energy stewards for our communities. We look forward to continued collaboration and success in the years to come.”

Ventura County was honored with the Energy Saving Impact Award for having the largest total number of Kilowatt hour savings from projects completed in 2014, with over 1.5 million kWH, and the City of Thousand Oaks was honored with Green Community Leadership Award for the city’s extraordinary community outreach and efforts engaging with the residential and business community.

VCREA is a Joint Powers Agency composed of different public agencies working to develop and implement energy initiatives that support sensible growth, a healthy environment, and the economy. Last year, 13 organizations were involved with the agency, including Members: the cities of Fillmore, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks, and Ventura; the County of Ventura; Ventura County Community College District; Ventura Regional Sanitation District and Ventura Unified School District; plus other participating cities: the cities of Camarillo, Moorpark, Ojai, and Port Hueneme. Utility partners are Southern California Gas Company and Southern California Edison. VCREA strives to increase energy efficiency awareness and advance the use of clean, efficient and renewable local resources.

Since 2006, VCREA has attained over $3 million dollars in incentives and 22.5 million Kilowatt hours in savings for its partners.

About VCREA
VCREA is a Joint Powers Agency composed of public agencies working in collaboration to address good energy stewardship through integrated demand side management practices in the Ventura County region. More information about VCREA can be found at www.vcenergy.org.