Resources

Project Reports

• EcoBlock Phase 1 Report (PDF) | Appendices A-N (PDF)
  • Also available on the California Energy Commission (CEC) website
• Phase 2
  • Boman, C., Chung, E., Peffer, T. E, & Robertson, S. (2025). EcoBlock Water Improvement Final Report. 

Additional reading about the Oakland EcoBlock project:

• Aczel and Peffer. “Advancing California’s microgrid communities through anticipatory energy resilience.” August 2023. View Report
• Walker, Casquero-Modrego and Less. “Challenges and Opportunities for Home Decarbonization.” March 2023. View Report
• Langevin, Putra, Zhang, and Peffer. “Behavior-Based Energy Efficiency: A Case Study of the Oakland EcoBlock Final Project Report.” February 2023. View Report
• Dryden and Peffer. “Keeping the lights on: the Oakland EcoBlock community electrification and microgrid improves health, comfort and resilience in an urban neighborhood.” 2022. View Report
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Enhancing Community Resilience through Social Capital and Social Connectedness: Stronger Together! . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2021. View Report
• von Meier, A. & Kammen, D. The EcoBlock Project and the ‘Own Use’ Exemption under Public Utilities Code Section 218 – A Way Forward for Privately Operated Microgrids. 2021. View Whitepaper
• Ostfeld, von Meier, Whitmeyer, and Bariya. “EcoBlock: Grid Impacts, Scaling, and Resilience.” 2017.  View Report
• Fraker, Harrison. The Hidden Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods: Lessons from Low-Carbon Communities. Island Press; 2013.

Select EcoBlock Presentations

• [2024 I Australian National University] (Event Recording)
• [2023 I Water Conservation Showcase] The Oakland EcoBlock: A Neighborhood-Scale Approach to Water Conservation and Resilience (Event Recap I Event Recording on PG&E Energy Center website)
• [2023 I AIA National] Oakland EcoBlock: Much More Than a Microgrid (PPT)
• [2023 I National Institute] Implementing a Block-level Microgrid: The Intersection of Utility Policy, People, Tech and Economics (Event Recap I Event Recording)
• [2022 I MIT A+B] The Oakland EcoBlock: A Block-Scale Urban Retrofit and Community Solar Microgrid (Event Recap I Event Recording)
• [2022 I California Council on Science and Technology (CCST)] The Role of Microgrids in Providing Reliable and Equitable Access to Electricity (Event Recording)
• [2022 I Science at Cal] Oakland EcoBlock: A Novel Approach to Building Resilient Communities (Event Recap I Event Recording)
• [2022 I CITRIS Diversity in Tech Symposium] Getting to Zero: Trends in the Built Environment (Event Recap I Event Recording)
• [2022 I National Institute] EcoBlock: A New Model for Multi-Customer Microgrids (Event Recap I Event Recording)

City of Oakland

• • City of Oakland Equitable Climate Action Plan
  • Resilient Oakland Playbook