Terms of Use

Last Modified: June 26, 2023

By using the Empower Procurement website (“Site”), you signify your assent to these Rules. If you do not agree to these Rules, please do not use this Site.

This Site is managed by Energy Solutions (“Site Administrator”), under an agreement with the California Energy Commission (“Commission”) and the Program Administrator, Prospect Silicon Valley (“the Parties”). The purpose of this Site is to enable access to external funding opportunities, resources, and connections for individuals and organizations. These Rules may be modified at the Site Administrator’s and Commission’s discretion and the Parties reserve the right to modify the Site at any time. The Commission has the right to discontinue the Site at any time.

Reference on the Site to any specific company, product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise, does not constitute or imply an endorsement, recommendation or approval by the Parties. The views expressed in user content on the Site reflect those of the author and do not reflect the official views of the Commission, the State of California, or the Site Administrators. The Commission and Site Administrators do not warrant or make any representation regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials or information on the Site, or the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability, or usefulness of any materials or information on the Site.

If the Site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including banner advertisements and sponsored links. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third-party websites linked to this Website, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.

Site Administrator may grant access to public and private data for administrators of programs that have partnered with Empower Procurement and are associated with the organization for which private data is being accessed. An example is a non-profit entity or a university that administers a partner program. The Commission is also listed on this page but does not qualify as a partner program for the purposes of private data access.

The Commission, Site Administrator, and administrators of partner programs may use aggregated data from Site users for analysis, promotion, and reporting purposes. The Commission, Site Managers, and administrators of partner programs do not pay for any information provided by an individual participant.

In addition to the above Terms of Use, you agree to the Empower Procurement data privacy policy, below.

Privacy Policy

Last Modified: June 26, 2023

The Empower Procurement website administrators (“Site Administrators”, “We”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit empowerprocurement.com (our “Website”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

• This policy applies to information we collect:
  On this Website.
  In email and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
• When you interact with third-party plug-ins that may be installed or used in the maintenance of this Website.

It does not apply to information collected by:

• Any third party through content that may link to or be accessible from the Website.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use or interact with our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates. This policy has also been updated to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

Children Under the Age of 13

Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not provide any information on this Website or use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name and email address. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect information from and about users of our Website, including information:

• By which you may be personally identified, such as name and e-mail (“Personal Information”). Pursuant to the CCPA, this category of information relates to traditional identifiers. We may aggregate Personal Information so that the aggregated information does not personally identify you or anyone else, such as by using Personal Information to calculate the percentage of our customers who are interested in a particular activity (“Aggregate Information”); and/or
• About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details. Pursuant to the CCPA, this category of information relates to information gathered about internet or other similar networking activity.

In most cases, we collect Personal Information directly from you. Below are descriptions of the different types of Personal Information we process and the sources from which we obtain them:

• Communications. If you choose to use the forms on this Website, we will collect your contact details, your name, and the content included in your submission.
• Other sources. We may receive personal information about you from other sources, including third parties that help us update, expand, and analyze our records, identify new customers, or prevent or detect fraud. We may also receive information about you from social media platforms, for example when you interact with us on those platforms or access our social media content. The information we may receive is governed by the privacy settings, policies, and/or procedures of the relevant social media platform, and we encourage you to review them.

However, we may also obtain several types of information from and about users of our Website, including information:

• By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline;
• About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, location, language preferences, and/or usage details.

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies.

Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect on or through our Website may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This information is collected for a business purpose in order to be able to fulfill the reason you provided the information.
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses) if direct correspondence occurs. This information is collected for a business purpose in order to be able to respond to your inquiries.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies, such as Google Analytics, to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically is only statistical data and does not include personal information. It is collected for a business purpose as it helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies).
  • A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website.
  • By default, we use cookies that are necessary for the website to function, these cannot be switched off in our system, our system will issue these cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
  • We do not use cookies to retrieve personal information from your computer for purposes that are unrelated to the Website or your interaction with the Website.
• Clickstream.
  • As you use the Internet, a trail of electronic information is left at each Website you visit. This information, which is sometimes referred to as “clickstream data,” can be collected and stored by a Website’s server. Clickstream data can tell us the type of computer and browsing software you use and the address of the Website from which you linked to the Website.
  • We may collect and use clickstream data as a form of Aggregate Information to anonymously determine how much time visitors spend on each page of our Website, how visitors navigate throughout the Website and how we may tailor our web pages to better meet the needs of visitors. This information will be used to improve our Website and our services.
  • Any collection or use of clickstream data will be anonymous and aggregate, and will not intentionally contain any Personal Information.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Website and its contents to you.
• To provide and enhance Website services.
• To provide you with information, or services that you request from us.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To notify you about changes to our Website or any services we offer or provide though it.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose Aggregated Information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may use Aggregate Information to improve and enhance your experience on the Website and for our market research activities. For example, we may share Aggregate Information with unaffiliated third parties, such as business partners, and site analytics vendors, in an aggregate, anonymous form, which means that the shared information will not contain nor be linked to any Personal Information.

We may disclose Personal Information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy for a business purpose:

• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support the Website and keep it running.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other transfer of some or all of the Site’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the Site about our users is among the assets transferred.
• With your consent.
  We may also disclose your Personal Information, as we believe necessary or appropriate:
• To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• To enforce or apply our terms of use [].
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Site, our customers or others.
• To allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
• Email Communications from the Site Administrator. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return e-mail asking to be omitted from future email distributions.

California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

The Site Administrator provides an individual who has submitted information on the Website with the ability to review, correct, and request the deletion of any of the personally identifiable information that was entered in their profile on the Website. To correct or delete any of your information please contact the Site Administrator using the information provided at the bottom of this policy.

California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information.

Your California Privacy Rights

California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, information regarding (i) the categories of personal information collected, (ii) the categories of sources for the personal information collected, (iii) the business purpose for collecting (or selling) that information, (iv) the categories of third parties with whom we share that information, (v) the specific pieces of personal information we collects about the user, and (vi) whether we sold or disclosed the Personal Information for a business purpose.

If you are under 18 years of age please do not use the Website. If you are under 18 years of age and believe we have collected your Personal Information, or are the parent or guardian of a minor under 18 years of age with information collected by us, please inform us.

Any user may request the discontinuation (or opt-out) of our sharing of the information with third parties and/or that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your California Privacy Rights Request (see below), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

• Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a service that you requested, or take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
• Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.) (“CCPA”).
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
• Comply with a legal obligation.
• Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Please submit any requests using the contact information at the bottom of this policy. For each California Privacy Rights Request, please clearly state the following:

• sufficient detail of your request such that it allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it;
• that the request is related to “Your California Privacy Rights;”
• your name, street address, city, state, zip code, and email address; and
• whether you prefer to receive a response to your request by mail or email.

We cannot respond to your California Privacy Rights Request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. We are not responsible for a California Privacy Rights Request that is incomplete, incorrectly labeled, or incorrectly sent. It may take us up to 45 days to process your California Privacy Rights Request.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

Visitors From Outside The United States—Cross-Border Transfer

The Website is hosted in the United States. If you are visiting our Website from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in, the United States or any other country where we or our affiliates, subsidiaries, or third-party service providers maintain facilities.

The European Commission has not determined that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for Personal Information. The data protection and other applicable laws of the United States or other countries may not be as comprehensive as those laws or regulations in your country or may otherwise differ from the data protection or consumer protection laws in your country. Your information may be available to government authorities under lawful orders and law applicable in such jurisdictions.

By providing us with Personal Information, you consent to the storage or processing of your Personal Information in the United States and acknowledge that the Personal Information will be subject to the laws of the United States, including the ability of governments, courts or law enforcement or regulatory agencies of the United States to obtain disclosure of your Personal Information. By using the Website and/or providing personal data to us, you also consent to transfer, storage, and processing of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. We will protect the privacy and security of Personal Information according to this Privacy Policy, regardless of where it is processed or stored.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Privacy Rights

Data Controller: The Site Administrator is the controller of your personal data provided to, or collected by or for, or processed in connection with, your use of the Website. Please see the Site Administrator’s contact information at the bottom of this policy.

Purposes of Processing and Legal Basis for Processing: If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. As explained above, we process Personal Information in various ways depending upon your use of our Website. We process Personal Information on the following bases: (1) with your consent; and (2) as necessary for our legitimate interests in providing you with our services, enhancing our web services, conducting analytics, and delivering relevant advertising.

Your Rights Regarding Personal Information: The GDPR requires that we inform our EEA users about certain specific rights:

• the right to object, for legitimate purposes, to the processing of personal data;
• the right to request copies of your personal data held by us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible);
• the right to request that we delete or block your personal data without undue delay; and
• the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Withdrawing Consent: If you wish to withdraw your consent, please visit our Cookie Settings page. Please note that if you withdraw consent, we may not be able to provide or continue to provide certain services or marketing communications to you.

Objection and Requests for Copies: If you wish to (i) object, for legitimate purposes, to the processing of personal data as provided under applicable law, or (ii) to request copies of your personal data held by us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible), please contact us using the information listed at the bottom of this policy.

Requests for Deletion: If you wish to request that we delete your personal data, please contact us using the information listed at the bottom of this policy. We will promptly send you a response to ensure that the request was not made in error. We will respond to your request to delete your information within one month of receipt of your verification. Our response period may be extended by 60 additional days where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of requests we receive. We may need to retain certain records for legal and accounting purposes. EEA based individuals can learn more about their privacy rights and opt-out mechanisms at http://www.youronlinechoices.eu.

Lodging Complaints: You have the right to lodge a complaint about our data collection and processing actions with the supervisory authority in your country. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the EEA.

Data Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Websites like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Websites.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Websites. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Websites.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at:
Energy Solutions
449 15th Street, Suite 400
Oakland, CA 94612
[email protected]
(510) 482-4420