By Luis Amezcua
Community Choice energy is catching on across the region, confirming the Bay Area’s position as a leader in the transition to a clean energy economy. Depending where you live, your home or business may already be powered by the cleaner electricity provided by a Community Choice program — and if you’re not, it’s just a matter of time.
About Community Choice
Community Choice energy (also known as Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA), is a game-changing alternative to the investor-owned utility, enabling cities and counties to pool electricity customers to form a local power agency. This means that communities can decide to get their electricity from clean, renewable sources — either by purchasing it on the market, or by developing local resources.
By relying on clean, locally generated electricity, we can speed our transition away from fossil fuels that threaten our climate. We can also cut pollution and foster dependable, efficient, and resilient energy economies. And because CCA programs are locally owned and managed, ratepayer funds are re-invested locally. That creates good local jobs.
Since Marin Clean Energy (MCE) became California’s first CCA program in 2010, the model has spread far beyond Marin County. Here are updates on CCA programs in three Bay Area counties:
CleanPowerSF: exceeding expectations
As of May of this year, CleanPowerSF, San Francisco’s long-awaited CCA program, began serving its first customers. Customers can choose between two energy options: the basic “Green” service, at 35% clean energy, is cleaner than PG&E’s default product and costs about the same. For just a few dollars more per month, customers also have the option to cut their carbon footprint from electricity to zero with “SuperGreen”: 100% renewable electricity that exceeds California’s Renewable Portfolio Standards.
San Francisco residents and businesses will be enrolled in CleanPowerSF in phases, neighborhood by neighborhood — but you don’t have to wait! Pre-enroll at www.cleanpowersf.org today and you’ll be part of the next wave of CleanPowerSF customers.
CleanPowerSF has so far been very successful. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) projected a 20% opt-out rate, but only 1.8% of potential enrollees have chosen to stay with PG&E — the lowest opt-out rate of any CCA program in California. 3.1% of enrollees have opted up to the 100% clean energy choice. Customers are currently being enrolled neighborhood by neighborhood — but anyone can sign up for the next enrollment phase at www.cleanpowersf.org.
Because of the unexpectedly high enrollment rate, the SFPUC had to decide between scaling back the size of the program’s latest enrollment period or increasing their cap on how much electricity they were providing per enrollment period. Happily, the SFPUC unanimously approved an increase from 50 to 75 megawatts, allowing the enrollment period to continue as originally planned.
The SFPUC staff is developing a plan for rolling out the program citywide. There is also ongoing discussion about the integration of GoSolarSF — the city’s solar-installation incentive program — and CleanPowerSF.
Alameda: building the framework
The creation of the agency that will manage Alameda County's nascent CCA program was delayed from early August to a Board of Supervisors retreat scheduled for September 20th — apparently to allow further discussion. The program’s steering committee will meet on September 7th and will be presented with a revised timeline for the rollout.
Despite this delay, Alameda County's CCA is moving forward quickly. The window of time when the program is being developed is our best opportunity to shape a local clean-energy program that will do the most good for our communities and the environment. Head to http://tinyurl.com/OurBestCCA to send a message to the Supervisors asking them to create local jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions by prioritizing the development of local renewable resources.
Contra Costa: studying its options
On August 16th, Contra Costa County hired a consultant to study three proposals for its CCA program:
- Join Marin Clean Energy;
- Join Alameda County’s program; or
- Develop a program of its own.
The Sierra Club will take a position on which of these three options is the best fit for Contra Costa after the study is completed in about three months.
WhatYouCanDo
The Sierra Club will be closely following developments in all three counties. To get involved, email Energy Committee co-chair Luis Amezcua at lamezcua27@gmail.com.