Public Power Agency Preparing Launch With Clean Energy Emphasis
Speaker 1: 00:00 On March 1st, five cities in San Diego County, we'll be getting a bit greener. A new government agency formed to speed up the transition to renewable energy. We'll officially start serving customers, KPBS. Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen has more on how San Diego community power is impacting the energy business director. Montgomery here directed to Dena. Speaker 2: 00:25 Yeah. Like most everyone else. These days, the governing board of San Diego community power meets via zoom. At the start of each meeting, they pledged to a picture of the American flag on their screens, Liberty and justice. SDC P is a community choice energy program. It's not quite a utility. It doesn't own power lines, but soon it will be responsible for purchasing wholesale electricity on behalf of customers in San Diego, Chula Vista and Sanitas Lamesa and Imperial beach on March 1st, it will start powering city buildings like libraries and police stations. It'll start serving businesses in June, followed by homes in 2022, Speaker 3: 01:04 Frankly, most people probably won't even notice that we're here. Speaker 2: 01:07 Cody Houben is S DCPS chief operator. Speaker 3: 01:10 If they look at their bill, they'll see a new line item with our name on it, uh, for the cost of generation of power, Speaker 2: 01:19 Hoping their bills will be lower than under SDG and E but the biggest change STCP will bring is a massive boost in clean energy. 55% of its electricity will be carbon free compared with SDG and is 31%. Customers can also opt to pay a little more for 100% clean energy Chula Vista city council member, and STCP board members. Steve Padilla says, this is the central mission. Accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. Speaker 4: 01:47 It impacts everything including public health. It impacts penetrating costs for businesses, industrial commercial clients, and of course, residential clients. But most of all, uh, it allows folks to really, uh, begin to reduce that footprint a lot sooner and a lot more broadly, uh, by offering that choice, um, and incentivizing that market Speaker 2: 02:06 San Diego community power has fought hard to get to this point and SDG. And he hasn't exactly been an ally. The utilities parent company has spent years lobbying against SDC DCPS creation. Just last year. Who've been recalls her decision to hire a law firm to double check SDG and his rate. Speaker 3: 02:24 Um, and I was a little nervous to hire this firm and, you know, do I need to spend this money on we're a startup? So we think about every dollar we spend and right off the bat, they dug deep into the rates and found an $85 million error math error that rate payers would have otherwise been charged. Speaker 2: 02:39 Let me repeat that SDG and E was set to overcharge customers by $85 million STG. And he fixed the mistake before anyone was charged and who've been, doesn't think it was intentional, but she says it does show the utility can make mistakes. Speaker 3: 02:54 To me, it really showed the value that we bring to the table of just making sure that repairs, um, are protected and that we're checking or checking things for them. Speaker 2: 03:02 SDG says it's committed to working with STCP and to a future with 100% clean energy right now, as DCP is busy preparing for its phase one launch next month. But as it grows to serve more customers, it plans to do a lot more than just buy electricity. Matthew [inaudible] is co-director of policy for the nonprofit climate action campaign. He sees the potential for a host of new products, Speaker 5: 03:28 Incentivizing rooftop, solar for low-income communities, finding ways to really get our energy system back in our own backyard so that we don't have to deal with the power safety shutoffs that happen when the back country is on fire. So the more that we can start building local infrastructure incentivized by STCP with our own revenue, the better off we're going to be in terms of building out our 100% clean energy future Speaker 2: 03:51 And says aside from offering cleaner and cheaper energy, the new power agency hopes to be more transparent and accessible than SDG and E Speaker 3: 04:00 Residents can come to our board meetings virtually now or in person. Um, they can talk to their elected officials and share what they think about their rates, about programs that we can offer about what we're doing well, what we should be doing better. So we hope to make energy a much more open concept for people and let them engage more than they probably have in the past. Speaker 2: 04:21 The pressure is on to get things right when it's fully up and running STCP will be the second largest agency of its kind in California and people across the state will be watching to judge its success. Speaker 1: 04:33 Joining me is KPBS Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen, and Andrew. Welcome. Speaker 2: 04:38 Hi Maureen. Thanks. Speaker 1: 04:40 The fact that San Diego community power is actually getting underway in two weeks may come as a surprise, even for people who followed the creation of this project, did the pandemic slow it down or is it right on track? Speaker 2: 04:55 I don't think that the pandemic slowed down the launch, the biggest impact, uh, that the pandemic had is probably just that they've saved money on office space almost a year and a half after their creation, all of the staffers still working remotely. And, um, they just, their only physical presence is a PO box. Um, but the launch I think is pretty much right on schedule. When it start Speaker 1: 05:15 Supplying power to public buildings. Next month, you report that 55% of that power will be carbon free. Where is the power coming from? Speaker 2: 05:24 Well, I was hoping that, um, they might provide a list of actual physical generating stations, where they were signing their contracts, you know, getting their power. But as of the last interview that I did with the chief operating officer, they were still putting some finishing touches on those contracts. So they weren't quite ready to announce, um, before the ink is dry. Um, but they did say that there'll be contracting with a solar farm in San Diego County, um, that they're getting some wind and other renewable power in Riverside County. So, you know, a good mix of, uh, generating stations, uh, that are relatively close. And what do Speaker 1: 05:58 We know about the rates? Are they lower than SDG and E Speaker 2: 06:01 St. Juni hasn't actually published their final rates for the customer class that, uh, San Diego community power will start serving, but, uh, San Diego community power has, uh, set their rates and they crunch the numbers to predict what SDG needs rates are going to be. And according to that, the, the baseline product, this 55% clean energy product, they predict to be about 6% cheaper. It's important to note, however, that actual electrical generation is a portion of your bill. The last bill that I got, I checked it, it was about 24% of the total bill. And most of what you're paying is actually for the distribution and the delivery of that electricity through the grid. Um, so the overall savings they predict, um, with that baseline product would be about 3%, um, to the, you know, the final dollar and cents on your bill. But one thing to note on the rate comparison late last year, SDG submitted a formula to the public utilities commission under their formula. Speaker 2: 06:59 The rates would have actually dropped for SDG E right at the time when San Diego community power was launching and that would have caused an under collection, meaning the rates would not that long thereafter have to spike in order to make up for the difference. San Diego community power felt like this just wasn't a fair competition. They was sort of artificially lowering the rates and only temporarily. So they protested the public utilities commission, ultimately sided with them and approved an alternative where the rates are more stable on both sides and San Diego community power can reasonably compete on the price. Speaker 1: 07:34 Okay. So when the community power agency expands to businesses this summer, will it be possible for businesses to stay with STG? And if they want to, Speaker 2: 07:45 Yes. San Diego community power plans on sending out to mailers prior to the actual launch, um, with those customers, and then two more afterwards to inform them of what the change is, what it means. Anyone can opt out that's required by state law. Um, and they can stick with San Diego gas and Electric's, uh, portfolio of electricity. Uh, the hope is really, you know, the model with this community choice thing. The hope is that the two sides will compete for customers by, you know, trying to offer cheaper rates, maybe more renewable energy, better customer service, things like that. Speaker 1: 08:19 And what about the connection between San Diego community power and the electric grid in terms of, is the idea that cities in this agency will be able to avoid rolling blackouts and other electricity disruptions that affect other parts of the County? Speaker 2: 08:36 Well, the, a lot of those rolling blackouts don't come from say a failure at a generating station. They're more to do with the grid. And that is still, uh, even under this new system will still be SDG and E's domain. However, some folks further down the line do see a future in micro grids where you have a sort of a self-sustaining network of power lines and power generators that might cover, uh, it exists in, in, in some ways already on say a college campus, a campus might have solar panels, a fuel cell on campus, some natural gas generators in all of the, the power they generate stays on that campus. And they're able to basically be off the grid. Um, the idea, you know, is that maybe some time further down the line cities or even neighborhoods could replicate that Speaker 1: 09:27 Also down the line. It seems like this new agency is looking forward to developing more access, to alternative energy sources, like electric charging stations, rooftop, solar, how does the San Diego community power agency plan to pay for that kind of expansion? Speaker 2: 09:45 I'll pay for it with the rates that, that people are paying. So, um, they'll start collecting revenues after they're launched next month. Uh, and then, you know, because of efficiencies or savings that they've managed to achieve with their, um, power contracts that they negotiate, um, they expect to have some money leftover and some of that will probably go into reserves, but then there's, there's a bit of extra money that they can choose what to do with and, and the expectation. And what we've seen with other community choice programs in California is they will offer more, uh, you know, say an extra incentive for rooftop solar, or, um, small scale energy generating stations within the community. So it is local power it's close by and, you know, that's, um, that's what they're hoping to do. Speaker 1: 10:32 Okay. Then we'll I want to thank you. KPBS, Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen. Thanks a lot. My pleasure, Maureen. Speaker 6: 10:44 [inaudible].
