After almost four years of study and discussion, the Coronado City Council voted on Feb. 17 to leave San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and to join a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) instead.
A CCA is a program that allows local governments to form a nonprofit entity that procures electricity from a supplier, allowing clients to choose where their energy is coming from and what their electric source is.
The goal of a CCA is to utilize greener energy such as wind, solar and geothermal while also incurring lower electric fees for the community.
“This is an important decision for us, and I honestly think it’s a good one for our community and for our city,” Council member Kelly Purvis said at the Feb. 17 meeting. She and Council member Carrie Anne Downey both serve on the CCA subcommittee.
Enrollment and energy service with a CCA wouldn’t start until 2028, according to the subcommittee.
The EPA shows that currently, ten states in the U.S. have memberships with CCA’s. There are 25 active CCA’s in California, including two that operate in San Diego County: San Diego Community Power (SDCP) and the Clean Energy Alliance (CEA), according to a city staff report. SDCP has been operating since March 2021 and CEA since May 2021.
For Coronado, the electricity would be acquired by SDCP or CEA, but SDG&E would continue to deliver the power, maintain the electrical infrastructure and handle billing and customer service.
A decision hasn’t been made yet as to which CCA the city will join, but Downey and Purvis are recommending SDCP.
Downey stressed at the meeting that residents and businesses have full autonomy to choose whether to also join the CCA, or stay with SDG&E. So even though the city is deciding to switch, anyone can opt out.
“Keep on going with whatever you think is best for you,” Downey said. “Don’t join. No harm, no foul.”
There will be plenty of opportunities for individual customers to decide whether to join, said Lucas Utouh, the senior director of data analytics and customer operations at SDCP. Any customer can withdraw at any time.
The transition to aggregated power is part of a climate action plan (CAP) Coronado adopted in March 2022, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Downey said she also favors joining a CCA because it allows the city to redirect a portion of local electricity revenues toward programs benefiting the local residents.
Because a CCA is a nonprofit organization, it is required to reinvest net revenues within member jurisdictions.
The CCA subcommittee and staff recommended that the city become a member of SDCP along with San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach and National City.
CEA is currently composed of mainly the North County cities: Carlsbad, Del Mar, Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos, Solana Beach and Vista.
As of March 2024, SDCP served around 956,000 customers, compared to 255,000 customers served by CEA.
The difference in rates between SDCP and SDG&E is around a couple dollars, according to Downey.
According to a chart provided by the city, SDG&E supplies 41% of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Monthly customer bills average $164.49.
Downey said electricity for most SDCP customers is 53% from renewable sources and monthly bills average two dollars less than SDG&E.
“I don’t want to mislead anybody, there is no guarantee it will always be less,” Downey clarified. “However, in all the years they’ve operated, they’ve always been less.”
Purvis described the aggregated buying system as “a really interesting way to work together with other municipalities for the betterment of our communities.”
The staff report outlined that Coronado already partners closely on regional issues with the rest of South County, and joining the CCA will help the island have a strong voice among its neighbors.
The report said that joining SDCP would allow “Coronado to have local representation in clean-energy decision making, expand access to renewable power options for residents and businesses and align with other nearby communities working toward shared climate goals.”
Downey said that sometime in March, there should be a joint rate comparison sheet where residents can take their SDG&E bill and see exactly what they would have paid instead at a CCA.
The timeline for this decision is that the city will begin public outreach now that the council voted to join a CCA, and there could be a preliminary decision to join SDCP by the end of August. By January 2028, service with SDCP could begin.
