http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2014/11/same-price-more-renewables-san-diegos-fight-for-community-controlled-energy?cmpid=WNL-Friday-November7-2014
[links in on-line article, podcast available]
Same Price, More Renewables: San Diego’s Fight for Community
Controlled Energy
John Farrell
November 05, 2014
“San Diego and its community choice energy district would be able to
offer a diverse energy mix with all of the solar, biodiesel, biogas, and
energy storage resources that we have in San Diego. A product that is
price competitive and yet at the same time would strive for and achieve
a higher level of renewable content.”
See how this southern California city is striving for more clean energy
and more local control in this interview with Lane Sharman, co-founder
and chair of the San Diego Energy District Foundation.
This podcast was recorded via Skype on May 21, 2014. Listen to the Local
Energy Rules Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
A Fight Against ‘Solar Taxes’
The rise of the San Diego Energy District Foundation was in response to
fees proposed on solar customers by San Diego Gas and Electric in
October 2011. Thanks to the efforts of Lane, Bill Powers, and others in
and outside of the foundation, the solar-crushing “Network Usage Fees”
were not adopted. It was a particularly important win, because the fees
would have applied to those customers who had already installed solar,
with the expectation that they wouldn’t pay extra for going solar.
Pursuing More Local Energy Control
The Energy District Foundation wasn’t satisfied with stopping their
monopoly utility from implementing bad policy, it wanted to create an
energy system that put the community in charge of implementing policy
that was positive for the economy and the environment. In 2012, members
of the Foundation worked with Protect Our Communities, a nonprofit
organization focused on using California’s community choice aggregation
law, to create a local entity in charge of greening up the city’s energy
supply with local power. They hope to follow in the footsteps of Marin
County and Sonoma County in prioritizing local control of a cleaner
energy system, at competitive prices.
Why Public Power?
The interest in local control over energy purchases is rooted in the
inherent conflict of interest between ratepayers and their existing
for-profit utility. Utilities in California make money by investing in
hardware (power plants, power lines, and the like) and not finding the
cleanest, lowest cost power for their ratepayers. In part, this is
because taxpayers pick up the tab for pollution from fossil fuels. A
public entity is more likely to incorporate those externalities. Water,
sewage, and education all provide examples of where the public sector
provides excellent local service.
How Renewable Can San Diego Be?
A 2010 study called the San Diego Regional Plan for 100 percent
Renewable Energy outlines the technical potential for clean energy in
the region. But it’s the market prices for clean power than are most
encouraging. Open bids for new energy in Texas, for example, had solar
bidding in at 5¢ per kilowatt-hour compared to retail energy prices of
15¢ or more. The county has approved (in 2013) a comprehensive energy
plan that will include an investigation of a local energy aggregation.
A ‘Monopoly Protection Act’
Incumbent utilities don’t much like the San Diego Energy District
Foundation and its plan for local control of the energy system. The big
three corporate monopoly utilities in California are behind a new bill
(AB 2145) that would completely undermine community choice aggregation
by changing a key provision of implementation. Currently, when a local
government establishes a local aggregation to purchase power on behalf
of its residents and small businesses, these individuals may opt out. If
AB 2145 passes, all potential participants would have to opt in. It
effectively shields the monopoly utilities from competition, requiring a
yet-to-be-operational local utility to spend thousands of dollars to
attract customers before it sells a single kilowatt-hour. Furthermore,
it would make energy procurement nearly impossible for the local
utility, which would be unable to effectively plan and purchase power
without a reasonable estimate of their market share.
For more information on community choice aggregation, Lane recommends
the San Diego Sierra Club, the local 350.org, the Local Energy
Aggregation Network, and the San Diego Energy District Foundation
This is the 23rd edition of Local Energy Rules, an ILSR podcast with
Senior Researcher John Farrell that shares powerful stories of
successful local renewable energy and exposes the policy and practical
barriers to its expansion. Other than his immediate family, the audience
is primarily researchers, grassroots organizers, and grasstops policy
wonks who want vivid examples of how local renewable energy can power
local economies. It is published twice monthly, on 1st and 3rd Thursday.
Click to subscribe to the podcast: iTunes or RSS/XML
Thanks to ILSR intern Jake Rounds for his audio editing of this podcast.
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