By Spring 2018, electricity consumers in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties likely will be using power that is at least 50 percent from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
Under plans endorsed by all but one municipality – Sand City – in the three counties, a new Monterey Bay Community Power agency will be created next year that will manage electric power with a “green” vision and a commitment to choose clean sources of power.
Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco, San Mateo and other counties have undertaken similar initiatives. In Sonoma, the community power agency has not only provided power but saved consumers money on their electric bills, according to Gine Johnson, analyst for Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson.
The plan, created by a 2001 state law, will automatically shift all current PG&E customers in the three counties to Monterey Bay Community Power, which will buy electricity from “clean energy” sources.
Individual households and businesses will be given the option of not participating, and continue to deal directly with PG&E if they want.
In fact, all billing and repairs and service will continue to be handled by PG&E, which also will continue to maintain the transmission lines that cut through the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The difference, says Johnson, is that the new model, called a Community Choice Energy model, “helps ensure local economic vitality because money from rates paid by local customers will stay local, because any surplus revenues that would normally flow to PG&E would stay in the communities to help fund renewable energy products.
“It’s a game changer,” she said.
Johnson, who was formerly executive director of Ecology Action in Santa Cruz, said the timing is right, because alternative energy is cheaper, and the new Monterey Bay agency can learn from the experiences of other counties who have similar programs in place.
She expects consumers will experience more transparency and accountability, because they will have direct access to a local governing body, not a giant for-profit utility. The goal is “regional self-sufficiency” in energy use, she said.
She said McPherson has been the driver on the project, and that cities and counties have jumped on board in the past year.
In 2017, a staff of 10 to 15 people will need to be hired, a massive public education and information campaign will get underway and representatives of local governments will lay the groundwork so the state Public Utilities Commission can approve the Monterey Bay three-county agency, to switch to the new energy sources in 2018.
The new agency will be the first in the state to include three counties.
