Most of the Orange County Power Authority’s customers receiving 100% renewable energy are about to see a major drop in their clean energy as electricity prices spike.
In a special meeting last month, board members unanimously agreed to look at dropping most of their customers to a plan that would offer 55% renewable energy, with another 40% coming mostly from carbon free sources like hydro and nuclear power.
Around five percent will still come from fossil fuels.
The shift to less renewable energy means that prices will slightly go down for customers, but it does mean they won’t be getting as clean of a product as they were for at least two years.
“As far as we’re concerned as an agency, it’s all about the ratepayer,” said Fullerton Councilman and power authority Chair Fred Jung in an interview. “We’ve taken it upon ourselves to act and be transparent about it.”
The 100% renewable energy program – primarily built on solar and wind power sources – will remain open for customers, but they’ll have to opt into it instead of being automatically enrolled the way over half of the agency’s customer base were.
Previously, almost three quarters of the agency’s customers were automatically enrolled at 100% renewable energy, but that’s not a financially sustainable plan right now according to agency staff, who say the cost of renewable energy has gone up 400% in four years.
Now, agency leaders are pitching a plan to reduce the amount of renewable energy they provide for the next two years by dropping most of their customers to a lower rate, saying that electricity prices should drop by then as more renewable energy production plants come online.
“That means OCPA has a choice – we can either raise our rates for our customers, which we don’t want to do, or reduce the amount of renewable energy we provide for a couple years,” said Irvine Councilwoman and power authority board member Kathleen Treseder in an interview.
While the shortage of renewable energy is a crunch being felt statewide, power authority staff say the agency is uniquely vulnerable because they set up over 70% of their customers using purely renewable energy sources – more than the state average.
The decision won’t go into effect until the agency’s member city councils move ahead.
Fullerton’s already sitting at the agency’s 55% renewable tier, but Buena Park and Irvine both sit in the 100% tiers.
So far, Irvine is the only city that has publicly discussed the shift, and their customers represent over 60% of the agency’s customer base.
Irvine’s membership in the organization has been shaky despite being the city that founded the power authority, with repeated discussions by city council members in 2022 and 2023 on possibly pulling out of the agency.
[Read: Irvine City Council Candidates Split on Green Power and Housing]
Irvine leaders haven’t made any final decision yet, with Councilman Larry Agran again formally calling for the city to pull out of the agency at the Nov. 26 meeting.
“What the hell is going on here?” Agran said. “The fact this information comes to us at this time when in fact it should’ve come to us in September is very troubling.”
City council members are expected to host a special meeting on Thursday after new council members are sworn in to discuss the issue, according to city manager Oliver Chi.
Agency leaders agreed to look at refunding the money during a special meeting last Friday, but have not yet made any final decision.
It’s unclear when Buena Park will discuss a shift, but power agency staff said the discussion will be coming eventually.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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