Marin County in California wants to purchase electricity on behalf of its citizens, a move that would bypass the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and could lead other local governments to follow suit.
According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, last Thursday the county’s new public power agency — the Marin Energy Authority — outlined its rates and selected a third-party company to buy wholesale electricity for many of its residents. If the plan goes through, Marin County would be California’s first to implement “community choice aggregation,” an arrangement under which municipal and county governments buy power for their citizens while the local, private utility retains ownership of the distribution network.
A provision for community choice aggregation (CCA) was written into law following California’s energy crisis in the early 2000s. It was originally intended as a backstop measure to enable municipal and county governments to intervene on behalf of their citizens to ensure their interests were met, mainly with regards to price. Marin County’s latest foray is an indication that some governments may consider using CCA to address broader environmental issues:
“We’re stepping up and answering the call of, ‘What are we going to do about climate change?’” said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. “Everyone talks a good game, but we’re right in there, working on the nuts and bolts to make this happen.”
San Francisco officials are pondering a community choice aggregation plan of its own.
For its part, PG&E — the major electricity supplier in Marin County — is wary of the trend. Although the utility originally supported the law that established community choice aggregation, it is now backing an initiative that would make public purchasing arrangements more difficult. As owner of the distribution lines, PG&E has threatened to suspend delivery of electricity in the event that the Marin Energy Authority follow through with their plan. The utility has also said that Marin County consumers would see rate hikes under a CCA arrangement, an assertion that county officials deny.
Approximately one-third of PG&E’s electricity portfolio is comprised of renewable energy resources.
Kauai has been doing this for years (KICU) . Here, price is often governed by the cost of oil or in Marin County’s case, the wholesale price – so minimal cost of energy will be achieved when wind, solar and alternative energy sources are tapped as relatively low-cost raw materials for producing energy. As a community collective, it is more probable that those low cost sources would be passed onto the consumer.