Meetings for community energy programs canceled due to COVID-19

Restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak have resulted in shutdowns of scheduled meetings of community choice aggregation, or CCA, programs across the region.

San Diego Community Power

The newly formed CCA that will encompass five cities in the county has canceled its March board meeting that had been slated for Thursday at the City of San Diego council chambers. Officials with San Diego Community Power, or SDCP, still plan to hold the board’s April 23 meeting but staff is making arrangements to conduct a virtual meeting by remote access.

“While it is likely that our next Board meeting will be online, we intend to resume in‐person Board Meetings as soon as federal, state, and local guidance indicates that it is prudent to do so,” board chair and Encinitas city council member Joe Mosca said in a note to fellow board members.

In a memo, SDCP’s interim chief executive officer Cody Hooven said the CCA continues negotiations with Sacramento-based River City Bank and “we are on track to present credit and banking items” to the board in April. Various requests for proposals are also moving along.

In the meantime, SDCP’s website has come online at www.sdcommunitypower.org.

Made up of the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas and Imperial Beach, SDCP is on track to become the second-largest CCA in California, with an estimated 920,000 customers by the time it fully launches in November 2021.

Solana Energy Alliance

The Solana Beach City Council has canceled its session that had been scheduled for Wednesday evening. The town’s city council, which serves as members of the board of the Solana Energy Alliance, was expected to vote on whether it would adjust the rates the CCA offers its 7,300 customers.

In its default plan, the CCA offers rates 3 percent lower than San Diego Gas & Electric but due to a number of factors —including higher regulatory costs — the alliance is facing a cash crunch. The city council is considering changing the rate to where it would be practically the same as SDG&E’s to bolster the CCA’s bottom line.

According to city manager Greg Wade, a discussion on adjusting rates has not yet been rescheduled as city staff works on developing a virtual platform for city council meetings.

A stand-alone CCA, the Solana Energy Alliance has been in existence since June 2018, making it the first community choice energy program to go into operations in San Diego County.

Clean Energy Alliance

Solana Beach will soon join the cities of Del Mar and Carlsbad to form a new CCA called the Clean Energy Alliance that is scheduled to being operating in 2021. The three-city CCA’s joint powers authority canceled its March 19 meeting but according to the alliance’s website, its April 16 meeting at 2 p.m. at Del Mar City Hall is still on the schedule.