DATE:
August 31, 2021
10
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
FULL VETTING OF THE BENEFITS, POTENTIAL RATE PAYER COST INCREASES AND LIABILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
The County of San Diego is considering joining one of the two Community Choice Energy (CCE) programs currently operating in the San Diego region: San Diego Community Power and the Clean Energy Alliance. However, recent events related to the Western Community Energy bankruptcy, combined with unaccounted for cost factors related to long duration energy storage puts the Board of Supervisors in the position of being asked to make a decision based on incomplete information. Further, the County's unincorporated area residents, who are not as affluent on average as coastal residents, face far greater average summer temperatures than those cities already participating in San Diego's two CCEs. And they are also more reliant on electricity for heating. To address these issues, this resolution directs staff to come back with an updated feasibility study that incorporates the unaccounted-for risk and cost factors of joining a CCE and identifies the differences that exist between San Diego County's unincorporated area residents and residents residing in incorporated cities and coastal areas.
To date, the Board and County staff have largely relied upon a detailed feasibility study conducted by EES Consulting, Inc. that was delivered to the Board of Supervisors on August 29, 2019. This study contains useful information, but like many other CCA studies conducted by other jurisdictions, it overlooks a critical cost driver necessary to deliver reliable renewables-based energy. And it does not address the differenced in demographics and energy use profile that exists between resident in cities and coastal areas and San Diego unincorporated area residents.
This overlooked cost driver consists of billions of dollars of long duration energy storage ...
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