Article by Linda Gianelli Pratt
The City of San Diego is moving forward with Community Choice Aggregation, also known as Community Choice Energy, in order to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2035. This path will allow the City of San Diego to form a regional entity that can purchase clean energy on the open market at more competitive rates for customers. 
On September 17, 2019 the San Diego City Council voted to approve community choice energy and create a joint-powers entity with cities across the region. The regional entity will be the second-largest community choice entity in California in terms of electrical load. San Diego was the first big city in the U.S. to pledge to reach 100 percent renewable when the City Council adopted Mayor Faulconer’s Climate Action Plan in 2015.
After three years of research and analysis, Mayor Faulconer selected Community Choice as the preferred pathway to reach the 100 percent renewable energy goal in the City’s landmark Climate Action Plan.
The cities of Chula Vista, La Mesa, Imperial Beach and Encinitas have voted to join the regional joint-power entity. A regional approach would allow for greater negotiating and buying power as well as create efficiencies in operations and service. Analysis shows that Community Choice would result in lower energy costs compared to the investor-owned utility’s rates.
San Diego Community Power (SDCP), the new regional Community Choice program, has established the Finance Committee and will soon establish the Community Advisory Committee.
Stay Cool applauds the actions and progress made by the City of San Diego.
The County of San Diego voted to direct staff to do an evaluation of Community Choice Energy on September 10, 2019. Since that time, nothing has been updated on the County’s website. https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/general_services/Energy/Energy.html
