OCPA to Vote on Changing Leadership; Participating Cities Continue Probe
Orange County’s beleaguered clean energy agency, which was widely condemned in an OC Grand Jury (OCGJ) Report last week for hiring unqualified leadership and a cascade of other related failures, could clean house on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Given the recent findings of the Grand Jury Report, some speculate the employees at issue are CEO Brian Probolsky and General Counsel Ryan Baron. [Read the Orange County Grand Jury Report]
The change in leadership would be welcome news among many advocates who have raised concerns over the last year regarding issues at OCPA, including planned rate increases. [Read: OCPA Plans 5.5% Rate Increase]
OCPA Board Meeting – June 29, 2022 at 10:00AM
Buena Park Councilmember and OCPA board member Susan Sonne agendized the possible termination and new leadership items on the OCPA agenda. The items will be discussed during a closed session at the next OC Power Authority Board meeting.
[Read agenda for June 29, 2022 OCPA meeting]
Irvine City Council Special Meeting – June 28, 2022 at 2:00PM
Irvine will get an update on its audit of OCPA at a Special City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 28 at 2:00pm.
Buena Park City Council Meeting – June 28, 2022 at 6:00PM
At the same time, the City of Buena Park has agendized a discussion of whether to leave the OCPA at its Tuesday June 28 City Council meeting. [Read agenda for June 28, 2022 Buena Park City Council meeting] Here is the staff report:
SCE and OCPA Joint Rate Comparisons
SoCal Edison has posted a direct comparison between their electricity rates and OCPA’s. Customers on the OCPA 100% renewable choice plan are paying 6.5 to 15.8% (average: 10%) more than the SoCal Edison base rate. See SCE and OCPA Joint Rate Comparisons.
SCE and OCPA Joint Rate Comparison Effective June 1, 2022
When the participating cities (Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Irvine) were choosing default power mixes, OCPA claimed that their 100% renewable choice plan was only 5.7% higher than the SoCal Edison base rate for residential customers.
Background
On June 14, 2022, Irvine approved conducting an audit of the OCPA. The same day, the City of Huntington Beach passed a vote of no confidence in CEO Brian Probolsky. Here was the agenda for the meeting.
[Read: City Leaders Approve Audits of Orange County’s Green Power Agency]
[Read: Irvine Will Move Forward With Audit of OC Power Authority But Questions Remain [Opinion]
1 Comments
Dee Fox
June 30, 2022 at 3:50 pmWhy should residents want to remain with the OCPA? The reason IRVINE taxpayers funded this program was because we were told by Mayor FARRAH KHAN, and Council Member MIKE CARROLL, our rate would be lower and our energy cleaner than SCE. However, AFTER the OCPA received over $7.5 million tax dollars to fund this organization, MIKE CARROLL and FARRAH KHAN announced that the rate will be higher than SCE. And because the OCPA is NOT regulated like SCE when it comes to the rate, they can, on a whim, increase it as much as they want. Once you are locked in to this program and do not OPT OUT, you will have to give the OCPA SIX MONTHS NOTICE BEFORE YOU CAN LEAVE AND GO BACK TO SCE. Meanwhile, you pay whatever these city council members tell you to pay. And because SCE will still be distributing our energy through their grid … the same grid that everyone receives their electricity from, ONLY the businesses and residents in the cities of BUENA PARK, FULLERTON, HUNTINGTON BEACH, and IRVINE will have their electricity bill increased every month. Essentially the OCPA believes that these four cities should pay more for the benefit of ALL Southern California Edison customers because they will purchasing 100% renewable energy for three of the four cities at least. One city decided not to go as high as 100% because that puts them in a slightly lower rate plan. Even though we know that whatever is purchased all gets feed into one grid. They cannot separate out distribution of energy by city or by individual customer. We all get exactly the same mix of energy, whatever that happens to be. So the whole tired plan is a scam. It’s made you to believe you are receiving a certain percentage of renewables when you’re not. Because remember, SCE is still purchasing energy from other power source companies for their customers as well. Bottomline, common sense tells you this is a scam on taxpayers so political people can get rich. Worse than that, they make it difficult to opt out. The OCPA has not followed the law when it comes to notification to it’s customers about their options. Two notices are suppose to go out to all businesses and residents 30-60 days prior to automatic enrollment and two notices after enrollment. Most people don’t even know about this program and haven’t been properly notified. There is a poll on Nextdoor about this and last I checked, only 32% remember getting something about this. Here is how you can OPT OUT now. The OCPA says residents have to wait until September-October to opt out but I already did it and it was accepted. So, do it now before you get locked in and have to wait six months. Call OCPA at 1-866-262-7693, option 1 for English, then options 4 and 2, enter your 12 digit SCE account number from the upper right hand corner of you bill, press #, then 1 to confirm, then your five digit zip-code on your bill, press #, then 1 to confirm. If you want to REALLY confirm, call back and do this process again and it should tell you that you are already opted out. GOOD LUCK and you might want to pass this information to your neighbors. I did and my neighbor said he never heard of the OCPA!
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