Solana Beach, it's Time to Throw the Switch! 
Op-Ed by Lane Sharman, Co-Founder, San Diego Energy District

The City of Solana Beach - its leaders and engaged citizens -  are the first to get real things done in San Diego County. The first to ban single use plastic bags. The first to produce a Greenhouse Gas Inventory report. The first to adopt a Vision Statement of Zero Waste, Zero Emissions and Water Governance. So, it should come as no surprise that the City will become the first in San Diego County to enact a Community Energy Program - If it takes action soon.

​Here’s the roadmap:

• ​First, Vision
  Enshrine the Vision Statement element, Zero Emissions, into the Community Energy Operating Policies and Plans. Achieve Zero Emission electrical energy as soon as practical while maintaining rate parity with SDG&E. Always offer a 100% Zero Emission product so that those who can afford a slight premium can get this product as a way of stimulating clean energy demand. Encode into the DNA of all policies and plans the goal of responsibility to the ratepayer through the delivery of the cleanest energy possible at a competitive rate. Do not participate with any jurisdiction that does not embrace this Vision. Get started now and let other jurisdictions join later. Prove up a Community Energy Program within the service territory of SDG&E.
  
  
• Second, Transparency
  Hold a single and large outreach event (for example, at Solana Beach Presbyterian) to explain the findings of the recent Solana Beach Clean Energy Feasibility Study produced by California Clean Power. The City should disclose the study transparently to the public.  Give everyone in the city a chance to understand why the findings prove what everyone in the energy business already knows: a small city can cost-effectively outsource to its specifications the procurement and delivery of electrical energy to residents and business alike.
  
  At the outreach event, ventilate the dispute about the legal right of San Diego Gas & Electric to charge the ignominious Price Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA). Here’s the rationale benefitting SDG&E and approved by the PUC: SDG&E procures, under CPUC-approved contracts, resources for the City of Solana Beach. When SDG&E has to dispose of these unneeded resources on the open market, it has the right to charge Solana Beach ratepayers for any loss it may incur between the contract price and the market price. If you are shaking your head with puzzlement, you are not alone. The San Diego Energy District along with other California professionals and activists are fighting against this annual calculation as too volatile and protectionist. In December, PG&E asked for and the CPUC approved a 100% hike in the PCIA for Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power ratepayers. 
  
  
• Third, Talent
  The major milestone before the City of Solana Beach is to appoint a single Community Energy Management Company. There are two in California with the capital, talent and mission to do the job well. They are Noble Americas Energy Solutions and California Clean Power. Both are members of the San Diego Energy District. Any RFP would disqualify 98% of the respondents because they cannot place sufficient capital on the table to protect Solana Beach from credit risk associated with the procurement and obligation for large amounts of wholesale energy sold in the retail marketplace.
  
  

Once again, it falls on the City of Solana Beach to lead the way in San Diego. County Supervisors Bill Horn, Ron Roberts and Greg Cox are too cowardly to join their colleagues, Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Dave Roberts, to offer energy choice to County citizens. That opportunity has been on the table since 2005.  A little secret needs to be told: the County Administration Operations reap millions of dollars in savings because it is one of the few commercial entities in San Diego enrolled in a program called Direct Access (DA). Under DA, a commercial ratepayer has the right to procure its electric energy on the open market. The County Administration Operations enjoy energy choice but the County Supervisors do not confer this same right to county residents. How ironic is that!

There are tons of explanations for why San Diego is stuck in the mud while the rest of the State is surging ahead -- including the Counties of Marin, Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Yolo, Lake, Los Angeles, and a slew of small cities including Lancaster. Many of these explanations can be traced to the outsized influence of the San Diego Gas & Electric monopoly on politics in and around San Diego.  It’s time for SDG&E to embrace a new business model with a future of innovation and clean energy, instead of working backroom deals to thwart the public’s desire to adopt a Community Energy Program in order to walk the talk about Zero Emissions.

It’s time to throw the switch. In Solana Beach. Time and a rising tide wait (literally) for no man, woman or community!

Lane Sharman

Founder, Borrego Water Exchange
Co-Founder and Board Chair, San Diego Energy District
Author, Environmental Vision Statement of the City of Solana Beach
Past Chair, Solana Beach Clean and Green Committee
Member, Solana Beach Presbyterian Creation Care Team
Member, Citizens Against Freeway Expansion
CFO, Transform Realty Partners