• City Council Meeting February 2020: WCE

This was a three hour city council meeting. Nearly one hour of it was for item 3.1 Western Community Energy Joint Powers Update.

This blog will give you the basics on item 3.1, the slides from the presentation and a link to a video of just the item and not the rest of the meeting; that will be in a separate blog shortly.

The presentation was given by Tyler Masters of WRCOG. Essentially he showed slides and described them as they appeared. I'll post the slides now, then add a few details afterward. 

There is a link to the video at the bottom of the blog. For those that are interested, the video itself is where you should head.

3.1 BACKGROUND: 
On February 14, 2018, Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) staff presented information about Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and next steps to join Western Energy Joint Powers through Resolution and Agreement and adopt an Ordinance authorizing implementation of a Community Choice Aggregation Program. 

During City Council discussion, staff was directed to invite Southern California Edison (SCE) to present information about CCA’s at a future City Council meeting. 

On April 11, 2018 SCE staff presented i) key facts about CCA’s; ii) current status on power charge indifference adjustment (aka exit fees); and, other incentive programs for customers. 

Below is a video of the 12 minute SCE presentation from April 2018.
A code of conduct limited SCE to provide certain types of information pertaining to CCA’s. SCE and other investor owned utilities have filed request with PUC to modify code of conduct on outreach to allow additional outreach activities with stakeholders. 

On July 11, 2018, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 2018-39 approving membership in the Western Community Energy Joint Powers Authority. The city council appointed a Director and one alternate Director to act on behalf of the City of Wildomar within the powers of the WCE. 

On October 24, 2018, the City Council introduced the First Reading of Ordinance 160 authorizing the implementation of a community choice aggregation program and signed the 1st Amendment to the Western Community Energy Joint Powers Agreement.

I asked several questions that were put to me by the community either through email or on social media. 

The key complaint from the residents dealt with the Opt Out v. Opt In aspect of this. This is a law (AB 117) that makes it this way. Sacramento really has no concern as to what the people would actually desire or not, and they're the ones that came up with that one. 

WCE will not charge you for opting out, but there may be a charge from SCE to return to them. I emailed SCE for the particulars.

From the Email

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• If customers want to return to SCE bundled service after the grace period they have two options.

1) Provide 6 months advanced notice before returning to SCE bundled service and there is no difference in cost. The customer will remain a CCA customer for 6 months then transition back to SCE on the standard rate.

2) Return to SCE bundled service immediately and go on “Transitional Bundled Service” rate for 6 months. This is a special rate that is typically higher than the standard rate. It fluctuates over time based on market prices. The higher rate allows us to recover the extra costs for procuring power in the short-term market that we hadn’t anticipated. This is typically more expensive than our normal procurement process.

Here is the Q&A on our website: LINK

This issue is addressed in the “How Do I Opt Out of CCA Service?” question. You can find the PC-TBS information here: LINK

Customers who opt out within the 60 day grace period can return to SCE immediately at no cost.

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The other thing that got the hackles of the community up was that the first they heard of it was in a mailer that looked like junk mail.

The shot heard round the W'mar.
I was told by many people that they tossed it out thinking it was campaign literature.

This was also my key complaint. To the point that many of my colleagues on the dais were less than pleased with my posts on social media in the lead up to this meeting (sorry about that).

To my colleagues that said something to the effect of, "But we have had it on the agenda, it's been on the agenda several times that we've talked about it." That's great for the handful of residents that are up on such things, but that's not how most people think. 

They don't think that they should need to consult a city council agenda to learn big news that's coming their way. I also don't think the idea of thorough community outreach should be met with resistance, or countered with saying there had been presentations at city events. 

One resident that spoke during public comments said, "Why didn't you send the notice out two years ago?" Which after he was met with, "If you signed up for emails, you get the agendas emailed to you and you can see what's on there and you can come to the meetings to get the information. Plus we had information at our city events."

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. Most people have never looked at a city council agenda, much less an agenda packet that can run well over 500 pages... they have more important things going on and they rely on us to spread the word when big things are on the horizon. 

If we can send out reminders about Coffee with the City (both email and on social media), isn't it likewise reasonable to expect reminders for something as big as being automatically opted into a new energy company? 

Eastvale is also part of WCE and they don't start for 30 days after Wildomar, but they've had an explainer video up since last August.
Why couldn't we have been sending out regular reminders since last Summer? Maybe sending out a different slide from the presentation every couple of weeks? 

The last part that I'll mention was where resident Donna Poland (sp?) was allowed to stay at the mic for about 8 minutes, instead of the usual 3 minutes, with a good back and forth discussion. I found that to be very helpful. 

Please look for that around the 27 minute mark of the video. 

Wildomar Rap opinion time

This first came about in 2018, and though lower utility rates are always more attractive than the higher variety, I didn't think it was worth the effort to save 4% (which is what it was back then). 

My thoughts from the Feb 2018 blog

The thing I want to know is, if this is better than peaches and cream like it's described, then why aren't all the local cities beating a path to their door? Why the deliberation? Why does it sound like WRCOG would be sanguine if they could "amass five to six cities" when their organization has eighteen?

Now it's a 2% savings

It was said that the 4% is in there, but since SCE needs their cut, it's only a 2% net savings... which is what will be showing up on your bill.

I asked, "What's in it for WRCOG/WCE or the city?" 

And after a bit of a hesitation the answer came back, "Lower rates".

Then I attempted to give my view of it, which all too often doesn't hit the listener's ear the way it came away from my gray matter.

Let's see if I can succeed in writing where I failed at the dais.

In my mind, the impetus for a collection of cities (WRCOG) to embark on such a major undertaking has to be more than saving 2% for the rate payers. This undertaking that has taken years to get to this point, and a new entity had to be created to administer it (WCE). 

I suggested that it would make more sense if any savings were going to be split between WRCOG and the various cities (not the ratepayers). Then, with that pool of money, the cities would be able to do something valuable for the entire community, such as repaving roads. At the same time, WRCOG could put it's share toward regional projects.

It was suggested that such a thing would be an illegal tax. I countered with, I'm not actually suggesting we do it, but would understand the point of bothering better if something more was at stake than finding a way for me to pocket $30 at the end of the year. 

A key factor that wasn't mentioned in the meeting was that SCE is tied into long term contracts that will be expiring over the next several years. Contracts that have locked them into very high rates, but back in the aughts (that's what we call the years between 2000 and 2009) it was a gamble they took (thanks a lot) that ended up being costly (I hope that guy got fired).

Now, CCAs like Western Community Energy are not locked into contracts from the George W days and can buy energy at current rates, which are much better today... but that advantage isn't going to be around for all that much longer.

Again, I'd understand this better if all this effort was amounting to more than me (or you) saving 2% individually. 

I'm not going to opt out, but like Mayor Dustin Nigg said at the meeting, I'll be watching the rates and when they don't pan out, I'll be ready with an itchy trigger finger on the eject button. (Dustin didn't use that phraseology, that's my colorful prose.) ☺

This was a Receive and File item, no vote was necessary here. It was just an update.

Below is the 50 minute video of the entire item 3.1.

•                •                •

An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
– Benjamin Franklin

Wildomar Rap hears that menudo is a great cure if you forgot to take your ounce of prevention the night before.

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