Following the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ Dec. 20 vote to withdraw the county’s unincorporated areas from the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA)—a local energy provider embroiled in controversy and accused of lacking transparency—the county now seeks a new agency to replace it.
With the county’s departure, representing unincorporated areas, the power authority now only serves residents and businesses in the cities of Huntington Beach, Buena Park, Irvine, and Fullerton.
Agendized by Supervisor Katrina Foley for the board’s upcoming Jan. 10 meeting, the board will request county staff to research other community choice aggregation (CCA) programs, to replace the OCPA.
Community choice aggregations allow local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents and businesses and offer greener energy options.
“I know that there are existing Southern California CCA’s who provide a lot better service, reduction in costs for renewable energy to the ratepayers and programs that can help us move into a more sustainable future,” Foley told The Epoch Times.
She suggested community choice energy provider San Diego Community Power as an option. The agency was formed in 2019 and became the electricity provider for Chula Vista, Encinitas, La Mesa, Imperial Beach, and San Diego in 2021. The County of San Diego and National City additionally voted to join the power agency the same year.
“My goal is to find a way for us to provide clean renewable energy and help meet our California emission goals,” Foley said.
She said her office is currently creating a climate action plan, as the county currently doesn’t have any written objectives or goals.
The state has recently doubled down on climate actions after the California Air Resource Board voted unanimously in December to mandate “carbon neutrality” by 2045, in part through reducing fossil fuel demand by 86 percent.
Foley said through a county climate action plan, already existing efforts to reduce the county’s environmental impact would be enhanced to set defined goals.
“We want to be able to have goals, objectives, and milestones, and be able to have this be something that drives decision-making in all departments,” she said.
On Dec. 29 the City of Irvine—one of the power authority’s constituent members—voted to stay with the embattled authority during a special meeting.
As part of that decision, the city is requesting the board of supervisors to rescind their withdrawal from OCPA.
Foley said she has no intention to vote to rescind the county’s withdrawal.
“I think it’s premature to request that we rescind because there’s been no change. In terms of operations. There’s been no commitment to making the changes that we identified as concern areas,” she said.
The county supervisors listed concerns of alleged inexperienced leadership and lack of transparency by the OCPA.
Irvine councilman Mike Carroll said during the city’s recent council meeting he is concerned the county’s withdrawal will have financial impacts on the city.
“The county of Orange didn’t act in Irvine’s best interests when it withdrew without any regard to the city of Irvine and its 310,000 people and the $8 million,” the city has already invested in startup costs in the OPCA, he said.
If the power authority ultimately fails, the city may lose out on that funding, officials said.
“But that’s not something that the county should be overly concerned about,” Supervisor Lisa Bartlett told The Epoch Times. “The county has to look out for the residents in the unincorporated areas that it serves. Not for the other member entities that are within the power authority.”
Bartlett also said she is not considering voting to rescind the county’s withdrawal from the OCPA at this time.
“All of the reasons why the county elected to withdraw from the Orange County Power Authority, all of those issues still remain,” she said.
She said the authority’s executive management still lacks experience in the power industry and, as such, is overly reliant on consultants.
Bartlett referenced a Riverside community choice power provider called Western Community Energy—the only California CCA to fail—faced similar problems, leading to its bankruptcy.
“[The OPCA hasn’t] substantially corrected the deficiencies and they’re not making an effort to even do so,” she said. “They’re talking about implementing some checks and balances and more protocols, and that’s great to talk about it. But nothing has really happened.”
Bartlett said she also supports considering the San Diego energy agency as an option for the county and said she has heard positive things about them.
“It’s good to give our residents in the unincorporated areas, some power options, which they currently do not have,” she said. “We have what appears to be a very solid power authority right next door to us.”
According to OCPA staff, the estimated cost for the county’s withdrawal is around $65 million. However, they indicated that much, if not all, of that could be recovered, by the county selling off excess power it has already purchased.
