Rural San Joaquin County residents and farmers that rely on pumps for water know all-too-well the fiscal impacts of PG&E rates that have done up 54 percent since 2020 for residential users.
It is why on Tuesday the Board of Supervisors directed county staff to:
*Partner with South San Joaquin Irrigation District in their effort to takeover PG&E’s retail system within the district that serves Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon and surrounding areas to initially reduce electricity rates by 15 percent across the board.
*Explore options to bring additional energy providers to elsewhere in San Joaquin County to increase competition and improve service.
One way to accomplish such a goal is through community aggregation.
The program allows local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from an alternative supplier while still receiving transmission and distribution service from their existing utility provider.
CCAs are considered an attractive option for communities that want more local control over their electricity sources as well as lower electricity prices.
By aggregating demand, communities gain leverage to negotiate better rates with competitive suppliers.
There are currently about 6 million customers of community aggregation in 10 states.
The SSJID for 20 years has dealt with legal roadblocks from PG&E in the district’s bid to exercise rights in the state constitution for irrigation districts to do so.
The are two hurdles yet to forge.
The first to a “right to take” trail scheduled before a judge in 2025.
If the judge agrees SSJID meets the state’s constitutional parameters for irrigation districts to use eminent domain for the public good, the last hurdle will then by a court proceeding to establish the price for acquiring the local retail system
Once the district clears the right to take hurdle, the SSJID can start hiring to ramp up its retail power service.
As far as the county exploring other options, Lathrop Irrigation District is already providing households in River Islands electricity rates 5 percent below PG&E using community aggregation.
The retail rate gap between PG&E and Lathrop Irrigation District will get wider as more homes are built at the 15,001-home planned River Islands community.
“PG&E has failed to meet its stated core mission of providing safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy,” noted District 5 Supervisor Robert Rickman. “The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) has failed California rate payers because they refuse to hold PG&E accountable for out-of-control costs that are hurting our working families.”
Rickman has led the charge to reduce PG&E’s chokehold on San Joaquin County residents, farmers, businesses, and industrial operations at the county level.
Rickman represents Tracy, Ripon, Mountain House and rural south Manteca on the Board of Supervisors.
"The current system is broken and does not work for San Joaquin County consumers. We need new legislative guidelines to ensure that the CPUC is not a rubber stamp for big utilities like PG&E,” Rickman added.
“Affordable utilities are not a luxury we can wait for. I have argued for years that the Governor and the State must look for safe, reliable and affordable options for all Californians, but especially for the lower income areas up and down the Central Valley. With the cost of living out of control, it is past time for action from Sacramento.”
With its action on Tuesday, the Board registered its official opposition to past and any future proposed rate increases and prioritized reducing electricity costs as part of its legislative platform.
They also asked staff to evaluate the rate impacts of exporting energy to the Coast and Los Angeles.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
