Santa Paula Municipal Code Ch. 61 Community Choice Aggregation

(A) The Cal. Public Utilities Code, Chapter 2.3 of Division 1, Part 1, § 366.2, allows electric utility customers to aggregate their electric loads as members of their local community with community choice aggregators, where a community choice aggregator may be any city, county, or group of cities or counties who have elected to combine the loads of their programs through the formation of a joint powers agency established under Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 6500) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Cal. Gov’t Code.

(B) The City of Santa Paula has been investigating options to provide electric services to constituents within its service areas with the intent of achieving greater local involvement over the provisions of electric services, competitive electric rates, the development of clean, local renewable energy projects, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and the wider implementation of energy conservation and efficiency projects and programs through a community choice aggregation (CCA) program.

(C) The City of Santa Paula has requested to become a member of the Clean Power Alliance ("CPA") a joint powers authority whose member entities also include the county of Los Angeles and Ventura, and the cities of Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Arcadia, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Carson, Camarillo, Claremont, Culver City, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Moorpark, Ojai, Oxnard, Paramount, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Simi Valley, Santa Paula, South Pasadena, Temple City, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, and Whittier to act as a regional agency to promote sustainable energy initiatives that reduce energy demand, increase energy efficiency, and advance the use of clean, efficient and renewable resources available in the region.

(D) CPA is authorized by ordinance to act as a community choice aggregator to implement and operate a CCA program under California law.

(E) CPA has established key CCA program goals of maximizing the use of local renewable resources while also providing competitive rates to customers. These goals are aimed at supporting local economic development as well as reducing the environmental impacts resulting from the use of electricity in a technically and economically feasible manner.

(F) To analyze the feasibility of operating a CCA program that achieves these goals, CPA has procured technical support services and has retained independent technical support services to conduct the appropriate development and operational studies, including technical, financial and risk analyses. These studies have assisted CPA, its member agencies, and the community in continually evaluating a rate structure, energy portfolio, and general CCA program viability through an implementation plan filed with the CPUC.

(G) Participation in a CCA program implemented and operated by the CPA, rather than independently electing to become a community choice aggregator, will reduce the city's financial exposure from community choice aggregation, if any, because CPA's joint power authority structure immunizes its member agencies from its debts, liabilities and obligations, and therefore the debts, liabilities and obligations of a CCA program.

(H) Electric customers have the right to opt out of the CCA program and continue to receive service from the existing utility under Cal. Public Utilities Code § 366.2(c).

(I) Under the CPA program structure, the city will have CCA program voting privileges on the CPA board of directors as set out in the CPA Joint Powers Agreement.

(Ord. 1324, passed 11-2-22)

Based on all of the above, the City Council of the city of Santa Paula elects to implement a community choice aggregation program within the city's jurisdiction by and through the CPA, subject to the determination of the CPA, based on its CCA program developmental and operational analyses and member agency input, that a CCA program based on the key goals set out above is not technically or economically feasible and consequently decides not to launch the CCA program.

(Ord. 1324, passed 11-2-22)