Local News

New Electric Service Begins in October

Orange County Power Authority (OCPA), our region’s new clean energy provider (of which Fullerton is a member) is set to begin serving residential customers electrical power in October. This launch takes place amidst an ongoing audit of the agency, and a Grand Jury Report expressing concerns over transparency and leadership of OCPA.

Photo by Jesse La Tour.

OCPA is a community choice energy (CCE) agency that was established in 2019 to give member cities a greater mix of renewable energy. Currently, OCPA’s members include Irvine, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Buena Park, and unincorporated areas of Orange County. OCPA purchases energy and sells it to customers, while Southern California Edison (SCE) still delivers, bills, and resolves any customer service or electricity service issues.

Unless Fullerton customers choose to “opt-out” (by visiting www.ocpower.org) they will be automatically enrolled in this new electric utility service, which allows customers to choose their preferred mix of renewable energy. The three options are:

• 38.5% Renewable Energy (No estimated rate increase from current SCE service).

• 69.2% Renewable Energy (about a 3-4% rate increase, or 1 cent per kilowatt/hour above SCE rates). 

• 100% Renewable Energy (about a 7% increase, or 1.5 cents per kilowatt/hour above SCE rates).

Fullerton City Council has set the default rate for customers at the middle tier, 69.2% rate increase.

Fullerton residents should receive two notices in their mailboxes prior to October 1 explaining how they can ‘opt out’ (thus continuing service with Southern California Edison) or to choose a different percentage tier.

On June 14, citing transparency and leadership concerns, Irvine City Council voted 4-0 to conduct a comprehensive audit of OCPA. Irvine was the founding member of OCPA and fronted the initial costs of the agency. Fullerton City Council voted on July 5 to support this audit.

On August 23, Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett asked a representative of OCPA about the “audit” that the city of Irvine is currently doing of the OCPA, and it was revealed that this “audit” only involves looking at documents related to start-up costs.

At that meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted to demand a more complete audit of the OCPA, and threatened to withdraw from the Agency if they did not comply. This was done over concerns expressed by the Supervisors over a lack of trust and transparency with the agency.

To read the Grand Jury report, which outlines many of these concerns, click HERE.

To learn more visit www.ocpower.org or call 1-866-262-7693.


4 replies »

  1. CORRECTION: its Lancaster Energy CCE that is lowering energy prices NOT San Diego. They offer 100% renewable energy at $10 flat rate more per month – but their lower tiers are the same or lower pricing than SCE and deliver more renewables.
    According to the OC Grand Jury report there are very successful models in northern california where the idea of nonprofit community energy aggregation was started in 2010..
    According to Grand Jury – By year-end 2021, 23 California Community Choice Energy providers were in operation serving 11 million customers. Many of the first CCEs in California started in Northern California and have been able to offer their customers financial savings in the purchase of energy. CalCCA has reported that CCE customers collectively saved about $90 million on energy bills in 2018 compared to Investor Owned Utility counterparts.

  2. The more households in the cheaper it will be. San Diego power prices went down when they signed on with a similar plan. Also if it doesn’t work you can switch back to Edison anytime you want. If it does work we will be cutting polluting energy and do our little part towards hopefully saving the planet from global warming.