Community power plan: early outreach finds cost, heat and education are top concerns

San Diego Community Power staff on Oct. 11 summarized early findings from the agency’s community engagement and needs assessment work that will inform the forthcoming community power plan.

Nelson (community power plan lead) said staff’s outreach — which included six listening sessions organized with five community-based organizations, more than 100 tabling interactions in unincorporated areas, stakeholder interviews and targeted workshops — surfaced recurring community priorities: unpredictable and often-high energy costs, worry about heat and cooling needs, a desire for more energy education, interest in rooftop solar (principally for bill savings), requests for better and lower-cost clean transportation options, and concern that some homes lack infrastructure (for example, panel capacity) to support electrification.

Nelson said the engagement work targeted communities of concern and compensated the partnering organizations and participants. He reported the public survey remains open through Oct. 15 and that staff had received thousands of responses; in his words, “I think last I checked, we had over 3,000 responses.” Staff ran multilingual paid social campaigns, print ads, and tabling events and worked with CBOs and member agencies to boost participation.

Staff also described internal engagement with board members and department leads to align program priorities. Early internal themes include fiscal responsibility (building reserves and remaining cost-competitive), equity (prioritizing communities of concern), community presence (visible local programs), transparency to build trust, energy education and support for distributed energy resources such as community solar and storage.

Nelson said the listening sessions targeted nearly 200 community members and that staff will fold these qualitative findings together with survey results to develop program recommendations and return to the board and CAC with final plan elements. Committee members urged outreach to renters and landlords if rooftop solar programs are proposed, and recommended more direct canvassing in high-priority neighborhoods.

Staff did not request formal action; the presentation was an informational update and a call for continued CAC support in outreach and community partnerships.