Board adopted retroactive Feb. 1, 2025 rate package; CAC briefed on risks, reserves and customer discounts

San Diego Community Power staff told the Community Advisory Committee March 13 that the board adopted a 2025 rate package at a special Feb. 7 meeting and that the rates were made effective retroactively to Feb. 1, 2025. Staff described the adopted approach as a "balanced" scenario intended to protect long-term financial stability while offering customers lower generation rates than San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E).

Lucas Uthos, Senior Director of Data Analytics and Customer Operations, said the balanced scenario seeks to preserve reserves and meet the agency’s strategic financial targets while keeping customer affordability a priority. "Customer is the cornerstone of what we do," Uthos said during the presentation.

Under the board-approved structure staff described: the agency’s default product, Power On, is priced about 3% lower than SDG&E’s commodity generation rates for the calendar year; the lower-cost option, Power Base, is about 5% lower than SDG&E’s commodity rates; and premium products Power100 and Power100 Green Plus retain their existing per-kilowatt-hour premiums. Staff told the committee the total-bill impact for a typical residential R1 customer is a modest savings (staff estimated roughly 1.2–1.3% across total bill components when delivery and transmission charges are included).

Finance Director Tim Magmalotte (Timothy Magalot in other transcript lines) and staff described why the balanced scenario was preferred over a conservative scenario (which would have raised rates slightly but accelerated reserve build) and an “uncertain” scenario (which would have increased discounts but risked failing to meet reserve and credit metrics). Staff presented risk models that included competitor-rate shocks (e.g., SDG&E lowering rates unexpectedly), participation declines and federal or regulatory changes affecting renewable and storage costs. Staff said the balanced scenario places the agency on a trajectory to reach 180 days cash on hand around October 2025 and supports a later effort to establish a rate stabilization reserve (staff estimated approximately $70,000,000 as the stabilization target).

Staff acknowledged ongoing market and regulatory risks: renewable and resource-adequacy prices have increased in recent years, brown-power prices have varied, and federal actions (tariffs or tax-law changes) could materially affect procurement costs. Magmalotte said the board-approved balanced rates aim to preserve reserves while still offering customers a renewable product that is more renewable than SDG&E’s mix.

This briefing to the CAC was informational; the committee received the report and discussed questions about the moving average used to determine reserve milestones, whether the 3% discount would hold through summer, and enrollment elasticity (opt-downs to Power Base). Committee members asked staff to monitor SDG&E rate adjustments, which staff said remain a key risk factor.