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San Francisco LAFCO authorizes up to $5,000 for Marin Clean Energy scoping study on joining CCA
Summary
The San Francisco Local Area Formation Commission approved up to $5,000 to fund a scoping study by Marin Clean Energy to evaluate whether the city should join MarinClean Energy's Community Choice Aggregation program, following staff updates on costs and state legislation affecting CCAs.
The San Francisco Local Area Formation Commission on Jan. 1 reviewed updates on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and authorized up to $5,000 to pay Marin Clean Energy for an initial scoping study to analyze the costs and feasibility of the city joining MarinClean Energy.
Jason Fried, LAFCOexecutive officer, said the commission earlier approved a study with consultant EnerNX and that staff received an early draft of the first task that morning. "We have the potential of somewhere between a half a million dollars to $1,100,000 that could be made available to the power enterprise to pay for clean power services that the CCA program would pay power enterprise," Fried said, describing how a CCA could contribute to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission(SFPUC) enterprise budget while noting it would not solve the entire shortfall.
Fried also told commissioners that the California Public Utilities Commission staff had not attended the meeting and that the draft had only arrived that morning. He said Marin has requested a not-to-exceed $5,000 payment so Marin consultants can scope what a joint analysis would entail and return a full cost estimate. "I would say it would be a month or 2 for them to, you know, take a a serious look ... and come back to us with, here's what the full price would be," Fried said.
Fried summarized recent state legislative developments affecting CCAs. He said a bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano intended to give San Francisco more choice in CCA design had died in the Local Government Committee. Fried also described a Bradford bill (referred to in the record as Bill 2,145) that would change CCA rules and, importantly, could shift programs from an opt-out model to opt-in; that bill had passed the utilities committee and was headed to Appropriations.
Commissioners discussed prior study costs in other jurisdictions and market-research needs. Fried said Richmond and Napa studies had cost about $40,000 to $50,000 but that a San Francisco study could be closer to $100,000to154,000 if broader market research and commercial-customer analysis were required. He added that Marin's customer base was "about a 130,000," noting Marin would likely commission new market research to assess customer appetite.
With no public comment, Commissioner Breese moved to authorize the expenditure and Commissioner Maher seconded; the commission approved the not-to-exceed $5,000 payment without objection.
Next steps are for Marin's consultants to complete the scoping work and return a full price and scope for a joint study, after which LAFCO and the Board of Supervisors would decide whether to allocate funds for the full analysis.
Provenance: Item 3 was introduced in the transcript as "Item number 3 is Community Choice Aggregation Activities Report." The commission recorded the motion approving the $5,000 expenditure without objection.
