Sonoma Clean Power

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat has a story today about their relatively new Sonoma Clean Power Agency. I thought I'd bring this up since there have been recent proposals for Humboldt County to follow the same route. The Times- Standard reported on it not long ago but I can't find a link to the story.

One thing that bothers me about the Press- Democrat story is it seems a puff piece for the new agency. It starts off suggesting the new agency is set to handle 90% of Sonoma County's energy customers, as if that's a measure of success. Problem is, customers were automatically switched to Sonoma Clean Power unless they made an effort to opt out, and there's a penalty if you want to opt out after the first month.

No surprise that 90% of customers wouldn't opt out. Many probably didn't know they'd been switched. Unless I'm mistaken, their bill still comes from PG&E. The fairly obvious bias in the story makes me suspicious of the whole thing. From reading the comments, I don't seem to be the only one.

So, how does this work, and how would it work up here? I'm not 100% up to speed on it but, from my understanding, it just makes the county agency the middleman in purchasing power. By using bulk purchase techniques- buying on behalf of the whole county- they can buy power at a discount and supposedly pass savings down to the individual household and businesses.

Sounds ok, if it ends up working that way. Some are thinking it will be more expensive in the long run. One gal in the comments to the story says her bill went down $90.00, although she doesn't say when or for how long. I'm somewhat skeptical.

Years ago I signed up with a private middleman for electricity- utility.com. Anybody remember that outfit? They supposedly did the same thing: using bulk purchases from major utilities to give you a discount. They said my costs were 10% below PG&E's. I never saw it. I even crunched their numbers, yet they insisted they were cheaper. Just as well they stopped doing business in California.

As far as them doing something similar in Humboldt, I don't know. Probably a glass half empty/half full type of thing. PG&E is pretty much joined at the hip with state and local governments anyway. I suspect we'll be paying more and more for power now matter how we buy it.