This post originally appeared in the Oct. 24 Morning Report. Get the Morning Report delivered to your inbox.
San Diego Gas & Electric, the city’s longtime energy provider, sent a breakup letter of sorts to the city on Monday, the surest sign yet city officials will try to compete with the company by forming their own government-run agency to buy and sell power.
For several years, the city has been studying whether to form a “community choice aggregator,” or CCA. These mini-utilities buy and sell power to customers, but SDG&E still owns and operates the power lines.
The city seems likely to announce soon that it will form its CCA, joining other local governments across California who have their own.
In the letter, SDG&E’s vice president of energy supply Kendall Helm said “we will be your partner to empower that” choice, which SDG&E and its parent company have previously fought. Though the letter is positive, it amounts to SDG&E saying “it’s not me, it’s you; but let’s be friends” to a long-time partner by asserting that the city sought terms from the company that the company could not meet.
What’s next? Mayor Kevin Faulconer may soon announce his intentions to form a CCA, a policy the City Council will then vote on.
Disclosure: Mitch Mitchell, SDG&E’s vice president for government affairs, sits on Voice of San Diego’s board of directors.