Coronado has formally become the eighth member of San Diego Community Power, the community choice aggregation, or CCA, program that offers an alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric for sourcing electricity for customers.
Community Power’s board on Thursday evening unanimously approved a resolution to add the seaside community to its roster.
“Coronado’s membership reflects the growing demand for locally governed energy choices that prioritize affordability, accountability and community investment,” board chair Terra Lawson-Remer said in a statement. Lawson-Remer is also chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Community Power’s approval comes two months after Coronado’s city council in Coronado voted to sign a joint powers agreement to join Community Power’s roster.
“We are excited to bring the options and benefits available through community choice to Coronado,” said Carrie Downey, Coronado’s Mayor Pro Tem.
Community Power will now file an implementation plan with the California Public Utilities Commission. Upon commission approval, it’s anticipated that service will start in Coronado around March 2028.
Created by the California Legislature in 2002 to encourage the growth of renewable energy and provide competition to traditional investor-owned utilities, CCAs like Community Power are designed to offer customers higher percentages of renewable sources at comparable or slightly lower rates.
When established, CCAs purchase electricity generation for residents and businesses in their respective municipalities.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
In place since 2021, Community Power currently serves customers in the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, National City and the unincorporated communities of San Diego County.
Utilities such as SDG&E don’t go away under the CCA model. They still perform all the responsibilities outside of purchasing power — such as delivering electricity via transmission and distribution lines; maintaining poles and wires; and handling customer services, including billing.
Some 25 CCAs have sprung up across California in recent years and Community Power, boasting more than 972,000 active accounts, is the second-largest CCA in the country. With Coronado joining the fold, there will be an additional 12,000 customer accounts.
In 2022, Coronado adopted a Climate Action Plan that seeks, by 2030, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the city by 39% below 2016 levels.
Community Power officials say adding Coronado will increase its total annual energy load by about 1% and will not have an impact on the CCA’s existing accounts.
As per state rules, potential Coronado customers will automatically be enrolled in Community Power — residents and businesses won’t have to fill out any forms.
Customers will not receive a separate bill. Rather, they will still receive a monthly statement from SDG&E that will include a notation saying “CCA Electric Generation” under the summary of current charges on Page 1 of their bills.
If customers prefer to remain with SDG&E for their power purchases, they will have the ability to opt out of joining Community Power for free.
Community Power offers customers three different plans:
PowerOn, a program that has a portfolio of 53% renewables, plus 2% from carbon-free sources such as hydroelectricity. By comparison, SDG&E’s renewable portfolio stands at 41%.
PowerBase, a less expensive option with a renewable energy content of 45%.
Power100, offering generation that pencils out to 100% renewable sources of energy, but it’s more expensive than PowerOn and PowerBase.
PowerOn will act as the default program for Coronado.
According to projections released earlier this year, Community Power residential customers in 2026 enrolled in PowerOn who use an average of 341 kilowatt-hours of electricity pay 1.28% less compared to SDG&E per month (which works out to a savings of $2.10).
Those on PowerBase pay 3.38% less, for a savings of $5.56. But residential customers enrolled in Community Power’s Power100 program are projected to pay almost 1% more compared to SDG&E on a monthly bill, which works out to $1.30 higher.
Coronado City Councilmember Kelly Purvis will represent Coronado on Community Power’s Board of Directors, with Mayor Pro Tem Downey serving as the alternate.