Monterey Bay Community Power is getting a new name to reflect its Central Coast reach
The board of the Monterey Bay Community Power Authority is expected to vote to change its name to Central Coast Community Energy to reflect a growth in the membership of cities and counties along the Central Coast of California.
The new name will be officially adopted at a meeting June 3 and in place after September.
As of December, the joint powers authority had enrolled the counties of Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz and the cities of Capitola, Carmel, Gonzales, Greenfield, Hollister, Marina, Monterey, Morro Bay, Pacific Grove, Salinas, San Juan Bautista, San Luis Obispo, Sand City, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Seaside, Soledad and Watsonville.
Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) is a community choice energy agency established by local communities to source carbon-free electricity for Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties and now parts of San Luis Obispo County while retaining PG&E’s traditional role delivering power and maintaining electric infrastructure.
The authority describes itself as a locally controlled nonprofit it says provides cleaner energy at a lower cost, supporting low-income rate payers, and funding local renewable energy projects.
Southern expansion
Early next year, the authority plans an expansion into Santa Barbara and SLO counties to include a wider service area: the County of Santa Barbara and the cities of Arroyo Grande, Carpinteria, Del Rey Oaks, Goleta, Grover Beach, Guadalupe, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, Santa Maria and Solvang.
Altogether, the authority has grown to 32 member agencies across the Central Coast, according to spokesperson Shelly Whitworth.
”We are thrilled to continue our expansion,” she said, adding that in their two years of operations the agency has realized more than $17 million in customer savings based on lower rates than PG&E.
Rate cut in the works
Looking to give residents and businesses an additional break on their power bill due to the widespread impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the authority plans to allow customers to pay a reduced bill for their electrical generation in May and June amounting to a cut of 50%.
Also, customer bills for those two months will be reduced an additional fraction by the California Public Utilities Commission those months. The rate cut will appear in customers’ May and June bills.
Meanwhile, the board recently signed several new renewable power agreements, as well as two geothermal and two solar projects that include energy storage.