Officially adopting its new name reflecting its broader geographical reach, Central Coast Community Energy has a new power procurement strategy aimed at shifting entirely to renewable energy much earlier than the current state mandate.
The local community choice agency announced its name change had been formally approved by the agency board during its annual meeting last week. The new name, which replaces the Monterey Bay Community Power moniker, was prompted by the agency’s expansion to include 33 jurisdictions ranging from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara counties, including the addition of 11 entities such as Del Rey Oaks starting next year.
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who spearheaded the formation of the agency and now serves as its policy board chairman, lauded the “welcomed expansion and name change” and said it “underscores the commitment of our agency to continue to exceed our state’s climate and energy-related goals.”
To that end, the agency board also decided last week to pursue the new power procurement strategy that focuses on switching from “carbon-free” purchases such as existing Pacific Northwest hydroelectric power to renewable energy generation and storage technologies, such as wind and solar. Those costs are at an “all-time low” according to agency officials. They have projected cost savings of up to $10 million a year for the agency as a result of pursuing the new strategy.
The move is expected to allow the agency to reach 60% renewable energy supply in the next five years and 100% by 2030, well ahead of the state’s clean energy goals requiring those benchmarks to be reached by 2030 and 2040, respectively.
Central Coast Community Energy CEO Tom Habashi said the agency is “charting a new course to achieve significant and meaningful reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” through the new strategy by capitalizing on lower-cost long-term energy projects in an attempt to “achieve an even greater impact on the environment while lowering customer cost.”
The resulting savings, agency officials noted, would be invested in more stable power rates for customers, accelerated electrification of the area’s transportation, building and agricultural sectors, and exploring the development of more local energy generation and battery storage initiatives.
Renewable energy has been at the center of the debate over whether the state’s reliance on an intermittent power source such as wind and solar, which can wane during high-demand periods and its move away from nuclear and natural gas-powered plants has left the state more vulnerable to power blackouts during times of extreme heat as has occurred this summer.
Agency officials argued that renewable energy “doesn’t play as direct a role” in the blackouts as the “sheer demand” for energy during peak demand times, and added that utility-scale energy storage projects would help the situation.
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September 10, 2020 at 04:35AM
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New name, strategy for expanding community power agency - Monterey Herald
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