Escondido City Council Votes 5-0 to Join the Clean Energy Alliance formed by Del Mar, Solana Beach and Carlsbad

Yesterday evening, the Escondido City Council voted 5-0 to join the Clean Energy Alliance (CEA), the community choice energy (CCE) program formed in 2019 by the cities of Del Mar, Solana Beach and Carlsbad with the intention of providing cleaner energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, competitive rates, and local control to its member cities. CEA began providing energy services on May 1, 2021, at rates lower than SDG&E’s.

Escondido will select its representative to CEA’s board next month, and CEA will begin providing energy to Escondido in 2023. The addition of Escondido will effectively double CEA’s customer base, bringing economies of scale and increased purchasing power to its operations. The CEA’s structure gives equal voting power to each member city, regardless of population. This ensures that Del Mar will continue to have a strong voice in CEA’s governance.

Unlike investor-owned utilities such as SDG&E, CEA is a not-for-profit entity governed by a Joint Powers Authority, and net revenue would be reinvested in community-serving programs, which could include “local distributed energy generation, enhanced energy efficiency programs, additional support for low-income customers, energy storage, electric vehicle charging and other programs related to the CCE business model,” according to CEA’s website.