Clean Energy Alliance secures new contract for energy procurement

The Clean Energy Alliance Board of Directors approved a 10-year, $8.5 million contract Aug. 26 with Powerex, which will provide renewable energy starting this October.

“This was a perfect fit for our portfolio needs,” said Barbara Boswell, CEA’s interim CEO.

The Clean Energy Alliance began providing energy earlier this year to residential and business customers in Del Mar, Solana Beach and Carlsbad. It is one of the state’s newest Community Choice Aggregation programs, which allow local governments to band together and offer customers more renewable energy options than they have through their traditional utility provider.

The Clean Energy Alliance and other Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs are required by The Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, a California law authored by former state Sen. Kevin de León, to secure long-term renewable energy contracts of at least 10 years.

“Even with this contract, we have additional long-term energy needs,” Boswell said. “We have been undergoing negotiations with other suppliers.”

She added that the Clean Energy Alliance is closing in on an agreement to acquire surplus renewable energy from San Diego Gas & Electric.

The Clean Energy Alliance is also continuing its search for more member agencies, which would give it more leverage in negotiations with power suppliers. Board members have long mentioned San Diego County as a possibility, but the Board of Supervisors voted on Aug. 31 to join San Diego Community Power, another CCA that includes the cities of San Diego, Encinitas, La Mesa, Chula Vista, La Mesa and Imperial Beach.

Boswell said that she and Carlsbad City Councilwoman Priya Bhat-Patel, who is the vice chair of the Clean Energy Alliance Board of Directors, met with representatives from the city of San Clemente.

“They are currently looking at options,” Boswell told Clean Energy Alliance board members.