SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Community Power is continuing to expand and plan for the future.
The community-owned nonprofit provides clean energy to the area and is the first company to break the monopoly that San Diego Gas and Electric held on the local energy industry.
It launched about a year and a half ago and has been gradually rolling out, most recently phasing in residential customers. All customers were automatically enrolled, but can opt out and return to SDG&E service at any time.
RELATED: SDG&E's century-long monopoly ends Sunday in San Diego, Chula Vista
San Diego Community Power has about 765,000 accounts and reports about 3% of customers have opted out. It’s currently about 2% cheaper than SDG&E.
Steve Padilla, current Chula Vista council member and Vice Chairman of San Diego Community Power said this company is important for becoming 100% renewable by 2035.
“We’re never going to hit our reduction goals statewide, we’re never going to truly take action to address climate change if we don’t start taking concrete action right where we’re at,” said Padilla.
Currently, Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa and San Diego are all using Community Power, with San Diego County and National City joining next year.
There are also many major companies that choose community power, including Petco Park and the airport.
Leaders announced the next phase of their plan, which is listening to community feedback until September of 2022, then creating a five-year plan to propose in 2023.
