SDGE charges the highest electric rates in California

A switch to public power will usher in a brighter future for San Diegans

San Diegans pay among the highest electric rates in the country. Even worse, the rates are proposed to rise each year for the next three years.

If you think your bills are high now, they will only be going up from here under SDGE.

Public Power San Diego advocates for a community-owned, independently run, no-profit electric utility committed to locally produced and distributed clean and sustainable energy.

Public Power Will Provide:

Lower Costs

Unlike SDGE, which exists to maximize profits for its executives and shareholders, a non-profit electricity utility would save each of us hundreds of dollars a year. There are more than 40 non-profit utilities across California. They all have lower rates than SDGE.
A non-profit utility would eliminate SDGE’s 20 percent profit margin. Last year, SDGE profits cost each customer an average of more than $600 per year. From our pockets to their profits.

SDGE’s CEO currently makes 11 million dollars per year. SDGE currently has a bloated executive pay scale. Replacing highly over-paid SDGE CEO’s and executives with reasonably paid public utility managers will lower rates.

The reality is this: when an electrical grid is designed with profit as the main goal, an electrical grid becomes cost-inefficient. Public power will focus on home grown electricity (roof top, parking lot, and infill solar). Producing electricity locally removes the high cost, high risk, importing of electricity, further reducing prices.

Local Control

Whether it’s internet access or air-conditioning, reliable electric service has never been more important. But SDGE’s strategy of importing most power via long transmission lines makes our system less reliable. The failure of a single power line has the potential to blackout huge areas of our city, as it did in September 2011. During heat waves last summer, buildings with solar power and battery storage did not suffer power outages, while some SDGE customers were blacked out just when they needed power the most.
A San Diego public utility will be better positioned to focus on resilience projects like micro-grids, battery storage, and energy independence, which are crucial in times of disasters or grid failure.
Distributed electric generation and battery storage across our city will provide greater energy resilience and security, all the more important in an unstable world. Distributed solar and battery storage makes it more difficult to disrupt our power supply.
The U.S. National Defense Strategy emphasizes “deterrence by resilience” as a central approach to protect critical infrastructure.

With public power, decisions about rates, infrastructure investments, and energy policies are made locally.
With a local expert governing board, overseen by an elected community oversight committee, our public utility will be held accountable to the people.
Electricity rates would no longer be set by regulators in San Francisco who reflexively agree to rate hikes that fund SDGE’s profits. The community has direct control over its electricity distribution.
Public power utilities can prioritize local needs, making decisions based on what’s best for the community rather than shareholders.

San Diego’s public electric utility would NOT be regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The CPUC has unfortunately failed to protect consumers from profit-grabbing private monopoly utilities like SDGE. They have continued to approve rate hikes for SDGE and continued to attack residential solar owners.
Public power will allow democratic control of our energy destiny. Empowering San Diegans to adopt local solar, providing local input for regulatory decisions, and always focusing on a low-cost high-reliability electrical grid.

Clean Energy

San Diego’s public electric distribution utility would focus on building local renewable power. We would not need to destroy more precious open space and the natural environment to get electricity. Not to mention these natural environments are also the most prone to wild fires. San Diego has all the sunshine it needs to satisfy its electricity needs – and to save us money.

Prioritizing rooftop and parking lot solar, along with smaller, distributed battery systems, will allow our public utility to more quickly create cheaper, cleaner power with faster emissions reductions (decarbonization). That translates to lower costs and a cleaner environment, rather than relying on remote industrial-size power stations.

We will see a green energy BOOM in San Diego. Small local solar businesses will thrive in a competitive solar market. Solar panels, batteries, and micro-grids will need electricians, installers, and entrepreneurs to build out our clean-energy grid. Our local economy will thrive as we accelerate the transition to clean solar energy.

How Do We Achieve Public Power?

The only way we get this done is with your help. This is a David vs Goliath battle.

We’re a seasoned team of San Diegans with deep experience in organizing, engineering, and movement building. Public Power San Diego is the educational engine behind the growing Public Power movement in San Diego. Our mission is to educate San Diegans about what Public Power is, why it matters, and how it can secure an affordable future for generations to come.

Our long-term goal is to launch a citizens’ ballot initiative, get the initiative on the ballot, and win the vote for Public Power. To do that, we’ll need to build a volunteer army ready to gather more than 125,000 signatures.

With your support, this isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable.

If you’d like to learn more or get involved, sign up for our email list.

DONATIONS:
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Public Power San Diego is an educational project of San Diego EarthWorks, a 501(3)c California non-profit corporation. Please consider donating or volunteering for our campaign to build a strong movement. We need people with all kinds of skills.
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