Las tarifas de electricidad en San Diego son las más altas del país.

¿Qué podemos hacer al respecto?

Los habitantes de San Diego pagan las tarifas eléctricas más altas del país, y se predice que estas altas tarifas seguirán aumentando a un ritmo del 10 por ciento anual en el futuro.

Si su factura mensual de SDGE es de $300/mes en 2024, aumentará a $450/mes en solo cuatro años.

Public Power San Diego aboga por una compañía eléctrica sin fines de lucro, administrada de forma independiente y de propiedad comunitaria, comprometida con la energía limpia y sostenible producida y distribuida localmente.

A NO-PROFIT ELECTRICITY SOLUTION WILL PROVIDE:

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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 each 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 of us an average of more than $600 per year. From our pockets to their profits.
San Diego’s non-profit utility would cut rates by pursuing the least expensive and cleanest electric service. This efficient strategy would emphasize locally generated solar power with batteries and avoid the high cost of moving electricity long distances over transmission lines.
The existing electricity rates include taxes that SDGE has to pay. The non-profit utility would not have to pay those taxes and they would no longer be included in the rates. The new utility would not have the power to raise taxes. It would have affordable electricity rates as a main goal in its mission.
By emphasizing local solar electric generation on roofs and over parking lots, our non-profit utility would avoid building expensive and fire-causing transmission lines through our fragile backcountry.
With a priority on installing smaller battery systems for buildings and homes, our non-profit utility will also reduce the risk of fires posed by SDGE’s preference for large, industrial concentrations of batteries. Those heavily concentrated systems have already have caused several difficult and hazardous fires in our county.

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San Diego non-profit electricity utility would NOT be regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The CPUC has unfortunately failed in protecting consumers from profit-grabbing utilities like SDGE.
Whether it’s internet access or air-conditioning, reliable electric service has never been more important. But SDGE’s strategy of importing power via long transmission lines makes our system less reliable. The failure of a single power line can blackout huge areas of our city. During heat waves last summer, buildings with solar power did not suffer power outages, while some SDGE customers were blacked out just when they needed power the most.
SDGE’s record is problematic. SDG&E territory has experienced three major blackouts in: April 2010, September 2011, and August 2020.
All three blackouts occurred under conditions that SDG&E should have been able to meet without interrupting power to customers. SDG&E avoided blackouts during the SDG&E-caused 2007 wildfires in part by obtaining emergency power from UC San Diego, which maintains local control of its own generation.
Distributing 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 makes it more difficult to intrude on our power supply.
The U.S. National Defense Strategy emphasizes “deterrence by resilience” as a central approach to protect critical infrastructure.
With a directly-elected governing board, directors of our non-profit utility would be held accountable at public hearings and at the ballot box. Electricity rates would no longer be set by regulators in San Francisco who reflexively agree to rate hikes that fund SDGE’s profits.
SDGE customers have no say in the management of SDGE and no local oversight. The governing board of our non-profit utility would be selected by us, the customers, in contrast to the unaccountable (and highly paid) directors of SDGE.

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San Diego’s non-profit utility would avoid building expensive and hazardous transmission lines through the backcountry. We would not need to destroy more precious open space and desert lands to get electricity. 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 non-profit to more quickly and create a cheaper, cleaner electric utility with faster emissions reductions (decarbonization). That translates to lower costs and a cleaner environment than building hazardous and expensive transmission lines to industrial-size power stations built on precious open backcountry land.

¿Qué se puede hacer al respecto?

Public Power San Diego ha identificado la necesidad de establecer control y responsabilidad local en la forma de una compañía eléctrica de distribución (CED) municipal sin fines de lucro, también conocida como empresa de energía pública (PPU por sus siglas en inglés). Las compañías eléctricas públicas son de propiedad comunitaria, están controlados localmente y funcionan sin fines de lucro.

Una CED para San Diego promoverá el uso de energía solar producido en techos y estacionamientos locales y baterías para almacenarla. Este enfoque es una alternativa de menor costo y menor riesgo comparado a la dependencia de la compañía eléctrica privada actual (SDGE)en la energía generada remotamente que depende de la transmisión.

Cambiar a una EDE reduciría las tarifas eléctricas al menos un 20% una vez que esté en funcionamiento, y con más potencial en adelante.

Necesitamos tu ayuda. Esta es una batalla clásica de “David contra Goliat” y sólo un movimiento de base puede hacerla realidad.

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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.