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Orange County Power Authority fails basic mission, circles the drain

December 19, 2024

The Orange County Power Authority is nearing the end of the line, as the city that spearheaded its creation, Irvine, announced that it might pull out and take 65 percent of the authority’s customers with it. Other participants in this green energy boondoggle – the county of Orange and Huntington Beach – left the non-profit last year after a series of audits slammed its lack of transparency and poor management.

The authority was formed in 2019 amid much fanfare, but it is past time for OCPA to shut its doors after years of failed promises. It’s one of California’s 25 “community choice aggregation” systems. They don’t create energy, but rely on investor-owned utilities to handle transmission, delivery and billing.

Instead, these agencies promise local customers greener energy choices and more control over their energy choices. OCPA says it’s “part of a growing movement … that is providing millions of electricity users in local communities an important and critical choice to embrace a cleaner energy future.” It sounds nice, but OCPA has failed by every major metric.

It’s been immersed in scandal as state and county oversight reports have shown. It’s not really giving locals more control over electricity decisions. Irvine provided the agency with $7 million in seed money, but its officials complain about a lack of transparency and difficulty in accessing information about rates.

The agency is not making great strides on the renewable-energy front. This month, OCPA voted to reduce the percentage of renewable energy sources in its default plan for Irvine residents as electricity prices soar. It’s obvious why the authority did so. As this newspaper recently reported, all Irvine residents had been placed in that 100-percent renewable plan – giving them the highest rates in the county with a large increase looming next year.

Irvine might still work with OCPA to deal with these recurring issues, but it would be best if it just returns its customers to Southern California Edison. The city can chalk up any losses to the price of placing green ideology above the needs of its residents.

Orange County Register

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Orange County Power Authority fails basic mission, circles the drain

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