Community power aggregator takes big step toward reality.

Say you could buy your power from some entity other than PG&E, the investor-owned utility that puts shareholder returns ahead of its customers. Say the power you buy focused on renewable sources – and getting as much energy as possible from hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and biogas. And say you could buy that power at a cost similar or less than what PG&E charges, while helping to create local jobs in those renewable sectors.

Same price, better sourcing, local jobs. You in? Within about a year, it’s likely most of us in Monterey County can be, if we choose to be. Monterey Bay Community Power, the group seeking to form what’s known as a community power aggregator, took a big step when it announced Monday it had arrived at a governance structure and at least 11 of the 21 local cities and counties invited to join have said an initial yes.

Forming the community power aggregator has been in the works since 2012, and it’s likely to take another year before the group is ready to sell energy. It will take the formation of a joint powers authority, much like the local air pollution control district.

All of the cities in Santa Cruz County, and the county itself, have agreed to join the program and participate in the JPA. San Juan Bautista has also agreed. Marina City Council will consider the plan Oct. 18, and the city of Carmel on Nov. 1. Monterey plans to get it on an agenda soon.

As reported in the Weekly last month, Salinas and Monterey County hedged their bets on joining in the first year, saying they were concerned about the then-unannounced governance structure and whether they’d get an adequate vote in the yet-unformed JPA. But Gine Johnson, an analyst with the office of Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson and the point person for Monterey Bay Community Power, says the new governance structure means cities and counties with a population over 50,000 will have a voting seat on the JPA. Organizers are asking local governments to express interest by the end of the year.

Once the initial formation costs, estimated at about $2 million, are repaid using ratepayer money, the JPA expects to book surplus revenues.

“We can take that and do any number of complementary things, like incentivizing solar, or a program of purchasing surplus power,” Johnson says. Sonoma, the second location to form a community power aggregator, wrote $200,000 in checks to local schools with a portion of its surplus revenue.

If there’s a downside to this (or an upside, depending on how perverse your humor is) it’s that PG&E is against it. PG&E is mandated to provide 33 percent renewable energy by 2020, and community choice power would seem to be an easy way to help PG&E meet the mandate for reducing carbon dependency.

But playing nice with community choice providers isn’t in PG&E’s DNA.

The best example: Last December, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the doubling of the fee for ratepayers opting out of PG&E service. The hike means the average customer of the Marin Energy Authority, the state’s first aggregator, which delivers 56 percent of its energy from renewables – for the same price as PG&E – started paying $13 a month for the so-called exit fee, up from $6.70 a month. The hike applies to other community choice suppliers.

Robert Frischmuth, a leader of Sustainable Monterey County, says Monterey Bay Community Power is a no-brainer that will create local jobs, keep money in the community and attain power from renewables, creating less reliance on fossil fuels. A dozen communities in Santa Clara County are forming Silicon Valley Clean Energy, set to come online in 2017 as well.

“PG&E doesn’t want this,” says Frischmuth, a 28-year coal technologies engineer. “It’s a win-win for everyone but the power companies.”

SUSTAINABLE PACIFIC GROVE hosts a presentation by Gine Johnson on community choice power at 7pm Oct. 12, at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, 165 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. Free. For more information, visit montereybaycca.com.

MARY DUAN writes The Local Spin column for the Monterey County Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com.