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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 11161999 - C149 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM: Barton J. Gilbert, Director of General Services Contra �-- x Costa DATE: November 16, 1999 County SUBJECT: APPROVAL TO CONTINUE PURCHASING ELECTRICITY THROUGH ABAG POWER FROM JANUARY 1, 2000 TO DECEMBER 31, 2000 SPECIFIC REQUESTS OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: APPROVE Contra Costa County to continue purchasing electricity from ABAG POWER for one year, January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2000. FISCAL IMPACT: Before electricity deregulation began, electricity savings were touted as being upward of five percent (5%) or higher. What is reality is that savings are lower, and only a small portion (13%) of the electricity load in California has been shifted from Investor Owned Utilities, including PG&E. This shift is represented by only 1.7% of all utility customers in California have switched to an Energy Service Provider. For the California customers who have switched, the savings have been lackluster. Even the largest users are seeing savings well below the 5% range, and many have switched back to their former Investor Owned Utility. ABAG POWER, the only power pool currently operating for public agencies, has for the past 14 months since the inception of the program paid a cost that was equivalent to PG&E's cost of power. The savings for next year, 2000, are expected to average 3% over PG&E due to ABAG POWER's receiving incentives for purchase of green power. BACKGROUND: The Board of Supervisors approved Contra Costa County to participate in a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) for a public purchasing power pool through the Association of Bay Area Government (ABAG) when electricity deregulation was to begin January 1, 1998. Deregulation did not actually start until April 1, 1998. ABAG's JPA was named ABAG POWER, and 65 cities, counties, and special districts joined in the pooling of accounts to take advantage of potentially lower electricity bills over PG&E. For ABAG POWER to become fully operational, agencies were required to join, the JPA to be set up, contracts to be bid for provision of electricity generation and billing, and establishing the operating rules. The Independent System Operator(IOU) and the CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: L i RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): &&Zh 'o ACTION OF BOARD ON 4)dVe7b-6r &41729 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS UNANIMOUS(ABSENT AYES: NOES: ABSENTS: ABSTAIN: MEDIA CONTACT: CC: Office of the County Administrator I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE Auditor-Controller AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD GSD-Administration OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. Accounting >� > C� ATTESTED 4V ,-nb PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY W). !� �t 1 e'/ -� DEPUTY F:\Kathy Brown\ABAG Power Cont'd Nov99.doc Page 1 of 2 M382(10188) APPROVAL TO CONTINUE PURCHASING ELECTRICITY THROUGH ABAG POWER FROM JANUARY 1, 2000 TO DECEMBER 31, 2000 Power Exchange (PX) were not fully functional until late in the first year, and the California State Public Utility Commission (CPUC)requirements for metering were also not decided until the summer of 1998. Because there was a demand for the meters which require phone or wireless connections, Cell Net could not install all of the meters for all of the agencies until recently. In addition, the bills which have been handled by Arizona Power have not been able to be provided in real time. It has taken four months or longer to get the data, and some account data were inaccurate from PG&E. These problems have improved, and billing is now done on a monthly basis. ABAG POWER has also hired a new program administrator, Elena Schmid. She has significant experience with the CPUC as the Director of the Office of Rate Payer Advocates (RPA) where RPA represented the interests of public utility customers in CPUC proceedings to obtain the lowest possible rate for service, consistent with reliable and safe service levels. She has been participating in the ISO as a board member. ABAG POWER has signed an agreement with Calpine Corporation that will provide renewable power at lower costs to ABAG POWER members because of rebates. In so doing, ABAG POWER has become a registered Renewable Provider with the California Energy Commission. Calpine purchased the Geysers generation facilities from PG&E in May of this year, which makes it the largest producer of geothermal power in the United States. As part of the electric restructuring legislation, AB 1890, California has continued its commitment to renewable power and has a set-aside of $540 million for incentives to encourage the development of renewable power production with technologies that include biomass, solar thermal, photovoltaic, wind, and geothermal. Currently ABAG POWER has 60 public agencies as part of its electric pool, which represents an aggregated load of about 420-megawatt hours with a peak demand of over 63 megawatts. Of this load, 35% are for building/facilities that use over 50,000 kilowatts per hour and have meters that record usage on short intervals of one hour or less. In addition to electricity, natural gas purchasing is also part of ABAG POWER; and the savings for natural gas over PG&E's costs for the last year have averaged 6% for members of ABAG POWER. If the County does not take action to cancel its participation in the electric portion of ABAG POWER by December 1, 1999, it automatically will be continued for an additional year. FAKathy Brown\ABAG Power Cont'd Nov99.doC Page 2 of 2 M3B2(10188)