by Garth Meyer
Redondo Beach city council members, who saw the city’s electric bill jump by $185,000 in January, accused Southern California Edison (SCE) and the Clean Power Alliance (CPA) last week of misleading residents on what some council members deemed hidden rate increases.
The allegations were made at a Feb. 15 city council meeting, to address hikes of more than 100 percent on some residents’ January bills.
Power company representatives at the meeting stood by their analysis that the bump was due to approved rate increases last October and January – and what specific plan a given resident is on.
SCE representatives reviewed the Redondo Beach bills, they explained, and there was no evidence of errors.
Whether an individual customer’s rate-plan changed, and by how much, was another question.
A representative of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) also spoke at the meeting.
“This is very confusing to residents, no question about it,” Mayor Bill Brand said. “Their rates have skyrocketed, and they’re gonna skyrocket some more.”
Councilman Todd Loewenstein drew attention to a particular CPA rate.
“I think you’re really splitting hairs here,” he said to Ted Bardake, Clean Power Alliance executive director, who contended that the rate in question did not change.
“The previous rate was discontinued,” Bardake said. “It was not essentially covering its costs.”
Loewenstein countered that the new rate went from 11 cents to 22 cents per kilowatt hour.
“I’m now having second thoughts about going to 100 percent renewable,” the councilman said, referring to a council vote in December to put Redondo Beach at that commitment with the CPA.
Bardake apologized that the increase happened to some people in Redondo, but explained it affected fewer than 10 percent of customers. It came about from a change in “time-of-use” rates.
“The reason – power in those times is quite expensive now,” he said.
The CPA does not generate power, it buys it and distributes it through SCE power lines.
“The failure is on y’all’s part,” said Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr., speculating that his bill was unaffected because he has an electric car and had switched to a time-of-use plan. “You need to educate (the customers on this),” he said. “Frankly, that’s not my job, it’s your job.”
Robert Thomas, SCE director of pricing design & research, responded to a presentation by Loewenstein – which showed several residents’ bills with dramatic price and usage hikes.
“That was a comparison of two very different rate plans,” Thomas said, noting that a family with radiant (baseboard) heat would have extremely high usage in December.
Loewenstein was not convinced.
“I find it hard to believe someone would use 400 percent more energy because they are using radiant heat,” he said. “There’s something wrong here, guys, there’s something really wrong. Senior citizens are turning down their heat to pay for wildfires, for shareholder dividends.”
Councilman Nils Nehrenheim was less hospitable to what he heard.
“Can you imagine if you were (on) 100 percent electrical at this time?” he said.
Nehrenheim would have been the lone vote opposed to going 100 percent renewable with the CPA, at the Dec. 7 meeting, but he said his internet connection went out right before the roll call.
“I saw something different. And I wasn’t told the whole story,” he said, referring to an overall CPA rate rise since that meeting. “(The CPA) is pulling the wool over people’s eyes. There’s no doubt about that. … They have been a giant thorn in the side of all residents. We should not be involved with them in Redondo Beach.”
Councilman Christian Horvath, who is a CPA board member, pointed out that residents have a choice to go 35, 50 or 100 percent renewable. He added that the CPA is a non-profit, unlike Southern California Edison.
“Distribution and transmission charges, this is where the heartache is,” Horvath said. “An (SCE) smart meter could be misread or technology could go off at some point in time… The CPUC seems not to be advocating for the common people, but for utility companies.”
Diane Forte, SCE government relations manager, made a point that usage rates in January 2021 and January 2022 were the same for most Redondo residents.
“The usage is not the driver, it’s the rates,” she said.
Loewenstein’s presentation included graphs on SCE’s financial and stock position.
“The company is doing quite well,” he said, before showing his bills and others’ on screen. He pointed out unexpected rate-plan increases for his own household from both the CPA and SCE.
“I’m very disappointed this wasn’t brought up at our Dec. 7 meeting,” Lowenstein said to Bardake. “I felt misled by that. And I still feel misled.”
CPA policy director Gina Goodhill showed that four percent of bills in Redondo Beach were missing their generation charge in December. As a result, the charge appeared on January bills.
Generation charges are about one-third of a customer’s bill.
Mayor Brand called for a simpler overall explanation, saying residents want to know what is “the cheapest plan that’s still green.”
Loewenstein displayed customer bills with highest usage overnight, when most people are asleep.
“This is phantom usage,” he said. “You can see, people are just in shock. Aren’t these usage rates absolutely wrong? These aren’t outliers, these aren’t averages.”
He questioned why SCE was giving executive bonuses at this time when “we’re paying for wildfires… I think some really serious questions need to be answered.”
Councilmember Emdee, who stayed quiet at the meeting, gave her assessment later in the week.
“The rates went up, and people used more,” she said. “Mine went from -11 to $55 (on solar).”
In the end, Loewenstein and many residents have not yet found what they hoped for from the power companies.
“They didn’t give a reason to say, okay, I get it, I understand why,” he said. “I’m just disappointed that there was very little resolution.” ER
Council to review CPA 100 percent renewable agreement
The Redondo Beach City Council voted 3-2, at its Tuesday, Feb. 15 meeting, to reexamine its commitment to convert the city to 100 percent renewable energy in October.
The vote followed a lengthy and inconclusive discussion between the Redondo Beach city council, Clean Power Alliance and SCE representatives.
Council members Todd Loewenstein, Nils Nehrenheim and Zein Obagi, Jr., voted to review the city’s agreement with CPA during its April meeting. Representatives Christian Horvath and Laura Emdee voted no.
Nehrenheim made the motion, after he, Loewenstein, and Obagi questioned electric bill increases in January that the CPA did not make the council aware of during a Dec. 7 council meeting, when the council voted to go to 100 percent renewable. ER
