Huntington Beach continues exit from Orange County Power Authority

The Huntington Beach City Council is switching all residents to the most basic renewable energy plan, as the city continues the process of leaving the Orange County Power Authority.

The council voted 4-0 to make the change in a special meeting Monday night, with the conservative majority — Mayor Tony Strickland, Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark and Councilmen Casey McKeon and Pat Burns — all voting in favor. Councilman Dan Kalmick and Councilwoman Natalie Moser abstained from voting, while Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton was absent.

Monday’s vote is seen as a cost-saving measure, as the city seeks to mitigate possible costs in leaving the green energy agency. The basic choice plan is at least 38% renewable energy, at a 2% cheaper rate than Southern California Edison.

A split Huntington Beach Council voted 4-3 in May to leave the Community Choice Energy program, though that won’t be finalized until the end of June 2024. At that point, Surf City will switch solely back to Edison for service.

Huntington Beach had voted to be one of four OCPA founding cities, along with Irvine, Buena Park and Fullerton, back in December 2020. The organization’s commercial and residential power services both started last year.

Those other communities remain in the power authority, though the County of Orange opted out last December.

Strickland said Huntington Beach residents can still opt to go back up to the 100% renewable energy plan or a 69% plan until the city exits the organization next year.

“We’re not taking choice away from anybody,” Strickland said. “Everybody asking us not to withdraw from the OCPA, that decision was made a long time ago. We’ve been working tirelessly since May 16 on the mitigation ... I back up our decision to withdraw. I think OCPA was a disaster from the very beginning, and now I believe professional experts are going to be running our energy.”

The vote authorizes McKeon, an OCPA board member, to request that the rate changes are expedited. Additionally, City Manager Al Zelinka is authorized to effectuate the city’s withdrawal from the OCPA and work with the organization to give notice to all affected customers.

OCPA interim chief executive Joe Mosca said Tuesday that when the request is received from the city of the Huntington Beach, the OCPA team will place it on the board’s agenda for consideration.

Orange County Power Authority board member Casey McKeon at a March board meeting.

(File Photo)

The agency was rife with controversy after it launched, including audits that showed concern about a lack of transparency and a too-large percentage of people opting out. Then chief executive Brian Probolsky was fired during a closed session in April, and Mosca, originally hired as a communications and internal affairs director, was appointed as interim CEO in June.

Kalmick, a former OCPA board member, said that the power authority has addressed all of the issues it previously had. Speaking to his colleagues, he said he was abstaining from voting because the OCPA withdrawal “because this is your mess to try to deal with.”

“All of the public agencies that audited and had questions for the power authority, every single one of those items has been resolved,” Kalmick said. “Cities are actually looking to join the power authority now, so we’re leaving money on the table for those other cities to get those incentives that we’re going to be missing out on.”

Moser said that the City Council majority is voting to take away choice by moving everyone back to Edison.

“Everyone that is still in the power authority at the basic choice level will now have an increase in their costs [when the city’s exit is finalized],” Moser said. “That’s residents, businesses and the city ... I think that our residents deserve leaders who believe in science and respond to change.”

Huntington Beach Chief Financial Officer Sunny Han said the city pays about $3.5 million annually in electricity costs with OCPA, and the increase with Edison would be about $32,000 to $65,000 to year, not taking into account future rate increases.

Strickland said he believed in renewable energy, but getting out of OCPA was about doing right by Huntington Beach citizens.