I worked with the late Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan on this. I wish he had lived to see it implemented. He was a visionary and a pioneer, and we owe him greatly for blazing the trail that we are now following. He appeared for a presentation to the Richmond City Council just a week before he died, but his legacy remains. I first met Charles at a Local Government Commission conference on Yosemite in 2010.

Marin Energy Authority signs up biggest customer yet: city of Richmond

By Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal
Posted:   06/20/2012 05:09:55 PM PDT
Updated:   06/20/2012 05:28:26 PM PDT

The Richmond City Council made it official Tuesday, voting 5-2 to join the Marin Energy Authority and become its biggest customer yet.
"I've been pushing this for six years; it's nice to have all the formalities over with," said Richmond Councilman Tom Butt. "It looks like we'll come online sometime in the spring of 2013."
The authority's 12-member board voted unanimously earlier this month to admit the western Contra Costa County city to a club that now includes the county of Marin and every municipality in Marin.
San Rafael Councilman Damon Connolly, who is chairman of the authority's board, said, "Linking our communities together through shared values and vision make this a promising partnership."
Dawn Weisz, the authority's executive officer, said in April that Richmond residents — like Marin residents who have become authority customers — will get the choice of being automatically enrolled in the authority or opting to remain a customer of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Weisz said the authority will need several months to secure the additional power required to supply Richmond customers; PG&E will continue to maintain the power lines in Marin and Richmond.
The authority, which competes with PG&E as a retailer of electricity, is in the process of offering its services to an additional 82,000 customers in Marin and expects to have close to 95,000 customers, all living in Marin, by the end of July. Weisz said the addition of the city of Richmond is expected to increase the authority's customer base by another 31,000. The city of Richmond has about 103,000 residents.
Weisz said the heft that Richmond's customers will add to the authority will make it easier to borrow money and negotiate power purchases.
"It will allow us to spread costs over a larger customer base and therefore probably allow us to keep rates lower as a result," Weisz said.
After a PG&E rate hike that is scheduled to take effect July 1, the authority estimates the average residential customer in Richmond would pay $73.12 per month for electricity if it purchases electricity from the Marin Energy Authority, and $71.22 per month if it buys power from PG&E. The authority estimates the average commercial customer in Richmond would pay $933.55 per month if it purchases electricity from the authority and $930.95 from PG&E.
About 37 percent of Richmond's residential customers have incomes low enough to qualify them for a monthly discount program supplied through PG&E. If those customers decide to join the Marin Energy Authority, they will continue to receive those discounts from PG&E, Weisz said. She said the authority may consider providing additional discounts to low-income customers with the increased revenue it gets from its Richmond customers.
Richmond will place a representative on the authority's board as soon as the California Public Utilities Commission approves the authority's revised implementation plan, in about 30 to 90 days. Due to its higher relative energy consumption, Richmond will have a weighted vote greater than any city in Marin or even the county of Marin.
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com