MCE, California’s first operating community choice program, is pleased to share a press release announcing our rate reduction, which will take effect on April 1, 2017. This is the second year in a row that MCE has reduced rates.

Today MCE is serving more than 255,000 customers in Marin County, Napa County and the cities of Benicia, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Richmond, San Pablo, and Walnut Creek. The operating community choice programs, which provide alternative energy supply from the existing investor-owned utilities like PG&E, are making a huge impact in California. Together we serve more than 900,000 customers, creating demand for more than 340 megawatts of new California renewables to be built, investing $1.6 billion in renewables, supporting more than 2,600 California jobs and reducing more than 308,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.

SAN RAFAEL, CA — On March 16, MCE’s Board of Directors voted to reduce energy rates by an average of 3.7%, effective April 1, bringing the cost of MCE’s Light Green 50% renewable energy service slightly lower than PG&E’s 30% renewable energy service.

In its 7 years of operation, MCE has never changed rates more than once a year. Those rates are developed, discussed, evaluated, and approved by MCE’s Board of Directors at public meetings that encourage participation and prioritize transparency.

”We’re pleased to pass along a rate decrease to our customers for the second year in a row because we’re committed to stable and competitive rates for residents and businesses in our communities,” said MCE CEO, Dawn Weisz. “Redefining the energy landscape with renewable choices is best when those choices are affordable to ratepayers. We’ve proven that choosing energy with more renewable content can, in fact, cost less.”

In addition to bill savings through MCE’s lower cost of energy, commercial and multifamily customers can increase savings and reduce their carbon footprint by participating in MCE’s energy efficiency programs, which include no-cost building evaluation of energy savings opportunities and financial incentives. To date, more than 437 businesses and 1,619 residential units have benefited from these services. 

MCE is a public, not-for-profit agency that does not use any taxpayer dollars. Thanks to the community choice model, MCE customers know that a portion of what they spend on their electric bill is being redirected back into their own community instead of shareholder profits. In 2016, MCE managed $178 million of rate-payer funds through this community-driven program that provides local control and accountability.

MCE has allocated $115,000 for solar rebates for low-income homes, saving local customers more than $1 million in bills, and offered payment of over $1 million to solar customers for generating more solar than they used in 2016. MCE has 4.2 megawatts of new, local renewable energy projects online and 15.6 megawatts under construction. And, in California, MCE’s 15 renewable energy projects have supported over 2,800 jobs* to date, with union labor used on 10 of these in-state projects, creating 1.2 million union labor hours, the yearly equivalent of 575 full time union jobs**.

For customers interested in using even cleaner energy than the standard Light Green 50%, MCE offers Deep Green 100% renewable energy. The Deep Green choice, available to any electricity user in MCE’s service area, guarantees purchase of 100% non-polluting, Green-e Energy certified wind and solar power from California sources. Deep Green is about $4 more per month than PG&E’s standard energy service for a typical home. Half of the revenue generated from Deep Green goes toward building local solar projects in MCE’s service areas, like the 10.5 megawatt MCE Solar One project in Richmond, which will create 341 jobs during the construction period.

 * MCE uses the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Jobs and Economic Development Impacts Model to provide consistent and reasonably accurate estimates of direct and indirect jobs involved in MCE’s power contracting efforts and general operations

**Based on US Office of Personnel Management’s definition of Full Time employment of 2,087 hours annually