Report to Mayor and City Council
Monday, April 08, 2019
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
DIRECT STAFF AND THE CITY ATTORNEY TO BEGIN THE PROCESS TO PROTEST WITH THE UTILITY COMMISSION THE PROPOSED DOUBLE DIGIT RATE INCREASE BY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON FOR 2019 (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
This item was requested by Councilwoman Davis-Holmes and Mayor Pro Tem Hicks at the April 2, 2019 City Council meeting. They requested that the City undertake an effort to protest an impending large rate increase request to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by Southern California Edison (SCE) for 2019. This was generated by several complaints by residents that they were seeing recent increases in their bills.
On January 31, 2019, the CPUC approved SCE's request to recover part of its costs related to its $825 million 2018 undercollection from departing Clean Power Alliance of Southern California (CPA) customers through the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA); this $825 million recovery of undercollection from 2018 is called the Energy Resource Recovery Account (ERRA). This retroactive cost recovery is known as the "trigger." Implementation of the trigger by SCE will result in a one-year increase to the PCIA. It is therefore necessary for CPA to adjust its rates to maintain its Board approved bill comparison targets.
This SCE request was already approved on January 31. The City Attorney's office will need to research the options available to the City and its residents, and the City, as a member of the CPA, should coordinate its efforts in challenging the implementation of this increase with the CPA.
Carson joined the CPA and all residential customers are automatically enrolled. If a customer wants to leave CPA and remain an Edison customer they must affirmatively opt out. SCE continues to provide the billing to all customers, however.
The Board of Directors of the CPA considered modifying electrical rates for all CPA customers on April 4, 2019. ...
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