Residents in Atascadero and other unincorporated areas of San Luis Obispo County are going to be auto-enrolled to get their energy from Central Coast Community Energy.
KSBY spoke to Atascadero residents, who told us they received a 3CE flyer in the mail. There is a lot of confusion surrounding what 3CE is, and what being auto-opted into it means.
"Central Coast Community Energy is a local government agency," said Catherine Stedman, the 3CE chief communication officer. "We were formed in 2017 and we go all the way from Santa Cruz County down to Santa Barbara County. We already serve the cities within San Luis Obispo County, except for Atascadero."
If you live in Atascadero or any unincorporated area in San Luis Obispo County, the flyer you'll receive says that beginning in January of next year, your energy will start coming from 3CE. But what does this mean for your bill?
"We have very competitive rates," said Stedman. "So for last year, for example, our residential electricity rates were about 17% lower than PG&E on average."
Stedman says that the reason residents are auto-enrolled is because 3CE is a part of CCA, or Community Choice Aggregation — a program that allows cities or counties to purchase or generate power for their residents. This means your local elected officials have more of a say in where energy is coming from.
"I think that's great," said another Atascadero resident. "Who doesn't want their rates to be low, and if they're doing more with renewables that's great."
On your end, there won't be much of a change.
All billing, meter reading, maintenance, and outage response services will still be provided or done through Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
Stedman says if hypothetically there were two neighbors, and one chose to stay enrolled in 3CE and the other opted out, the differences would be as follows:
"For customers that decide to enroll in 3CE, they will essentially do nothing because the enrollment will be automatic, and what will happen to them after enrolling is that they'll have access to additional programs for electrification, building, and transportation which they can tack with PG&E programs, and they would also start paying 3CE rates," said Stedman. "Which for the generation portion would be less than what a residential customer would pay with Pacific Gas & Electric. For customers that decide to opt out of 3CE, they can do that simply through a phone call or an email.
She says there is no penalty for opting out.
If you opt out within 60 days of Jan. 1, it's free and you'll continue to get your energy from PG&E.
If you wait longer than the 60-day period, you'll have to pay a $5 fee.
If you do want to opt out, you can either call 1(877) 455-2223 or by clicking this opt-out link and providing the necessary information.
Central Coast Community Energy is scheduled to speak at the SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting on Nov. 12. It is open to the public, and if you have more questions, you can attend and ask them.
