With the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) preparing to begin residential electricity service on October 1st, required notices are being sent out to Irvine residents.

However, the notices contain no understandable rate information and include scant mention of the right of ratepayers to "opt-out" of the new OCPA plan.

OCPA was originally billed by proponents —  Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmembers Mike Carroll and Anthony Kuo — as being a cleaner and cheaper alternative to Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility that supplies power to the region. However, a rate structure unveiled by OCPA in January showed its customers will pay more than SCE ratepayers for the same percentages of clean power.

All Irvine ratepayers are going to be automatically switched to OCPA’s highest-paying rate plan in October, unless they exercise their right to opt for cheaper plans or "out-out" of OCPA altogether and remain with SCE.