The Latest Developments at OCPA
The Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) was created by a vote of the previous Irvine City Council at the urging of then-Councilmember and now-Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmember Mike Carroll. Irvine agreed to loan the new public agency $7.7 million in City funds to pay for start-up costs and to underwrite a line of credit from Union Bank for another $35 million to cover operations until OCPA could begin providing electricity to Irvine customers and collecting revenue. (No other member-City was asked to contribute.)
At the time, the new agency was promoted by Khan, Carroll and others as an alternative to Southern California Edison (SCE) that would provide electricity from “cleaner” renewable sources at a lower cost than SCE.
In January 2022, OCPA released the rates it would be charging when it rolled out power service this year. Contrary to earlier promises, those rates were equal to or higher than SCE’s. At its June 29th meeting, the OCPA board approved a 2022-23 budget that includes even higher electricity rates for businesses and residents in January 2023.
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