CleanPowerSF is apparently doing what it was meant to do. So reports Dominic Fricassa in the San Francisco Chronicle.
More impressive than the cost savings is that so many of us now get our electricity from renewable sources. (I looked into whether this claim is real in the past; it seems to be.)The SFPUC automatically enrolled swaths of San Francisco in its CleanPowerSF program in stages. It wrapped up this year with about 360,000 dwellings participating in the program. Savings for CleanPowerSF have been comparatively modest.
Since it launched in May 2016, the program has saved customers more than $11 million, compared to what they would have paid with PG&E, according to the city. Rates are adjusted year-to-year, but currently, CleanPowerSF customers each save $21 annually compared with PG&E’s rates.
“It’s not a huge amount, I acknowledge that,” Hale said. “But all costs are going up for households, so anything we can do to slow down those increases is helpful.”
And all this is taking place in the context of a contentious municipal government trying to manage its relationship with a bankrupt, incompetent, failing utility company. The city will probably end up owning a good deal of PG&E's antiquated grid as this shakes out.
It's instinctive to doubt that the city can manage anything very complicated -- but, just maybe, in this most important of arenas, collective action can work out. It looks as if action for climate sustainability is going to have to lurch forward in these little bits and pieces for the foreseeable future.
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