In its quest to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the Irvine City Council unanimously voted to deliver 100% renewable energy to residential and commercial customers in Irvine via the Orange County Power Authority.

With the vote, Irvine will become the largest city in the nation to offer a 100% renewable energy option to customers. Still, the change will not come without a cost increase.

During the meeting, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan suggested a motion, which was seconded by Council Member Mike Carrol, that would automatically convert all existing energy customers in Irvine to 100% renewable energy as a default option, once the program launches in the coming months.

Carroll, who serves as the Chair of the Orange County Power Authority Board of Directors, took a moment to underscore what this vote would entail.

“If we were to pass this tonight with our City Council, we would be the largest city – and the second-largest municipality, the first being Los Angeles County – to start at 100% renewable energy,” he said. “So, with this one council decision tonight, we would virtually eliminate electricity-related emissions for about 309,000 residents and make it easy for residents to power their homes with clean renewable energy.”

While it is not mandatory for residential or commercial customers to acquire energy from OCPA, Irvine now joins other OCPA member agencies – Buena Park, Fullerton and Huntington Beach – which have also offered 100% renewable energy options to their customers.

Prior to the vote, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who serves on the OCPA’s Board Of Directors, said this was a milestone achievement as Irvine strives to reach accelerated carbon neutrality goals 15 years prior to the state mandate of 2045.

Khan added that this opportunity was a culmination of efforts by the most recent council, which has maintained environmental focus since its formation in 2020.

“Today is an exciting day for environmental justice and for the future of Orange County. It’s no secret that California and Irvine are leading the way in achieving carbon neutrality, and I want to thank those leaders who have been in this fight for decades,” Khan said. “The road to environmental justice and carbon neutrality has been at the forefront of this council for the past two years – just to be clear, this council has done more for the environment in the last two years, than in the last 50 years combined.”

Scheduled to launch in April for commercial customers, and in October for residential, the Orange County Power Authority will offer three different tier options for energy customers in Irvine.

In terms of energy choices, the OCPA will offer three different choices to residential customers: Basic Choice, Smart Choice and a 100% Renewable Energy Choice. In terms of cost, OCPA’s basic choice is about an $8 monthly increase for customers using 425 kWh of power. The Smart Choice is approximately a $4 increase, with 100% renewable energy option averaging out to an increase of 5% above Southern California Edison rates, per month.

For commercial customers using 90,000 kWh per month, OCPA’s basic choice will be the same as Southern California Edison, with the Smart Choice being approximately $900 – or 4.8% more than SCE rates per month. The 100% Renewable energy option will result in an increase of 7.2% in monthly electricity costs – or about $1,300.

For the city itself, the cost to opt-in to the 100% renewable energy – the cleanest option – would result in a $394,471 increase in electricity costs annually. While there is no cost increase associated with the Basic Choice option, the Smart Choice Option increases electricity costs by $262,981 annually.

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