The city of Huntington Beach withdrew from the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) on May 15.
OCPA was established in 2020 and recognized as the first community choice energy company in Orange County, meaning that both residential and commercial customers receive power purchased through the agency.
Huntington Beach Councilmember Casey McKeon, who represented the city on the agency’s board, believed that the OCPA was always doomed to fail no matter what.
“I believe in providing choice to consumers, but I don’t believe the government is a vehicle to providing choice in the private sector, especially not in the incredibly complex and volatile energy market,” McKeon said.
Officials throughout Huntington Beach called for a vote from OCPA board members. The vote concerns the agency’s potential dissolution and a possible return to using Southern California Edison instead of the OCPA. This push for such a vote was being carried out by Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland and McKeon.
McKeon and fellow council members Pat Burns and Gracey Van Der Mark, along with Strickland voted to withdraw Huntington Beach from OCPA. However, Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voted to stay during an emergency city council meeting on May 16.
The OCPA has been involved in recent controversies after reports from the OC Grand Jury, county government and state auditors claimed that there were systemic issues in the agency regarding transparency and failures to manage contracts. The remaining cities of Irvine, Buena Park, and Fullerton have agreed to stay with the agency. However, Fullerton City Council has ordered the city manager to research the costs of a potential city-wide withdrawal.
In response to the allegations, the OCPA board fired CEO Brian ProbolskyApril and then replaced him with Director of Communications and External Affairs Joe Mosca on an interim basis.
Concerns have risen that withdrawing from Irvine may lead to the death of OCPA due to the city’s make up of half of its customer base. Though Irvine Mayor, Farrah Khan, has voted previously for the city to stay with OCPA, she has provided no comment regarding the issue though it should be noted that UCI functions as a microgrid away from Southern California Edison.
Frank Granda is a City News Intern for the spring 2023 quarter. He can be reached at grandaf@uci.edu.