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Mountain Views News Saturday, July 12, 2025

By Kevin McGuire

Dalia Gomez, External Affairs Manager for 
the Clear Power Alliance for Los Angeles, 
gave a presentation before the City Council 
during their regular meeting on June 24, 
2025. She highlighted some of the programs 
available to residents of Sierra Madre. 

Clean Power Alliance (CPA) is a not-for-
profit electricity provider serving 35 communities 
in both Los Angeles and Ventura 
Counties. According to the U.S. Department 
of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory 
(NREL), CPA is the nation's number 
one green power provider for two consecutive 
years and serves over three million residents 
and businesses through one million customer 
accounts in California alone, as stated on 
their website. 

Mayor Robert Parkhurst serves on the Board 
of Directors for the CPA and also chairs the 
Energy Committee for Sierra Madre. According 
to Gomez, CPA revenues (after deducting 
costs for power and operations, as well as financial 
reserve contributions) are pooled and 
invested in local programs. 

How does it work?

CPA purchases clean, renewable power from 
regional solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro 
resources, and Southern California Edison 
(SCE) delivers it to residents and businesses. 
SCE sends a single monthly bill, which includes 
charges for electricity delivery and 
CPA charges for electricity supply and generation. 
This is not an added fee on your bill, 
as the charge replaces the SCE supply/generation 
charge on the bill. However, SCE is still 
responsible for maintaining power lines and 
reading meters. 

CPA offers three rate options, which Gomez 
highlighted in a slide presentation. Option 
one provides 100% renewable energy content 
at a six percent total bill premium to SCE’s 
base rate. The second option offers 50% clean 
energy content at a one percent premium to 
SCE’s base rate. And their third Lean Power 
option provides 40% clean energy content 
at the lowest cost (parity to SCE’s base rate). 
According to Gomez, 68% of CPA customers 
opt for option one, which is 100% renewable 
energy. Customers can change their rate plan 
or switch back to SCE if they are not satisfied 
with their current plan. 

Power Procurement — Reliable and 
Renewable

CPA has secured 56 long-term contracts to 
date, totaling 2,577 megawatts of renewable 
energy and 1,910 megawatts of battery energy 
storage. In 2023, CPA’s overall energy portfolio 
was 75% renewables. CPA has a preference 
for projects located in or near CPA territory, 
which prioritize workforce development, provide 
benefits to disadvantaged communities, 
and demonstrate high levels of environmental 
stewardship, according to Gomez. 

Gomez thanked the city of Sierra Madre for 
their commitment to a clean energy future. 
CPA already serves 4,452 residential customers 
in Sierra Madre and 478 non-residential 
customers. According to the CPA report, the 
city has avoided 82,000,000 pounds of CO2e 
since joining. This is equivalent to removing 
over 8,000 passenger vehicles from the road 
for one year or planting and growing over 
6,000 trees for 10 years. 

Local Programs

CPA offers several local programs, categorized 
into three distinct areas.

• Local Resiliency and Grid 
Management

• Transportation and Buildings 
Electrification

• Local Clean Energy Procurement

The Power Ready Program is a community 
benefit program that provides on-site clean 
energy backup power for critical community 
buildings. This is a no-cost service for member 
agencies’ critical facilities, providing battery 
energy storage with solar photovoltaic 
systems. During power outages, the member 
agency will benefit from backup power for 
critical loads for 4 hours or more. 

CPA is set to install battery energy storage 
systems at City Hall, the Police Department, 
and the Fire Department. Construction for 
this project is scheduled to begin in September 
2025 and is expected to be operational by 
August 2026. 

The Energized Communities Program is set 
to accelerate implementation of member 
agencies’ sustainability and decarbonization 
goals through financial support and technical 
assistance. It starts with Pathways to Electrification, 
where CPA provides financial and 
technical assistance of up to $250,000 per 
agency to accelerate decarbonization measures. 
Member agencies choose one project 
from three pre-established offerings: 

• Building Electrification

• Electric Fleet Transition

• Community EV Charging.

Through their Innovation Fund, CPA supports 
unique projects throughout their service 
territory by providing financial incentives. 
This is a competitive grant, and the next 
opportunity for Sierra Madre will be in August 
2025.

The EV SmartCharge Program can save money 
by charging your vehicle during off-peak 
hours. You can unlock incentives by charging 
smartly by using the app. Lower your carbon 
impact by charging your vehicle when clean 
energy is more abundant. 

You can view all CPA’s programs on their 
website at cleanpoweralliance.org. Energy experts 
are available to address any questions or 
concerns you may have. 

CLEAR POWER ALLIANCE SERVING SIERRA MADRE WITH CLEAN ENERGY


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