Nonprofit groups can receive free electricity from Calpine and
other energy producers under new legislation signed by Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Gilroy – Nonprofit groups can receive free electricity from Calpine and other energy producers under new legislation signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill (SB 423) signed into law Friday lifts restrictions on so-called “direct access” contracts between energy producers and groups like EHC LifeBuilders, in San Jose. The nonprofit housing provider, which worked on the bill with energy company Calpine and State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), predicts it will save the agency $90,000 annually.
“It’s not a pretty sell to the donor to say your $10 will pay for electricity at a particular facility,” said EHC spokeswoman Hilary Barroga, but “it’s a huge amount of money that a lot of times we don’t think about.”
Nonprofits under the new legislation would still be required to pay transmission fees, taxes and other fees for delivering the electricity.
The new legislation does not mean that a utility cable will directly connect nonprofits to energy providers, who will continue to draw power off the energy grid operated by PG&E in Northern California and will continue to pay related transmission fees and taxes.
Instead, the law allows a limited return to the days before California’s energy crisis, when looser regulation allowed energy producers to sell directly to large energy consumers. The bill, which took two years to complete, met some resistance among legislators who feared a return to a system that caused rolling brown-outs in 2001.
The prospect of a gift in the form of energy comes as EHC prepares to once again provide winter shelter to homeless people in San Jose and South County. Last year, the agency scrambled to find cash to extend the shelter season as heavy rains pushed into April. The savings on electricity would have covered the cost of the extended shelter season in Gilroy.
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or st*******@************ch.com.
