Elo-Rivera Wants City to Build Solar to Combat High Water Rates

What if San Diego blanketed land, reservoirs and buildings its Public Utilities Department owned with solar and used the money it made off that power to subsidize skyrocketing water rates for poorer people? 

That’s the idea San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera pitched during an uncomfortable series of debates over raising water rates on San Diegans by 63 percent over the next four years. The Public Utilities department owns 42,550 acres of land – about the size of Washington D.C. It could, in theory, lease that land out to solar developers and help bring down water rates, fix dams or otherwise prop-up a city department key to ensuring water is treated and distributed to 1.4 million people.  

“We need to be more aggressive about finding sources besides ratepayers to find revenue,” Elo Rivera said during a 30-percent water rate increase vote on Oct. 28.  

It’s illegal in California to raise water rates higher than what it costs to provide the service, a rule called Proposition 218. But it also means governments can’t move that money around, say, to subsidize poorer San Diegans’ water bills. This is a unique problem for water. Money San Diegans pay to their electric company, in contrast, is used to help poorer Californians pay their bills – a program called CARE. 

So, why not use one to fund the other? Governments can set up accounts that accept donations or other money that doesn’t come from a water bill to help ratepayers shoulder these costs. And that’s how this potential solution might work.  

San Diego helps run a public energy company with a handful of other cities in the county that could jump in to help make this happen: San Diego Community Power. Elo-Rivera sits on the company’s board and raised the issue there.  

Jen Lebron, a spokesperson for San Diego Community Power, said they’re open to working with any and all cities and the county on creative ways to increase the development of power and save ratepayers money. But there are a number of obstacles to overcome. 

Namely, enticing a renewable energy developer to want to build a project in San Diego in the first place. California’s rigid environmental laws and permitting processes add significant costs to projects, Lebron said. The state of the national and international economies – with new high tariffs coming down from the Trump Administration on the materials to build renewable power – add costs as well. 

“All of that combined with the cost of power … could mean the project doesn’t pencil out,” Lebron said.  

Here’s how it works now: The company puts out a public bid that says, we need “X” amount of power. Then renewable energy developers put in offers to build it for a certain price. Rarely is that renewable power built in San Diego County. Land is much cheaper or environmental restrictions, more lax, in Imperial County or New Mexico or Nevada where many of San Diego Community Power’s projects are being built.  

“Making sure we’re keeping renewable power as affordable as possible is our number one priority,” Lebron said.  

San Diego Community Power doesn’t decide where projects should be built. But it could. And it could also become a renewable energy developer if its governing board directed it to.  

“That hasn’t really been our lane,” Lebron said. “Theoretically we could be a builder of power but we would need to do so much analysis around that. And it’s one of those areas where (community choice aggregators, which is what San Diego Community Power is) don’t have the expertise.”  

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