gmhTODAY 13 gmhToday March April 2017 | Page 23

City Beat J Electricity Service is About to Get a Lot Greener! ust a year ago, in March 2016, the City of Morgan Hill in partnership with twelve Santa Clara County communities came together to form Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE), a new Community Choice Energy agency.  SVCE is a non-profit, public agency formed to source clean, competitively-priced electricity on behalf of residential and com mercial customers beginning in April 2017. Participating communities include Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Saratoga, Sunnyvale and the County of Santa Clara. SVCE is governed by a Board of Directors made up of elected officials from each participating jurisdiction In addition, the City of Morgan Hill, along with the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Mountain View, Saratoga and Sunnyvale, has taken its commitment to protecting our climate even further by voting to enroll its municipal electricity accounts in Silicon Valley Clean Energy’s optional GreenPrime program. Starting in April, the electricity in Morgan Hill to run city-owned facilities, parks, and streetlights, will come from 100 percent renewable sources like wind and solar. “By choosing to go with GreenPrime 100 percent renewable energy, we are going to be cutting a significant amount of Morgan Hill’s carbon emissions, furthering our commitment to our environment and future generations in the South County,” said Morgan Hill Mayor and SVCE Board Member, Steve Tate. With the program nearing launch, Morgan Hill customers will soon have new choices in their electricity sources. SVCE will offer customers two clean, green, power supply mixes. Between April and October 2017, customers within SVCE’s service area will be automatically enrolled by neighborhood in SVCE’s GreenStart electric generation service, which comes from 50% renewable and 100% carbon-free energy sources. GreenStart will provide electricity at a cost of about 1% lower than PG&E generation rates. By comparison, PG&E’s current electric service is approximately 30% renewable and 60% carbon-free. SVCE also provides a 100% renewable (and 100% carbon-free) option called GreenPrime, which is the upgrade that Morgan Hill and five other cities have chosen for their municipal accounts. GreenPrime service is estimated to cost a premium of $0.007 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) over PG&E’s current service. An average residential customer account using approximately 460 kWh per month would pay approximately $3.22 more than PG&E by electing to upgrade to GreenPrime. GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN Both GreenStart and GreenPrime offer 100% carbon-free electricity generated from wind, water and solar. Customers who choose to pay a small premium can upgrade to GreenPrime to get 100% renewable power. To learn more about Silicon Valley Clean Energy, visit svcleanenergy.org. MARCH/APRIL 2017 gmhtoday.com 23