Huntington Beach writer argues OCPA offers more choice, transparency

Orange County Power Authority lets customers choose among electricity plans or stay with Southern California Edison, Huntington Beach resident David Rynerson wrote in a community opinion piece published Friday by Voice of OC. He also argued that OCPA makes information about its power sources more accessible.

The commentary addresses how participating cities select default electricity plans and what options customers retain. Its comparisons are Rynerson's assessments, not independently verified findings by Voice of OC, which identifies the piece as the author's opinion.

Rynerson, a retired voice and data network systems engineer with a background in economics, wrote in Voice of OC that participating cities choose a default OCPA plan. When Huntington Beach joined, he said, it selected the middle-tier Smart Choice option, which then cost less than SCE's standard rate.

Customers were not limited to that default, according to Rynerson. He identified three options — Basic Choice, Smart Choice and 100% Renewable — and said customers could select any of them or leave OCPA and remain with SCE. Bills carried information about those choices for about three months before the transition, he wrote.

Rynerson said OCPA's rate-comparison chart lists generation costs separately from SCE's delivery charges and surcharges. It also shows renewable-generation percentages, he wrote. He said SCE's comparison uses matching figures for OCPA but leaves out the renewable-energy percentage for its own offering.

The comparison charts are not reproduced in the supplied article text. The descriptions therefore do not establish a current bill comparison or show which option would cost a particular customer less.

On power-source disclosures, Rynerson reported locating SCE's archived 2024 Power Content Label but not a 2025 label on its website. He said OCPA's label was more current, covered every plan and linked to the California Energy Commission's Power Content Disclosure program.

Rynerson's argument centers on the distinction between a city's default plan and a customer's available choices. His account of Huntington Beach's selection describes the price relationship at that time, not a finding that the same plan is cheaper today.