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On July 21, the City Council voted unanimously to join San Diego Community Power. It is a sensible move, and it advances Coronado’s Climate Action Plan. But two details deserve attention before residents budget around it.
The first is timing. SDCP will not begin serving Coronado until March 2028, with customer notifications starting in January 2028. That leaves roughly twenty months of bills between now and then.
The second is scope. A community choice aggregator competes on generation — the electricity itself. SDG&E still owns the poles and wires, delivers the power, and sends the bill. Delivery, not generation, is the larger share of a residential SDG&E bill. City analyst Kelli Maples put it plainly: CCA rates often come in lower, though the difference is generally marginal.
Meanwhile, the number that dominates the bill has not moved. SDG&E’s bundled residential average reached roughly 45.7 cents per kilowatt-hour in January 2026 — the highest of any major utility in the continental United States. California’s statewide average is about 35 cents. The national average is under 19.
At that price, a Coronado household using 500 kWh a month pays roughly $230. At 1,000 kWh — a larger home with air conditioning, a pool, or an EV — it is closer to $460.
There is also a newer line item. In October 2025, SDG&E introduced a Base Services Charge of about $24 a month (roughly $6 on CARE, $12 on FERA) while cutting per-kilowatt-hour delivery pricing about 10 percent. Higher-usage homes generally came out ahead; lower-usage homes did not. Coronado’s mild coastal climate puts many households in the second group.
So what actually moves the number? Buying fewer kilowatt-hours at 46 cents.
Under California’s Net Billing Tariff — NEM 3.0 — the economics inverted. Power exported to the grid earns a low avoided-cost credit, often single digits in cents. Power consumed on site avoids the full retail rate. That is why most well-designed SDG&E-territory systems now pair panels with a battery: bank the midday surplus, spend it during the 4 to 9 p.m. peak, export as little as possible.
One correction is worth making, because it still appears on quotes: the 30 percent federal residential clean-energy credit expired on December 31, 2025 and does not apply to a 2026 installation. The federal commercial credit remains, claimed by whoever owns the system — which is why prepaid-lease structures can pass roughly 30 percent through up front, with title transferring to the homeowner in year six. It is a financing structure, not a tax filing; confirm details with your own tax advisor.
Before signing, verify the contractor’s CSLB license, insist on a line-item quote listing equipment models, and ask what export rate their payback model assumes. Ask how long they have been in business, too: Freedom Forever filed for bankruptcy in April 2026, Sunnova in June 2025, SunPower in August 2024. Manufacturer warranties generally survive a bankruptcy; the installer’s workmanship warranty does not, and labor is the expensive half of most repairs.
Coronado’s CCA decision is a long-term win for cleaner generation. It is simply not the lever that changes what a household pays between now and 2028.
Helios Energy Global is a Santa Monica-based, Tesla Certified solar and battery installer (CSLB #982201, C-10 Electrical) serving San Diego County and Southern California. Current California pricing is published at heliosenergyglobal.com/solar-panel-cost.
