PRIME Celebrates Five Years as Your Energy Provider

Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy (PRIME), the City’s locally managed, not-for-profit public energy service, celebrated its fifth-year anniversary on September 1, 2022.

The City’s energy program is a cost-effective, energy-efficient, local alternative to Southern California Edison (SCE) that purchases clean power on behalf of City customers that can save residents money on their electrical bills. SCE still continues to maintain and deliver the power supply.

When conceived five years ago, the City was following the steps of five other programs in California that use more renewable energy products at more affordable rates.

Unlike SCE, PRIME is solely in the business of power generation. As such, PRIME searches for the best deals on both conventional and renewable energy sources and offers them exclusively to PRIME customers. On average, customers save 3% on their energy bills. Since its launch, PRIME has saved over 17,000 customers an estimated $2.1 million.

“PRIME has been at the forefront of promoting cleaner and cheaper energy resources available to our residents,” said City Manager Steve Carmona. “PRIME is special in that it is City specific, which means our residents truly benefit from that exclusivity.”

Beyond helping customers save on energy bills, PRIME has partnered with multiple organizations over the last five years to bring invaluable community programs to Pico Rivera, including joining forces with Energy Upgrade California to provide residents with best practices to improve grid health and local energy reliability and collaborating with OhmConnect to reward customers for saving energy. Additionally, PRIME’s partnership with the Institute for Local Government and the Beacon program supports renewable energy policy adoption and sustainability initiatives. PRIME is also engaged with SoCalREN to help design and implement programs that will increase energy savings.

In addition to partnerships and community programs, PRIME has also helped expand the City’s Office of Sustainability, which will allow the Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) to continue: developing innovative renewable technologies to serve Pico Rivera residents and businesses best; establishing a system of benchmarking and projections that guide energy usage and greenhouse gas reductions; and support state energy and climate change goals.

Moving forward, the Office of Sustainability will focus on developing solar and battery storage programs, maintaining the City’s streetlight conversion to LED, and creating an EV charging plan to encourage the adoption of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The Office has been developing a City Climate Action Plan and lead on other citywide efforts such as the Bikeway Paths Project.

PRIME, an associate member of the California Choice Energy Authority (CalChoice), is one of 24 community choice energy programs in California. For more information about PRIME, visit poweredbyprime.org or call 1.800.GOPRIME.

OhmConnect Helps with Saving Energy and Money

There may not be much you can do about the added cost of gas and groceries, but you do have the power to save on your utility bills and get a little extra money each month to help.

PRIME Power has partnered with a company called OhmConnect to help provide relief. Every Pico Rivera resident is eligible for a bill-saving program brought to you in partnership with PRIME and OhmConnect.

OhmConnect is a free service that helps you stop wasting money and energy. Once you sign up, you’ll get alerts when energy is most expensive and polluting. Any smart devices you’ve linked to the service will automatically power down to save energy.

Here’s the best part: OhmConnect will actually pay you every month for the energy you save.

OhmConnect takes the unused energy saved by members’ smart devices and sells it back to the grid operator. Those proceeds are then distributed to OhmConnect members in the form of a monthly payout.

The payments start at $1 for linking a smart plug, or $5 for linking your smart thermostat, and top out at $7 every month for linking a smart thermostat and two smart plugs.

You can earn $5 every month for saving energy using a smart thermostat, which is provided for just $0.99. OhmConnect will even give you a $10 welcome gift.

Not only will you get paid every month, but you’ll also save money on your utility bill. That can make a big difference to the family budget.

The first step is to sign up by visiting ohmconnect.com/PrimePower.

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PRIME provides the benefits of clean, renewable electricity exclusively in the City of Pico Rivera. Residents and businesses are able to choose an energy plan that best fits their needs as well as select more sustainable options for the benefit of the community.

​As the City’s energy provider, PRIME purchases power on behalf of its customers while Southern California Edison (SCE) delivers it. PRIME provides you with the choice of higher renewable energy content at affordable prices by offering PRIME Power, a 50% renewable energy product, and PRIME Future, a 100% renewable energy product.

PRIME is a forward-thinking organization that promotes power alternatives and resource conservation; helps customers save on energy costs, and understand smart energy consumption. PRIME is easily accessible to customers with staff available to assist you locally at City Hall. Pico Rivera City Council governs PRIME to ensure reliable service for our customers and sets rates that are competitive with SCE. PRIME customers continue to enjoy special rates and innovative programs such as California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE), Family Electric Rate Assistance Program (FERA), and Medical Baseline rate discounts.

PRIME sets strategic goals to help our community progress towards a more sustainable future and invests in customer programs tailored specifically to Pico Rivera. Our accomplishments are achievable with continued customer participation and by working together to make energy decisions, to build a more reliable network of energy resources. PRIME actively explores new energy technologies and program offerings to provide the best solutions for our residents and businesses. By investing locally, PRIME not only supports statewide renewable energy goals, it also helps to create new, good-paying jobs closer to home. In other words, PRIME is equally committed to improving our economy and the environment.

We look forward to partnering with you, our valued customer, and building a clean energy future for our community.

CALIFORNIA STATEWIDE SUPPLIER DIVERSITY PROGRAM

California Choice Energy Authority (CalChoice) is committed to providing resources on the Supplier Diversity Program to ensure eligible vendors have the awareness and support they need to pursue certification. Each year California utilities cumulatively spend billions of dollars on goods and services. Through the statewide Supplier Diversity Program, the state aims to connect an increasing portion of these utility expenditures with certified minority-owned businesses.
 
For overview information on California’s Supplier Diversity Program, please visit CalChoice’s program site at https://californiachoiceenergyauthority.com/supplier-diversity/

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