With summer underway, Clean Energy Alliance encourages customers to learn about various energy cost-saving tips through our recent “Understanding Your Bill” educational webinars. Hosted by Key Accounts Analyst Tiffany Reynolds and Programs Analyst Karen Villaseñor, in English and Spanish, respectively, the presentations offered practical tools and tips to navigate summer energy costs.
The presentations emphasized that understanding how electricity is priced is the most effective way to lower household costs. A majority of customers are on a time-of-use rate plan where prices vary depending on the time of day. Energy costs are highest daily during the on-peak window from 4 to 9 p.m. due to high demand.
Customers can lower their bills by shifting their heavy appliance use, such as running dishwashers or doing laundry, to off-peak hours. Clean Energy Alliance recently expanded its midday super off-peak window from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to be available weekdays year-round, which serves as an ideal time for residents to cool their homes during warmer seasons at the lowest available rates.
In addition to adjusting daily habits, customers can enroll in exclusive programs to secure direct financial relief. The PeakSmart Savers program offers participants a 30% reduction on on-peak and off-peak electricity rates. In exchange, participants are asked to decrease their power use during a maximum of 18 designated PeakSmart Days every year during which they would pay $1.10 more per kilowatt hour during on-peak hours. Furthermore, customers who enroll in 2026 are secured by full bill protection, guaranteeing they will not pay more for energy under the program relative to what their bill would be outside of the program.
Residential customers can also choose to opt down from the default Clean Impact Plus product to the base Clean Impact product to receive an immediate credit of $0.03871 per kilowatt-hour through the end of 2026. For long-term savings, the Solar Plus program helps customers take advantage of solar and battery systems, which store energy during the day and can automatically discharge it during peak evening hours.
Financial relief is also available through statewide assistance programs administered locally by SDG&E. Income-qualified households may receive a 30% discount through the CARE program or an 18% discount through the FERA program. CEA customers with qualifying medical conditions or devices like CPAP machines can secure a 20% total bill discount via the Medical Baseline program.
To explore these options, residents can use online tools on the Clean Energy Alliance website, including a Bill Comparison Calculator that compares rates side-by-side with SDG&E, and an Incentive Finder Tool that matches households with personalized federal, state, and local rebates.
If you’re interested in learning more about these cost-saving strategies, both recordings of the educational sessions are available to watch on the Clean Energy Alliance YouTube Channel. For more information or custom bill assistance, customers can email askcea@thecleanenergyalliance.org.
About Clean Energy Alliance
Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) is a locally controlled, not-for-profit power provider serving over 255,000 customer accounts in the cities of Carlsbad, Del Mar, Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos, Solana Beach and Vista, with a focus on clean energy, sustainability, competitive rates and community reinvestment. CEA follows a community choice aggregation (CCA) model that allows local governments to purchase power to meet their community’s electricity needs, offering an alternative to investor-owned utilities’ bundled rate service.