New Power Collective in Central Valley.

Residents of the San Joaquin Valley are set to get a break on their energy bills in 2007 now that the new San Joaquin Valley Power Authority is up and running. the SJVPA, a new collective of local communities organized under the Community Choice program, will buy power at a discount and pass the savings along to ratepayers.

According to the Fresno Bee:

The authority will cover 307,000 home and business customers. The Valley group consists of the city of Fresno, Kings County, Clovis, Hanford, Lemoore, Corcoran, Dinuba, Reedley, Sanger, Selma, Kerman, Parlier and Kingsburg. Tulare County supervisors also recently approved joining and may be the authority's 14th member. Tulare County could add more than 40,000 customers.

In addition to buying power, the group plans to build a 500 megawatt, gas-fired co-gen plant within three years. Transmission and distribution will continue to be through PG&E.

New power authority set to buy electricity for Valley [Fresno Bee]