Silicon Valley Power

When I first signed up for utility, I wasn't sure where to go, so I just kinda Google'd it expecting something like PG&E to show up, but all the sites kept pointing me to Silicon Valley Power. I didn't think too much about it, except it was rather strange that we didn't use PG&E like everyone else. I asked about the gas, and they basically said "this is what we provide, go somewhere else for that." Then today, I came across this section on Wikipedia looking up Santa Clara information:

Santa Clara owns and operates an electric utility called Silicon Valley Power. In 2005 Silicon Valley Power brought online the Donald Von Raesfeld (DVR) Power Plant. The new combined-cycle gas turbine plant produces 147 megawatts of electricity for the city and its residents.^[2] As a result, the going rate for electricity in Santa Clara is considerably cheaper than that offered by Northern California's dominant utility, Pacific Gas and Electric.

 How about that! Cheap electricity. Yay!

One of their more interesting programs is the Santa Clara Green Power program. This is how their website explains the program:

Santa Clara residents and businesses have the power to choose. Santa Clara Green Power, the voluntary renewable energy program from SVP, offers you the option of one hundred percent renewable energy at some of the lowest rates in the nation. For just a penny and a half extra per kilowatt hour (1.5 cents), you can choose Green-e Energy certified clean energy for one hundred percent of your usage.

That is pretty nifty. Some other interesting tidbits about Silicon Valley Power: According to a 2005 nationwide reliability benchmarking survey, Santa Clara's Silicon Valley Power placed first in several categories and second overall power reliability in the nation.

I hope they continue that trend, seeing as how I live here now. Now got to figure out what sort of rebates I'm qualified to apply for.