Had them for Solar for three years . Very hard to get back your accumulated energy production at true up. If you don't have more than 200 dollars of accumutaled energy they won't send it back . If you do you have to fill out a form and constantly bug them to get it back . So I switched back to PGE. I am in Santa Cruz not San Jose Also they where suppose to pay a higher rate than PGE for excess Solar Power. read more

For the past six months I have been trying to get my true-up credit. PG&E shows that I have earned $300 as a solar customer, but MBCP doesn't recognize that and has of recently told me that my credit is about half of that. Although MBCP claims that their true-up is in January, I still haven't seen any credit to my account. First it was the fault of the third party accounting company, now they were not able to process all credits. More and more, MBCP sounds like a Ponzi scheme where they take your money and just invent reasons not to pay you back. read more

OMG! If you are a PGE SOLAR customer, be warned!! My MBCP RETRO-OPT-OUT CCA process, which I started on DAY-1 of my MBCP OPT-OUT option has taken ~3 MONTHS to resolve on my PGE SOLAR account, potentially creating a second PGE Solar-true-up bill for me in 2019! If you are running solar, you know this is NOT good. I had to beg PGE to hold off on this crazy 2nd true-up bill of $300 so MBCP could get their ridiculous paperwork trail together. Both PGE and MBCP customer service departments kept PLAYING GAMES and referring me back to each other for 3 months to get OPTED-OUT of MBCP! This MBCP OPT-OUT process is clearly 'planned incompetence' so that people just give up. There is no way senior call-center agents can knowingly be this incompetent. At one point MBCP actually told me to call back later because the ONLY guy that did the solar retro-opt-outs was out sick and nothing could be done until this ONE PERSON came back. OMG the levels of BS here are insane! MBCP probably has thousands of customers and there's only ONE guy that does the retro-opt-outs. I am learning [from my calls with the PGE solar office] that many other solar homeowners have also been stuck in phone-call-loops and endless MBCP call center tickets, just to correctly OPT-OUT! As a customer in good standing at PGE for nearly 20 years, I don't appreciate having to go through such an intricate process to simply keep my original PGE account configuration. When your telephone service provider was changed without your consent, it was called "slamming" and was illegal. When your power service provider is changed without your consent, it's called "green energy" and is good for you. read more

Opt out by calling PGE right away. You need to call them directly and then call pgne to confirm. They don't cancel you honestly. This In response to the ridiculous claim to rip people off as you can read from owner below. ......... Review was posted after being out of our home for 2 months on vacation. So it absolutely had NOTHING to do with cold wether. PG&E management agrees with me this is something that was voted for and forcing others unwillingly to pay higher bills. No questions about your company being high. Everyone needs to call and cancel as I wrote above. Rip off read more

MBCP is the best thing to ever happen to our local power supply. A grassroots movement helped persuade local governments to form a joint powers agreement and take our region's electricity supply over from PG&E (though PG&E still controls transmission). So now we have a publicly owned utility that is accountable to the local community instead of shareholders (*yaass*) and gives a cut back to customers in the form of an energy credit (YAASS). Also, the switch to MBCP took our region instantly to a 100% carbon-free electricity supply, which is major in the fight against climate change. I opted in to the MBPrime option, which sources all the power for my household from solar and wind only (cutting out hydropower, which has negative impacts on watersheds). read more

Monterey Community Power, has developed a win win for our local power needs! They started developing the idea of how to protect our area from any future energy crisis such as in 2001 and 2002. That was during the time when PG&E and Enron inflated the cost of electricity in California and created a economic downturn. It's time to really rethink about how to keep our infrastructure intact. Who doesn't want to see more control of how our power is delivered. I'm looking forward to a brighter future with Monterey Community Power. It is such an amazing opportunity to take charge of generating part of our energy needs. Other states such as Oregon are already doing this as well! read more

It was wrong of MBCP to automatically "opt" everyone in. When I called to cancel this, they kept saying it is completely legal what they did by opting everyone into their program that costed more than just regular PG&E. They are running a dishonest company and I strongly believe karma will hurt the people running this. What they did was morally wrong and hope they get slapped for this. read more

I was never made aware I would be getting an extra charge on my PG&E bill for MBCP of $45.51 each month this does not include the amount I am also being charged from PG&E. I am very suspicious of this, and have no trust in the utilities Companies, I feel they should be investigated for the MBCP charging all the customers. They say we can opt out, i tried did not happen. Only answer I could get from PG&E Customer Service when I call and complained, she said well you have been paying these charges since July of last year. Not a good answer. Very angry over this. read more

Dishonest and shady. I had opted out of MBCP at a previous address and moved into a new apartment in September. I had called 3 days after moving into my new place and transferring services to MAKE SURE I was still opted out. THe agent told me I was already opted out and it was no problem. Come to find out when I got my first bill at the new place, I was not. She had given me the info for the previous address and not the new place so I had to pay their surcharge for that month, even though it was their fault. Why would I be calling about the previous address that I have already handled and transfer to a new address? But also, if I was previoulsy opted out why do they automatically sign you up when your transfer your account to a new place?! It makes no sense. So today when I spoke to the agent about the fees they're forcing me to pay, she informed me that because the meter already started, I will have to continue with them for another month. So, because of their oversight, I am stuck for 2 months. MBCP is a nightmare to deal with. read more

Worst company ever. If you can please opt out i have a 400 bill because of them which i must pay in order to continue my pgande. Please beware and opt out as soon as possible. I have a bill with backdated charges from them. read more

During the PG&E Billing Cycle for July, it was fairly hot here. So I used my air conditioner daily. My Bill for that cycle was $309. August however was cool. With the morning fog rolling in daily, it was the coolest August in my entire 49 years. I used my air conditioner only once or twice in the beginning of August. Thus I knew my power bill would be roughly half of what it was for July (or about $160). So this morning, I went to pay my current bill, and the bill was $335. I couldn't understand it. So I downloaded the bill (PDF file), and saw this company on it; A company I'd never heard of, and didn't make any contracts with. After calling PG&E, and MBCP, I explained the situation to both, and that I had proof of my energy usage (since I have electronic monitoring devices that calculate and record my usage). Both said they could do nothing. I said: ..."so you are going to steal almost $180 from me without my consent". They said: "we can't do anything about it". So at that point I began doing research. I am disabled and on a fixed income, and that $180 represents almost 1/5th of my monthly income. What I discovered was subversive and vile, but not surprising. You see, the Korrupt Kalifornia Kommunist Authoritarian politicians in Sacramento, took it upon themselves, to force us into legal contracts without our knowledge or consent. They passed a law called Assembly Bill 117, which enabled this process of so-called CCAs. In recent years they have been passing many unethical and unjust bills into law. CCAs on the surface might seem like a good thing. But they are being used now, to foment an "unsustainable" policy, based on the false U.N. Agenda 21 Dialectic of "Global Warming/Climate Change". Why is it bad? Well for one, it's conditioning people even further to believe what we have been brainwashed with for nearly 2 decades: The supposed scientific consensus, - which is anything but. Why is it unsustainable? Because renewable energy costs a lot more. Aside from PG&E Geothermal, a lot of the wind and solar projects are newer, and financed. Meaning money is still owed and interest being paid on these projects to investors. About 6% of our nations energy is derived from renewable sources, meaning it's not currently possible to sell 100% renewable energy without charging more It occurs like this: Fascist Central Bankers, imposing Communism on America through U.N. Agenda 21 Policy they created; Which is being implemented locally by "Councils of Government" or COGs, (unelected bodies such as AMBAG, ABAG, SCAG) on large urban regions. The policy planning guideline" documents are given to city councils, county supervisor boards, and planning and zoning departments, through a U.N. covert sister agency called ICLEI (Google these terms and research). The cities and counties pay membership dues to ICLEI with your tax dollars, and then Communism is imposed top down and dictated to central planners. It's also forced upon citizens by the state legislature. Agenda 21 dictates what is "sustainable" and what isn't. Some things they deem "unsustainable" are private property, automobiles, and air conditioning. These things will gradually be phased out over time whether you like it or not. Through these policies, they aim to force everyone into high density housing in urbanized areas (and off the rural lands), out of their cars and into public transportation, and onto bicycles and pedestrian paths. Research "The Wildlands Project". The goal isn't to mitigate or eliminate environmental pollution. The real goal is total control over our lives, nations, and forcing upon the people, Global Government and a police and surveillance state (because urban areas can be locked down, and there can be no revolution against it [by using technology]). This will also entail a ban on guns and repealing or total evisceration of the 2nd Amendment. The goal is to destroy the American and European middle classes and to extract and consolidate the wealth of these nations (which they have done by artificially created wars, depressions, and recessions in the last Century), and then redistribute this wealth to developing nations to convert them to Communism. The earth has actually been cooling since 1998 according to the official global weather data. When you do the research, you find that the actual [corrected] scientific consensus, is 31,000+ scientists against roughly 75 who are pushing the man-made Global Warming/Climate Change Agenda. So the Democrats have literally just stolen $180 from me. I would urge all power customers to "Opt Out" of this company as soon as possible and all others like it. It can be done on their website at https://bit.ly/2NOttL0 https://bit.ly/2oNSJGt https://youtu.be/SyUDGfCNC-k https://youtu.be/8BQpciw8suk https://tinyurl.com/yb3spumk https://tinyurl.com/y8g28f2o https://youtu.be/4I8sJG5FV_k https://bit.ly/2g2ISG0 https://youtu.be/kcRTX71MHu8 read more

MBCP enables clean renewable energy choice, something that is overwhelmingly supported by people of all political persuasions. Right now I see some negative reviews, which is probably coming from the way that PG&E lists MBCP on the bill: seemingly to make people think they have been scammed and are paying higher prices. This is not the case, MBCP costs nothing more and just means that our community gets to choose our energy sources, rather than PG&E. If you are interested in clean energy, contact MBCP and start leaving comments at their board meetings. read more

MBCP prime option allows us to utilize electricity generated by 50% solar with 50% wind and that is healthier for everyone. I first heard about this prime option while volunteering in the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Plus they are providing our communities with grants for more charging stations for electric vehicles (evs) for early-adopters taking advantage of low fuel and maintenance costs of evs. And my favorite part of all is that while providing 7 million dollars for the charging stations, they also returned to customers another 14 million dollars in 2019. Sign up for prime option on line and you automatically enter a raffle for a free electric bike. Let's all get healthier together! Love that MBCP! read more

I for one am all for choice, yes I was automatically enrolled, but it didn't catch me by surprise. This company went out of their way to educate our community, I received the flyers, saw their tent at the Good Old Days in PG and was able to do my own research on community choice agencies prior to seeing them on my bill. I guess that's key. Knowing that they charge the same as PG&E and to expect a rebate in December every year and helping our community support carbon free and renewable energy! read more

As a single person with no kids a full time job my bill has always been roughly the same in the 8 years I have lived in my apartment. With the automatically enrollment into Monterey bay electric service my bill literally doubled . And the rebate for the double won't be worth it in the end . I have to pay double the price for only three % back. That doesn't make sense and not worth it. You can opt out inline . read more

NO! It is not right for MBCP to automatically sign people up and force them to opt out if they do not want to be a part of the community. I did not receive written notice that I was being opted in and don't appreciate seeing this charge on my bill. CALL 1-888-909-6227 to opt out of this "service" - it is nonsense. Stick with PG&E it is about $36 a month cheaper. read more

Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) claims to sell you green power. It cannot guarantee that you will receive it. MBCP does not produce electricity from green sources and send that power to you. It pays producers of alternative power--electricity generated from wind, solar, and hydro sources--for electricity (i.e., electrons) that these producers in turn send to PG&E's power grid. Once on the grid, these "green" electrons can go anywhere. They may be going to you or they may be going to a PG&E customer who has opted out of MBCP power delivery. By opting into--or not opting out of--MBCP, you are indirectly supporting green-energy producers, somewhere. But the electrons powering your TV at this moment could just as likely could be coming from a gas- or coal-fired power plant that also feeds into PG&E's power grid. An electron is an electron, is an electron, is an electron. When I used to worked for Southern California Edison, California's other investor-owned utility. The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) required Edison and PG&E to include electrons produced by so-called "qualified facilities" (QFs)--producers of green power like solar and wind--in the power they delivered to their customers. In other words, the CPUC previously required PG&E to do the same thing "for you" that MBCP does today ("for you" in quotes, because the benefit is indirect in both cases). So what's the advantage of having MBCP buy green energy over the CPUC mandating PG&E to buy it and deliver it somewhere? None that I can see. And the disadvantage? MBCP is a needless middleman-agency with a growing bureaucracy that's replicating something PG&E was already doing under regulatory mandate. Who needs 'em? read more

A charge for "generation charges" from Monterey Bay Community Power appeared on my PG&E bill without warning or notice. According to their own website - "Per state law, MBCP will mail an enrollment notice to every customer four times, including two times within 60 days prior to the start of service and two times within 60 days following the start of service." This is a bunch of baloney and never happened. I called PG&E for a clear explanation of what this is actually for - and while I now understand that I'm not paying for an "extra" service - and that the bill is just being split up differently, I am still frustrated that I was surprised by this extra page on my utility bill. It reminds me of when the phone company started billing for the other long distance carriers. This is a confusing practice to consumers, and I would prefer to not be automatically signed up for something without my approval. I'm annoyed (clearly) and intend to complain with the PUC. read more

I am fighting mad, my bill nearly doubled, I have back charges on my bill from Oct of last year, MBCP says I owe the money when I never agreed to sign up. I am getting no satisfaction from either PG&E or or MBCP I may sue! If anyone else is interested I will let you know if I get any resolution. I have no intention of paying it! read more

I mean, it's a power company, what do people want?! They are supplying power seamlessly, no additional outages, encouraging use of more sustainable resources, and we should get a rebate. I got the flyer, I chose not to opt out. Please keep it up and help me shrink my carbon footprint! read more

We are a small business operating in Marina. Our electrical bill from PG&E has been averaging around $5K per month for the last several years until this month when we got a bill for $30K! When I asked PPG, they told me that MBPC had not been billing us for the last 12 months and this was the cumulative total. I said " Who is MBPC?" I was informed that they were the electrical generator and PPG merely supplied the power. We were NEVER informed about this and we're shocked to receive a bill this size. Fortunately PG&E will spread the payments out to help with the financial hit but WHY did MBPC - 1) not bill us for over a year? 2) not inform us of the switch to their service? Given the choice I would have never opted to go with MBPC. Seems like a very poorly run outfit. read more

Bad Business Practice!!!! I never asked to be enrolled nor did I received any notices in the mail. MBCP claims to charge the same rates as PGE. That is clearly not true, my bill increased by 30% while I was enrolled in the program. I decided to opt out of MBCP only to be penalize by PGE with a "Transitional Bundled Commodity Cost" for six months. I am now being charge $60-$80 extra a month for switching back to PGE. My bill went up from $75.00 a month to $204.00 a month. Both PGE and MBCP customer service departments keep referring me back to each other for billing questions.This service is nonsense, if you switch back to PGE keep in mind the transitional charge they will apply to your bill for six months. read more

A bunch of crooks! We were automatically opted in for a service we did not request and had to pay an administrative fee to opt out. How is this legal? PG&E sucks too but we all know that. PG&E allowed this company to bill us and when you try to call both companies, they make it so difficult to talk to an actual person. read more

I don't really write reviews but I'm beyond upset and angry!! We recently moved to the county last Feb, our first bill was pretty decent $115 (no tv/cable yet nor washer/dryer, all we had were fridge, stove, lights and heater), but still a lot I guess but whatever, and it didn't reflect any charges from Monterey Bay Community Power. So I received our bill for this month and its almost $400!!!!, we just added a tv and cable. We don't even have the heater on much. And we're always out of the house. So being new to Pg&e I needed some explanation or assistance as to how I can lower down my bill in the future and I questioned this Monterey Bay Community Power charge. I called Pg&e twice but still didn't get the concrete answer that I needed, except being advised NOT to use my electricity between 4-9pm and to call Monterey Bay Community Power. Like I get it, 4-9pm are the peak hours, but how can you NOT use electricity, that's the last thing I want to think about getting off from work and not being able to relax or cook or just limiting my movement cause I need to think of my usage. So then I called Monterey Bay Community and asked what's this about. When I was trying to opt out, I got a lengthy explanation as to why I needed them, and what I don't get is that why does Pg&e need a subsidy to provide an environmentally friendly electricity generation??? And charge people high rates? And Monterey Bay community was telling me that I will save more money having them and they charge less than pg&e, so then I told them that Okay, I'll just have them then than pg&e, but i was told that they're not independent yet and still needed PG&E to transmit power lines, etc, and what annoys me more is getting a run around and not getting a straight up answer to my questions from both Pg&e and them. And yea I was told about a stupid rebate at the end of the year that I could careless, I just need a lower bill period with charges that can be explained to me! No this and that! And if they say that I could save more on the rebate, why cant they just help their customers out and lower their bill than a stupid rebate! Its almost the same thing if they're claiming that people save more! read more

Not pleased. I was automatically opted in to their service. They apparently forgot to tack on their portion of the bill since that time, now six months later have billed me for all six months at once. Legally they can do this, so I'm stuck. PG&E says it's MBCP's error, MBCP says it's due to some kind of change in account ID format by PG&E that wasn't caught. Nonetheless, if I get a big bill one month, I change my habits the next to keep my bills manageable in this high-cost-of-living area. Six months' worth of unexpected charges isn't helpful. Thanks a lot for adding to my financial stresses. read more

This company started charging me and I have no affiliation with it. There was no notice or flyers sent out to Salinas, CA, in the Monterey county. They had no right to start charging me, and my bill went up by more than 30%. This happened because PG&E has relief programs and this other company does not. Very unethical and I'm disappointed in the county for letting this happen on their watch. read more

My bill is a mess. They claim 3% rebate but at higher rate. I opted out. You can too: https://www.mbcommunitypower.org/opt-out/

My dollars can now go directly toward cleaner energy and I save money as well. I look forward to seeing the positive benefits this company will accomplish through their current and future programs. There are already plans to install electric vehicle charging stations in the near future and they are still in their first year of business. I have seen the misinformation circulating concerning electric bills increasing but after researching this I discovered it is actually due to higher summer rates charged by PG and E. MBCP matches PG and E's rates and on top of that they give their customers 3% back yearly in December. read more

I called in to inquiry about the charges I saw on my bill, because I was confused as to what these new "generation charges" were on my bill. Granted, I was being irrational, the representatives were very respectful, and explained the difference between generation vs delivery. Generation is what I pay for in pure electricity usage and that's great for letting me see the transparency in my energy consumption. They were patient with my questions and I appreciate the 3% rebate being a single guy with loans to pay. I rather keep the extra cash for a drink. read more

Having recently moved to the city, I noticed MBCP charges on my bill and realized that MBCP was generating my electricity. When I inquired about the generation charges and had them broken down to me, I realized that MBCP is actually saving me money on my bill with their 3% rebate, and also learned that their rates are never higher than PG&E's. The way I see it, there's no downside to saving money! read more

I attempted to opt out of enrollment the same day I enrolled & was met with conflicting info. According to the web site u can get in & out at any time & they also want to charge me for a whole month. I had the privilege to speak to a manager Tony No Name is his response because of his ability to do nothing at a very high level. I would personally not recommend this company because of misleading information, & worthless people in charge. read more

What a ripoff I'm being charged an extra $50.23 a month for something I never signed up for!!! I live in a small mobile home. Guess who's paying for their bankruptcy????? We Are!!! read more

Our household is happy to be part of MBCP. It was approved regionally to provide us with clean energy, something we all need to embrace in light of climate change. We are grateful to be part of the clean energy movement, with local benefits for generating renewable energy, building charging stations, and support/investment in our own communities. Our household received several notifications from MBCP- perhaps some households did not recognize these as "important" mail to read, and thus, were surprised about the change. Ultimately, we need to pay for infrastructure for clean energy, and this is a pretty easy way to do it while creating opportunity for local energy generation. read more

I'm thrilled that my utility dollars are being spent on sourcing sustainable power sources.

Seriously not surprised to see a bunch of horrible reviews. Monterey bay community power are a bunch of crooks at best. I have a small studio apartment, where the landlord pays gas, and MBCP was charging me sometimes 30+ dollars a month. I didn't understand the whole thing, but when one month they double billed me I decided to call pg&e and see what was up. Pg&e told me i use next to no electricity, and they would just be charging me the minimum that could charge anyone, around 10 dollars. I also got a copy of the bills where they double charged me. I wrote MBCP an email, got no response. I called and spoke to some guy who had no clue about anything and sounded stoned, and requested to speak to a supervisor, he said he would have one email me. No one ever contacted me. If they tell you they will save you money they are flat out lying. That have to be pretty bad to be worse than pg&e read more