Ripon PG&E customers will find out in the coming months if they will have cheaper power.Lathrop Irrigation District - which was granted permission by the San Joaquin Local Agency Formation Commission years ago to engage in retail power sales - finally started selling power last week.That’s when River Islands Tech Academy became the first beneficiary of the South County movement to put power into the hands of the people.Electricity started flowing last week through power lines to the River Islands Tech Academy that is gearing up for an August opening. The Banta School District is the first retail electrical customer of the Lathrop Irrigation District.They are paying 5 percent below PG&E rates. And as homes and businesses are built, the rate differential between LID and PG&E will continue to widen until it reaches a cost for retail power that is 25 percent less than what the for-profit San Francisco-based utility charges.“The first homes will have rates 5 percent lower (than PG&E’s),” noted River Islands Project Manager Susan Dell’Osso.