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California communities have the option to come together and form agencies to provide electricity to their residents, instead of purchasing electricity from existing investor owned utilities (IOUs). These Community Choice Energy (CCE) agencies create special energy programs for their customers. Through our research we quantified some of the costs and benefits of those programs and developed a toolkit that agencies can use to determine the costs and benefits of programs in their communities.
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What is Community Choice Energy?A CCE agency can be formed by a city, group of cities, or county that takes over energy procurement responsibility for its residents and businesses. The electricity is still transmitted on IOU lines and IOUs are still responsible for billing and grid maintenance. CCE agencies make contracts with power suppliers to directly control the energy mix delivered to their customers.
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California Electricity and GHGsCalifornia has aggressive electricity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets including that 50% of electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 and that GHG emissions be 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. IOUs are on track to meet the renewable energy target; however, operational CCE agencies currently offer higher renewable-content energy mixes at competitive prices. CCE has also been discussed as a key way to meet the GHG target.
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