Electricity Choice Movement Faces Pushback From Utilities

Sonoma Clean Power, utilities face battle over energy costs

Robert Digitale, May 14, 2017 (The Press Democrat)

“…[A new type of public energy program in California] appears poised to change who buys electricity for homes and businesses across large swaths of the state…[Growth of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)] is leading experts to examine how well the programs are boosting the use of renewable electricity compared to the private utilities that formerly served the same communities…The growth is also prompting a face-off between the public programs and California’s three biggest private utilities…In the dispute, both sides have suggested their ratepayers are getting a bum deal in how the state has set the rules for this new era. For the public programs, the outcome has high-stakes implications because their customers could end up paying considerably more to offset the growing costs for excess power that the utilities contracted for but no longer need…[CCA is now about 5 percent of the state’s electricity market and] both utilities and other experts say that number will increase markedly…” click here for more

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