Community choice energy backers file for CPUC rehearing, say exit fees are too high

Backers of community choice energy programs want the California Public Utilities Commission to take another look at a recent decision that supporters say is tilted too much in favor of traditional power companies and will discourage potential customers from switching to CCAs.

Last month, the commission voted 5-0 to increase the exit fees that Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, customers must pay to utility companies in their respective service territories, effective next year.

Late Monday afternoon, the state’s CCA trade association and a pair of San Diego-based groups filed paperwork calling on the commission to hear the case again.

“This is an added fee that will increase the cost for customers to move over” to CCAs, said April Maurath Sommer, executive director and lead counsel for the Protect Our Communities Foundation, an environmental group based in San Diego County. The Utility Consumers’ Action Network joined Protect Our Communities in its filing.

The CalCCA trade group submitted its own application, saying the state’s decision “artificially inflates” the exit fees.

The utilities commission did not respond to a request for comment on the filings.

Largely formed as a way to offer customers power from cleaner energy sources, CCAs have grown rapidly across the state. The first CCA was established in 2010 in Marin County and since then 18 others have sprung up.

San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer last month announced his support for creating a CCA that, under a joint powers authority, could also include multiple cities around the county.

Read more here: Community choice energy backers file for CPUC rehearing