We Support CCA in California

CalCCA supports legislation and regulatory policies that protect and foster CCAs within the state. We promote competitive neutrality and a level playing field. We oppose legislation and regulatory policies that unfairly discriminate against CCAs or CCA customers, or reduce CCA policy- or decision-making autonomy.

Regulatory Compliance

CCAs, as load serving entities, engage with numerous state and federal agencies, including the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, California Air Resources Board, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to ensure compliance in a number of areas including renewable energy mandates, grid reliability, and power content reporting. CCAs work cooperatively with all agencies having authority over CCA operations to ensure efficient and safe delivery of energy and energy-related programs. CCAs strive to be highly responsive and transparent in their efforts to provide clean, affordable energy to our customers.

CalCCA Policies

Procurement and Reliability

• Protect CCAs’ procurement autonomy
• Protect CCAs’ right to self-procure their customers’ portions of system reliability needs
• Encourage results-oriented policymaking over prescriptive procurement mandates

 Local Control

• Protect the authority of the CCA Board of Directors as the primary governing body of a CCA
• Develop roles for state agencies that are complementary to rather than competitive with the CCA Boards of Directors

 Non-Bypassable Charges

• Prevent new non-bypassable charges (“NBCs”) and phase out or eliminate existing NBCs
• Ensure that NBC inputs and methodologies are transparent and developed through public processes that allow for full stakeholder input
• Foster market certainty by maximizing year-to-year consistency and/or predictability of all NBCs

 Customer Indifference and Legacy Costs

• Protect indifference of all ratepayers to load migration between LSEs
• Increase the transparency and certainty of PCIA charges, and phase out unreasonable PCIA charges over a time period that addresses stranded costs
• Reform IOU procurement practices to minimize stranded load and mitigate CCA charges

 Grid Edge

• Protect CCAs’ right to develop and administer energy efficiency and integrated distributed energy resources
• Protect CCA customers’ right to select, install, and operate energy efficiency and behind-the-meter distributed energy resources
• Foster and develop integrated distributed energy resources as non-wires alternatives to expanding distribution infrastructure and centralized generation

 The Broader Landscape

• Support further CCA growth and formation
• Build energy market structures and regulatory paradigms that benefit all California ratepayers and facilitate affordability, reliability, decarbonization, and social equity

 Utilities Restructuring

• Support refocusing the utilities’ electric business on the safe management of wires infrastructure
• Support options for local governments to expand their electricity program offerings, including the option to serve as sole retail provider and provider of last resort and support local jurisdictions’ existing right to establish publicly-owned utilities
• Encourage establishment of a statewide public agency to serve bundled utility customers without a public power option until such time as a local agency option becomes available
• Support the operation of investor-owned utility distribution systems as transparent neutral, open-access platforms which facilitate the deployment of distributed energy resources and other demand-side management strategies
• Promote optimization and rebalancing of IOUs’ portfolio

Key Legislation

AB 117 – Passed in 2002 in response to the California Electricity Crisis, AB 117 outlined the steps that must be taken to form a CCA, and laid out how CCAs would be regulated and coexist with the local investor-owned utility (IOU). Among many points, AB 117 mandated that a CCA become the default provider for residents and businesses in its service territory.

SB 790 – Created a code of conduct which IOUs must adhere to in regards to CCAs operating in their service area. Specifically, it prohibited utilities from marketing against CCAs except through a separate marketing division separated by a ‘firewall’ from the other operations of the utility. It was passed in response to several IOUs efforts to stem CCA growth.