Dive Brief:
- A new bill, AB2145, that has been introduced into the California legislature would make Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) "opt-in" rather than "opt-out" for consumers.
- Currently, if a municipality sets up a CCA, customers in that area automatically become members of the new power agency but can opt out and rejoin the incumbent utility customer base.
- The bill is sponsored by the union group International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 12,000 of Pacific Gas & Electric's (PG&E) employees and who argue the current "opt-out" policy eliminates customer choice.
Dive Insight:
"Under this model, customers could wake up one morning to find themselves getting power from a new supplier without having had any say in the matter," said the union.
Many advocates of the current policy say the new bill is designed to benefit the traditional utility at the expense of customers. Making CCAs opt-in would harm them as customers often don't choose to change their provider unless given some provocation to do so. This limits customer choice and, under the current legislation, customers are given enough warning prior to any change in their electricity provider, they argue.
"AB 2145 is not about preserving customer choice -- it’s about preserving utility control of our power system," said Tam Hunt of Community Renewables Solutions, a renewable energy consulting and law firm.
The bill comes as another California county, this time Alameda, voted to begin the process of creating a CCA to rival traditional provider PG&E.
