Thanks to the enactment of Assembly Bill 117 in the fall of 2002, cities and counties now have the option of pursuing Community Choice to meet the electrical energy needs of their residents, businesses and municipal facilities.
Community Choice permits any city, county or joint powers authority to aggregate the electrical loads of residents, businesses and municipal facilities for electricity purchases. An opt-out provision allows constituents to elect not to participate in Community Choice and to continue having their current utility provide their electric energy supply.
Community Choice customers will benefit from local involvement in power generation and procurement while the current utility companies will continue to deliver the electricity over its wires and provide traditional utility functions such as meter reading, billing and maintenance services.
To date, 11 municipalities form the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority. This regional energy program is the first community choice aggregation program to be certified by the California Public Utilities Commission. The 11 participating municipalities include:
For additional information on Community Choice, please visit the project website at www.communitychoice.info.
