Volts The past and future of community choice aggregation
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May 23, 2025 Dawn Weisz, the founder of MCE Clean Energy, talks about the transformative power of community choice aggregation (CCA). She highlights how CCAs give local governments control over electricity procurement, navigating challenges like utility resistance and rising grid costs. The discussion also dives into the importance of transparency in pricing, equitable energy sourcing, and local empowerment through innovative projects like energy-efficient smart homes. Plus, she shares insights on the future growth of CCAs across the U.S.
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CCA Model Explained
- CCAs allow local governments to procure their own electricity while utilities manage the grid infrastructure.
- This model empowers communities without making them responsible for grid maintenance.
Understanding Rising Electricity Bills
- Rising electricity bills in California are driven mostly by transmission and distribution (T&D) costs, not generation costs.
- CCA customers pay these grid costs to the utility while CCAs focus on purchasing generation.
Why CCAs Often Have Cheaper Power
- CCAs often beat utilities on price mainly because they don’t pay shareholder profits and operate efficiently.
- They carefully manage contracts without guaranteed cost recovery unlike investor-owned utilities.