Community Choice Aggregation

Thursday 9/27, 10:45am – 12:00pm

Breakout Room 5B

Sustainability

Session Info

Community Choice Aggregation is a program that allows municipalities like the City of San Diego to offer consumers an alternative to purchasing electricity through the investor owned utility that otherwise serves their area. Typically, a municipality that chooses to become a Community Choice Aggregator then selects a source or sources of power to purchase and resell to consumers within its boundaries. This allows individual consumers to “aggregate” their buying power to negotiate large power purchase agreements with energy producers, bypassing the traditional utility model. The primary goals for Consumer Choice Aggregation are to reduce costs and allow consumers to control the amount of renewable energy they purchase, but in practice these are not always met. As municipalities in the region grapple with the choice of if and how best to become a Community Choice Aggregator, this panel will explore the current state of implementation in California, successes, failures, challenges and what lies ahead.

Moderator

• Scott Anders, Director, Energy Policy Initiatives Center, University of San Diego School of Law

Panelists

• Dawn Weisz, CEO, Marin Clean Energy
• Francisco Urtasun, Reg. Vice President of External Affairs, Sempra Services Corp.
• Erik Caldwell, Economic Development Director, City of San Diego