Currents

An Energy Newsletter for Local Governments

Community Choice Aggregation Pilot Project

The Local Government Commission (LGC) has signed a contract with the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program to help local governments understand and explore the possibilities of community choice aggregation (CCA). The project, which starts this month and continues through 2005, will follow the proceedings to implement CCA at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), work with at least three communities or groups of communities to perform pre-feasibility studies, and develop educational materials and workshops to share what is learned. The League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties are co-sponsors of the project.

Many local governments have expressed interest in CCA since Governor Davis signed AB117 (Migden) a year ago. The CPUC has the task of implementing AB117, and recently opened Rulemaking # R.03.09.007 to do so. To be included on the CPUC electronic service list for CCA, contact the Process Office at (415) 703-2021 or process_office@cpuc.ca.gov. You will need to reference the proceeding number above.

LGC will be working with Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NCI) to do the technical analyses and other technical assistance for the project. NCI is a specialized independent consulting firm providing litigation, financial, restructuring, energy and operational consulting services to government agencies and others. NCI has been following CCA even before its adoption last year and has studied its implementation in Ohio and Massachusetts.

Our first step will be to choose pilot communities to assist with pre-feasibility studies. Since our funding comes from the PIER renewable energy program, selected communities must commit to a goal of 40% renewable energy resources in their procurement portfolios by 2017. All community aggregators will be required by State law to have 20% renewable resources by 2017. If your community is interested in being considered for the pre-feasibility assistance, contact Pat Stoner at (916) 448-1198, extension 309 or pstoner@lgc.org immediately.

As the CPUC process evolves and we learn from our work with the pilot communities, updates will be provided in CURRENTS and, if necessary, through action alerts to the CURRENTS subscriber list. Information will also be posted on the LGC and NCI web sites. Eventually a guidebook and fact sheets will be developed and workshops convened.

If you want to share your ideas and concerns on CCA with other local governments, there are two other forums to do so. LGC is coordinating quarterly energy networking meetings for local governments. The meetings alternate between northern and southern California and are hosted by network members. Each meeting since AB117 has included a CCA agenda item. To receive an invitation to the next meeting, send an email to pstoner@lgc.org requesting to be added to the list.

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