Yolo County and the City of Davis have taken an important step to bring competition to the local electricity market. Both have voted unanimously to form the Valley Clean Energy Alliance (VCEA), a locally-based, not-for-profit electricity energy provider.
Scheduled to begin service in Fall 2017, VCEA is designed to deliver cost-competitive clean electricity, product choice, price stability and energy efficiency programs, as well as greenhouse gas emission reductions, to local electricity customers. Under this system, PG&E continues to get paid to maintain the electric wires and manage customer billing. Also, electricity customers can choose to remain with PG&E if they prefer.
“At this point, there is probably no other single action we, as a city, can take that will have as much impact on our collective greenhouse gas emissions,” said Davis Mayor Robb Davis. “Community Choice Energy (CCE) programs have shown the ability to deliver consumer choice and greener electricity with competitive pricing. Importantly, CCE programs allow for local control of electricity purchases and, thus, local accountability at a low risk. We are in a period of rapidly changing electricity generation options and a CCE enables us to proactively be part of that change – creating a more resilient supply of green energy to consumers.”