Feature Article
CLEAN ENERGY FOR BUSINESSES:
Commercial Roll Out Underway for the Clean Power Alliance
Clean Power Alliance (CPA), Southern California’s new locally-operated clean energy provider has enrolled commercial customers across 28 additional communities (27 cities and unincorporated Ventura County) since May 2019. Conejo Valley area cities being served by CPA include Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Calabasas, with Westlake Village joining in 2020. Business customers in these areas are now receiving clean energy purchased by Clean Power Alliance that has higher renewable content and is competitively-priced with Southern California Edison (SCE). SCE will continue to deliver power, send utility bills, and be responsible for resolving any electricity service issues. Each participating City or County’s elected officials voted to join Clean Power Alliance and chose a default rate tier from one of CPA’s three rate tiers. These tiers include: 36% Lean Power (a 1-2% bill savings), 50% Clean Power (equal to Edison base rates), and 100% Green Power (7-9% higher than Edison base rates). Clean Power Alliance’s board is comprised of an elected official from each community who voted to join the Joint Powers Agency.
We are excited that our local businesses can now obtain higher renewable content at competitive rates. Never before has there been so much choice and flexibility in the energy market, particularly for commercial customers who can now tailor their clean energy options to the level that is right for them. — Deborah Klein Lopez, Councilmember for the City of Agoura Hills
6 | ConejoView
SUMMER 2019
This phase of Clean Power Alliance’s service launch will serve 116,000 new business, industrial, and agricultural customers. Per California law, enrollment into Clean Power Alliance is automatic and customers will receive four informational notices from Clean Power Alliance in the mail. Two notices were sent before May of 2019 and two afterwards, advising businesses of their choices and their community’s chosen default rate option. Individual commercial customers will be able to opt up, down, or out (and return to SCE) at any time once they receive a pre-enrollment notice in the mail, through Clean Power Alliance’s website or customer service call center: www.cleanpoweralliance. org or 888-585-3788. For reference, below is a chart referencing the default tier that the cities of Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks have chosen as well as their opt-out rates. CPA Cities & Countries
Default Tier
Total Eligible Accounts
Opt Up %
Opt Mid %
Opt Down %
Opt Out %
Agoura Hills
Lean Power
7,405
0.31%
0.20%
0.00%
5.13%
Thousand Oaks
100% Green Power
45,559
0.00%
1.48%
4.81%
13.52%
One helpful tool business owners will be able to use to compare their rates is Clean Power Alliance’s online bill calculator. The tool allows customers to input their SCE account number and rate schedule to see how their bill would fare under each Clean Power Alliance tier versus under SCE’s rates. It is available at cleanpoweralliance.org/compare. This phase of commercial enrollment follows the enrollment in February 2019 of over 900,000 residential customers from
