Community Choice Energy (CCE) would mean choice for Colorado customers of investor-owned utilities.

The results of the PUC study indicate potential for CCE success in Colorado and identifies a number of obstacles to adopting CCE in Colorado. The identification of obstacles means we will need to find solutions to overcome them, however, it appears that the positive benefits of adopting CCE in Colorado will far outweigh the downsides. 

• PUC report on CCE_22I-0027E 
• Summary and Response to PUC report on CCE 

See CCE posts and resources in the right column and videos below.

If enabled by the state legislature, Community Choice Energy (CCE) would be made available to all Colorado communities that are served by a monopoly investor-owned utility (IOU). CCE allows a community to choose between the IOU and alternative suppliers of electricity. This would introduce competition into the wholesale electricity sector. CCE allows individuals to opt out of the CCE and buy their electricity from the utility.

Unlike municipalization, CCE only involves choosing the electricity source — the utility continues to own and operate the “poles and wires” and manage billing and customer service. CCE does not involve owning and operating an electricity distribution system. It’s more of a partnership with the utility.

CCE would allow a community the freedom to implement its own energy programs. In addition to describing the experience of developing Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), our guest, SCP CEO Geoff Syphers describes a number of the creative energy program options in the EOF Empower Hour held July 21, 2022 (see video below).