Community Choice Energy (CCE) would mean choice for Colorado customers of investor-owned utilities.
Want to See Community Choice Energy (CCE) in Colorado?
Send your comments to Governor Polis:
Call the Governor’s office
(303) 866-2471
To submit comments via email: Governorpolis@state.co.us
CCE Fact Sheet— a summary of CCE and its current status in Colorado, and key facts and reasons to support enabling CCE in Colorado.
Eric O’Shaughnessy,1 Jenny Heeter,1 Julien Gattaciecca,2 Jenny Sauer,1 Kelly Trumbull,2 and Emily Chen1
Community choice aggregations (CCAs) are local governmental entities that procure electricity on behalf of retail electricity customers within a certain geographic area. CCAs may be run directly by a city or county government or by a third party through a contractual arrangement such as a joint powers agreement. Often called a hybrid utility model, a CCA partners with local investor-owned utilities that continue to provide consolidated billing, transmission, and distribution of electric power to their shared customers. CCAs first emerged in the late 1990s as a few states began to pass legislation enabling electric aggregation. Link to the full report.
1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory
2 Luskin Center for Innovation, University of California, Los Angeles
What the Monopoly Utility Model Really Costs Us — ILSR’s May 30, 2024 report, Upcharge: Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power
This report by John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance is a deep dive into the problems associated with the 100-year-old model granting private companies exclusive power over the public resource of electricity – and a call for structural reforms to restore competition and equilibrium to the sector.A discussion of Community Choice Energy or CCE: what is is and how it has been implemented across the U.S. and California, in particular. Our guests:
- Alison Elliott, Executive Director, LEAN (Local Energy Aggregation Network), a non-profit dedicated to the accelerated expansion and competitive success of clean energy CCA nationwide.
- Cody Hooven, former Director of the Sustainability Department, the first Chief Sustainability Officer for the city of San Diego, and COO of San Diego Community Power.
- Colorado State Representative Kyle Brown on potential CCE Legislation
CCE was studied by Colorado's Public Utility Commission in 2022. Read the Commission's 12/2022 report and our take on it.
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.
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).
More CCE Videos
On the Events page, you will find links to additional Sonoma Clean Power resources.
Also on the Events page, the March 18, 2021 Empower Hour featured Rep. Edie Hooton and Larry Miloshevich discussing the possibilities of CCE for Colorado in a “CCE Study Bill – A Deep Dive.”
CCE in the News
LEAN ENERGY US’ 2023 report on Community Choice Aggregation is now out!
LEAN’s white paper entitled “Community Choice Aggregation: A Cost-Effective Policy Tool that Accelerates Competitive Renewable Power Addition and Carbon Reduction at Scale” is now available on
Colorado utilities consider regional market to buy, sell wholesale power
Advocates say regional network could boost renewable energy, cut costs for customers
Frustrated with their utilities, some Coloradans want the state to change its rules so communities can buy their own electricity
Link to the original story To lower utility bills and slow climate change, Colorado regulators are looking to a strategy that worked for California and
Letter to the Editor: Steve Whitaker: Community Choice Energy Option
Submitted to the Boulder Daily Camera September 10, 2022 In Boulder, the price of Xcel’s electricity is increasing and based on their requests for rate
Guest Opinion: Boulder can lead way on community choice electricity
Link to the original article While no place is perfect, there are many reasons to be grateful to live in Boulder County — from the
Letter to the Editor: Larry Miloshevich: Why Community Choice Energy is Right for Boulder and for Colorado
The guest opinion by Gerald Braun on Aug. 16, titled “Community choice electricity is a better way to meet 21st century challenges”, merits elaboration on
CCE Resources
What the Monopoly Utility Model Really Costs Us: ILSR’s new report, Upcharge: Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power
Check the Events page for details and past Empower Hours.
LEAN (Local Energy Aggregation Network) Community Choice Aggregation | LEAN Energy US
LEAN’s 2023 report on Community Choice Aggregation is now out: Community Choice Aggregation: A Cost-Effective Policy Tool that Accelerates Competitive Renewable Power Addition and Carbon Reduction at Scale.
See Larry Miloshevich’s Spring 2023 presentation to the Joint Select Committee on Rising Utility Rates.
Community Choice Energy | Energy Freedom CO
Implemented Correctly, Community Choice Energy Can Support Colorado Communities in Their Goals
By John Farrell, Director of the Energy Democracy initiative at ISLR and Maria McCoy, research associate with the Energy Democracy Initiative
April 20, 2022
This website page sums up Farrell’s official testimony that was submitted to the CO PUC on March 1, 2022
Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) Report: An Alternative to Electricity Monopolies Enables Communities to Center People and Planet (web page)
(Link to full report)
Feb. 19, 2020, by John Farrell, Director of the Energy Democracy initiative at ISLR