Local cities begin transition from PG&E to Central Coast Community Energy
Automatic enrollment begins for over 100,000 Customers
–Residential and businesses electricity customers in Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande, Del Rey Oaks, Grover Beach, Guadalupe, Pismo Beach, Santa Maria and Solvang, and unincorporated Northern Santa Barbara County will begin receiving service from Central Coast Community Energy (3CE), formerly Monterey Bay Community Power, in January 2021.
As a community-owned electricity provider, the company says its focus on clean energy and local control is already providing 296,000 Central Coast customers access to competitively-priced electricity, incentives, and rebates.
“Joining Central Coast Community Energy allows our community to receive the benefits of choice, local control, competitive rates, and ways to further reduce local greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jeff Lee, 3CE policy board member and mayor of Grover Beach. “I’m proud to be a board member of 3CE, representing our community and witnessing the innovative solutions 3CE is capable of providing to the communities it serves.”
“Joining 3CE provides a choice and more opportunities for customers,” said Mayor of Santa Maria and 3CE Policy Board Member, Alice Patino. “3CE’s strong financial position and recent “A” credit rating solidifies to enrolling customers of the viability and success of this agency in terms of competitive rates, sourcing clean and renewable energy, and supporting local energy programs.”
Customers will see on their electric bill is a new line item for 3CE Electric Generation Charges. 3CE replaces PG&E’s generation charges, so PG&E will no longer include electric generation charges within their bundled service charges. Moving forward, PG&E will only charge for electric transmission and distribution.
Customers will continue receiving only one electric bill from PG&E, which includes both PG&E charges for transmission and distribution and 3CE charges for electric generation.
While 3CE’s current renewable energy mix is higher than PG&E’s, 3CE has also committed to reaching 60-percent clean and renewable energy by 2025 and 100% clean and renewable energy by 2030, 15 years ahead of California’s SB100 goals of 100-percent zero-carbon energy by 2045. 3CE has already invested $1.1 billion in long-term renewable energy contracts and has a request for offers out for long-duration storage for renewable energy, increasing the reliability of renewable resources in California.
3CE service will begin automatically for all electricity customers in enrolling communities throughout January and each customer will receive four mailed notifications in November and December 2020 as well as February and March 2021, highlighting who 3CE is, what the change means for customers, how the enrollment process will unfold and what benefits customers can look forward to.
- For a price comparison of PG&E and 3CE, click here.
- For information on opting out of automatic enrollment to 3CE, click here.
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