DAVIS, Calif. (April 21, 2021) — Valley Clean Energy is pleased to announce that it has joined nine other Community Choice Aggregation programs (CCAs) across California in a new Joint Powers Authority (JPA), California Community Power. Membership in this new JPA enables CCAs to achieve their ambitious climate and resilience goals in a cost-effective manner by combining their purchasing power.
The new JPA serves over 2 million customers in more than 140 municipalities from Humboldt to Santa Barbara. Member CCAs include Valley Clean Energy, Central Coast Community Energy, East Bay Community Energy, MCE, Peninsula Clean Energy, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, San Jose Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power, and CleanPowerSF.
“This new agreement allows us to join forces with other community choice aggregators like us to go after a share of clean power deals that might be too big to make sense for us alone,” said Dan Carson, Chair of the VCE Board of Directors and a member of the Davis City Council.
“For example, this new agreement would enable us to join with other CCAs to procure energy resources from long-term storage facilities that will complement our use of solar generation in peak periods during the day. It is another critical piece of our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that pose a danger to our community and our planet.”
Under the JPA structure, CCA members choose which projects to participate in. Each CCA is represented on the Board of Directors, which operates as a public entity with open and transparent meetings in compliance with the Brown Act.
“Over the years, as the CCA movement has grown, there has been an increase of CCA joint procurement efforts for large-scale renewables and energy storage projects,” said Beth Vaughan, Executive Director of the California Community Choice Association (CalCCA).
“The creation of California Community Power represents a truly community-led approach to advancing cleaner energy, greater reliability and reduced costs for ratepayers.”
“With the addition of Valley Clean Energy, California Community Power will be able to extend our benefits to even more customers. Together, we are advancing innovative solutions to reliably and affordably transition to a decarbonized grid,” said Girish
Balachandran, California Community Power Board Chair and Silicon Valley Clean Energy CEO.
The JPA structure safeguards members from additional liabilities so there is no added risk, said Mitch Sears, VCE’s Interim General Manager, who will be the local agency’s designee for the California Community Power Board.
“Therefore, the VCE Board of Directors will have the opportunity to fully consider the benefits, obligations and risks of each California Community Power project that VCE may want to join,” he added.
Valley Clean Energy is Yolo County’s Community Choice Aggregation program, dedicated to providing clean, affordable electricity to its customers in the cities of Woodland, Davis and Winters as well as unincorporated Yolo County.
For more information about VCE, visit valleycleanenergy.org or call 855-699-8232.
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About VCE: Valley Clean Energy is a not-for-profit public agency formed to provide electrical generation service to customers in Woodland, Davis, Winters and the unincorporated areas of Yolo County. Its mission is to source cost-competitive clean electricity while providing product choice, price stability, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reductions and reinvestment in the communities it serves. For more information about VCE, visit valleycleanenergy.org or call 855-699-8232.