In the era of electric deregulation customers in some states now have the ability to choose their electric supplier. But early indications are that the vast majority of consumers will choose not to choose. Who, then, should be their default supplier? In most states the incumbent utility has been given this huge pot of customers – California,Massachusetts and Ohio have decided that it should be the town or city who is responsible for serving these customers.
Community choice, or aggregation, will create community pools of electricity large enough to command leverage on the market, and with sufficient legal authority and financial flexibility to demand contracts from energy suppliers that satisfy local economic and environmental goals. In short, it places authority in the hands of those who will feel the impact of their decisions, making investment in renewable electricity much more likely.
Read our 2020 report Community Choice Energy: An Alternative to Electricity Monopolies Enables Communities to Center People and Planet or our 2009 report providing an update on the status of community choice aggregation programs, Community Choice Aggregation: An Update.