West Hollywood residents and businesses one day will have a choice when it comes to electricity with the Clean Power Alliance of Southern California.
The Clean Power Alliance is the new name for L.A. Community Choice Energy, a coalition of cities that have joined together to purchase electricity in the wholesale power market and sell it to their residents and businesses at competitive rates.
CPA will roll out in three phases throughout 2018, beginning with Los Angeles County-owned municipal buildings today. Service will begin for commercial and industrial customers of Clean Power Alliance’s members in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in June, with service to residential customers set to begin in December, 2018.
“The time has come for consumers in Southern California to exercise more control over their energy options,” said Diana Mahmud, the alliance’s newly elected chair. “I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the Clean Power Alliance’s efforts to offer our customers this choice.”
Mahmud, a South Pasadena City Council member, also announced the appointment of the organization’s first executive director, Ted Bardacke. Currently the director of infrastructure in the Office of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Bardacke will begin his new position later this month.
“I am thrilled to have been selected to help build and lead our new clean energy utility,” Bardacke said in an announcement today. “Clean Power Alliance enables local communities to control their own power supply, rates and customer programs such as incentives for energy efficiency, solar, and electric vehicles. Together with our partner cities and customers, we are fighting climate change and re-making Southern California’s energy future now.”
From three initial member agencies at its July 2017 launch, the alliance has grown to include 27 cities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties representing 2.4 million residents, with more lined up to join. In all, the Clean Power Alliance will expect to have more than 1 million residential accounts and a quarter million commercial accounts by the end of the year, and will help to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by up to 9% across the region.
The Clean Power Alliance is made up of geographically and socioeconomically diverse cities and unincorporated county areas across Southern California, including the counties of Los Angeles and Ventura and the cities of Agoura Hills, Arcadia, Alhambra, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Camarillo, Carson, Claremont, Culver City, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Moorpark, Ojai, Paramount, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Simi Valley, Temple City, Thousand Oaks, West Hollywood and Whittier.
The alliance is expected to reduce electricity bills of residential customers by as much as 5% from what they now pay to Southern California Edison. Customers won’t see any change in service because it will be supplied through SoCal Edison, which will handle the billing.
