“West Sacramento eyes potential replacement for PG&E” August 5, 2024

By Luke Cleary

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — West Sacramento could be changing the way PG&E customers pay for their power. 

Many communities have turned to California Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) in an attempt to reduce high costs and restore local control over how they get their power. 

West Sacramento is now exploring whether to join Auburn, Colfax, Lincoln and other communities as part of Pioneer Community Energy.

The not-for-profit entity purchases electricity on behalf of residents and businesses in hopes of saving people cash. 

It comes at a time when many PG&E customers are feeling burned by exceptionally high bills. 

“I’m calling it a crisis,” said West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero, who is asking the city council to explore membership with Pioneer on their next agenda. 

“They said they have good results, they have lower bills. They showed us data,” Guerrero said. 

The concept is that West Sacramento would buy its energy in bulk and then try to pass on savings to its constituents. 

Steve Weissman, a lecturer at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, said community choice aggregators like Pioneer are gaining in popularity across the state. 

There are now 25 of them. Unlike utilities, like Sacramento’s SMUD, CCAs don’t own the poles and wires. They still rely on PG&E to move the power and make repairs. But they do generally end up saving customers some money, Weissman said. 

However, there are other benefits; local governments work with the non-profit, not PG&E, to reach other goals, such as the move toward more renewable energy. 

“If people in the community are really interested in trying to be cleaner and more environmentally responsible, there’s an opportunity to do more things to get there,” Weissman said. 

State data shows 14 million customers are now served by CCAs, and that number is expected to grow. As for West Sacramento, it could take another two to three years before it could join.