The City’s 2017 Climate Action Plan set a goal of utilizing 100% clean renewable energy in our community.  Clean energy provides a range of benefits from improving the health and security of our communities to creating more jobs in clean energy and technology industries.  One possible path to help achieve that goal was evaluating the feasibility of a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program, also known as Community Choice Energy (CCE), as identified in the 2017 CAP as implementation action 3.2.2.A. CCAs give residents and businesses an opportunity to choose who will purchase energy on their behalf, either the CCA or the incumbent utility, and the renewable content of their electricity.  In late 2018, the City initiated a process to evaluate if a CCA would be beneficial for the environment and economic development of Chula Vista and results can be found below.

Community Choice Aggregation Timeline

Community Choice Aggregation Formation

After City Council’s unanimous adoption of the CCA Feasibility Study in July 2019, Councilmembers directed City staff to return in August 2019 with information on two of the possible CCA governance options.  City staff returned with information about the “Regional JPA” and “Enterprise JPA” governance options and were instructed to pursue CCA formation through the Regional JPA approach.  Staff worked with JPA partners and returned September 2019 with documents that allow the City to join the JPA and formalize the intent to participate in a CCA program.  In September 2019, the city councils of the cities of San Diego, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista all voted to work together to form the San Diego Community Power (SDCP) and worked on forming a board and creating an implementation plan. SDCP staff filed required documents with the California Public Utilities Commission before the end of 2019 in order to be able to provide power to its potential ratepayers in 2021.

Feasibility Study

The cities of Chula Vista, La Mesa and Santee launched a joint Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Feasibility Study to assess the viability of a CCA in their respective communities in early 2019. The Request for Proposals (RFP) was released in October 2018 and EES Consulting was selected by City Council in February of 2019.  Two public workshops were held in May 2019 to provide information about CCA basics and the Feasibility Study.  The Feasibility Study was approved by City Council on July 23, 2019 and found that a CCA is economically feasible in Chula Vista and could provide community benefits such as lower electrical rates, lower greenhouse gas emissions and increased local control.  A link to the full report is below.

City Documents

Chula Vista + La Mesa Press Release regarding RFP

Chula Vista + La Mesa Feasibility Study Joint RFP

CCA Feasibility Report

CCA Workshops

City staff and their consultants presented information about CCA basics, the Feasibility Study and how it connects to the City’s Climate Action Plan at two public workshops. They were held at the Civic Center Library on May 28, 2019 and the Otay Ranch Library on May 29, 2019 and the presentations can be viewed with the link below.

Presentation - CCA Intro

Presentation - CCA Background