On September 20, 2018, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 237. SB 237 requires the California Public Utility Commission (PUC) to file a plan to increase California’s Direct Access (DA) annual electricity cap by 4,000 GWh on or before June 1, 2019.

California Electric Load Currently Being Serviced By Third-Party Energy Suppliers

DA service is a program where non-residential customers can choose to purchase electricity from a competitive 3rd party provider called an Electric Service Provider (ESP). Under participation in DA, customers can seek bids from multiple ESP’s who typically offer considerably lower costs than published utility rates. The current DA program, only available in 3 of the utility regions in the state, has been in place for a number of years and is fully subscribed thus restricting new entries into it to a lottery program held each summer with very limited new participation possible each year.

The expended program should allow many more customers to participate, according to the apportion increase in allowed shopping among the service territories of the participating electrical corporations (SCE, SDG&E, and PG&E). The bill requires the PUC plan to include recommendations on both the allocation of the additional allowance and the timeline for implementation.

Tradition Energy will continue to monitor these proceedings but encourage all commercial and industrial customers in California to remain in contact with their Tradition Energy advisor as space under the expanded program is likely to fill quickly.