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Title: Empowered communities: The rise of community choice aggregation in the United States

Journal Article · · Energy Policy
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [5]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Clean Kilowatts, LLC, New York, NY (United States)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  4. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  5. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
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Community choice aggregation (CCA) is a new model of energy procurement that allows local governmental entities to procure electricity on behalf of retail electricity customers. Through CCA, local governments can control local electricity portfolios while investor-owned utilities remain responsible for transmission and distribution. In this article, we use a combination of publicly-available data, data obtained directly from CCAs, and stakeholder interviews to explore the rise of CCAs, the current and potential future impacts of CCAs on demand for renewable energy, and the factors that will determine future CCA expansion. We believe that CCAs procured about 42 million megawatt-hours of electricity on behalf of about 5 million customers in the United States in 2017. We estimate that CCAs already procure about 8.9 million megawatt-hours more renewable energy than required by state mandates, and that CCAs could procure as much as 28.9 million megawatt-hours of voluntary renewable energy if the CCA model is permitted in more states. The ongoing expansion of CCAs could significantly affect electricity markets, electricity portfolios, and the future role of utilities. We investigate various challenges associated with the further expansion of CCAs.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1543127
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2325510
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-6A20-72726
Journal Information:
Energy Policy, Vol. 132, Issue C; ISSN 0301-4215
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 25 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables (12)

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Figure 3(p. 18)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 19)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 21)figure Figure 5
Table 4(p. 27)table Table 4
Figure 6(p. 31)figure Figure 6
Table 5(p. 32)table Table 5
Figure 7(p. 37)figure Figure 7

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Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
community choice aggregation
retail choice
electricity markets
deregulation
renewable energy