Community Choice Aggregation (also called Community Choice Energy) allows communities, or groups of communities served by an investor-owned utility (such as Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power, and Southwest Gas) to choose wholesale electricity suppliers on behalf of their residents and businesses. Electricity is still delivered by the investor-owned utility (IOU), which continues to own and operate its power lines (the polls and wires) and manage transmission, power outages, customer service and billing. This differs from a municipal electric utility that is responsible for all the functions of an IOU, not just electricity procurement or generation.
CCA has great promise for giving local communities more choice and control over their energy sources, energy costs, local energy programs, and local jobs and economic development.
CCAs help to cut energy consumption and build local renewable energy resources, while maintaining competitive rates for ratepayers. CCA programs have the potential to spur local economic development in the communities they serve, provide good local clean energy jobs, offer competitive electric utility rates, reduce pollution, water usage and other community benefits.
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