(From Press Release) – The Valley Clean Energy Alliance (VCEA) and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) announced today that SMUD has been selected by the VCEA Board of Directors to provide technical and energy services, data management and call center services, wholesale energy services, credit support services, and up to five years of business operations support.
VCEA is set to begin serving electricity customers within the cities of Davis, Woodland, and unincorporated Yolo County in the summer of 2018. Its mission is to deliver cost-competitive clean electricity, product choice, price stability, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emission reductions.
“VCEA was fortunate to have a number of very capable service providers to choose from,” said Don Saylor, Yolo County Supervisor and VCEA Board Chair. “With their depth of expertise, cost competitive proposal, and close alignment with VCEA’s mission, the exceptional value of SMUD’s proposal was clear. We’re eager to get started.”
SMUD is the nation’s sixth largest community-owned electric service provider, serving 1.4 million customers across a 900-square-mile service area. SMUD has been providing low-cost, reliable electricity for more than 65 years to Sacramento County and portions of Placer and Yolo counties.
“We’re very excited that VCEA has chosen SMUD to help launch and operate the first Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) in our region,” said SMUD CEO and General Manager Arlen Orchard. “We have the operational knowledge and experience to help VCEA hit the ground running from day one, and we’re going to work very hard to help them be successful.”
CCA, also known as Community Choice Energy (CCE), allows local governments to pool the electricity demands of their communities and purchase power with higher renewable and lower greenhouse gas 
content than that offered by the existing utility provider. VCEA will work in conjunction with PG&E, who will continue to deliver the electricity from the grid, maintain powerlines, and send customers a single bill. VCEA customers will not experience any service interruptions. Customers are automatically enrolled into CCAs and must opt-out to return to the incumbent utility provider.
CCAs provide a variety of benefits to cities and counties, including stable rates, cleaner energy, and local control. For the first time ever, a majority of Yolo County residents and businesses will have the opportunity to choose between multiple electricity options, each with a different amount of clean and renewable energy.
Since CCA was signed into law in California in 2002, eight programs have successfully launched and are currently operating throughout the state. More than a dozen other jurisdictions are currently working toward establishing CCAs in their communities. With the selection of SMUD as a service provider, and Circlepoint for community outreach services, VCEA will focus next on ramping up its community outreach and education efforts and begin preparing its Implementation Plan for submission to the California Public Utilities Commission this fall.
VCEA is a joint powers agency governed by a six-member Board of Directors with representatives from the Davis City Council, Woodland City Council, and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. The Board is advised by its 9-member Community Advisory Committee. VCEA encourages community members and businesses to attend and provide input at these public meetings and other VCEA community events. Meeting agendas and background information are posted on VCEA’s webpage.
