The viability of Community Choice energy is being threatened by the PCIA, the “Power Charge Indifference Adjustment”. The PCIA is an ongoing fee levied by the CPUC on Community Choice customers. It is being gamed by the state’s monopoly utilities with the support of the CPUC.
The result has been dramatic increases in the PCIA that are undermining the viability of Community Choice programs, the same programs which have played a leading role in combating climate change and providing other benefits to our communities.
The time has come to sunset the PCIA.
Since 2016, the Alliance has consistently called for an end to the PCIA. We have:
- Released our Position Paper on “Sunsetting the PCIA” (November 2020).
- Filed a Protest, Comments and Reply Brief in A20-07-009, SDG&E’s attempt to weaponize PCIA increases against customers of Solana Energy Alliance, San Diego County’s first Community Choice program (October 2020);
- Supported a petition to the California Court of Appeals to review the CPUC’s October 2018 “Peterman Decision” by submitting an Amicus Brief, laying out the PCIA’s increasing damage to Community Choice (July 2020).
- Proposed a “Community Choice Bill of Bights” which called for freezing and sunsetting the PCIA as its first priority (March 2019);
- Campaigned against the “Peterman Decision” that dramatically increased PCIA fees; see our “Roll Back the Attack” campaign (February 2019);
- Released a letter from the Alliance to the CPUC calling for phaseout of the PCIA (March 2016).
We Need Legislative Action. Now.
Here’s our Position Paper, making the argument. Others agree:
- Our Position Paper: “Sunsetting the PCIA”
- “California’s big three utility companies stand in the way of consumer choice” – Op-Ed by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2020.