Center for Community Energy - Encinitas

THIS IS OUR CHALLENGE AND MISSION For more than 100 years, electricity was delivered in a one-way flow from large generators via the grid to consumers. Monopolies were once the natural means of operating such a system. Now, however, breakthroughs in renewable generation, batteries, and control systems have made it possible for communities to take control of their energy needs and achieve the environmental, employment, financial, and resiliency benefits that flow from local management and control.

The Center for Community Energy is dedicated to helping communities and rate payers by facilitating the transformation of local energy production, procurement, and transmission through research, education, technical advice, and consulting.

Our vision of community energy extends through all levels, from individual buildings to whole communities.

* At the most basic level, individual homeowners and businesses are already installing solar power and beginning to install batteries.
* Local microgrids can tie together facilities and allow them to remain operational in the event of grid failures.
* At the largest scale, communities are forming Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) to take control of the purchasing of electricity.

All of these things are feasible today, and as renewable energy becomes cheaper, they are increasingly cost effective. At this point, the greatest barriers are obsolete regulations. As a designated intervenor to the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), CCE is well positioned to take facts, data, and solution proposals to the PUC and present these on behalf of rate payors, i.e., paying customers that include individuals, families, seniors, students, small businesses, and other non-profit organizations.