Electricity Market Structure
Retail electric competition was introduced in California when Assembly Bill 1890 was passed in 1996 and enacted in March 1998. The bill provided all customers with "Direct Access," which allowed them to choose their own energy service provider. The California Public Utility Commission suspended Direct Access on September 20, 2001. Since then, businesses that wish to shop around for a competitive electricity rate have had no choice but to buy from their local utility.
There was one caveat to the suspension bill, however. Businesses that signed contracts with energy service providers such as Constellation NewEnergy prior to September 20, 2001, were exempt until the expiration of their current contract. Additionally, those "grandfathered" businesses could switch from one energy service provider to another as long as they had not returned to local utility service since the expiration of their original supply contract.
About Switching in California
For current Direct Access customers to be eligible to stay or expand your relationship with a retail energy service provider, your company must be located in one or more of these utilities' service territories:
- Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE)
- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE)
- Southern California Edison (SCE)
The first step in switching your business' electricity service is completing an Authorization to: Receive Customer Information or Act on a Customer's Behalf form that allows Constellation NewEnergy to gather historical electricity usage data from your utility. This data is necessary to analyze your power consumption patterns and to develop a proposal that is customized to the needs of your business.
You will then sign a retail Electricity Supply Agreement stating the specific product your price for electric service and the duration of the agreement. After our agreement is signed, the enrollment process is simple. Our local operations team will work to provide a seamless transition from the utility as your electricity accounts are transferred to our service.
 authorization_CA_utilites.pdf
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