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SVCE to Deliver Carbon Free Electricity and Savings Earlier than Planned

Board of Directors votes to combine the second and third enrollment phases for customers

Sunnyvale, Calif. – At the Mar. 8, 2017 Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) Board of Directors meeting, the board voted in favor of combining the last two enrollment phases for customers. The vote means that starting in July 2017, SVCE will enroll around 180,000 customers in its Community Choice Energy program in addition to the 68,000 customers that would be on board in April.

Originally, the enrollment plan was to take place in three phases – April, July and October 2017. The rationale for the gradual enrollment was that a high volume of enrolled customers at once could result in system overloads and long hold times for the customer service contact center. Also, staff were concerned about securing power resources to deliver to all customers.

“During this first period of customer notifications, we have learned that our staff, customer service and power suppliers are all ready and capable of scaling up for a combined enrollment in July,” said Tom Habashi, CEO of Silicon Valley Clean Energy. “This decision demonstrates our organization’s ability to take advantage of favorable conditions and make swift decisions that will benefit our customers with carbon-free electricity and save them money sooner.”

In January and February 2017, notifications were sent to customers scheduled to be enrolled in Phase 1 of the program. Phase 1 is comprised of 20 percent of residential accounts, all small and medium commercial customers, municipal accounts for member cities and large commercial customers that opted to participate in the first phase of the program.

With the combining of Phase 2 and 3, all remaining customers will be enrolled in July 2017. This includes 80 percent of SVCE’s residential customers, all large commercial and industrial accounts and agriculture accounts. By the end of 2017, more than one million Californians will be served by a Community Choice Energy program.

Expediting the customer transition to SVCE will allow staff to focus on serving the whole community and simplify the enrollment completion. Bringing the benefits of clean energy and local control earlier translates to good news for the member communities, and demonstrates leadership for the region.