As your electricity provider, we’re not just focused on delivering your electricity; we’re here to help you find ways to reduce your energy use. For residential and businesses of all sizes, we offer the Capacity Bidding Program (CBP), which rewards you for reducing energy when energy prices are high, demand reaches critical levels, or supply is limited. By pledging to use less energy when a CBP event is called, your business can help us prevent outages and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all while earning incentives that can create significant savings on your electric bill. 

Get Paid to Reduce with CBP
 

• Receive a monthly incentive payment even if no load reduction events are called
• Participate through a third-party Aggregator 
• Make flexible monthly choices; you control how much you bid each month

Maximize Incentive Payments to Your Bottom Line

The CBP offers two types of incentive payments: Energy Payments and Capacity Payments. Energy Payments are only earned when events occur and are based on your actual energy-use reduction. Generally, Capacity Payments are based on the load reduction amount you nominated for the month and vary depending on the month’s capacity price. The closer your average actual energy load reduction during event hours is to your bid/nomination amount, the higher your Capacity Payment. If no event is called in a given month, you’ll receive the full Capacity Payment. If you fail to meet your bid commitment during an event, you may be subject to penalties, so we recommend attainable bidding reduction levels.

Is Your Organization Eligible?

We invite and encourage all of our business customers to participate in the CBP, whether you are a large-scale operation or one with multiple smaller locations under one portfolio. To participate, you must have an approved meter that measures energy use in hourly increments. In some cases, business customers who are already enrolled in a Demand Response (DR) rate plan or program may not be eligible for this program. Please see the Dual Participation rules for more information.
 

Getting Enrolled

You may enroll through a third-party aggregator, or if your business has a single or multiple service account with us, you may want to self-aggregate. You’ll need to meet certain requirements, and you’ll be able to manage your CBP portfolio through our online system. Start by calling your Account Manager or the Demand Response Helpline. We can help you determine if you’re eligible and properly metered and review your enrollment options.

The Capacity Bidding Program is a May to October, event-based program to temporarily reduce energy usage, which means we may call an event any day of the week but are limited to:

• 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in May
• 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. from June to October

Events are called in response to weather—or system-related energy shortages and high energy prices, or they may be called once per month (6 times per year) for testing purposes. Each month, you choose how much your business can commit to reducing, and you’ll receive incentive payments for meeting your bid. Even if no CBP event is called, you’ll still earn incentives, so it pays to participate.

Events can be scheduled on a day-ahead basis and last from one to five hours. Event participants will not be required to reduce load for more than one event per day or for more than 30 hours per month.

Flexibility to Change

We know your business energy needs can change from month to month, so we designed the CBP to give you the control and flexibility to change your commitment, or “Capacity Nomination,” on a month-to-month basis. Once enrolled, you can access our easy online system to choose your bid amount and set notification preferences. You can also opt to be notified the day before the event by your choice of email, SMS text message, or telephone so that you can plan ahead.

What Types of Reductions Can I Make?
 

Common examples include:

Our customers find that many energy-intensive processes can be shifted by a few hours to facilitate participation.

For more customized reduction strategies, visit sce.com/energytips.
 

Additional Resources to Manage Your Energy Use

If you’re a medium or large business, we invite you to take advantage of SCE EnergyManager® online. This online resource can help you save time and money, while providing tools to evaluate your bids. You may also consider installing Automated Demand Response enabling equipment that automatically reduces your energy use during CBP events and other DR programs. Talk to your SCE Account Manager or visit sce.com/drp to learn more.

For answers to frequently asked questions, please see the CBP FAQ sheet.

For CBP program, please contact your SCE Account Manager or call the Demand Response Helpline at 1-866-334-7827 or visit us at sce.com/drp.