Community Renewables Program

Program Benefits

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Contribute toward the increased use of renewable energy to power California homes and businesses.

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Expand your options to increase renewable energy, especially if rooftop solar is not an option for you.

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Support the environment by reducing your greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity and supporting clean energy for a brighter future in Southern California.

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How the Community Renewables Program Works

  • Step 1: Request information from a participating developer about projects in your community.
  • Step 2: Contract directly with the developer on a specific renewables project and subscribe to a portion of the project’s output corresponding to all or a portion of your energy needs. The customer enters into a private agreement with the developer, where the electricity price, agreement, and cancellation terms are defined.
  • Step 3: After the facility becomes operational, look for your confirmation of enrollment on your electricity bill.

The developer sends you a bill for renewable power they are producing for you. In turn, you will receive a bill credit on your monthly SCE energy statement based on your subscribed portion of the project’s monthly output. You should start to receive a bill credit within 60 days after you enroll, or when the facility becomes operational, whichever comes later. The bill credit will represent the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) you signed up for in a particular month multiplied by the Community Renewables rate. This may differ between the amount of energy that you use and the amount of money you owe the developer. Please review SCE’s GTSR rate schedules in Advice Letter 5235-E for more details on rate amounts. Questions? Please call 1-866-701-7867 or email CommRenewables@sce.com.

View SCE’s GTSR rates schedule in Advice Letter 5235-E To view the current average mix of resources supplying SCE’s power customers, please visit SCE’s Power Content Label.

For questions regarding:

  • Application documents and customer agreements: contact the developer directly.
  • For cancellation terms and requests, contact the developer directly as cancellation policies vary. A developer is responsible to inform SCE if a Customer-Developer Agreement has expired, cancelled, if a customer is no longer part of the Community Renewables Program, or has moved out of SCE’s territory. That customer will no longer be eligible for bill credits.
  • Customer charges and/or credits on the SCE customer bill, speak with your account representative or call the SCE Customer Contact Center at 1-866-701-7867.
  • Customer concerns regarding developer conduct, e-mail CommRenewables@SCE.com

Green Rate

Learn about the Green Rate and how you can contribute to more renewable energy for our community. Learn more

Community Renewables for Developers

If you are a developer and interested in participating in SCE’s Community Renewables program, please learn more here.

Community Renewables Charges & Credits

Charges and credits are updated annually as part of SCE’s Energy Resource Recovery Account (ERRA) proceeding, and credits may also be updated when there is a substantial change to the generated revenue requirement. View more information regarding the current Rate Components here in Advice Letter 5235-E.

Class Average Generation Credit

The amount credited reflects the average cost that you would have paid for generation if you did not participate in the Community Renewables program. This is an average cost per kWh.

Solar Value Adjustment (Time of Delivery Adjustment)

Solar energy that is purchased is delivered during the day, but most people tend to use more energy at night when prices are higher. This adjustment accounts for the difference.

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Renewable Power Rate

The Renewable Power Rate ($ per kWh) is the Community Renewables (CR) Contract Price included in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for a specific CR facility. This charge is always offset to $0.00 since the PPA requires that the Developer allow the CR Contract Price payment for energy related to subscribed capacity to be assigned to the Customer based on the Customer’s Subscription.

CAISO Grid and WREGIS Charges

CAISO grid management charges include energy usage, energy transmission, and reliability service costs and charges that are allocated by the independent system operator. These charges also include market services, system operations and congestion revenue rights service charges and costs, as well as eligible intermittent resources forecast fee. The WREGIS charges are based on fees assessed by that system for registration, tracking and retirement of renewable energy credits associated with generation used to serve Community Renewables participants.

Resource Adequacy

This adjustment ensures that there are sufficient generating resources and margin available for anticipated system and local customer demand. This adjustment also accounts for the value associated with the power supplied by the Community Renewables facilities.

Renewables Integration Cost

The Renewable Integration Charge includes costs associated with integrating new renewable resources with the grid. The charge is currently $0.

Program Administration Charge

This is the additional per customer cost that we incur to run the Community Renewables Program.

Marketing, Education, and Outreach Charge

The per customer cost of promoting and educating participants and potential participants about the Community Renewables Program.

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Indifference Adjustment

The Indifference Adjustment is a rate component intended to ensure that Community Renewables Program participants pay for the above-market costs of resources procured on their behalf prior to participating in the Community Renewables Program, and to prevent customers not participating in the Community Renewables Program from subsidizing participants. The Indifference Adjustment is made up of the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment and the Competition Transition Charge. Based on the date you begin to receive service under the Community Renewables program, you are assigned a particular year, or “vintage”. The vintage will remain constant for as long as you participate in the program. Even if you move, you will retain your same vintage at your new location (provided you move within our service territory and choose to continue participating in the Community Renewables program when establishing your new service account). The Indifference Adjustment vintage is updated annually on July 1. If you sign up prior to July 1, you will be placed on the previous year’s vintage. After July 1, you will be placed on this year’s vintage. Therefore, if you enroll in Community Renewables effective June 1, 2023, you will be on the 2022 vintage. For more details on these components, please view the latest version in Schedule CCA-CRS.

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Indifference Rate is sum of Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) and Competition Transition Charge (CTC), based on Original Vintage.

"CRF Spec" stands for "Community Renewable Facility Specific." Actual Resource Adequacy (RA) Adjustment charges and Time-of-Delivery (TOD) Adjustment credits would be dependent and specific on the operating characteristics of the Community Renewable Facility. Estimates of RA Adjustment charges and TOD adjustment credits can be obtained by using proxies from 20-year forecasts of rate components of Schedule GTSR - Green Rate (GR).

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The 20-year forecast of credits and charges shown here are based on a methodology ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for use by the state’s three large investor-owned utilities. The forecasts are provided to illustrate potential future changes to the credits and charges to help you evaluate your intended participation in the GTSR program. As the CPUC acknowledged in D.16-05-006, an estimate of GTSR credits and charges for 20 years (or even 5 to 10 years) is challenging and unlikely to be accurate. Moreover, the 20-year forecasts shown here are not necessarily representative of SCE-specific forecasts of rate components. SCE can neither predict nor guarantee any actual cost savings or increases due to changes to these credits and charges, and such changes will affect actual costs. Please contact SCE for more information about this forecast. If you have a SCE account representative, please contact your SCE account representative for more information about this forecast or your available rate options.

2024 Community Renewables Rate Forecast >

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The information on this website respecting Green-e Energy and Green-e® Energy requirements was provided in part by Green-e® Energy. Accordingly, while SCE strives to make the information on this website as timely and accurate as possible, SCE makes no claims, promises, or guarantees and does not represent or warrant the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of the information provided by Green-e® Energy, and expressly disclaims any liability for errors or omissions in contents of this website provided by Green-e® Energy. Green-e® Energy requirements can be found at https://www.green-e.org/programs/energy/ca-ecr. In connection with a developer’s participation in the Community Renewables program and in connection with the issuance of any Community Renewables bill credit to a customer, the contents of this website do not govern or create privity of contract, the contents of each Customer Developer Agreement, the CR-RAM PPA, or the appropriate advice letter establishing the Community Renewables bill credit will govern, as applicable.

In accordance with Senate Bill 43 (SB43), SCE’s Community Renewables Program is required to be Green-e® Energy certified as administered by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions. Green-e® Energy is North America’s leading voluntary certification program for renewable energy. Since 1997, Green-e® Energy has certified renewable energy that meets environmental and consumer protection standards that were developed in conjunction with leading environmental, energy and policy organizations. Green-e® Energy requires that sellers of certified renewable energy disclose clear and useful information to potential customers, allowing consumers to make informed choices. Green-e® Energy Certification provides consumers with assurance that the product sold under SCE meets the Green-e® Energy National Standard, is not double counted, and is marketed in a clear and accurate way to customers.

Under the California Enhanced Community Renewables program, renewable energy project developers take on the responsibility for marketing their renewable project(s) directly to customers and must comply with Green-e® Energy environmental and consumer protection standards. This compliance includes following Green-e® Energy guidelines for all product marketing, an obligation to provide customers with accurate and sufficient disclosures regarding the developer’s project(s), and following the California Public Utility Commission’s Decision on Community Choice Aggregation Code of Conduct - Attachment 1, which includes marketing and outreach requirements. For more information on Green-e® Energy developer and generator requirements under SB43, visit Green-e® Energy’s California Enhanced Community Renewables.

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