Community Choice Aggregation Explained: MCE, EBCE, SJCE, and PCE vs PG&E
If you've opened a recent electric bill and seen a name like MCE, East Bay Community Energy, San José Clean Energy, or Peninsula Clean Energy where you expected to see PG&E, you haven't switched utilities. You've been enrolled, automatically in most cases, in a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program.
Here's what that actually means for your bill, and what to check before assuming it's saving or costing you money.
What a CCA Actually Is
A Community Choice Aggregation program lets a city or county buy electricity generation on behalf of residents, instead of relying on PG&E's default generation mix. PG&E still owns the wires, still delivers the power, still reads your meter, and still sends you the bill. The only thing that changes is who supplies the generation: the actual electricity itself.
That split shows up directly on your bill as two separate line items:
- Generation charges are now billed by your CCA (e.g., MCE, EBCE, SJCE, PCE) instead of PG&E
- Delivery charges, transmission, distribution, and grid maintenance, are still billed by PG&E, unchanged
Several CCAs operate within PG&E's territory today, generally organized by county or city: MCE (Marin, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano), East Bay Community Energy (Alameda County), San José Clean Energy (San José), and Peninsula Clean Energy (San Mateo County), among others. Most residents are auto-enrolled when their city or county joins a CCA. You can opt out and return to full PG&E bundled service, but almost nobody does, because most CCA default tiers are priced to be competitive with or below PG&E generation rates.
Why This Confuses People
Three things trip people up when a CCA shows up on their bill for the first time:
1. It looks like a new company, but it isn't a new utility. Power outages, service requests, meter issues, and payment still go through PG&E. The CCA only handles the generation side of the ledger.
2. Most CCAs offer more than one tier. A "default" tier (typically 50%+ renewable) and a premium "100% renewable" opt-in tier are common; MCE's Light Green vs. Deep Green and EBCE's Bright Choice vs. Brilliant 100 are examples of this pattern. The premium tier costs more per kWh. If your bill jumped after a CCA enrollment, check which tier you're on before assuming something is wrong. You may have been auto-enrolled in the premium tier, or you may just be comparing against a stale PG&E baseline.
3. Your PG&E rate plan (E-1, E-TOU-C, E-TOU-D, EV2-A) doesn't change. The time-of-use schedule and delivery rate structure are still set by PG&E. A CCA changes the generation price, not the plan structure. If you're on the wrong TOU plan for your usage pattern, switching CCAs won't fix that. See our PG&E rate plans comparison for how to check.
What to Actually Check
Since CCA generation rates and PG&E rates both move independently and change periodically, don't assume last year's comparison still holds. Before drawing any conclusion about whether your CCA is saving you money:
- Confirm which tier you're enrolled in. It's printed on your bill, usually near the generation charge line.
- Compare your CCA's current published generation rate against PG&E's current published generation rate for your rate plan. Both should be listed on your CCA's rate schedule page and on PG&E's tariff book. Don't rely on last year's numbers or a number you saw quoted somewhere else.
- Check whether you're still on the right PG&E delivery plan. The CCA switch and the rate-plan question are separate problems, and it's easy to only fix one.
- If you have solar, confirm your CCA's net energy metering (NEM) export credit rate. Some CCAs credit exports differently than PG&E does under NEM 2.0/3.0. See our NEM 3.0 vs NEM 2.0 breakdown if you're not sure which program you're on.
Where My Big Bill Fits In
My Big Bill's analyzer reads your actual bill, detects whether you're on a CCA (MCE, EBCE, SJCE, PCE, and others), and separates your generation and delivery charges so you can see exactly what each party is charging you. It doesn't guess at current rates. It works from what's printed on your bill, plus your actual usage pattern, to flag whether your PG&E delivery plan matches your usage and whether your NEM export credit (if you have solar) is being applied correctly.
If a number looks off, the honest answer is usually "check your bill's rate schedule against the CCA's published rate sheet" rather than a guess. That's what the analyzer is built to do for you automatically.
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