Pioneer Community Energy

Pioneer Community Energy and PG&E Notice of Auto-Enrollment and Your Options
Attention all El Dorado Hills residents! Check your mail in November for an upcoming notice of auto-enrollment into Pioneer Community Energy. Beginning January 2022, current PG&E customers residing in El Dorado County will automatically be enrolled with Pioneer Community Energy unless you elect to opt out.

  • El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved Pioneer Community Energy as an energy provider, November 10, 2020.
  • Existing PG&E customers will be sent a mailer in November 2021 alerting them to the change, and will be automatically enrolled with Pioneer Community Energy for electricity generation only.
  • At this time, El Dorado County/Placerville residents are not yet enrolled in Pioneer Energy and will be phased in based on where you live.
  • As long as you opt-out within 60 days of receiving your electricity from Pioneer (2 billing cycles), nothing will change on your bill. If you opt-out after 60 days, rates are not guaranteed to be lower than other PG&E customers for 6 months. 
  • Solar customers will be phased in on a different timeline and closer to their annual true-up date.
  • PG&E will continue to deliver the electricity and provide all other services; you will pay a Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) to PG&E for using Pioneer Energy.
For more information, you can call Pioneer Community Energy at (844) 937-7466 or visit their website https://pioneercommunityenergy.ca.gov/ 

More Information
  • Assembly Bill 117, which was signed into law in 2002 allows local governments to join together to purchase power on behalf of constituents. It is called a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA).
  • On November 10, 2020, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved Resolution 175-2020 requesting membership in Pioneer Community Energy for El Dorado County/Placerville
  • A Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is an opt-out program per Assembly Bill 117 (2002); This means all existing PG&E customers in El Dorado County are automatically enrolled in Pioneer Community Energy for electricity generation only.
  • Under this new program, PG&E will still provide all other services, except electricity generation, such as delivering the energy, maintaining the power lines, reading the meter, making repairs, issuing the bill (on PG&E letterhead), electricity delivery services, etc.
  • For El Dorado County/Placerville existing PG&E customers auto-enrollment into Pioneer Community Energy starts in January 2022 and will be phased in. At this time, there is no specific timeline for each community. Notification will occur by mail two (2) months prior to the start of automatic enrollment.
  • Customers will still receive one bill from PG&E and make one payment to PG&E to cover all utility costs.
    • Pioneer Community Energy will have a line item on PG&E’s bill titled “Pioneer Community Energy Electric Generation Charges"
    • For those customers that do not opt-out of Pioneer Community Energy they will pay a “Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA)” or non-generation rates to PG&E. Residences and businesses will have a different rate which changes annually.
  • Customers who opt-out of Pioneer Community Energy after the 60-day period and return to PG&E electric generation service have the following two options:
    • Option 1: Return at the next meter read at the transitional rate; the transitional rate is based on the current energy market and varies month to month
    • Option 2: Stay 6 months with Pioneer Community Energy and return to PG&E at the standard bundled rate

If a PG&E customer wants to opt-out of Pioneer Community Energy and stay with PG&E energy generation they must contact Pioneer Community Energy at (844) 937-7466 or online at https://pioneercommunityenergy.ca.gov/opt-out/. You will need your PG&E account number.

Additional Resources