Background

Californians receive their electricity services from three types of providers: Investor-Owned Utilities, Local Publicly Owned Electric Services, or Electric Service Provider.

Investor-Owned Utilities (IOU’s) provide 68 percent of electric services in California. Major electric IOU’s include PG&E, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison. Each service providers by law must provide electricity to their designed area and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) control how they provide electricity and the rates in which they charge their customers for electricity use.

Public Owned Utilities, which provide 24 percent of electric services, work only for local businesses and residents in their area. Public Owned Utilities have their own terms of services because the CPUC don’t have control of them and they choose what their rates are going to be.

Electric Service Providers (ESP) provide 8 percent of electric services. ESP’s provide electricity to consumers that don’t want to receive electricity from IOU’s or Public Owned Utilities either because of a lack of trust or because they live in an area where they don’t provide electricity. Consumers sign a direct contract with ESP’s that provide electricity through their distribution system.

The government is creating more electric public providers and trying to expand its public owned utilities into territories served by IOU’s. In order for this to be achieved, voters in general need to approve of expansion of public owned utilities.