Bakersfield council directs staff to study utility-scale energy options after CCA presentation

Bakersfield City Council voted March 25 to direct staff to pursue preliminary planning for utility-scale distributed energy resources (DER) after hearing a technical study on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and a separate pitch for municipal energy projects.

The council’s action came after a presentation by Barbara Boswell of the California Choice Energy Authority (Cal Choice), which summarized a city-commissioned technical analysis of forming a local CCA and the costs and steps involved. Boswell said the study estimates total startup costs of about $16 million, including roughly $6.8 million in implementation expenses such as staffing, regulatory filings and customer outreach. “We estimate that that upfront cost to be $16 million,” Boswell said during her presentation.

Why it matters: council members framed the discussion as a search for tools that could reduce long-term energy costs, support local resilience and spur economic development. Proponents said municipal energy and DER could help Bakersfield attract industry and lower operating costs for city facilities; skeptics cautioned about startup costs,…