Clean Power Alliance Launches Zero-Cost Daytime Electricity Pilot
News related to:Clean Power Alliance · 2 min read
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 1, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Clean Power Alliance, the nation's leading green power provider and California's largest community choice energy aggregator, has launched a groundbreaking pilot program aimed at testing the effectiveness of zero-cost daytime electricity. More than 4,000 Southern California households are participating in the two-year Time-Of-Use-SMART Pilot (TOU-SMART), a collaborative research effort with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The TOU-SMART pilot will provide participating customers with a $0-per-kilowatt-hour generation rate from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., CPA's super-off-peak period. This initiative is designed to encourage households to shift their electricity usage to the daytime when solar power is abundant, potentially reducing their overall energy bills. Generation charges will increase slightly during the overnight off-peak period from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., creating an incentive to use electricity during the day.
Under the pilot, participants will receive bill protection designed to ensure they are not financially disadvantaged by taking part in the program. If a participant would have paid more under TOU-SMART than under their previous TOU-D-PRIME rate, CPA will provide a bill credit for the difference at the end of each 12-month period. Participants can also disenroll from the pilot at any time.
The TOU-SMART pilot comes as proposals for lower-cost daytime electricity enter California's policy conversation.
The pilot will measure whether customers change their electricity-use patterns, what motivates those changes, how long they last, and how responses differ among households. CPA will also examine the effectiveness of different behavioral messages designed to encourage load shifting. Some communications will emphasize potential cost savings, while others will focus on environmental benefits.
Professor Magali Delmas of UCLA Anderson School of Management and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability is leading the research.
The pilot is part of CPA's broader efforts to promote the use of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CPA is the not-for-profit electricity provider serving 38 communities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. CPA provides clean renewable energy at competitive rates for approximately three million residents and businesses, along with innovative programs that promote resiliency, electrification, and customer bill savings.
The results of the TOU-SMART pilot could help inform future rates, customer programs, and outreach strategies. For participating customers, the pilot provides an opportunity to explore new ways of managing household electricity use while contributing to research into how consumers can help create a more flexible, renewable-powered electric grid.