Direct Access Electricity in California: Who Can Still Get It and How the Lottery Works

Direct Access lets a California business buy its electricity from a competitive Electric Service Provider instead of PG&E, SCE or SDG&E, while the utility still delivers it. It is closed to new residential customers and capped for businesses. New load gets in only through a yearly lottery in June; 1,455 businesses entered the 2025 lottery.

If you run a business, this page explains the cap, the lottery, what the 2025 results say about your odds and what changes on the bill. If you are a homeowner who heard you can “choose your power company,” the short version is that Direct Access is not open to you, and the section on community choice explains the option that is. For how retail rates got so high in the first place, see our guide to high California electric bills.

How Direct Access works

On a normal, or bundled, account the utility buys the power, moves it over the transmission grid and delivers it on local wires. On Direct Access, an Electric Service Provider takes over the first job: it contracts with you, arranges the supply and bills you for generation. The utility keeps the other two. SCE puts it plainly: for Direct Access customers, generation is provided solely by the ESP, while SCE continues to own and run the distribution lines and remains responsible for safe, reliable delivery. The ESP has to meet CPUC requirements and the utility's own financial and technical requirements before it can serve customers.

A short history: open, closed, partly reopened

The 2021 recommendation matters most for anyone waiting on a bigger cap. SB 237 asked the CPUC whether it could open Direct Access to all remaining non-residential customers while meeting four findings on greenhouse gases, air pollution, reliability and cost shifting. The CPUC said it could not make those findings, so the cap stays where the Legislature set it until the Legislature acts again.

The June lottery, step by step

1. During the second full week of June, you or your agent submit a Six-Month Notice to your utility.
2. The utility has 30 business days to review, audit and confirm the notices.
3. A randomizer assigns lottery numbers. Customers are told by email whether they fit under the utility's cap.
4. Everyone else goes on a waitlist, in lottery order, for the following calendar year.
5. On the last business day of each month, the utility checks for room under the cap and notifies the next customer on the list.
6. On the last business day of December, unused lottery numbers are cancelled, and the new waitlist takes over on January 1.

SCE adds two conditions for its territory: customers on certain rate plans are not eligible, and a former Direct Access customer who returned to SCE must complete an 18-month Bundled Portfolio Service commitment before switching again.

What the 2025 lottery results say about your odds

The CPUC's Energy Division published its report on the 2025 lottery in June 2026. The room available differs sharply by utility, because each has its own share of the cap.

Read plainly: in SDG&E territory there was no room at all in 2025, and 280 customers were still waiting at year end. In SCE territory, 350 customers were able to switch in 2025 and nobody was left on the waitlist. PG&E sat in between, with 95 customers switching and 503 still in line. A business in San Diego should not count on Direct Access; one in SCE territory has a realistic path through the June window.

What changes on the bill, and whether it saves money

You still get a utility bill for delivery. The generation part comes from the ESP under your contract with it. SCE says Direct Access may let a business buy power at a lower price, and it also says state rules are meant to keep customers who stay with the utility from being financially affected when others leave. So compare an ESP offer with your whole utility bill, not just the energy rate, and read the contract's term, exit terms and how it prices peak hours.

The utility still sets the delivery side of the bill, so the utility figures in the California utility rate tracker and PG&E vs. SCE vs. SDG&E comparison still set much of what you pay. Businesses weighing on-site generation instead can start with commercial solar in California and the PPA vs. purchase comparison.

For households: community choice is the option that is open

The CPUC's Direct Access rules exclude community choice aggregators from the suspension, and many cities and counties now buy power for their residents that way. PG&E says 12 community choice providers operate in its territory. If you have one, its generation charges appear on your PG&E bill along with PG&E's delivery charges. Our guide to third-party electric charges on a PG&E bill explains how to read those lines, and the average California utility bill shows where a typical household lands.