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Direct Access (DA)

Buying electricity from Electric Service Providers (ESPs)

important notice icon Note: As of April 1, 2024; Due to DA load space limitations, 2024 DA Lottery participants will be placed on a wait list for any load space that becomes available January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024.

What is Direct Access (DA)?

DA is an option that allows eligible customers to purchase their electricity directly from third-party providers known as Electric Service Providers (ESPs). Under this service option, PG&E will continue to deliver electricity and provide all safety-related services—regardless of which electric supplier the customer chooses.

 

The amount of load space available for DA service is currently limited to an annual load of 11,393 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Customer who are interested in enrolling in DA service must submit their enrollment request in the June Direct Access Lottery described below.

 

important notice icon Note: Per Decision D. 10-02-022 residential customers are not eligible for the Limited Direct Access (DA) Re-opening. Any residential customers currently on DA may remain, but no other residential customers are allowed to participate in the open enrollment periods.

Direct Access lottery process

To participate in PG&E's Direct Access Lottery, non-residential customers must submit a Six-Month Notice to Transfer to Direct Access Service form (Electric Form 79-1117) (PDF). during the Direct Access Submission Period scheduled in June of each year. The next Direct DA Lottery enrollment period will be held from 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on June 10, 2024 until 5:00 pm PDT on June 14, 2024.

 

PG&E holds a weeklong submission period in June of each year (DA Lottery) for customers who are interested in enrolling in Direct Access (DA) subject to the availability of load space under the Overall Load Cap of 11,393 gigawatt-hours (GWh) established by the California Public Utilities Commission. Customer requests submitted during this period will be entered into a lottery to determine a customer’s priority for any load space that may be available. Customers who do not receive an offer of load space will be placed on a wait list for any DA load space that may become available during the next following calendar year.

 

How Direct Access works

PG&E will be accepting Six-Month Notices to Transfer to Direct Access Service forms (PG&E Form 79-1117 dated February 4, 2021) ("Notice") from 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on June 10, 2024 until 5:00 pm PDT on June 14, 2024. All Notices submitted on behalf of a customer must be accompanied by a customer's written authorization on PG&E's Authorization to Receive Customer Information or Act Upon a Customer's Behalf form (PG&E Form 79-1095). All accepted Notices will be entered into lottery to determine their random numerical position for any load space that is available under the Overall Load Cap at the time of the DA Lottery, or for placement on a wait list for any load space that becomes available during the next following calendar year.

 

important notice icon Note: For timely processing, download the current spreadsheet template to submit your list of service agreements. Please ensure that the, PG&E Electric Service Agreement numbers, are submitted in the Lottery.

Direct Access forms

  1. Complete PG&E's form(s)
  2. Print completed form(s)
  3. Sign as required
  4. Submit

 

important notice icon Note: If you're submitting multiple service agreements, PG&E requests that you use the sample spreadsheet template found below under "Instructions". If you've used our sample spreadsheet template in the past to faciliate accurate processing, please use the updated template for this year's DA Lottery.

Six-Month Notice to Transfer to Direct Access (Form 79-1117), February 4, 2021

If you're a third party (i.e. ESP, consultant, etc) submitting on behalf of a customer, PG&E requires written customer authorization on PG&E's "Authorization To Receive Customer Information or Act upon a Customer's Behalf form (Form 79-1095).

Filename
ELEC_FORMS_79-1117.pdf
Size
228 KB
Format
application/pdf
download

Authorization to Receive Customer Information or Act Upon a Customer’s Behalf (Form 79-1095)

Only submit Form 79-1095 if you have a valid reason to receive customer information or act on a customer's behalf.

Filename
ELEC_FORMS_79-1095.pdf
Size
286 KB
Format
application/pdf
download

FAQ: Direct Access forms

Customers or an authorized third party may submit Six-Month Notices during the five business days beginning 9 a.m. PDT June 10, 2024, and ending 5 p.m. PDT June 14, 2024. All forms still require handwritten signatures. PG&E requires handwritten signatures on the Six-Month Notice and the customer authorization forms; however, PG&E will accept electronic signatures on the form, as long as the electronic signatures match the customer name; AND the customer is cc'd in the Lottery email submission.

 

Completing the Six-Month Notice to Transfer to Direct Access form (Form 79-1117) and Authorization To Receive Customer Information or Act upon a Customer's Behalf form (Form 79-1095)

 

  • Review your form(s) and ensure all your changes were saved, before submitting a fillable PDF form.
  • Ensure your form includes the following information
    1. Full customer name as it appears on PG&E billing account
    2. Active Electric Service Agreement Identification Numbers (SA ID). Note: SA IDs can only be for a single Customer Name
    3. Service address
    4. Customer email address
    5. Handwritten signature
      • PG&E requires handwritten signatures on the Six-Month Notice and the customer authorization forms; however, PG&E will accept "electronic signatures on the form, as long as the electronic signatures match the customer name; AND the customer is cc'd in the Lottery email submission.
    6. Date
    7. Use our updated spreadsheet template!
      If your application requires additional service agreements to be listed, you can use our spreadsheet sample in lieu of Attachment A. Be sure to use the updated spreadsheet. It eliminates duplicates and all data is in the template, helping to expedite the process. On your submission form, simply put "see attached" in the Service Agreement field and the customer email field.
      Download a Spreadsheet Sample (XLSX)
      important notice icon Note: Please ensure that the, PG&E Electric Service Agreement numbers, are submitted in the Lottery.
  • If your Six-Month Notice is being submitted by a third party (i.e., consultant or Electric Service Provider), please complete Form 79-1095
    1. Fill out this form in its entirety
    2. Check box option #6 (required)
    3. Use our updated spreadsheet template!
      If your application requires additional service agreements to be listed, you can use our spreadsheet sample in lieu of Attachment A. Lottery. It eliminates duplicates and all data is in the template, helping to expedite the process. On your submission form, simply put “see attached” in the Service Agreement field and the customer email field.
      Download a Spreadsheet Sample (XLSX)
      important notice icon Note: Please ensure that the, PG&E Electric Service Agreement numbers, are submitted in the Lottery.

 

Submitting completed forms

 

  • Submit only one email per customer with all of your completed form(s) to DANOI@pge.com.
  • Duplicate Six-Month Notices covering the same accounts will be discarded.
  • Ensure your subject line follows the format below:
    [Customer Name] 6 Month Notice [Submitter] ([#] of SA IDs)
  • Submissions should arrive on or after 9 a.m. PDT on June 10, 2024, but no later than 5 p.m. PDT on June 14, 2024. Any submissions received outside of these dates and time will be discarded.

  • Submit only one email per customer with all of your completed form(s) to DANOI@pge.com.
  • Duplicate Six-Month Notices covering the same accounts will be discarded.
  • Ensure your subject line follows the format below:
    [Customer Name] 6 Month Notice [Submitter] ([#] of SA IDs)
  • Submissions should arrive on or after 9 a.m. PDT on June 10, 2024, but no later than 5 p.m. PDT on June 14, 2024. Any submissions received outside of these dates and time will be discarded.

Using Acrobat Reader, follow these helpful steps:

  1. Download the fillable form (Form 79-1117)
  2. Click on "File" and "Save As"
  3. Name your file
  4. Click Save

The Six-Month Notice to Transfer to Direct Access Service form is a binding document. It may be rescinded within three (3) business days (of PG&E's receipt) by contacting PG&E at 1-800-468-4743.

A completed Six-Month Notice may cover multiple service acounts but they must all be for the same customer, under that customers’s Federal Tax Identification Number (FTIN) or other PG&E customer identifiers.

FAQ: Direct Access process

  1. You will receive an auto-response from the DANOI@pge.com mailbox.
    • The auto-response message does NOT mean that the Six-Month Notice and any supporting documents were accepted by PG&E.
    • The auto-response message means that PG&E received your submission. Please DO NOT send additional duplicate Six-Month Notices once the auto-response is received.
    • If you do not receive an auto-response email acknowledgement of receipt within 30 minutes of submittal, please contact PG&E's Third-Party Relations Team at DANOI@pge.com.
  2. If PG&E receives duplicate submissions, the initial submission will be accepted and all subsequent submissions will be rejected.
  3. If PG&E finds incorrect information in the Six-Month Notice or Customer Authorization Form, we will contact the submitter to make the correction. The submitter will have five business days (the review period) from PG&E's notification to respond with the corrected information. If no response is received within the five business day window, the submitted forms containing the incorrect information will be rejected, and the submitter will be notified by email.
  4. At the conclusion of the review period, and after all deficiencies have been corrected, PG&E will utilize a "randomizer" tool to assign a random "lottery" number to each eligible Six-Month Notice.
  5. Submitters of Six-Month Notices will receive an email, thirty calendar days, from the last day of the Direct Access submission period, which provides their Wait List number.

Once the recipient is assigned a Wait List number, that number is valid for a period of twelve months; effective the first day of the following calendar year and ending on the 31st of that calendar year.

Yes. Your wait list assignment is only good for one calendar year. Customers must participate annually to receive a new wait list assignment for the following calendar year.

The customer will have fifteen (15) business days to accept or decline the DA transfer opportunity, without penalty. If the customer declines the opportunity, the Six-Month Notice will be removed from the wait list. The SA IDs will remain on PG&E's bundled service or Community Choice Aggregation Service, as applicable.

How to return to PG&E bundled service

DA customers choosing to return to bundled service must submit an Electric Form No. 79-1011, Notice to Return to PG&E Bundled Portfolio Service (BPS) (Notice to Return), indicating that they wish to return in six (6) months. Customers have three (3) business days after PG&E receives their Notice to Return form to rescind the Notice and remain on DA service. Customers electing BPS make a binding, minimum eighteen (18) month commitment and will not be eligible to return to DA service until their eighteen (18) month minimum commitment has been completed.

 

The Notice to Return forms and attachments must be emailed to the following address: DANOI@pge.com

History of Direct Access

2001 Suspension of Direct Access for retail end-users

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) suspended the right of retail end-users (customers) to acquire DA electric service from ESPs.

 

2009 Phases reopening

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 237 into law. This provided for an increase in the annual maximum total kilowatt-hour limit for DA previously established under Senate Bill 695. The Commission issued two decisions, Decision (D.) 10-03-022 and D.10.-05-039, which established Annual Load Caps for a phased reopening over a 4-year period and an Overall Load Cap of 9,520 GWh.

 

2010 Limited Direct Access reopening

On March 11, 2010, the CPUC approved a limited reopening of DA for non-residential customers. PG&E continues to transport and deliver electricity to all customers on DA service.

Per Decision D. 10-02-022, residential customers are not eligible for the Limited Direct Access Reopening. Any residential customers currently on DA may remain, but no other residential customers are allowed to participate in the open enrollment periods.

 

Decision D.10-05-039, approved May 20, 2010, extended the initial open enrollment window from April 16, 2010 to July 15, 2010, and changed the DA enrollment date for 2011 to July 16, 2010.

 

Under the Limited DA Reopening rules, customers can enroll in DA, up to a maximum allowable annual limit (measured in gigawatt-hours (GWh). The PG&E DA load cap increased from 5,574 GWh in November 2009 to a 9,520 GWh total cap in November 2013.

 

Direct Access annual increases allowed under Limited Direct Access reopening:

  • 2010: Up to 35 percent of the room available under the cap (1,381 GWh).
  • 2011: Up to 70 percent of the room available under the cap (an additional 1,381 GWh).
  • 2012: Up to 90 percent of the room available under the cap (an additional 789 GWh).
  • 2013: Up to 100 percent of the room available under the cap (an additional 395 GWh).

 

2018 Established annual load caps and overall load cap

Governor Edmund Brown Jr. signed Senate Bill 237 into law. This provided for an increase in the annual maximum total kilowatt-hour limit for DA previously established under Senate Bill 695. The Commission issued two decisions, Decision (D.)19-05-043 and D.19-08-004, which allocated an annual load increase of 1,873 GWh to PG&E, established Annual Load Caps for a phased reopening over a two-year period (2020 and 2021) with enrollments beginning on January 1, 2021 and an Overall Load Cap of 11,393 GWh.

 

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