Information for Direct Access

Participate In Direct Access

Direct Access (DA) was suspended by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on September 20, 2001, as a response to the California energy crisis. Existing DA customers before the suspension of DA were able to preserve their DA service.

On March 11, 2010, the CPUC issued D.10-03-022 that allowed for a partial reopening of DA through authorized increases in load caps on DA transactions for each of the Utility Distribution Companies (UDCs) and adopted a detailed enrollment process for the 4-year phase-in period beginning in April 2010 and concluding in January 2013. Participation is limited to Retail Non-Residential Customers.

SCE's Current DA Load Cap is

13456.87GWh

On January 1, 2022, Senate Bill (SB) 237 Direct Access (DA) Expansion load and Senate Bill (SB) 695 Partial Reopening of Direct Access load will be combined to result in a total SCE DA Load Cap of 13,457 GWh. Any unallocated SB 237 DA Expansion load will be carried over and made available to the 2021 DA Lottery Wait List and offered to customers in their randomly assigned DA Lottery number order, as approved in SCE's Advice Letter 4566-E on October 4, 2021. After January 1, 2022 any remaining DA Expansion load will be offered to customers that participated in the 2021 Annual DA Lottery in June 2021 to secure a randomly assigned DA Lottery number on the 2022 DA Lottery Wait List.

Post Phase-In Enrollment Period - 2022 Lottery Wait List Process

Monthly DA Load Notice – October 2022

SCE's DA load has been reviewed and it has been determined that SCE has additional load to allocate to customers on the 2023 Wait List with load. SCE has been offering load to 2023 Wait List customers starting in August 2022. Customers that accept the load offer will be required to submit a Direct Access Service Request by their January read date. SCE will continue to offer load to the 2023 Wait List until the Overall Load Cap has been reached.

  • On the last business day of each month, SCE will determine if there is room under the Overall Load Cap and notify the first customer on the Wait List that there is available load.
  • If the available load is sufficient to accommodate all of the Six-Month Notice's list of Service Accounts (SAs):
    • SCE will notify the submitter of the Direct Access Service Request (DASR) Due Date for each accepted SA at least 45 days in advance of the customer's earliest possible switch date.
    • Six-Month Notice forms found to have a deficiency, such as incorrect SA number and missing or illegible information, may be accepted on the condition that the deficiency is corrected within 5-days after receiving notification of the deficiency.
    • All reported SA deficiencies not corrected within 5-days will be voided.
    • Notified submitters will have 15 days to accept or decline the DA transfer opportunity.
    • If the notified submitter declines the opportunity, the Six-Month Notice will be removed from the Wait List and the SA will remain on SCE's bundled service.
    • SCE will then notify the next submitter on the Wait List.
  • If the available load is not sufficient to accommodate all of the listed SAs:
    • SCE will notify the submitter at least 45 days in advance of the customer's earliest possible switch date for each eligible SA(s).
    • SCE will work with the submitter to determine the SAs to be transferred.
    • Remaining SAs on the Six-Month Notice, if any, will remain on the Wait List.
    • Submitters will have 15 days to accept or decline the DA transfer opportunity, without penalty.
    • If the notified submitter declines the opportunity, the Six-Month Notice will be removed from the Wait List and the SAs will remain on SCE's bundled service.
  • If a submitter accepts the DA transfer opportunity and does not submit the requisite DASR by the specified DASR Due Date:
    • Impacted SA(s) will be placed on Transitional Bundled Service (TBS).
    • Impacted SA(s) will be subject to the then-current Rule 22.1 - Switching Exemption Guidelines.
  • On the last business day of each calendar year, all Six-Month Notices on the Wait List will be canceled and superseded by the following year's Wait List.
  • Since 2014, the Annual Enrollment period is the second full week in June of each year for any available DA Load under the established Overall Load Cap that may become available during the 12 months of the following year.

DA Enrollment Process "DA Lottery"

SCE 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 13,456.87 gigawatt-hours (GWh) established by the California Public Utilities Commission. Submissions during this period will be entered into a lottery to decide 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 in 2023.

"DA Lottery" Six Month Notice Submission Period

SCE will be accepting Six-Month Notices to Transfer to Direct Access Service (SCE Form 14-793) starting at 9:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on June 13, 2022, until 5:00 pm PDT on June 17, 2022. Any submissions before or after the submission period will not be accepted.

How To Participate

Contact Customer Choice Services