Which is better: municipally owned electric utilities or investor-owned utilities? It’s a complicated question worth asking, but there’s not one easy answer. It's the topic of our new report, "The Cost & Carbon of Competing Utility Models: Electric Utility Governance and Decarbonization in Los Angeles County."

This Emmett Institute report is a case study of two specific utilities in the same geographic region: the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) and Southern California Edison (SCE). What do the outcomes in Los Angeles tell us about how the two types of utility models can achieve clean energy goals? What about cost? This analysis looks at climate metrics, residential rates, percentage of Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)-eligible generation, and carbon intensity of the overall generation mix, among other measures. 

Overall, LADWP and SCE appear to be converging on both climate and cost outcomes, but there are notable differences between the two models which the report explores. This new paper draws heavily on an earlier analysis entitled “Greening the Los Angeles Power Grid: Public Utility Models and Decarbonization in Los Angeles County” by William Boyd, Ann E. Carlson, Benjamin A. Harris, Andria So, Julia E. Stein, and Samantha Zurcher.

Download the paper.