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Community Choice energy is rolling out in Humboldt County next month, bringing customers cleaner electricity at a lower price.

Redwood Coast Energy Authority recently sent out notices to PG&E customers letting them know that in May their services will switch over to Community Choice. Monthly bills will still come from PG&E, but the program will automatically enroll existing customers in the “REpower” program, which provides electricity from 37 percent renewable sources.

RCEA says that's because PG&E will still maintain power poles and lines, fix outages and deliver monthly bills — and because community choice will honor discount programs like CARE, Medical Baseline and FERA — customers won’t notice a difference, other than possibly “a slight decrease in your electricity bill.”

Customers have the option of opting out of the program — by calling RCEA or visiting its website — but they also have the option of opting up to “REpower+,” which offers customers 100 percent renewable electricity for an additional charge of 1 cent per kilowatt hour. That works out to about $5 extra a month for the average California household.

For more information on the program, or on how to opt out or opt up, visit RCEA’s website here. Check out past Journal coverage of Community Choice here.