Butte County residents will soon have a new option for electricity — Pioneer Community Energy. The city of Chico is moving closer towards starting service with Pioneer Community Energy, a non-profit community choice aggregation program. A CCA allows not-for-profit agencies, like Pioneer, to purchase electricity and use an existing utility company's infrastructure, like Pacific Gas & Electric, to distribute it. Assistant City Manager Eric Gustafson said right now, everything looks good to start service in October of 2027. Consumers could save 10% on their current bills