CleanPowerSF is a program of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), an enterprise department of the City and County of San Francisco.
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San Francisco, CA 94102
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Date: February 29, 2024
To: Commissioner Tim Paulson, President
Commissioner Anthony Rivera, Vice President
Commissioner Newsha Ajami
Commissioner Sophie Maxwell
Commissioner Kate H. Stacy
Through: Dennis J. Herrera, General Manager
Barbara Hale, Assistant General Manager, Power
Michael Hyams, Deputy AGM, CleanPowerSF and Power
Resources
From: Cheryl Taylor, Manager, CleanPowerSF Operations
Subject: CleanPowerSF Quarterly Update
_______________________________________________________________ This memorandum serves as the regular quarterly update to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC or Commission) on the Power Enterprise’s CleanPowerSF program.
This quarterly update focuses on the following topics:
1. Program Service Statistics and Enrollment Activities
2. Communications Activities
a. Winter Energy Bills and PG&E January Rate Increase Messaging b. “Understanding Your Electricity Bill” Webinar for Customers
3. Customer Programs Update
a. E-mobility/Electrify My Ride
b. SuperGreen Saver (Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff) c. EV Charge SF
d. Solar Inverter Replacement Program
e. Heat Pump Water Heater Regional Contractor Incentive Program f. Peak Day Pricing
g. Net Energy Metering (NEM)
4. Energy Planning and Supply
a. Integrated Resource Planning
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1. Program Service Statistics and Enrollment Activities CleanPowerSF continues to provide clean electricity generation services to San Francisco customers, serving nearly 385,000 active customer accounts as of February 2024.
CleanPowerSF’s opt-out rate remains stable at approximately 4.5% of all enrolled accounts. The opt-out rate is consistent with the rate stated in the fourth quarter CleanPowerSF update provided to the Commission on December 12, 2023.1
Figure 1: CleanPowerSF Enrollment, February 2024
Customer enrollment in SuperGreen, CleanPowerSF’s optional 100% renewable energy product, has also remained steady since the last quarterly update at 2.2% of active accounts. Staff estimates that in 2023, these accounts’ electricity usage represented over 13% of CleanPowerSF’s total annual electricity sales .
Enrollment in the SuperGreen Saver program maintains a high enrollment count of 1,160.
2. Communications Activities
a. Winter Energy Bills and PG&E January Rate Increase Messaging During the winter months , CleanPowerSF residential customers often experience higher bills due to higher electricity and natural gas usage for lighting and heating during the darker and colder winter months . In addition, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) authorized PG&E to increase their rates for electricity service on January 1, 2024, resulting in a monthly bill increase of roughly $30 for the average PG&E residential customer . The CPUC has further authorized PG&E’s additional rate increase to recover fixed charges,
1 The CleanPowerSF Quarterly Report communicated to the Commission December 12, 2023 may be accessed here: https://sfpuc.sharefile.com/share/view/s484ca70f68c148f2aceb31aec21ffcb5. Accessed on February 29, 2024.
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effective March 1, 2024. 2 This increase is expected to result in the average customer paying an additional $14 each month to recover nearly $2 billion already spent to reduce wildfire risks.
To address higher winter energy bills, CleanPowerSF staff developed proactive messaging to help customers understand the cost drivers on their bill , the impacts of the PG&E rate increase, and ways customers can save through discount programs and energy efficiency tips. CleanPowerSF also stressed that customers would continue to save on their monthly electricity bill by being a CleanPowerSF customer.
CleanPowerSF staff provided timely information t hrough blog posts ,3 social media4 posts, and customer e -newsletters. CleanPowerSF staff also updated customer collateral including an “Understanding Your Electricity Bill” educational document that helps customers understand the charges on their bill .
CleanPowerSF’s Customer Service Agents w ere also equipped with updated talking points that provided explanation of the recent PG&E rate increase, how CleanPowerSF generation service is cheaper compared to PG&E generation service, and what kind of bill assistance is available to customers who may need it. CleanPowerSF updated our rate webpage with the latest information, including the “Understanding Your Electricity Bill” document, at CleanPowerSF.org/rates.
2 See PG&E’s Advice Letter 7128E,
https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/adviceletter/ELEC_7128-E.pdf Accessed February 26, 2024.
3 See https://www.cleanpowersf.org/news/2024/1/24/why-are-energy-bills-higher-in-the-winter.
Accessed February 26, 2024.
4 See https://twitter.com/CleanPowerSF/status/1755305649045438508. Accessed February 26, 2024.
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Figure 2: CleanPowerSF Blog Post. Read more at https://www.cleanpowersf.org/news/2024/1/24/why- are-energy-bills-higher-in-the-winter
b. “Understanding Your Electricity Bill” Webinar for Customers SFPUC staff also hosted an “Understanding Your Electricity Bill” webinar on January 25, 2024 to help SFPUC Power customers understand seasonal changes in energy usage, the various charges on the electricity bill, and how to access bill assistance and save on their monthly bill. Live interpterion in Spanish and Cantonese was available for webinar attendees.
Figure 3: Community Power Update on Understanding Your Electricity Bill
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Approximately 89 participants attended the webinar out of 183 registrants. Over 40 organizations were represented, including community -based organizations, City departments, other community choice aggregation (CCA) programs, energy industry groups, and more.
Feedback on the webinar was positive. According to a post-webinar survey, most people rated the event highly and approximately 68% of participants felt the webinar helped them understand their electricity bill better.
A re cap of the webinar and the recording can be viewed at: http:
www.cleanpowersf.org/news/jan25webinar.
3. Customer Programs Update
CleanPowerSF continues to develop and offer programs that help customers manage their energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint, and align with City and State environmental goals. Below are some highlights from this past quarter. a. E- mobility/Electrify My Ride
Electrify My Ride is a new e-bike rebate program being offered by the Power Enterprise designed to advance transportation electrification utilizing micro- mobility. Electrify My Ride offers eligible electric customers $1,000 off the purchase price of a new e-bike from participating local bike retailers and began accepting customer applications on February 5, 2024. Incentivizing electrification through programs like Electrify My Ride supports the City’s climate action goals and increases sales of electricity for our Power programs.
Eligibility: Power customers must live in an Equity Priority Community 5defined census tract and be enrolled in a CleanPowerSF or Hetch Hetchy Power or Energy Assistance Program. Participating e-bike retailers must have a physical retail location in San Francisco to redeem an eligible customer’s rebate, which is applied instantly as a discount at the time of purchase. Retailers are registered City vendors and invoice the program weekly for rebate coupon reimbursement.
Initial Program Term and Incentive Budget : Electrify My Ride has reserved $1 million in incentive funding to support the purchase of 1,000 e-bikes for this initial program term. The program term for eligible customers to apply will be from February 5 to April 1, 2024. Coupons are issued on a first come, first served basis while funding lasts, and remain valid for 30-45 days after being issued.
Marketing and Advertising: To market and advertise the Electrify My Ride Program, the SFPUC has utilized a variety of strategies and tactics. First, direct communications like in-language postcards and emails will be sent to approximately 25,000 qualifying customers. Webpages —translated into Spanish, Chinese and Filipino—offer program information at
5 Equity Priority Communities (formerly known as “Communities of Concern”) are defined by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as census tracts that have a significant concentration of underserved populations, such as households with low incomes and people of color. Data determining these concentrations is from the American Community Survey. For more information, see https://mtc.ca.gov/planning/transportation/access-equity-mobility/equity-priority-communities. Accessed February 26, 2024.
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https://www.sfpuc.org/programs/clean-energy/electrify-my-ride and https://www.cleanpowersf.org/electrifymyride. The agency is also exploring paid social media advertising to qualifying customers on Facebook and Instagram.
The SFPUC will also utilize a grassroots engagement strategy by providing a promotional toolkit to key public officials, City agencies, community-based organizations, and community members to help advertise the program to their constituents and clients. Finally, the agency will explore possible promotional events for qualifying customers with participating retailers.
Figure 4: Electrify My Ride postcard sent to approximately 25,000 qualifying CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power customers
b. SuperGreen Saver (Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff) CleanPowerSF’s SuperGreen Saver program provides 100% California Renewables Portfolio Standard-eligible renewable energy and a 20% electric bill discount to qualifying low-income residential customers residing in state-defined Disadvantaged Communit ies (DACs). To offer the 20% bill discount, SuperGreen Saver is subsidized by CPUC- approved public purpose program funds, collected on all CleanPowerSF customer bills. As of February 2024, there are 1,159 SuperGreen Saver program customers (Figure 7) , a slight 1.5% decrease since the last CleanPowerSF quarterly update to the Commission reported in December 2023. During the last quarter, the SuperGreen Saver program established a waitlist for potential customers to express interest and become enrolled as program capacity allows. CleanPowerSF will continue enrollment efforts, prioritizing eligible customers enrolled in the Arrearage Management Program, then using a combination of waitlist and random lottery of eligible accounts to maintain program capacity. There is capacity in the program for approximately 1,237 total customers.
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Figure 5: Current SuperGreen Saver Customers by Census Tract 6
c. EV Charge SF
EV Charge SF offers incentives and technical assistance to CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power customer s to support their compliance with the City’s EV Readiness Ordinance. There are currently five multifamily projects enrolled in the CleanPowerSF program. All five projects have used the technical assistance offered by the program to help determine the level of electric vehicle (EV) charging to install in their buildings. Two projects have reserved their incentives totaling $128,000. Additionally, a small Habitat for Humanity project of 100% affordable housing recently completed construction of the EV charging equipment and will be receiving their $13,200 incentive payment soon. Staff continue to explore expanding the program to existing buildings.
6 Electric customers living in the census tract on Treasure Island are entirely served by Hetch Hetchy Power, San Francisco’s municipal electric utility, and are therefore not part of CleanPowerSF’s service territory.
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Figure 6: Charger installed at the Habitat for Humanity site
d. Solar Inverter Replacement Program
The Solar Inverter Replacement Program, available to low -income customers with GoSolarSF-funded solar systems, continues to have strong participation due to the need to repair and update many old solar inverters of declining reliability that are out of warranty. The program has issued a total of 171 confirmed incentive reservations with many more pending to be issued. The program now has 136 projects completed. The program helps low- income households participating in discounted rate programs 7 to meet a difficult solar ownership maintenance challenge and helps assure their GoSolarSF systems will deliver lower energy bills to them for years to come. e. Heat Pump Water Heater Regional Contractor Incentive Program CleanPowerSF has seen 72 incentives paid out to contractors to install heat pump water heaters for CleanPowerSF customers under this program since it began in May 2022. There are 33 contractors serving the San Francisco market participating in the program. Preliminary results from a state-funded heat pump water heater program show that heat pump water heater adoption is slowly increasing in San Francisco, but is lagging behind adoption rates as compared to Sacramento, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin Counties . In the coming months, CleanPowerSF will reach out to contractors serving CleanPowerSF customers participating in this program to identify any San Francisco specific barriers to heat pump water heater adoption.
7 Eligible customers participate in either the California Alternate Rates for Energy Program (CARE) or Family Electric Rate Assistance Program (FERA). For more information, visit https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/save-energy-money/help-paying-your-bill/longer-term- assistance/care/care.page?cid=ps_CARE_EN_20230101_ApplyNow_Google_All_na&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQj wqP2pBhDMARIsAJQ0CzoTbUYOdUhmJDV3pm645m6JC7jFhnIzqy0YIhZy0GonMsWkjpwESiAaAlIAEALw _wcB. Ac cessed on October 30, 2023.
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Figure 7: Photo of an installed heat pump water heater
f. Peak Day Pricing
The Peak Day Pricing Program is a voluntary demand response program that incentivizes large commercial customers to reduce their electricity consumption between 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm on “Event Days” in the summer and fall when the grid is expected to be strained, typically due to high temperatures. The 2023 Peak Day Pricing season began July 1 st and concluded at the end of October, marking the completion of the fifth year that CleanPowerSF has offered this program.
This year, 50 accounts enrolled in the program, representing a 39 percent increase from 2022. The program called nine Event Days, three less than the season maximum of 12. Participants avoided over 90 megawatt-hours of electricity usage from 4 pm to 9 pm during the nine Event Days , earning over $200,000 in incentives . The program was particularly impa ctful during California’s mid-August heat wave, during which the program called three event days in succession.
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With the season’s conclusion, staff has evaluated participants’ performance data and conducted participant interviews to gather customer feedback. This data will be used to inform and further develop the program.
g. Net Energy Metering (NEM)
CleanPowerSF’s NEM program provides monthly bill credits and net surplus compensation to approximately 11,000 CleanPowerSF customers with rooftop solar. In December 2022, the CPUC established a successor to the NEM tariff, called the Net Billing Tariff. Following this action, PG&E will enroll customers onto its version of the Net Billing Tariff, which is called the Solar Billing Plan. The primary change from NEM to the Solar Billing Plan is that electricity exported to the grid will be credited to the customer at a rate more closely in line with the wholesale market value (or avoided cost) of that electricity rather than the full retail rate.
CleanPowerSF staff anticipate bringing clarifying changes to our current NEM tariff to the Commission as part of the July 2024 rate update. In addition, CleanPowerSF will present , at a future date, a proposed approach to the Commission for consideration of CleanPowerSF adopting our own successor to the NEM program.
4. Energy Planning and Supply
a. Integrated Resource Planning
Integrated Resource Plans, or IRPs, are a standard utility practice involving forecasting electricity customer demand and evaluating supply resource options to deliver reliable and cost-effective electricity to customers, while meeting other policy goals. Under state law, CleanPowerSF is required to prepare an IRP every two years and the plan must be approved by this Commission and submitted to the CPUC. Power staff uses the IRP process to guide our long- term resource commitments. Our IRP will evaluate electricity demand and supply scenarios over a 20-year timeframe to identify resources that will deliver reliable, low-cost energy while meeting other policy objectives. CleanPowerSF’s most recent IRP was approved by the Commission on October 24 , 2022 and submitted to the CPUC on November 1, 2022. The IRP, including modeling summaries and results, can be found at https://www.cleanpowersf.org/resourceplan .
Initial preparations for the 2024 CleanPowerSF IRP are underway. We expect to provide a process overview to the Commission and community stakeholders during the summer of 2024, and present initial modeling results thereafter. While the CPUC has not released an official schedule, we anticipate submitting the final 2024 IRP by fall 2024.