CleanPowerSF is a program of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), an enterprise department of the City and County of San Francisco.
CleanPowerSF is committed to protecting customer privacy. Learn more at cleanpowersf.org/privacy .
OUR MISSION: To provide our customers with high-quality, efficient and reliable water, power and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.
525 Golden Gate Avenue, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
T 415.554.0773
TTY 415.554.3488
[email protected]
Date: May 31, 2024
To: Commissioner Tim Paulson, President
Commissioner Anthony Rivera, Vice President
Commissioner Newsha K. Ajami
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. Climate Action Month Activities
b. CalCCA Community Impact Award
c. CleanPowerSF Rates Communications
d. Prospective Power Content Labels
3. Customer Programs Update
a. Real Time Pricing Pilot
b. E- mobility/Electrify My Ride
c. SuperGreen Saver (Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff) d. Heat Pump Water Heater Regional Contractor Incentive Program e. Peak Day Pricing
f. Net Energy Metering (NEM)
4. Energy Procurement and Planning Activities
a. Projects Recently Online
b. Integrated Resource Planning
c. Supplier Diversity
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1. Program Service Statistics and Enrollment Activities CleanPowerSF continues to provide clean electricity generation services to San Francisco customers, serving about 384,000 active customer accounts as of March 2024.
CleanPowerSF’s opt-out rate remains stable at approximately 4.5% of all enrolled accounts. The opt -out rate is consistent with th e rate stated in the fourth quarter CleanPowerSF update provided to the Commission on March 12, 2024.1
Figure 1: CleanPowerSF Enrollment, March 2024
Customer enrollment in SuperGreen, CleanPowerSF’s optional 100% renewable energy product, has also remained steady since the last quarterly update at about 2.2% of active accounts. In calendar year 2023, SuperGreen electricity usage represent ed 14% of CleanPowerSF’s total annual electricity sales, up from 8% in calendar year 2022.
Enrollment in the SuperGreen Saver program enrollment has nearly reached the available program capacity at 1,215 accounts.
1 The CleanPowerSF Quarterly Report communicated to the Commission March 12, 2024 may be accessed here: https://sfpuc.sharefile.com/public/share/web- sdb1dcfdea02f44438e7afc6a99c76364. Ac cessed on May 13, 2024.
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Figure 2: 2023 CleanPowerSF Electricity Sales (MWh) by Portfolio
2. Communications Activities
a. Climate Action Month Activities
April was Climate Action Month in San Francisco. Each year, CleanPowerSF highlights climate action with community outreach events designed to encourage CleanPowerSF customers to transition from fossil fuels to renewable and greenhouse gas-free electricity. “Electrify My Ride” E-Bike Test Ride Event: CleanPowerSF hosted an electric bike (or e- bike) test ride event at the SF Bike Connection in the South of Market neighborhood for all CleanPowerSF customers and the public on Saturday, April 13. The event also encouraged CleanPowerSF customers that qualified for the agency’s Electrify My Ride program to redeem their $1,000 coupon before the program ended on April 20. If Electrify My Ride customers redeemed their coupon and purchased their e-bike during the event, they were given an SFPUC -branded bike helmet. SFPUC Power staff were on site to distribute helmets and other giveaway items, answer questions, and support SF Bike Connection staff. Translated materials and interpreters were available to provide language assistance to customers as needed. Read more about “Electrify My Ride” program operations and outcomes on page 7.
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Figure 3: CleanPowerSF and SF Bike Connection staff pose after the E-Bike Test Ride Event on Saturday, April 13 at SF Bike Connection
Additional Outreach Events: CleanPowerSF staff attended the Bernal Heights Earth Day celebration on April 21 and Lakeshore Elementary’s Super Hero Saturday event on April
27. CleanPowerSF staff explained the CleanPowerSF program and promoted Climate Action Month-related actions for customers, like upgrading to the program’s 100% renewable SuperGreen service or how they could take advantage of available incentives to install an electric heat pump water heater.
b. CalCCA Community Impact Award
In April, the California Community Choice Association (CalCCA) presented CleanPowerSF with a Community Impact Award in the Equity category for our Solar Inverter Replacement Program. This innovative program 2 is the first of its kind in California, helping CleanPowerSF customers with low incomes replace their solar inverter – an expensive, but critical component for rooftop solar installations. The award was announced at the CalCCA annual conference on April 18 in San Jose.
As part of the award presentation, the Communications Team presented a video to highlight the program’ s impact . The video, which was played during the CalCCA conference, is available on SFPUC’s YouTube channel.3
2 See https://www.cleanpowersf.org/solarinverter. Accessed May 20, 2024. 3 See video at https://youtu.be/6jzh_YjVhws?si=gmCumnipHDq7HIRc. Accessed May 20, 2024.
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Figure 4: Still photo from the Solar Inverter Replacement Program video
c. CleanPowerSF Rates Communications
The SFPUC is updating electricity rates for both CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power customers that will go into effect on July 1, 2024.
Communications staff developed and executed an extensive plan to proactively dialogue with CleanPowerSF customers about the upcoming rate change. During the spring, staff shared information about the rate setting process and how customers could engage. All materials directed customers to a new rates webpage for both CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power rates at: www.sfpuc.org/powerrates. Customers also learned about the upcoming rate change via a variety of ways, including:
• M essages on the April and May CleanPowerSF page of the PG&E bill • Rates information included in the CleanPowerSF e-newsletter in April • Multilingual, direct mail postcard to all CleanPowerSF customers • Residential rates webinar on May 14
This Commission adopted rates at its May 14, 2024 meeting. Th rough July 1 st, CleanPowerSF will implement additional communications to ensure that customers are aware and informed about the approved rate change and what they can anticipate when the rate changes go into effect.
d. Prospective Power Content Labels
CleanPowerSF has certified its 100% renewable energy products -- SuperGreen and in 2022, SuperGreen Saver – through the Center for Resource Solutions’ (CRS) Green-e® Energy program. The Green-e Energy program certifies that renewable energy products meet the CRS high standards for renewable energy generation in North America.
Green-e certification requires that participating organizations’ customers receive Prospective Power Content Labels annually for the energy the entity intends to provide.
SuperGreen and SuperGreen Saver customers, respectively, received t he 2024 Prospective Power Content Labels via email on March 26 and by US mail prior to the CRS April 1 deadline. SuperGreen is sourced from 50% solar and 50% wind energy and SuperGreen Saver is sourced from 100% solar energy, all generated in California.
4 See CleanPowerSF rates webinar recording at
https://sfwater.zoom.us/rec/share/QhQk2VGog4rkA2tIDnK7iyp_lRAYu1kAQlmKLuOQ8xK_kv3S MczB_meyZGzL2_5u.FgQZyt4Lpor4G5RF. A ccessed May 2 8, 2024.
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Figure 5: Prospective Power Content Label postcard, front for both SuperGreen & SuperGreen Saver
Figure 6: SuperGreen Prospective Power Content Label, back side
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Figure 7: SuperGreen Saver Prospective Power Content Label, back side
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 S tate environmental goals. Below are some highlights from this past quarter. a. Real Time Pricing Pilot
In January, t he California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) authorized PG&E and Southern California Edison (SCE) to develop new real -time-pricing (RTP) pilots to encourage customers throughout their service territories to shift their energy demand during periods of high demand. The pilot is open through 2027 to eligible customers of Community Choice Aggregators that elect to participate in the program. 5 Under real-time rates electricity is priced to reflect the hourly (or sub-hourly) variation in electricity costs due to changes in grid and market conditions. Rather than peak and off- peak periods, as in current time -of-use rates, real time rates will change based on the actual market price of electricity hour-to-hour (or as frequently as every 5 minutes).
CleanPowerSF is coordinating with both PG&E and within PG&E’s service territory to determine options for participation.
b. E- mobility/Electrify My Ride
Electric bicycles or “e -bikes” are an eco-friendly transportation option that supports San Francisco’s climate goals by shifting away from private car trips to cleaner modes of travel.
Electrify My Ride offered eligible electric customers $1,000 off the purchase price of a new e-bike from participating local bike retailers. The Program was available from February 5
5 CPUC Decision 24-01-032 at
https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M524/K176/524176497.PDF .
Accessed May 31, 2024.
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to April 20, 2024, issuing $1 million in incentive reservations to 1,000 customers. Of this amount, $370,000 was redeemed by customers at participating retailers.6 Figure 8: E-Bike
In addition to providing the incentive, the Program:
• Developed partnerships with six bike retailers in San Francisco. • Hosted one community event.
• Distributed 150 helmets to customers who redeemed an incentive. • Engaged incentive recipients with both pre-application and post-redemption surveys.
• Enrolled new customers in energy assistance programs such as Hetch Hetchy Power’s Customer Assistance Program and CleanPowerSF’s CARE/FERA programs.
c. SuperGreen Saver (Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff) CleanPowerSF’s SuperGreen Saver program provides 100% renewable energy at a 20% discount to qualifying low -income residential customers residing in stat e-defined Disadvantaged Communities (DACs). The program has nearly reached current program capacity. As of May 2024, there are 1,215 SuperGreen Saver program customers -- an
6 See https://youtu.be/rd19juPsFG4?si=rdf0EQSxzaAElr7S. Accessed on May 21, 2024.
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increase of 6% since the last CleanPowerSF quarterly update to the Commission reported in March 2024.
During the last quarter, the SuperGreen Saver program worked with researchers at the See Change Institute to evaluate communications with program customers to improve customer engagement. While See Change completes its evaluation, CleanPowerSF will continue enroll ment 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.
While current program capacity is approximately 1,237 total accounts, CleanPowerSF anticipates that this capacity will increase to approximately 1,600 customer accounts following proposed program changes under consideration by the CPUC. If approved by the CPUC, the Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) would be discontinued and associated capacity would be assigned to the DAC -GT program (SuperGren Saver is CleanPowerSF’s DAC-GT program). CleanPowerSF does not currently offer the CSGT program.
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Figure 9: Current SuperGreen Saver Customers by Census Tract7
d. Heat Pump Water Heater Regional Contractor Incentive Program CleanPowerSF has seen 187 incentives paid out to contractors to install heat pump water heaters for CleanPowerSF customers under this program since it began in May 2022, an over 100% increase since the last report in March 2024. The recent surge in program participation is due to additional funding made available to program participants through the State of California’s TECH Clean California program in October 2023. Over a third of the newly enrolled participants are income qualified and were eligible to receive the TECH equity incentives for heat pump water heaters. There are now 50 contractors serving the San Francisco market participating in the program.
7 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 10: Photo of an installed heat pump water heater
e. 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 during high temperatures when the grid is expected to be strained. Results for the most recent season ending October 31, 2023 show that 50 CleanPowerSF customers reduced 90,432 kWhs of elec tricity on 9 designated event days, reducing load by nearly 50% over the 2022 season with 11 event days.
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Figure 11: Peak Day Pricing Season Statistics
Summary 2023 2022 2021
Number of Participants 50 36 31
Number of Event Days 9 11 6
Load Reduction (kWh) 90,432 60,752 26,533
Incentives ($) $ 212,801 $ 183,549 $ 47,123
With the 2023 season’s conclusion, staff evaluated participants’ performance data and conducted participant interviews to gather customer feedback. In response to the evaluation, staff will be implementing program changes including updating weather data inputs to ensure more reliable access to temperature dat a and engaging inactive participants to encourage more event day participation. f. Net Energy Metering (NEM)
Starting on April 15, 2024, PG&E began pl acing eligible customers onto PG&E’s Net Billing Tariff service, the successor program to Net Energy Metering (NEM). In response, the Commission adopted a modification to CleanPowerSF’s NEM tariff to accommodate rooftop solar customers on PG&E’s NBT service on May 14, 2023, which is expected to take effect on July 1st In addition, CleanPowerSF staff have initiated a process to develop a successor tariff to CleanPowerSF’s NEM program. CleanPowerSF plans to conduct an analysis to determine potential options for a NEM successor tariff. We also plan to conduct community engagement to solicit public input and feedback on the development of a NEM successor tariff. Until a NEM successor tariff is adopted by the Commission, CleanPowerSF’s current NEM tariff remains in effect.
4. Energy Procurement and Planning Activities
a. Projects Coming Online
The Paulsell Power Project, a 20 megawatt solar photovoltaic and 15 megawatt four-hour battery project located near Crow’s Landing in Stanislaus County, completed construction and is expected to begin commercial operation in June. The Paulsell Power Project is a new renewable energy facility that was built as a result of a CleanPowerSF long- term power purchase agreement. This project was one of CleanPowerSF's first long -term power purchase agreements to integrate a battery system with solar . It will produce valuable new renewable capacity and energy for CleanPowerSF's electricity portfolio and the California grid, just outside the Bay Area.
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Figure 12: Paulsell Power Project solar panels
b. Integrated Resource Planning
Integrated Resource Plans (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, typically over a 20-year planning horizon. Under state law, the CPUC requires load serving entities under its jurisdiction, including CleanPowerSF, to prepare an IRP every two years .
CleanPowerSF’s most recent IRP was approved by the Commission on October 24, 2022 and submitted to the CPUC on November 1, 2022.
8 The 2022 IRP, including modeling
summaries and results, can be found at https://www.cleanpowersf.org/resourceplan.
On April 18, 2024, the CPUC announced that the next round of IRPs would be due on November 1, 2025. Based on the CPUC’s general schedule for providing parameters for developing the IRPs, staff anticipates providing a process overview to the Commission and community stakeholders once all CPUC guidelines for the IRP are completed by mid- 2025, and present initial modeling results thereafter.
c. Supplier Diversity
The CPUC requires CCAs with gross annual revenues greater than $15 million to “submit a detailed and verifiable plan for increasing procurement from small, local and diverse business enterprises and a report regarding procurement from” disadvantaged business enterprises.
9 CleanPowerSF’s recent efforts in this regard have been to promote solicitations for goods and services including energy on the CPUC’s Supplier Diversity Clearinghouse and to participate in the CPUC’s Small and Diverse Business Expo held
8 CleanPowerSF’s integrated resource plan, including modeling summaries and results, can be found at https://www.cleanpowersf.org/resourceplan. Accessed May 21, 2024. 9 See CPUC Supplier Diversity program at https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/supplierdiversity/ . Accessed May 21, 2024.
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on April 4, 2024. CleanPowerSF’s efforts to increase procurement from small, local and diverse businesses, however, are tempered by California Proposition 209 that prohibits governmental agencies from granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the award of public contracts. Regardless, our recent efforts have focused on increasing equity and diversity in contracting through the City’s Local Business Enterprise (14B LBE) program and the Social Impact Partnership program and other SFPUC-wide staff efforts.
CleanPowerSF is continuing our efforts to improve supplier diversity during 2024 , including:
• Incorporating CPUC Supplier Clearinghouse information into CleanPowerSF solicitation outreach to supplier lists and advertising open solicitations in the Supplier Clearinghouse;
• Coordinating with the City’s Contracts Monitoring Division and continuing to support CleanPowerSF prime contractor use of LBE subcontractors in professional services, including the 14B LBE Program and SFPUC -LBE programs, potentially using the Contractor Assistance Center;
• Surveying ways to reach existing CleanPowerSF suppliers to educate them about the Supplier Clearinghouse and the value of certification; • Collaborating with other Community Choice Aggregators in outreach and education efforts;
• Exploring how to structure energy solicitations to attract contractors and suppliers who represent disadvantaged communities; and
• Continuing to meet with the SFPUC’s Contracting Equity Workgroup to advance developing a diver se supplier community for power commodity and service contracting needs.