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525 Golden Gate Avenue, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
T 415.554.0773
TTY 415.554.3488
[email protected]
Date: February 28, 2025
To: Commissioner Kate H. Stacy, President
Commissioner Joshua Arce, Vice President
Commissioner Avni Jamdar
Commissioner Steve Leveroni
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. Portfolio Energy Content
3. Communications Activities
4. Customer Programs Update
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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 February 2025. CleanPowerSF’s opt-out rate remains stable at approximately 4.7% of all enrolled accounts.
Figure 1: CleanPowerSF Enrollment, February 2025
Customer enrollment in SuperGreen, CleanPowerSF’s optional 100% renewable energy product, is currently at about 2.1% of active accounts, unchanged since the previous quarterly report. In total, renewable energy sales to SuperGreen customers accounted for nearly 17% of CleanPowerSF’s energy sales in calendar year 2024.
Enrollment in the SuperGreen Saver program is at 1, 054 accounts, below the available program maximum enrollment of approximately 1, 600. As discussed later in this report, CleanPowerSF is continuing enrollment efforts of eligible customers using a combination of waitlist and random lottery of eligible accounts to maintain program capacity.
2. Portfolio Energy Content
For the first time in its history, CleanPowerSF delivered 100% renewable and/or greenhouse gas -free electricity to all 375,000 customers on its default Green service in 2023. This historic milestone, achieved two years ahead of the City’s Climate A ction Plan target, was made possible through an energy mix of solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric generation. CleanPowerSF customers were informed of this news in December 2024 thr ough a “Power Content Label,” which electricity providers like CleanPowerSF are required to publish by the California Energy Commission. To view CleanPowerSF’s Power Content Label, visit cleanpowersf.org/pcl2023.
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3. Communications Activities
a) What’s Next For Rooftop Solar in California Webinar
CleanPowerSF hosted a free, one- hour webinar on Thursday, February 20 in which participants heard from industry leaders and SFPUC staff about the latest happenings for rooftop solar in California.
• Steve Campbell, Vote Solar Regulatory Director ( West Region) described rooftop solar impacts trends at the state level. • Helen Ma, Outreach Operations Manager at GRID Alternatives spoke about the organization’s work in disadvantaged communities, discussing the obstacles of making solar accessible to low -income households.
• Ross Nakasone, CleanPowerSF Utility Specialist, showcased SFPUC’s more than 15 years of support for rooftop solar programs within San Francisco, the Net Energy Metering program (NEM), and work being performed by staff to evaluate a potential successor program for NEM.
The webinar had strong interest from the public with over 100 attendees .
Participants included homeowners and individuals representing community - based organizations , City departments as well as some energy industry experts. The webinar recording is available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvt-GAfrZ0.
Figure 2: What's Next for Rooftop Solar in California Webinar
b) CleanPowerSF Quarterly E-Newsletter
On January 23, 2025, CleanPowerSF sent its digital e- newsletter to approximately 250,000 residents and businesses. The e -newsletter contained valuable information for customers such as how to manage winter electricity bills, information on enrolling in electricity discount programs like California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) and Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA), as well as energy efficiency tips like avoiding high-energy activities between 4 and 9 p.m . and adjusting appliance settings. The newsletter also included information about CleanPowerSF’s rate setting process and how customers can participate in the public process at sfpuc.gov/powerrates.
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4. 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) EV Charge SF
EV Charge SF initiated operations in 2022 with a focus on incentivizing new- construction buildings to add electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment and EV chargers beyond building code requirements.
Building on that work, EV Charge SF administered a pilot program to explore incentivizing EV chargers in existing buildings from July to December 2024, with eligibility limited to CleanPowerSF mult ifamily, not -for-profit, and small business customers. Customers with projects located in “priority communities” were able to combine EV Charge SF incentives with the PG&E/Ecology Action Multifamily Housing and Small Business E V Charger (MSDI) Program 1 to
receive fully designed and installed EV charger s. The CleanPowerSF pilot program saw a lot of activity, with many customers taking advantage of the synergistic MSDI incentives, as well as customers who applied only for the standalone EV Charge SF incentives . The results for th e pilot can be seen in the table below.
With some lessons learned from the pilot, the team is working on a larger expansion of EV Charge SF to serve existing buildings (non-residential and multi-family residential), as well as additional adjustments to new construction incentives in response to recently updated building codes.
Table 1. EV Charge SF Pilot Results (July to December 2024)
Projects Enrolled in
EV Charge SF
Only
Projects Enrolled in
EV Charge SF +
MSDI
TOTAL
Projects
Number of Projects 15 multifamily 22 multifamily
1 commercial
37 multifamily
1 commercial
Projects in Priority
Communities
N/A 10 multifamily
1 commercial
10 multifamily
1 commercial
1 For more information on PG&E’s Multifamily Housing and Small Business EV Charger Program, see https://pge.com/msevcprogram. Accessed on January 31, 2025. 2 “Priority Communities” are low-income, rural, tribal, and other areas that are defined by the California Public Utilities Commission and California Air Resources Board. Multifamily, not-for- profit, and small businesses in the MSDI program located in priority communities are eligible to receive EV chargers at no cost to the property owner. MSDI projects located in non-priority communities are required to pay a cost share. Developers are able to determine if their projects are located in a priority community by visiting MSDI’s Priority Communities Map, see https://pgegisportal.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=11e4e13cf2584bfe8e 334d4327f95a0f. Accessed February 4, 2025.
3 SFPUC’s EV Charge SF pilot program did not use a priority community distinction and provided the same incentives for projects located in priority and non-priority communities.
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Projects Enrolled in
EV Charge SF
Only
Projects Enrolled in
EV Charge SF +
MSDI
TOTAL
Projects
Incentives Reserved $534,000 $230,000+
4 $764,000+
Number of Stalls
Incentivized
137 46+
4 183+
Projects Completed 3 0 3
Figure 3. Installed EV Charging Outlets at an EV Charge SF pilot program site.
b) Heat Pump Water Heater Program
CleanPowerSF continues to be a key participant in a regional heat pump water heater program administered by the Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN). Through this program, CleanPowerSF promotes residential water heating electrification in San Francisco by providing contractor incentives through its Break Up With Gas Campaign.5
4 MSDI projects are still in process and have not yet settled on a final project scope and design.
These numbers are estimates assuming the minimum project size to be 2 chargers installed per project with EV Charge SF pilot incentives of $5,000 per charger. These numbers are subject to change as the project scopes are developed.
5SFPUC’s “Break Up With Gas Campaign” at https://www.cleanpowersf.org/goelectric.
Accessed on February 19, 2025.
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Figure 4: Website image from the SFPUC’s “Break Up With Gas” campaign
The program provides a $1,000 incentive to qualified installers for each electrified water heate r. To date, this program has provided incentives to 18 different contractors in San Francisco. In the last quarter , the program distributed incentives to 82 projects and has now served nearly 400 installations in San Francisco. CleanPowerSF’s Heat Pump Water Heater Program is buttressed by funding from the state’s TECH Clean California program, an initiative to spur the transition of home space and water heating from fossil fuels to renewable energy. TECH prioritizes supporting both existing programs through matched incentive funding and extending i ncentives statewide with an emphasis on access for low -income and disadvantaged communities. Availability of funding from TECH Clean California has been a major driver of heat pump water heater deployment in San Francisco.
Figure 5: Monthly trend of program participation in Heat Pump Water Heater Program (TECH Clean California incentive availability is shown across the top; arrows indicate influence)
On December 10, 2024, the TECH program released Round #3 of heat pump water heater funding for the single-family residential market, allocating $10.8
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million across the state . Staff anticipate a moderate spike in activity related to the TECH program for the first quarter of 2025 until TECH funding is again exhausted.
The regional BayREN-administered program will end in March 2025, and s taff are actively developing a new heat pump water heater program to replace it .
This new program is intended to spur more consumer-driven adoption of heat pump water heaters throughout the City . We hope to begin accepting applications for our new program in the second quarter of 2025. c) Real Time Pricing Pilot
In January 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) authorized PG&E and Southern California Edison (SCE) to develop new real- time pricing (RTP) pilot programs to encourage customers throughout their service territories to shift their electricity demand during periods of high demand on the grid.6 Under real-time pricing rates, electricity prices reflect the 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).
Deemed “ Hourly Flex Pricing ” (HFP), the pilots are open to agricultural, commercial, and residential customers on eligible rates and are available to Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) that elect to participate.
CleanPowerSF has elected to participate in the Expanded Pilot 2, which is available to residential and commercial customers on eligible rates and anticipates opening enrollment by June 1, 2025.
7 Customers that participate in the pilot will be billed on their normal rate each month. In addition, they will receive a separate monthly performance report and will be eligible to receive bill credits valued at the real -time price of electricity if they shift their usage relative to their historical electricity consumption. Over the course of a year, if a customer shifts their usage from high-priced periods to low-priced periods, they will receive a bill credit valued at the difference. If the customer doesn’t shift their usage from high to low -priced periods, they won’t pay any more than what they paid using their normal rate.
The California Energy Commission is also interested in real -time pricing through its updated Load Management Standards (LMS). A dopted in January 2023, LMS encourages investor-owned utilities and large CCAs and publicly owned utilities to develop real-time rates to reduce peak electricity demand.
The CleanPowerSF LMS Plan, adopted by the Commission on April 23, 2024, declined to develop real -time pricing rates or automated demand response programs but considered participation in the real -time pricing pilots to gauge customer interest and behavior. The p ilot program will provide valuable insight into how customers respond to real -time pricing signals and should help to inform whether and how real-time rates should be developed in the future.
6 California Public Utilities Commission Decision 24-01-032, Decision To Expand System Reliability Pilots Of Pacific Gas And Electric Company And Southern California Edison Company at https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M524/K176/524176497.PDF.
Accessed on February 19, 2025.
7 Expanded Pilot #1 targets agricultural customers and the third pilot targets vehicle to grid integration programs.
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d) SuperGreen Saver (Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff) CleanPowerSF’s SuperGreen Saver program provides 100 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)-eligible energy at a 20 percent discount to qualifying low-income residential customers residing in state -defined Disadvantaged Communities (DACs). As of February 2025, there are 1,054 SuperGreen Saver program customers, a slight 0.9 percent decrease since the last CleanPowerSF quarterly update to the Commission reported in May 2024. SuperGreen Saver is authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) under the Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff program.
SuperGreen Saver program capacity increased by about 33 percent in late 2024 following the CPUC’s approval of program changes that shifted unused capacity from the defunct Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) to the DAC - GT program. CleanPowerSF had not yet begun to offer the CSGT program by the time the CPUC issued its decision. During the fourth quarter of the calendar year, CleanPowerSF enrolled all eligible customers from the SuperGreen Saver waitlist. CleanPowerSF will continue enrollment efforts, prioritizing eligible customers, using a combination of waitlist and random lottery of eligible accounts to maintain program capacity . The capacity in the program is approximately 1,600 customers while the estimated total eligible customers number approximately 7,300.