COUNCIL AGENDA: 3/4/2025
FILE: 25-183
ITEM: 3.4
Memorandum
TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Matt Mahan
Vice Mayor Pam Foley
Councilmember Rosemary Kamei
Councilmember David Cohen
Councilmember Domingo Candelas
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: February 28, 2025
APPROVED:
SUBJECT: COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY AND THE CITY OF SAN JOSÉ FOR ELECTRIC INFRASTRUCTURE
DEVELOPMENT
RECOMMENDATION
Accept staff’s recommendations and direct the City Manager or her designee to include the following provisions in a binding Implementation Agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E):
1. A City Energy Development Team funded by PG&E to coordinate and accelerate large load projects, consisting of:
a. At least two City positions associated with Economic Development and Oversight b. At least four positions within Public Works funded by upfront fees paid for by and credited back to PG&E as projects progress, ensuring a dedicated team with the right non-personal equipment and ability to focus on large load projects c. Funding for Innovation & Process Improvements, including collaboration with innovation partners to streamline permitting, joint trenching, and digital tracking.
2. Clear and enforceable Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for large load interconnections, including commitments to meet customer’s needs and potential consequences when OKRs aren’t met.
3. Flexibility in Design & Delivery that may include changes to PG&E’s processes to allow:
a. Emerging power solutions for data centers; and
b. Streamlined build out of infrastructure (e.g., switching & substations)
4. Potential expansion of PG&E’s annual permit with measurable success metrics to track and improve day-to-day service delivery for San José’s regular PG&E customers.
5. Commitments to proactively partner with the City to achieve approximately 250MW capacity in the first phase of developing the 159 acres of Regional Wastewater Facility economic lands.
6. Deepened investment in San José-based workforce programs, ensuring local residents benefit from new energy jobs created through this partnership.
7. An immediate surge of resources while PG&E transforms its processes to meet the needs of large load and heartbeat customers.
BACKGROUND
We appreciate staff’s extensive work and PG&E’s meaningful collaboration over the last year to ensure our electric infrastructure can support economic growth while advancing our sustainability goals. This deepening partnership is in large part premised on a lasting transformation of PG&E’s approach to interconnection for large load customers to ensure certainty, speed, and greater flexibility in approaches to design and delivery. The City is committed to doing its part to support PG&E in better serving these large load customers, while also pursuing service improvements for all existing customers within San José. We will need long term support and tangible commitments from PG&E to achieve the level of change and sustain the effort envisioned. Specifically, the City cannot achieve success without PG&E committing to an Implementation Agreement that includes the seven points above.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’ s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’ s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.