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Public Power Week Highlights a Century of Clean Electricity for San Francisco

Public Power Week Highlights a Century of Clean Electricity for San Francisco

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
October 8, 2024                          

Nancy Crowley 
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission 
ncrowley@sfwater.org 
(628) 629-1748                    

  

Public Power Week Highlights a Century of Clean Electricity for San Francisco 

 
SAN FRANCISCO – Public power utilities across the United States are marking Public Power Week, a celebration from October 6-12 highlighting the benefits provided by the 2,000 public power utilities, serving over 50 million people nationwide. According to the American Public Power Association, public power utilities consistently deliver more affordable and reliable service than investor-owned utilities.  

For over 100 years Hetch Hetchy Power, San Francisco’s public power utility, has supplied the City with clean, reliable electricity from its hydropower sources. Owned and operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Hetch Hetchy Power energizes municipal buildings and facilities, such as City Hall, San Francisco International Airport, public schools, libraries, streetlights, and the Muni transit system. It also provides electricity to some new commercial and residential developments, including affordable housing sites.  

“San Francisco would not be the iconic and beautiful city we know and love today without Hetch Hetchy Power,” said SFPUC General Manager Dennis Herrera. “For over a century, Hetch Hetchy Power has delivered 100% greenhouse-gas free power that’s helped keep our air clean and the City running, while preserving clear views of San Francisco’s stunning natural scenery. This is all while offering the lowest electricity prices in San Francisco today. Public power continues to deliver results for San Francisco, which is why we are committed, more than ever, to acquiring PG&E’s local electric grid and expanding public power to serve all of San Francisco.”  

San Francisco ratepayers and the public continue to benefit from the City’s public power service, which also plays a major role in the City’s climate action goals. 

In the past year, Hetch Hetchy Power has: 

  • Saved residential, commercial, and municipal customers a total of $120 million on electricity bills in 2023 compared to PG&E service. As a not-for-profit power provider, Hetch Hetchy Power continues to offer the lowest electricity rates in San Francisco.  
  • Completed a major upgrade to the historic Path of Gold streetlights on Market Street, installing more efficient, brighter LED lighting from Castro Street to the Ferry Building  
  • Began operation of the Bay Corridor Transmission and Distribution Project, a major public power infrastructure project that will allow the SFPUC to deliver clean, affordable power to customers along the eastern waterfront of San Francisco through a publicly-owned grid system. 
  • Increased the number of publicly-owned and operated rooftop solar systems in the City to a total of 28 and celebrated the 20th anniversary of Moscone Convention Center’s rooftop solar array, the largest rooftop solar array in the City when installed in 2004.  
  • Decarbonized the Sunset Health Center, making it one of the first public health clinics in San Francisco to go all-electric, eliminating the use of natural gas to power the clinic’s operations.  
  • Expanded customer program offerings to help accelerate the transition to 100% clean electricity through the launch of the Electrify My Ride e-bike rebate program for customers with low-incomes and an All-Electric Multi-Family program to support affordable housing sites in making the switch from natural gas to 100% clean electricity.   

 

In addition to Hetch Hetchy Power, the SFPUC also manages another public power program called CleanPowerSF. Launched in 2016, CleanPowerSF serves customers with a mission to deliver clean, renewable electricity at competitive rates. Today, CleanPowerSF serves about 385,000 customer accounts in San Francisco. Over the past eight years, CleanPowerSF has helped San Francisco reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use by 93% from 1990 levels.  

While San Francisco benefits from public power, PG&E continues to make it difficult for the City to operate its public power service today. The company has a long history of imposing unnecessary limitations and costs on San Francisco’s use of the local electric grid. Over the last few years, PG&E’s obstruction has cost taxpayers an estimated $35 million in additional equipment costs and delays.  

In 2019, San Francisco submitted an offer to PG&E to purchase the local electric grid for $2.5 billion. When PG&E declined, saying the price was too low, the City petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission in 2021 for an independent assessment of the grid’s fair-market value. With that process underway, the City is also conducting environmental reviews to prepare for a purchase of the assets from PG&E. 

Through public ownership of the grid, San Franciscans will benefit from safer, cleaner, more affordable electricity as Congress intended more than 100 years ago when it gave San Francisco the right to develop a hydroelectric system to compete with corporate monopolies such as PG&E. In a recent public poll, nearly 80% of local respondents said they were in favor of full public power in San Francisco.  
 
To learn more about the City’s campaign to expand public power, visit www.publicpowersf.org.  
 

About Hetch Hetchy Power 

The SFPUC operates Hetch Hetchy Power, which generates and delivers 100% greenhouse gas-free energy to more than 6,300 customer accounts, including municipal buildings and facilities, such as City Hall, San Francisco International Airport, schools, libraries, and the Muni transit system. Hetch Hetchy Power also provides electricity to some commercial and residential developments, including affordable housing sites. Learn more at sfpuc.gov/HetchyPower. 
 

About the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a department of the City and County of San Francisco. We deliver drinking water to 2.7 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area, collect and treat wastewater for the City and County of San Francisco, and meet more than 75% of the electricity demand in San Francisco. Our mission is 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. Learn more at www.sfpuc.gov.