San Francisco expands role as power provider

ecs.umass.edu

The legislation is designed to grow the PUC’s retail customer base by giving it first crack at providing power to new developments while also helping San Francisco reach its ambitious goal of having all electricity in the city come from renewable sources by the end of 2020. 

The public utility already provides greenhouse gas-free energy generated from solar panels or hydropower from Hetch Hetchy for city-owned sites like San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco General Hospital and City Hall. 

“It’s not enough to talk about clean energy,” Wiener said. “We have to walk the walk, and this legislation will help us do that.” 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which sells most of its power at a heavily discounted rate for civic uses, also needs to bring in more revenue to keep up with aging infrastructure demands. Currently the city has to compete with Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which in some cases fights the city hard to provide power for new developments, like the under-construction Transbay Transit Center.

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