San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Seeks Renewable Energy Supplies

September 29, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 29, 2021

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is accepting bids for renewable energy supplies that will serve low-income CleanPowerSF customers in San Francisco.

Through a request for offers (RFO), the SFPUC is looking to purchase energy and associated capacity from new renewable energy resources located within the state’s disadvantaged communities (DACs).

These resources will serve two recently announced electricity discount programs that will be offered to eligible CleanPowerSF customers: the CleanPowerSF Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff and the CleanPowerSF Community Solar Green Tariff.

The CleanPowerSF Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff program is expected to begin serving customers in early 2022 with renewable energy from an already operating interim resource.

CleanPowerSF plans to transition participating customers to renewable energy produced by a new project located in Northern California as a result of the solicitation.

Eligible customers must live in a state-determined DAC in CleanPowerSF’s service area and must be low-income.

CleanPowerSF expects to serve approximately 1,200 customer accounts through the CleanPowerSF Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff.

The CleanPowerSF Community Solar program will begin to serve customers by mid-decade. Eligible projects must be solar resources and located in a DAC that is within five miles of subscribing customers.

To be eligible to subscribe, customers must live in a DAC. At least 50 percent of the project’s capacity must be subscribed to by low-income customers, while the remaining 50 percent will be open to all DAC residents.

CleanPowerSF expects to serve about 350 customer accounts with the CleanPowerSF Community Solar Green Tariff program.

More information about the RFO is available at: www.cleanpowersf.org/energyvendors.

CleanPowerSF is a not-for-profit program of the SFPUC. California law allows cities and counties like San Francisco to pool the electricity demand of their residents and businesses, and purchase electricity on behalf of those customers. These programs are called community choice aggregation programs.

CleanPowerSF began serving customers in May 2016, giving residential and commercial electricity consumers in San Francisco the option to have more of their electricity supplied from renewable sources at competitive rates.