San Francisco PUC’s Community Choice Energy Program Signs Storage Contracts

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 11, 2022

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s (SFPUC) community choice energy program, CleanPowerSF, has executed two new agreements to participate in long-duration energy storage through California Community Power, a group of 10 community choice aggregation programs that procure power for their residents, businesses, and municipalities.

The two projects — the Tumbleweed Project by REV Renewables, to be located in Kern County, California, and the Goal Line Project by Onward Energy, to be located in San Diego County, California –mark the first joint procurement effort that San Francisco is participating in with California Community Power.

San Francisco’s share of the Tumbleweed Project will provide approximately 11 megawatts (MW) of battery energy storage, while its portion of the Goal Line Project will provide 10 MW of energy storage capacity.

In total, the Tumbleweed Project will provide 69 MW of battery energy storage, and the Goal Line Project will provide 50 MW. 

In recent years, CleanPowerSF has been expanding its battery storage portfolio. Earlier this year, CleanPowerSF executed a contract to add battery storage to the Blythe IV solar project in Riverside County, which provides 62 MW to CleanPowerSF customers.

The Tumbleweed and Goal Line projects represent CleanPowerSF’s first long-duration battery storage contracts.

To date, CleanPowerSF has over 200 MW of battery storage under active contract.

California Community Power was established in February 2021 to leverage the combined buying power of community choice aggregators for energy supply, programs, and services. CleanPowerSF became a member in April 2021.

Other members include Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, San Jose Clean Energy, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, Peninsula Clean Energy, MCE, East Bay Community Energy, and Central Coast Community Energy.
  
CleanPowerSF began serving customers in 2016 with a mission to provide San Francisco residents and businesses with renewable electricity at competitive rates. Today, CleanPowerSF serves about 385,000 customer accounts in San Francisco and offers 50% and 100% renewable electricity service options. Over the past six years, CleanPowerSF has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use by 94% from 1990 levels.
  
Along with CleanPowerSF, the SFPUC operates Hetch Hetchy Power, which generates and delivers 100 percent greenhouse gas-free energy to more than 4,000 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. Collectively, the two systems meet over 70 percent of the electricity demand in San Francisco.