San Diego Community Power CAC recommends board approve 2026–28 strategic goals

San Diego Community Power’s Community Advisory Committee voted unanimously March 13 to recommend that the board adopt the agency’s proposed strategic planning goals for fiscal years 2026 through 2028, after a remote presentation by CEO Karen Burns.

Burns framed the plan as an update that preserves the agency’s mission, vision and values while focusing the next three years on fiscal sustainability, customer affordability, infrastructure development and people. "Our mission guides our activities every day and it serves us extremely well," Burns said during the presentation.

The proposed strategic goals include targets to reach 75% clean energy by 2027, 85% by 2030 and 100% clean and renewable energy by 2035; to support 1 gigawatt of new local renewable and clean energy capacity (including 300 megawatts of small- and medium-scale distributed projects in San Diego and Imperial counties); to execute at least six prepay financial transactions intended to produce roughly $30 million in annual savings; and to build reserves and policies that position the agency to seek an investment-grade credit rating by the end of 2027.

Committee members raised implementation questions and suggested more community-level detail. David Marhamon, a public commenter, asked for clarification on the definitions of "small" and "mid" scale projects; Burns and staff described three tranches—distributed resources (aggregations up to about 1 megawatt), infill projects roughly 1–10 megawatts, and utility-scale projects above tens of megawatts—and said the 300-megawatt local target includes distributed and infill categories. Vice Chair Lawrence Emerson encouraged staff to provide community-specific outlines showing how the plan’s programs and strategies would apply to each member’s jurisdiction so advisory members can better engage locally; Burns said that work would align with the departments’ annual work plans and the committee’s forthcoming engagement on those plans.

Following discussion, Secretary Castaneda moved to recommend the plan to the board; Committee member Harris seconded. The motion passed by unanimous voice vote of attending CAC members. Committee members who recorded an "aye" on the minutes included Committee member Johns, Committee member Hammond, Committee member Sandoval, Committee member Harris, Committee member Moncedo Adams, Committee member Pike, Secretary Castaneda, Vice Chair Emerson and Chair Vasilakis.

The committee’s recommendation will be transmitted to the board for final action at a scheduled board meeting. Burns said that if the board approves the plan (the board is scheduled to consider it March 27), staff will translate the goals into department-level annual work plans, staffing and the FY26 budget between April and June.