Board approves launch of Clean Power SF, authorizes $19.5 million appropriation and Shell contract

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to approve legislation to launch Clean Power SF, the city's community choice aggregation (CCA) program, and to appropriate $19.5 million of Hetch Hetchy fund balance to support the program.

The launch package passed after amendments, with supervisors voting 8 in favor and 3 opposed on the balance of Items 16 and 17. The board separately approved a $6 million portion of the appropriation that will fund sustainability services and outreach by unanimous vote.

The ordinance (Item 16) establishes a Clean Power SF customer fund and a reserve fund and appropriates $19,500,000 of Hetch Hetchy fund balance at the Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to support the CCA program. The companion resolution (Item 17) authorizes the SFPUC, subject to conditions, to launch the program, approve local sustainability services for Clean Power SF customers and authorize the SFPUC general manager to execute a contract with Shell Energy North America for a term of up to five years to supply power needed to launch the program.

Ed Harrington, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, told the board the program will start with about 90,000 participants and a 30-megawatt initial supply portfolio that will be 100 percent renewable "on a megawatt-hour basis." Harrington said the city will initially buy renewable energy from Shell under the proposed contract, and over time the city expects to build out local generation.

"This program is the…