Clean Power SF reports steady enrollment, outlines battery storage deals and customer arrears relief

Clean Power SF staff updated the Local Agency Formation Commission on program enrollment, resource procurement and customer debt during the commission's October virtual meeting.

Mike Himes, director of the Clean Power SF staff at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said enrollment and participation remain stable and that the program's opt-out rate has floated between about 4.1% and 4.2%. He summarized the 2020 Integrated Resource Plan that the SFPUC adopted and submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), saying the program is “making steady progress” toward its procurement targets and its goal of 100% renewable, carbon-free electricity.

Himes described regional steps to secure long-duration energy storage. He said a joint powers agency, California Community Power, issued a solicitation and is negotiating a Kern County battery project intended to be shared among participating community-choice aggregation programs; the JPA board is expected to consider a contract in December. Himes also said Clean Power SF negotiated an amendment to an existing contract with NextEra Energy Resources to add battery storage at a solar site; NextEra would construct the battery in summer 2022 with a target operation date around October 2022. Himes noted the SFPUC commission approved that amendment at its Sept. 28 meeting and staff plan to present it to the Budget and Finance Committee.

The presentation also flagged the size and spread of customer arrears. Himes said nearly 25,000 residential Clean Power SF customers were more than 60 days delinquent on electricity charges — about 7% of the program's residential customers — with average past-due balances generally in the $85–$225 range for those accounts. On the commercial side, he reported roughly 2,000 commercial accounts (about 7% of commercial customers) in the 60+ day category, with past-due averages from about $285 to as much as $1,600 and roughly $1.7 million in commercial arrears in that bucket. Himes emphasized those figures reflect Clean Power SF charges only and do not include PG&E transmission and distribution charges, which can nearly double a customer's total past-due amount.

Himes reviewed a CPUC proceeding addressing roughly $1 billion in COVID-related utility debt and related disconnection policies. He said the PG&E disconnection moratorium ended in September and that customers with more than 60 days of arrears were automatically enrolled into repayment plans; customers who remain in such plans are not at immediate risk of disconnection. He also said the CPUC required similar relief for small businesses, including repayment plans that limit monthly payments (Himes said the decision capped monthly payments at no more than 10% of the customer's normal monthly bill) and ordered a disadvantaged-communities pilot offering outreach and counseling. SFPUC regulatory staff are advocating that Clean Power SF customers be eligible for that pilot.

Commissioners used the Q&A to press for more detail. Chair Connie Chan and Commissioners Shanti Singh and Gordon Marr asked staff to return with deeper briefings that include program participation counts by ZIP code, the number of customers participating in each specific customer program, funding details for incentive programs (including heat-pump water-heater incentives), and analyses or projections showing how battery and storage deployment could affect targets over the next decade. Himes said staff will follow up and provide a more detailed briefing at the commission's November meeting.

The presentation materials and video recording for the California Community Power JPA were cited by Himes as publicly available on the JPA website; Himes also encouraged commissioners to request follow-up briefings so staff can present the additional program-level data requested by the commission.