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LAFCO hears SFPUC timeline for Clean Power SF RFP; staff outlines hiring and outreach plans
Summary
SFPUC briefed the Local Agency Formation Commission on the Clean Power SF RFP process: questions due Dec. 9, proposals due Dec. 29, a review panel will rank firms and LAFCO staff expect to hire a second outreach-focused position to support implementation and marketing ahead of opt-out notices.
San Francisco’s Local Agency Formation Commission on Thursday received a timeline from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Clean Power SF team for the city’s Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) procurement and said it will staff up to support outreach and implementation.
“My name is Mike Campbell. I’m the director of SFPUC’s Clean Power SF program,” Campbell told the commission, saying the RFP was issued Nov. 5, a pre-response workshop was held Nov. 16 and the last date for bidder questions is Dec. 9. “The responses to the RFP are due Dec. 29,” he said.
Why it matters: the implementation plan the city must assemble will be submitted for CPUC review, and the city will send opt-out notices to customers. LAFCO commissioners and staff emphasized that strong outreach and a clear marketing plan will be critical to minimizing opt-outs and ensuring a viable procurement.
LAFCO Senior Program Officer Jason Fried said staff have received “just over 400 applications” for a second staff position and aim to begin interviews Dec. 1 so the new hire can start in January. Fried said that position would focus largely on community and business outreach: “That’ll be what the second staff person’s main focus will be … going out and talking to the plethora of community groups and organizations that are in the city and making sure they understand what we’re doing.”
Campbell and Fried described next steps after proposals arrive: staff will convene a review panel to rank responding firms and begin one-on-one negotiations with the top-ranked firm. Commissioners agreed a joint SFPUC–LAFCO meeting, tentatively scheduled for January, would provide a convenient forum for unveiling and vetting responses together.
Public comment urged that the RFP review panel include community expertise. Eric Brooks of the San Francisco Green Party and Our City asked the commission to add a community representative with deep CCA experience to the review panel — he suggested either Commissioner Borenstein or Ed Mainland of Marin County — and recommended expanding a three-member panel to five members to ensure diverse oversight.
Campbell said staff will consider recommendations for panel composition as they recruit reviewers, and Fried said LAFCO staff will participate on scoring panels while observing the commission’s recusal policies for RFP drafting.
Campbell and LAFCO staff also identified procurement uncertainties potential bidders raised, including how long-term contracts would handle customer opt-outs and how different resource portfolios (solar versus wind) would be evaluated. Campbell said the project team has posted written answers to workshop questions on the project website to keep absent bidders from being disadvantaged.
Next steps: bidder questions are due Dec. 9, proposals are due Dec. 29, staff will convene a review panel to rank proposals, and LAFCO and SFPUC plan a joint meeting in January to review top-ranked respondents and next procedural steps.
