SFPUC unveils $571M Power budget, outlines 10-year capital plan and public-power expansion

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on Thursday heard a detailed presentation from Assistant General Manager Barbara Hale on the Power Enterprise operating budget and a 10-year capital plan that together rely on roughly $571 million in annual ratepayer funding and align with the city’s Climate Action Plan.

Hale told the commission that Power operates two distinct retail electricity businesses — Hetch Hetchy Power (the city-owned utility) and Clean Power SF (a community choice aggregation program) — serving about 388,000 retail accounts. She said the proposed Power share of the agency’s fiscal-year budget totals roughly $2.2 billion over the planning window and that the Power Enterprise’s requested operating-and-capital appropriation equates to $571 million of ratepayer-funded spending in the coming year.

Why it matters: Hale said the budgets fund projects intended to support electrification and decarbonization in buildings and transportation, retain and grow a local workforce, and expand the city’s ability to serve load as more customers electrify. ‘‘Every dollar in our budget is dedicated to successful implementation of the city’s Climate Action Plan,’’ Hale said.

Key numbers and programs: Hale described a Hetch Hetchy Power annual program budget of about $262 million and a Clean Power SF budget of about $444 million. She estimated roughly $33 million in avoided costs to general fund departments and about $31 million in savings to enterprise customers this fiscal year — a combined figure she said…