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San Jose Clean Energy presents five‑year roadmap; committee forwards recommendation to council
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Summary
San Jose Clean Energy proposed a five-year programs roadmap that keeps a $10 million annual customer-program budget for FY 2026–27 amid high PCIA charges; the committee asked questions about installer incentives, community solar and demand-response enrollment and voted 5–0 to forward the roadmap to council.
Laurie Mitchell, director of the city’s Energy Department, and Kate Siaba, deputy director, presented San Jose Clean Energy’s recommended program roadmap for 2026–2031 and the department’s recommended budget plan for fiscal year 2026–27.
Mitchell told the committee that the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) will impose a large fee on customers in 2026 and that staff expect customers to pay about $132,000,000 in PCIA charges next year; staff plan to use roughly $108,000,000 of reserves to offset that charge. “In 2026, our customers will pay $132,000,000 in this fee, and we are offsetting that by using a significant portion of our financial reserves,” Mitchell said.
Kate Siaba described the current portfolio and proposed program changes. SJCE currently runs 12 programs across residential electrification, EV charging and transportation, customer support and demand flexibility, and workforce development. Staff recommended maintaining about $10,000,000 in program spending for the coming year and proposed two new pilots: free technical assistance for commercial customers (with a special track for restaurants) and a low- or no-cost portable heat-pump pilot for renters.
Siaba said past program activity generated estimated lifetime savings and emissions reductions: through 2025 staff estimate roughly $29,400,000 in lifetime customer savings, avoidance of more than 46,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and savings of 35,000,000 kilowatt-hours. She also described the solar-access program (a community solar offering funded by the CPUC) that provides a monthly discount to participating income-qualified customers.
Committee members asked about the new installer incentive and peak rewards demand‑response enrollment bonuses. Siaba said the installer incentive was launched the prior week and that the peak rewards program has used modest gift-card enrollment incentives (for example, $20) paired with bill credits for measured reductions.
Councilmember Campos moved to accept staff recommendations and have the roadmap proceed to full council; the motion was seconded and the committee approved the item 5–0. The committee adjourned at 2:56 p.m.
