Published By: Communications and Public Outreach
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Citizens' Advisory Committee
Power Subcommittee
MINUTES
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
1155 Market Street, 4th Floor Conference Room
San Francisco, CA
Members
Kimia Mizany – Chair
Nick Carlin
Ken Cleaveland
Aaron Israel
Steve Lawrence
David Pascal
Staff - Jim Chien
Members present: Kimia Mizany (Chair), Nick Carlin, David Pascal, Steve Lawrence, Aaron Israel, Winchell Hayward
Members not present: Ken Cleaveland
Staff: Jim Chien
Members of the Public: Lurilla Harris
ORDER OF BUSINESS
Roll Call Present: Mizany, Carlin, Lawrence, Cleaveland, Hayward Absent: Pascal, Israel
- Call to Order
Kimia Mizany, Chair, called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m..
- Approval of Minutes
Minutes from April 23, 2007 meeting approved.
- Announcements
No announcements by members or reports on other meeting
- Public Comment
No public comment.
- Presentations and Discussion: John Doyle and Russell Stepp of Power Enterprise, SFPUC, gave a brief introduction of the SFPUC Geothermal Investigation Grant application and its renewable energy potential for San Francisco. The grant is a project of the California Energy Commission Geothermal Resources Development and has a budget of $3 million. A motion authorizing the Power Subcommittee Chair to draft a letter of support was passed unanimously.
- Barbara Hale, Assistant General Manager of the PUC Power Enterprise, gave an overview of the Power Enterprise’s goals, priorities and upcoming projects for the next 6 months. She said that some of the larger scale projects that the Power Enterprise is currently working on include SF PUC Long-Term Energy Plan, Combustion Turbine Project, and Community Choice Aggregation (CCA).
The SFPUC Long-Term Energy Plan is currently under development, but expected to be completed soon. The staff report can go to the full PUC Commission as soon as late September or early October this year. Ms. Hale added the Geothermal grant is one of the good examples of future PUC renewable energy projects.
The Combustion Turbine project is in the phase of signing an agreement with J Power of Chicago. CCA will be in the Request For Information (RFI) phase soon. Ms. Hale said that the SFPUC continues to provide power for redevelopment areas in San Francisco and a new green initiative to explore solar-power opportunities for street lights.
Ms. Hale indicated that the Power Enterprise is working on 08/09 budget planning. The Power Enterprise needs revenue to implement (solar) projects and she would like to see all users to pay for their utility usage.
When asked if the Power Enterprise can provide past utility bills for all users, Ms. Hale responded “yes”. Ms. Hale went on to explain the discrepancies among charges for different users and which charges were actually paid. There was a debate among members on the rates charged to different city departments and whether one department is subsidizing the other. Ms. Hale agreed to provide utility charge details at a later time to help clarify some of the issues.
A question was raised about the SFPUC’s Sustainability Plan. Ms. Hale explained that the Power Enterprise worked with the SF Environment to develop a way to calculate and track San Francisco’s Environmental Impact Footprint. She stressed that SFPUC is the first city in the country to design and calculate Greenhouse emissions and its environmental footprint. The committee requested a Climate Plan presentation.
- Meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM.
