We’ve seen a historic drought followed by record-breaking storms. Climate change is already affecting our systems, region and ratepayers as weather becomes more extreme — but the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and our more than 2,200 employees are fighting back.
To protect against these threats, the SFPUC will begin construction on San Francisco’s first major climate-change adaptation project in 2025, creating new public open space at Ocean Beach, protecting key public assets and ensuring coastal access in the face of climate change. Through CleanPowerSF, the SFPUC offers renewable, affordable, and accessible energy to 385,000 San Francisco customers. At the same time, our Hetch Hetchy Power delivers 100% greenhouse-gas-free electricity to more than 6,000 residential, commercial and municipal customers, including San Francisco’s airport, the Muni transit system and many affordable-housing sites. Our two power services saved customers more than $170 million on electric bills in 2023 compared with PG&E.
Ex // Top Stories Have SF voters truly weakened city‘s 'strong mayor' government? After Willie Brown, voters passed measures impacting the mayor, creating commissions and giving supervisors rights to nominate and approve mayoral nominees. We know these investments add up to a lot of money. We also know that shortchanging utilities and failing to invest in our water, power and sewer infrastructure might lead to the very crises that have occurred in the United States in the last few years.
At the same time, we are mindful that capital projects can drive up utility rates. We are a not-for-profit public utility. Our rates cover the true cost of operating, maintaining, and upgrading our systems — nothing more. Yes, our rates are going up to pay for these investments, but we are doing it in a way that is thoughtful, responsible, and fair.