S.F. Fights PG&E Plan to Pare Transmission Contract

A Pacific Gas & Electric proposal that would terminate almost all transmission services from San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy hydropower system to the city is being challenged at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by San Francisco. The city claims that PG&E is "eviscerating" the parties" contract, which runs to 2015. PG&E maintains that its effort to cease carrying San Francisco's power on its lines is only a contract "amendment." "The filing represents the valid exercise" of PG&E's contractual rights, stated PG&E in its FERC filing. According to testimony by Stephen Metague, PG&E director of electric transmission rates, the utility proposes to cease providing transmission services, firming service, energy tracking accounts, ancillary services, and energy balancing services. If federal regulators allow PG&E to change the contract, San Francisco claims, it cannot replace services to meet the utility's deadline at the end of the year. PG&E refuted that assertion. "In contrast to [San Francisco's] unsubstantiated claims of doom and disaster, PG&E has already presented expert testimony that all the services" are available in the market, its filing stated. PG&E maintains that the city could tap into the California Independent System Operator for the needed services. If San Francisco were forced to become a scheduling coordinator at CAISO, it would take about three months, according to grid operator spokesperson Gregg Fishman. It could, however, accelerate the process by either hiring an existing third-part scheduling coordinator to take on the work or becoming a hybrid. That involves hiring a third party as well as becoming a formal scheduling coordinator. The dispute harkens back to the 1913 Raker Act. The federal government allowed the city to use hydroelectricity from the O'Shaughnessy Dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley near Yosemite. However, the high-voltage lines running from the dam to the city are owned by PG&E. The utility has used its transmission ownership to thwart repeated attempts by San Francisco to municipalize services as allowed under the Raker Act.

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S.F. Fights PG&E Plan to Pare Transmission Contract

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