the other model would be to use a utility user tax only model where you have a larger utility tax increase that would generate annual revenue stream and you could use part of that to pay for the operating cost of the network and then issue a revenue bond secured against that for the remainder. those are the two pre dominant model. >>speaker: how long have you been looking at these models? >>speaker: the project team has been working on this for a number of years, and we have had much more focused attention through the rfp process. >> that seems the squishy part working on it before you got here but working on it in the dark. >> we are drafting an rfp to be released to possibly go to voters in november. do you see what i'm saying? >>speaker: i do understand what you are saying and the more clarity we have regarding a lot of these questions regarding components of cost and the more certain we can be about managing our risks and we know a lot more today than we did six months ago or three months ago as a result of the rfp process and we will know much more at the end of this rfp process both

a regulator like utility, there is different ways in which you can talk about what a utility mean. on the one hand making sure there is a subsidy for low-income folks and on the other hand consumer protections and there is questions around privacy. if we want to make sure that all of our residents have access to the internet. i want to move on away from philosophical theories. i want to talk about more tangible stuff. will this board have opportunity to weigh in on the language of the rfp? >>speaker: i think the same answer as before. that's probably not within my authority on the project as a member who influences the general direction as a member of the project team, i can imagine that conversation coming up but i don't know the answer to it and not going to be able to determine it. >>speaker: >>speaker: while the board typically doesn't have a right over rfp process the board does afford prove rights any contract other $1 million. you would expect if the project moves forward the final p3 contract would end up in front of the board for your approval. >> okay. why don't you remai

investor owned utilities, average of 30 to 35. municipal utilities, potentially 40. rural america starts with a handicap. they are going to have higher prices. we understand that and work with it. think also about we comprise about 42% of the distribution infrastructure. same amount of infrastructure as investor owned utilities. and so the challenges in rural america to get the consumer welfare and protection and high quality affordable electricity is a continuing challenge. again, many of delia's members face that same series of challenges. a couple of other things. manufactured housing. about 5% of housing stock in the united states is manufactured housing. in cooperative territory it's more than double that. 14%. right there we have that challenge. if you think about the health care epidemic in rural america, the opioid issues, there are a lot of challenges facing rural america. and i guess the question i pose to you, i would bet most of us are consumers here in urbanized areas. how many would say you live in a rural area? there's a couple. why should we care abou

there, tight would hit that utility, so that is one of the challenge. that would be in the sidewalk and the trench would run through the intersection as it goes from one side to the other side, it would run through the roadway and you still have the utilities in the roadway, and there would be potential tol hit those existing utilities currently in the ground. >> how much does that usually cost? it can i don't know how much it cost. >> varies on the size and scope of the project. >> i have heard that it's cheaper than the open cut trench, so i think it is cheaper but there are challenges within a built city like san francisco. >> does it make sense for our city for this particular project related to fiber? >>speaker: i do not think it does because of the challenges that i explained and that is just the initial challenge of the initial construction. because it would be installed at a shallow depth and later on another utility company would be to come in and trench for their utility because the fiber is at a shallow depth, there is potential to hit the fi

in the old days, there was the utility and then the regulator of the utility. now we have moved to a system where we have electricity generation and the utility that is controlling distribution and you still have the regulator of the utility that now has some power over the sellers of generations. what is the regulatory structure going forward, what should that look like it does seem like we are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, i am not sure how we go about shaving off the corners? >> the interesting thing to me is that the role of the utility and the regulator in the 21st century are in some respect, much larger and more important than they were in the 20th century. the 20th century was about utilities like concrete and boiling water. that was all there was to it. generally, they will get angry when i say that but it was relatively simple. it was easy to figure out how much to pay them because you could do the rate of return on concrete and boiling water. in the future, they have to manage a complex grid. it is a lot harder, but it does not, it is

and so if you say i'm going to leave the utility supply and join a c.c.a., the utility with the commission and state law endorsement says you need to take your share of those future costs with you. that is what the pcia is. if you are a customer who decided to stay with the utility, you continue to pay those forward costs but it doesn't show up on your bill separately like it does when you are a cca customer. >> can i ask about the reentry fee, the $4.24. if approved, will there be a itemized list as to what goes into that cost or is this something that will remain vague? >> the california public utilities commission will need to dig in more i think to understand why pg&e's costs are so much higher than edsons and how to improve the profile for pg&e. i haven't dug into the elements. it's things like the staff time to reestablish the account as a bundled utility account. >> ok. it's a dodging, complicated issue. thank you for that. any other comments, commissioners? >> thank you. >> thank you, very much. any public comments on this item? >> thank you, president kwan, commissioners, senior p

utility serving about 12,000 -- 1200 utilities with retail customers in 35 states. as dependent upon the transmission facility of others, tap members recognize the importance of robust grid and have long advocated policies to get needed transmission built but are keenly aware that expansion must be achieved at reason bl cost. by enacting section 217 b-4 of the federal power act in 2005, congress gave clear instructions on transmission planning and expansion. they are directed to facilitate planning to meet the reasonable needs of load serving entities and enable load serving entities to secure long-term firm physical or equivalent financial rights or long-term power supply arrangements made or planned to meet their service obligations. these directives translate into steps they can and should take regarding transmission planning and investment. but that's not happening to the degree necessary to meet congressman date -- congress mandate. first they have to meet the needs of load serving entities. although there's a transmission planning process, even they have recog

, we represent municipal utilities, a rural electric cooperative and an investor-owned utility serving about 1200 utilities with retail customers. they depended on the transmission facilities of others, taps members recognize the importance of a robust grid and have long advocated policies to get transmissions built but are keenly aware that expansion must be achieved at reasonable cost. by enacting section 217 of the federal power act of 2005, congress gave clear instructions on transmission planning. they are directed to facilitate planning to meet reasonable needs of the load serving entities and enable load serving entities for long-term power supply arrangements made or planned to meet service obligations. these directives translate into steps that should be taken regarding transmission planning and investment but that is not happening to the degree necessary to make congress mandate. the grid has to meet the need of load serving entities. although rules have been established for an open and transparent planning process, even ferc has recognized this is not happening efficiently.

identifying and managing abandoned utilities requires a great deal of care and the extense of the utilityomplex with the planning is unfortunately increasing the days necessary to complete this phase of the construction. in addition, night noise and vibration have been tentative and the team is taking measures wherever possible to reduce the impact of night noise to the community. as much of the project work as possible is being moved to being completed during daytime hours and we are working and we are looking at some re-engineering some of the work we were doing to minimize the amount of night work that is required. unfortunately, because van ness avenue is part of highway 101 and a very busy corridor, there is some work that we will have to do during the night. thank you. while some of the work is proceeding on or ahead of schedule such as the installation of the muni joint duct bank along the west side of the street, the extent of the utility complex is increasing the days of work necessary to complete the overall utility phase. the original plan to open 2019 has unfortunately been pu

, we represent municipal utilities, a rural electric cooperative and an investor-owned utility serving about 1200 utilities with retail customers. they depended on the transmission facilities of others taps members recognize , the importance of a robust grid and have long advocated policies to get transmissions built but are keenly aware that expansion must be achieved at reasonable cost. by enacting section 217 of the federal power act of 2005, congress gave clear instructions on transmission planning. they are directed to facilitate planning to meet reasonable needs of the load serving entities and enable load serving entities for long-term power supply arrangements made or planned to meet service obligations. these directives translate into steps that should be taken regarding transmission planning and investment but that is not happening to the degree necessary to make congress mandate. the grid has to meet the need of load serving entities. although rules have been established for an open and transparent planning process, even ferc has recognized this is not happening efficiently.

izzo, running a utility today. but we shouldn't let it be the end all be all to build something that you can't cost justify. i used to say to our customers, look, we can guarantee your availability 100% of the time, but you couldn't afford the service. and then later, the engineers would say, well, we probably can't really guarantee it 100% of the time. so, it needs not be an effort to gold plate the system in the name of it will never go down. >> okay. thank you. and good to see chris also here today, so thank you for being here. i yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you. mr. mcnerney, five minutes for questions. >> i thank the chair on this. mr. crepe yel mr. krapels, your proposal for offshore wind is interesting. what types of proposals have you seen outside of the new york/new jersey area, including the west coast, where we have deepwater out there? >> thank you, congressman. i've seen and studied very carefully what the european countries have done. so, both germany, the netherlands are the leaders in offshore

allowing new rule developers to compete against traditional utilities have been ineffective. we will explore these challenges associated with transmission planning, cost allocation and construction. while high-voltage wires form the backbone of our smart grid technologies, demand response, energy storage and micro-grids can also provide benefits similar to traditional transmissions, since these may improve reliability while reducing environmental impacts and costs to consumers. we should explore whether any regulatory barriers are in the way blocking electric transmission from reaching its full potential. i would like to take a few seconds to introduce a witness, a fellow i have known since grade school, and fraternity brothers in college and on through life, that would be mr. twitty. welcome, john and thank you for lending your expertise to the steering. welcome to d.c.. congressman: thank you. statewe will examine the of electric transmission infrastructure. there have been many developments in the nations energy portfolio since ferc issued order number 890 promote2007 as a

based on the total costs that we had obtained from the consultant in 2015, so the fee, the utility fee average if it were a public model is about $43 a month and utility fee if using the public/private partnership where more of the costs are shifted to the private partners was about $25 average. that could be tiered as you had mentioned so residents could pay less and commercial could pay more. i would be happy to respond to any question. is acces>>speaker: thank you, . have you had a chance to read the ctc report that came out in 2017 and familiar with what is going on here? >>speaker: i have read exerts of the report. >> fair enough. what are your thoughts around the cost estimates for this 3p project? >>speaker: i think i have great respect for ctc and work they have done. we had a number of conversations with them when we were doing our work and i know they did much more detailed analysis of factors that i mentioned like the actually state of utility poles and what it takes to access them and put more devices on them. i should add on that, i think it's about 45% of the network woul

we agree on what resilience is, particularly those who have been running a utility today. but we should not let it be the end all be all to build something that you cannot cost justify. i used to say to our customers we can guarantee your availability 100% of the time. but you could not afford the service. later, the engineers would say, we cannot guarantee it 100% of the time. so it needs not to be an effort to go place a system in the name of it will never go down. >> thank you, and i thank you for being here. i yield back. >> thank you. five minutes for questions. >> i thank the chair on this. your ocean grid collector station's proposal for partial wind -- offshore wind is pretty interesting. what puzzles have you seen outside the new york-new jersey area, including the west coast, where we have deep water out there? >> thank you. i have studied carefully with the european countries, sublette germany, the netherlands are the leaders and offshore wind deployment, and in both of those countries, the id of an ocean grid that is separately owned has been part of the -- the

here in san francisco there is talk of putting a utility tax on the november ballot. we should think carefully aboutathaboutputting consumers k for something that doesn't have a good track record. by the time we build out the system the technology could be obsolete. we think there are other pressing priorities like affordable housing and affordable transportation. >> thank you. >>speaker: thank you for giving this opportunity for all of us to learn about this topic. my name is yuke. i say every day about 30 or 40 people trying to sleep on the street. i am a granddaughter to someone who worked for the governor of tokyo at the most difficult time in the city of japan. the whole capital liked like ground zero. the first vision is you give -- i think this whole point is great. if i get free wi-fi where i live, great, but what is going to happen to the people living right underneath me. i look at this budget and i think there are priorities of what the city is known for. i think it needs to have a orderly fashion in which we spend our money. thank you. >> thank you for you

-- the electric sector utility industry in forward contracting? and part of the idea here is we don't want to lock in too much of our supply at a given point in time given the fact that the market will move around, the price of supply will move around, and just sort of an anecdotal point, in 2010, solar was selling for almost ten times what it is now. so we don't want to overcommit to a particular resource at a particular point in time, which is why we've structured it this way. in the very near term, we want to be procured as close to 100% as possible so we're not exposed to changing market prices every day? but we want to leave a little bit open each year to procure so that we're not out of the market, so that gives us some room to procure every year to fill the whole portfolio. >> right. is there any projection of how much of these different renewables are going to drop in price? >> yeah. so one thing that our team is working on now is an integrated resource plan that we'll be bringing to the commission within the next two months? that is a pla

utilities to have standard that is utilized by the company.so it's not, this would be in step with moving towards resiliency. it's a big island, 3500 square miles and there's lots and lots of infrastructure. so it will take time to transition through all of those components, but there are, and we're working very closely with prepa, there are opportunities for resiliency through design and through micro grids and utilization of different technologies and resources to expand the capabilities of the system. >> let me, and this may be both mr. higgins and mr. alexander, in terms of the materials that we have sitting in the warehouses, whether they are in the corps of whether they're going to be transferring over to you, do these materials meet what you will need to match up with these rus national standards? >> yes. as we change voltages into some of the things over time, we will have to get new equipment to replace that. but the things that have been brought back in are adequate to allow us to operate until we make changes in the future. if a vol

so to the extent a cca formation results in a utility like pg&e having excess supply that the utilityvailable to the community to purchase on a voluntary basis. and enable california to continue its progress towards achieving its environmental and climate goals. pretty important one there. so the cca is preparing a written briefing on the lafco for this topic, and i believe that was be sent to your attention very soon. we're almost done with that. so with that, i'll pause and take any questions you might have on at least what i discussed. >> supervisor fewer: so colleagues, any questions? >> supervisor ronen: just out of curiosity, have you done any research why customers are opting out, the ones that are doing so, given the savings that are available to them. just curious. >> yeah. actually we have. whenever the customer opts out, we present them with sort of a questionnaire to identify from a select set of options the reason. and there are two -- two of those sort of stand out against the others. the first is a distrust in local government providing these services, and the second is

the utilities make proposals. legislature doesn't design grid. >> in perrigo there is a public corporation that is subject to certain legislation. that's why we want to transform it to have private operators so it's completely depoliticize and disconnected from the legislative process and it can look like a utility in the mainland. >> mr. higgins, do you have the authority to redesign the system? i have a very limited amount of time. >> through the resource planning process into the offices of the various initiatives that have been undertaken, providing longer-term funds and opportunities to make the grid more resilient, we can do exactly what you say we can do. we can figure out a better way to do it. >> what's the price of electricity today. >> around 20 cents a kilowatt hour. >> so were building a project in the state of maine and our costs are way below 20 cents in its competitive. i just read brashear we were down to six cents. kilowatt hour for solar. why isn't this the natural response in puerto rico? why a

other energy institutions to utilizes this new information? >> yes. >> are we getting utility leadership through the clearance process fast enough? >> i'm not sure about that. i have to get back with respect to the speed. >> that's another concern. i know senator warner brought up the overall issue. one of the things that we have heard on the energy and natural resources committee is that even former members of congress who served on the intelligence relevant intelligence committee can't get through that process. if we don't have partners read in on the other side it, makes it very difficult for those utilities and those other energy institutions to actually implement the changes that they need to implement. >> thank you, senator. i believe working closely with dhs, they are working to provide a process to get individuals and companies cleared so they can receive this threat information on a realtime basis. >> you said that continuous evaluation is not the future. it's now and that the government honestly has not done a good job. industry is a

we may have a utility tax measure coming before us. you keep your eyes peeled for that. that deadline is going to be june 19th. if there's going to be a tax measure on the november 2018 ballot, which is, quite frankly, rumoured to be the case. again this is a tax revenue. a tax measure rather than a geo- bond for which we've already missed the deadline on. but that tax, whatever the language is would be determined by the cost estimate and the term, terms of the rfp. there are more questions than answers here and it seems pretty premature to make this capital, or spending, i priority. you heard it reflected and the public comment, is this really a priority? i love the goal of this project, though. and i appreciate mike for pointing out to me the utility boxes that are predisposed already to fit themselves for a fiber. i would love to see the digital divide close but i don't think it necessarily has to do with access, but also with the costs associated with people logging on and being able to acquire access to internet. but is not clear to me that we've looked at all the o

incur utility bill, and so if you're in a position where your otherwise housing covers your utility bills you shouldn't get an initial standard allowance in that circumstance so we're trying to find a way to make that happen. maybe the disabilities was an oversight and we can get that fixed, but that's -- that was the reason we went that direction. mr. scott for five minutes. >> thank you. mr. chairman, i want to -- i really want to clarify so everybody knows these are the facts. jack webb used to say that, just the facts, folks. but the -- there will be according to all of the agriculture experts, and my staff we went through this and we got the actual numbers. there's no argument that this bill will put 1.6 and this is conservative, 1.6 million americans off of s.n.a.p., and that, mr. chairman, is quite honestly the purpose of your bill because that is the end result, and i think that you would champion the fact when you say and others who are championing this bill, oh, we did a great thing. what was that. we put us.6 million people off of s.n.a.p., so let's get off of the kick ab

investor-owned utilities, average of 30 to 35. municipal utilities, potentially even 40 consumers per mile line. so rural america already starts with a bit of a handicap. consumers in rural america, by definition, are going to have higher prices. so we understand that. and we work with it. but the thing about rural america, think also about we comprise about 42% of the distribution infrastructure. same amount of infrastructure as investor-owned utilities. and so the challenges in rural america, to get the consumer welfare and consumer protection and high-quality affordable electricity is a continuing challenge. again, many of delia's members face that same series of challenges. a couple of other things. manufactured housing. about 5.5, 6% of housing stock in the united states is manufactured housing. in cooperative territory, it's more than double that. it's 14%. so right there, we have that challenge. if you think about the health care epidemic in rural america, the opioid issues, there are a lot of challenges facing rural americ

and can you tell me often they are utilized by the house and senate? >> i can. thank you for bringing those up. we are very proud of those spaces. they are updated and full of amenities to make sure that whatever meetings are held there go off without a hitch. we have about 800 events a year in those spaces. this would be the congressional auditorium and the two congressional meeting rooms. the atrium is sort of right there in front of the auditorium. >> right. >> we use the auditorium about 50% of the time. there are more experiences in the auditorium. we have that available six days a week. we also offer catering for that particular area. so if you had an event in the atrium, you could have meetings. >> so utilization is about 50% in the auditorium. the atrium? >> it's about 50%. >> the same with emancipation hall? >> yes. >> now emancipation hall is a little bit different. we utilize that for our bigger events such as gold medal ceremonies, that sort of thing. we use that about two to three times a year on average for those big events. >> which you have to ke

last month construction crews began replacing underground utility lines. pg&e is overseeing the work. the california department of education is getting a $14 million federal grant to help schools that were affected by wildfires last year. that includes schools that were impacted by the wildfires. betsy devos says schools can use the money for expenses related to really -- restoring a normal school environment. schools in puerto rico will seek millions of dollars in federal grants to recover. >>> the demolition of the burned-out apartment complex is ahead of schedule. officials say they could open sooner than expected. traffic was backed up in the downtown area since willow pass road is closed. a three alarm fire gutted that complex last tuesday. investigators are working with the fire department and police to find the cause for the fire. >>> a train derailed near marina vista avenue and shell avenue. no hazardous material leaked. it is believed the train was backing in 12 cars went off the track. the rail line runs right next to amtrak. those commuter trai

accusing the utility company of covering up... after a >>> the bay area lawmaker that fires back at pg&e accusing them of covering up after a new report blames them for sparking several wildfires in northern california. >>> katy nielsen explains why the lawmaker is sounding the alarm. >> reporter: jerry hill says pg&e is lobbying for change around fire law liability. this comes as the report shows the power lines caused massive fires in nevada and butte county last year. those fires are not the same as the fires connected to the wine country fired that destroyed parts of santa rosa. >> they are trying to create a story around their behavior and actions which is a false reality. that is the part that is so disturbing. >> reporter: jerry hill says he worries about pg&e's lobbying efforts in sacramento to change state laws that currently require utilities to compensate people if property is damaged by utility equipment. >> they don't want shareholders to pay the money. they want the ratepayers or the state to cover the cost. they wil

as a result of the incurring utility bills to pay folks that in current utility bills. if you are in a position where your housing covers your utility bills you shouldn't get an additional standard allowance been trying to find a way to make that happen. maybe disabilities was an oversight and we can get that fixed but that was present we were in the direction mr. scott, five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman i really to clarify so everyone knows these are the facts. jack webb used to say that just the facts, folks. there will be, according to all of the agricultural experts and my staff we went through this and we got the actual numbers and there is no argument that this bill will fund six and this is conservative, 16 million americans often snap. that, mr. chairman, is quite honestly the purpose of your bill. that is the end result and i think that you will champion the fact that when you say and others champion the spell we did a great thing and what was that and we 1.6 million people often snap. let's get off the kick about it. it will one thing 6 million and this

i'm from the san francisco public utilities commission.he program came about with state wide legislation in 2002 to enable people to take more control over supplies. i first heard of the program when the organization was advocating to launch clean power sf. what i'm most excited about, it's going to bring 100% renewable energy to my home and reinvest into renewable energy infrastructure and jobs. i had gone to a lot of street fairs and heard from the staff at the san francisco public utilities commission to sign up for clean power sf even before it launched. >> we learned about clean power sf because our sustainability team is always looking for clean operations. linkedin is the largest online network. there are about 530 million members using our site. in this san francisco office there's about 1400 employees working in roughly 400,000 square feet. >> after signing up for the program we heard about the san francisco program and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. i'm the co-owner of the new wheel electric bike shop.

we utilize that for our bigger events such as gold medal ceremonies and that sort of thing. we use that about two to three times a year on average for those big events. >> but you have to kind of keep all the tourists out while you're doing those events. >> yes. we have massaged that over the years to try to give as much access as possible. depending on the time of kay that the event is occurring we can sometimes bring people in that morning while we're setting up and still give them a tour and the full experience. sometimes we do to have cancel tours when we're having an event in exhibition hall. >> how many times a year do you -- how many special events did you say with emancipation hall? >> emancipation hall we have two or three a year. in 2015 we had eight, because we had the restoration going on in the rotunda. >> so only about two or three times a year you have the disruptions with the tour, and there are other ways for us as members of congress to be able to take people on tour, just not going through the cvc and emancipation hall, right? >> and we do facilitate that

, and i really appreciate being able to utilize your meeting spaces for constituent meetings and it is great to get down there to do things with a closed top secret meetings and briefings that we get i always enjoy having an electrical outfit on -- outlet there to charge my phone whether or not i can take it into that meeting but i do know that is charging from when i come out because we appreciate your space bar much, can you tell me how often the auditorium in the atrium and other spaces are used for films and other events and the house and the senate? the neck i can. we are very proud of those spaces. they are updated and full of amenities to make sure whatever meetings are held there go off without a hitch we have about 800 events per year in those spaces this is a congressional auditorium auditorium in the two congressional meetings. the atrium is right there in front. we use the auditorium about 50% of the time we have that available and we also offer catering for that particular area of you have an event in the atrium you could have catering with your event. >> it issues 50%? wh