Foreword from
General Manager
I’m thrilled to
share our 2020
SFPUC Strategic
Plan. It has been
a pleasure to
work with our
Executive Team
and Strategic
Planning
Steering
Committee to
reaffirm and
focus our overall
strategic direction.
While this high-level plan does not capture all of our
work, it identifies key priorities to get us where we want
to be in 2020. This plan serves as a roadmap for the
SFPUC, to ensure that we meet the challenges ahead
and continue to deliver reliable water, power and
sewer services.
This is an exciting time for the SFPUC. We are nearing
completion of our Water System Improvement Program,
providing crucial seismic reliability and redundancy
for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System. We
recently launched CleanPowerSF and will be expanding
the program rapidly over the next few years. This
will be pivotal for our City’s clean energy future.
In addition, our Sewer System Improvement Program
is moving forward with essential upgrades at our
Southeast Treatment Plant. We are making systemwide investments in both grey and green infrastructure
that will ensure our operations remain reliable.
We also face many challenges. We have just come
out of the driest four-year period in recorded history.
Water consumption has dropped significantly in the
last few years, due in part to our successful public
campaigns to encourage conservation. We are proud
that conservation has become a way of life for our
customers. However, decreases in demand have serious
implications for our revenues. The drought has
also affected our power generation, which is tied
to our hydrologic conditions. While water demand
is projected to increase slightly with population
growth, we must work more efficiently to address our
infrastructure and operating needs with less revenue.
Like many public utilities around the country, we are
anticipating a large number of employee retirements
in the next five years. We need to ensure that new
and existing employees are adequately trained and
supported and that knowledge transfer systems are
in place to ensure continuity in our services.
Despite the challenges, we see great opportunities
ahead. We are unique in that our systems are
interconnected. The 2020 SFPUC Strategic Plan
will help us to embody a “one water” concept – one
water, one system, one organization.
We look forward to building on our strong reputation
for providing high-quality, reliable service, continuing
our commitment to authentic and transparent
stakeholder engagement and investing in our current
and future employees. This plan is a living document
that will be reviewed and revised as we move into
implementation in coordination with our employees,
our stakeholders and our Executive Team. We have
a lot of work ahead, but we have a strong course of
action, with clear goals and objectives, that will guide
SFPUC’s work for years to come.
Harlan L. Kelly, Jr.
General Manager
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
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