Utilities Advisory Commission - August 5, 2026

Commission members seek more ambitious, customer-focused reliability measures

Members of Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission called for staff to explore tougher and clearer electric reliability goals before City Council review, but the commission took no vote and recorded no formal recommendation. Staff will consolidate the feedback and seek council input and potential final approval without first returning the goals to the commission.

Staff proposed annual targets of at least 99.99% average system availability, equivalent to SAIDI of no more than 52.6 minutes, and CAIDI of no more than 190 minutes when Major Event Days are excluded. The CAIDI proposal was described as 10% below the three-year average. Members discussed whether those targets were ambitious enough, including a possible four-and-a-half-nines availability goal equivalent to about 26 SAIDI minutes and a separate SAIFI target.

The treatment of Major Event Days emerged as a central issue. The discussion used a threshold of outages affecting at least 10% of Palo Alto customers within 24 hours, and staff reported four such days in 2025. Members questioned whether that threshold alone adequately distinguishes weather and other external events from equipment failures, and they supported reporting all outages while also providing clearer subsets by cause.

Members also requested information about restoration within four or eight hours, the worst-performing circuits, outage causes and locations, and the cost of reliability improvements. Staff identified the Maybell and Colorado circuits as major outage contributors from October 2023 through July 2026 because of their size and customer impact, while citing the planned Hopkins Substation rebuild as one potential way to divide large circuits and reduce the scope of outages.

Staff said Grid Modernization investments such as circuit ties, equipment upgrades, fault indicators, sectionalizing devices and substation work are intended to reduce outage scope and improve restoration. Staff also cautioned that outage-reporting software introduced in 2023 improved data accuracy, limiting direct comparisons with earlier results.

New state law changes treatment of large hydropower investments

Staff reported that the governor signed AB 34, which will prevent investments in large hydropower from adversely affecting the utility’s renewable portfolio standard calculation. Staff cited a potential utility impact of about $25 million between 2030 and 2045, although the record did not identify that figure specifically as a cost or savings.

Staff also reported that anticipated power-purchase agreements did not move forward. Solar-and-storage options will instead be considered in a later competitive batch.

Gas replacement reaches nearly 10,000 feet as fiber installations begin

Gas Main Replacement Program 25 had received about $16.5 million in federal grant funding and installed almost 10,000 linear feet of replacement main and about 220 gas services, staff reported. Staff separately estimated that gas-system leaks represent about 3% of the utility’s greenhouse-gas impact.

Early-adopter installations were underway for the Fiber to the Premises initiative after completion of a fiber hut earlier in 2026. About a dozen early adopters were participating in installation and startup work, and staff said the initiative could ultimately have capacity for as many as 850 customers. Additional information is scheduled to return to the commission in October.

The Foothill Wildfire Mitigation Project remained on track for expected completion by the end of the calendar year. A contractor had installed substantial conduit and was placing cable in preparation to energize the line, although heat and fire conditions limited some field work.

In separate storm-recovery work, staff said interim repairs were complete where 2023 winter storms exposed utility infrastructure near a creek. Long-term planning includes relocating pipelines away from erosion-prone areas, with community and regulatory-agency feedback being gathered.

Primary sources

Watch the meeting on YouTube · Read the official meeting packet