Year in review
Combining a strong financial year with a range of new offerings to help customers manage their energy use, SMUD showed in 2017 that it’s built to last.
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Our 2017 Annual Report highlights some of the many ways we’re meeting the needs of our customers, giving back to the community and embracing new opportunities that come our way. Explore highlights of some of our accomplishments below, or download a print-friendly version of the report.. |
Digital first
By 2020, SMUD will be a digital-first company. Moving towards this goal, we rolled out an all-new smud.org, improved the outage map and increased the number of customers receiving text and email alerts.
Energy storage
Energy storage is the capture of energy for use at a later time. The Board adopted a target of 9 megawatts of energy storage by the end of 2020. We expect roughly 80% will come from battery storage and 20% from thermal energy storage.
SolarShares℠ growth
Shining a light on the community
To properly celebrate our 70th anniversary throughout 2017, we launched a “70 Years Bright” campaign to strengthen our already deep roots in the community.
In line with our long history of sponsoring charitable causes and organizations, the Shine community development and beautification program was created to strengthen community alliances by enhancing and revitalizing neighborhoods.
Over 100 local nonprofits applied and after an extensive screening process, 20 recipients received more than $400,000 to improve our service territory.
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Laying the groundwork for a new energy future
New markets
Our decades-long promotion of energy efficiency means the average customer’s usage is declining. To relieve upward pressure on rates while continuing to invest in grid infrastructure, we took significant steps in 2017 toward developing new sources of revenue.
We entered the CCA, or Community Choice Aggregation, market by signing agreements with Valley Clean Energy and East Bay Community Energy to provide a variety of services ranging from financial analysis to call center services.
Finally, we launched the SMUD Energy Store, giving customers an opportunity to buy a variety of energy-efficient products, and signed a multi-year partnership with NEC Group and SpaceTime Insight.
Time-of-Day rates
In 2019, we’ll be the first large California utility to make time-of-day rates standard for all residential customers. This switch better reflects the cost of service and allows customers to manage their bill by shifting energy use to lower cost off-peak hours. It also benefits the community and environment by lessening our need to build new power plants and purchase power at peak market prices.
We know this will be a big change for our customers, so we developed a comprehensive outreach plan to educate customers about the reasons behind the switch and the ways in which they can better control their electricity bills.
Rehabilitating a Sacramento landmark
Known for its “Water City” mural and modernist design, Headquarters is getting spruced up.
The major renovation, approved by the Board in 2014, includes safety, security, accessibility, environmental and structural upgrades.
Set to open in 2019, we’re partnering with Roebbelen Contracting and the architectural firm of Dreyfuss & Blackford, the firm that designed Headquarters in the late 1950s.
And don’t worry, the beloved “Water City” tile mosaic is being cleaned and restored to adorn the building for decades to come.
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Going the extra mile (3,500, in fact)
With the new year approaching and hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans still without electricity 4 months after Hurricane Irma, SMUD reached across the continent to extend a helping hand.
Dozens of SMUD employees worked quickly to organize our portion of the mutual assistance effort. Two weeks into 2018, 2 SMUD line crews and 15 trucks were in the Carolina region of Puerto Rico.
For 60 days, a total of 4 six-man SMUD crews, assisted by 2 supervisors, a vehicle mechanic and support staff, battled narrow roads, mountainous terrain, thick vegetation and the occasional tarantula to restore power to approximately 2,000 Puerto Rican residents.