Silicon Valley Power
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Energy, Utility |
| Founded | 1896 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, CA |
| Key Executive | John Roukema, Director of Electric Utility |
| Products | Electricity |
| Peak Demand | 472.4 megawatts |
| Operating Revenue | 329.4 million (CY 2014) |
| Owner(s) | City of Santa Clara |
| Employees | 142 |
| Website | www |
Silicon Valley Power (SVP) is a not-for-profit municipal electric utility owned and operated by the City of Santa Clara, California, USA. SVP provides electricity service to approximately 52,000 residential and business customers, including large corporations such as Intel, Yahoo!, Applied Materials, Owens Corning and NVIDIA. SVP also owns and maintains a dark fiber network named SVP Fiber Enterprise, and provides citywide free outdoor Wi-Fi access as part of its installed wireless network communications system that supports SVP MeterConnect®, SVP’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program.
The City of Santa Clara electric department was founded in 1896 when it installed 46 streetlights powered by a direct current generator. In January 1904 to 1965 the electric department began purchasing energy for resale to Santa Clara’s customers from the United Gas and Electric Company of San Jose, which later became part of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). PG&E supplied Santa Clara’s electric needs until 1965, when the electric department began to purchase its power from the Central Valley Project (CVP) supervised by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. In 1968, Santa Clara became a founding member of the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) in order to work with other municipal electric utilities to jointly develop cost-effective energy sources.
In 1980 the Santa Clara electric department became an energy producing utility for the first time since 1903 when it launched its own 6-megawatt (MW) cogeneration project, the first of three natural gas-fueled electricity generation plants in the City of Santa Clara. In 1983 Santa Clara and its NCPA partners became the first cities in the U.S. to invest in and operate a publicly owned geothermal plant, the 110 MW NCPA Geothermal Project, one of 22 geothermal power plants at The Geysers, with Santa Clara having a 55% ownership interest.
In 1998 the Santa Clara electric department was renamed Silicon Valley Power (SVP). Subsequent efforts to expand and diversify its electricity supply led to construction of the Donald Von Raesfeld combined cycle natural gas plant (2005), various partnerships in wind and hydroelectric generation sources, and 25 percent ownership of the Lodi Energy Center combined cycle natural gas plant (2012). In 2007, SVP launched Santa Clara Green Power to provide residents and businesses the option to use only renewable energy. SVP continually pursues affordable renewable power options as the city general plan states an objective to be sustainable. On average, in 2012 over 38 percent of the electricity distributed by SVP was from green resources, and the City’s utility is nationally recognized for its reliable power, low rates, and customer satisfaction.
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