Hetch Hetchy Water and Power provides reliable, high quality water and electric energy to the City and County of San Francisco and other customers, protects watershed resources in cooperation with federal agencies, operates and maintains facilities to a high standard of safety and reliability, and maximizes revenue opportunities within approved levels of risk.  Hetch Hethcy Water and Power also strives to promote diversity and the health, safety and professional development of its employees.

Service Overview

Eighty-five percent of San Francisco's drinking water starts out as snow falling on more than 650 square miles of watershed land in Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest. As the snow melts, it collects in Hetch Hetchy's three storage reservoirs. The water is pure enough to be exempted from costly water filtration requirements - only a few systems in the country meet this federal government standard. Water flows by gravity through 150 miles of pipelines and tunnels from the crest of the Sierras to San Francisco. As it flows, HHWP puts the water to work. It turns the turbines in four hydroelectric powerhouses, generating approximately 1.6 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy each year. Hundreds of miles of transmission and distribution lines move the electricity from the powerhouses to the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the power is used for City and County of San Francisco offices and services, including MUNI and the International Airport. Surplus power is sold to Central Valley irrigation districts and public agencies.

Bureau Scope

Water Distribution System

• Collects and stores water from watersheds in Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest.
• Transports the water to the Bay Area through pipelines and tunnels - more than a 150 miles long.
• Relays water to SFPUC facilities in eastern Alameda County, from where it is distributed to the City of San Francisco and wholesale water customers throughout the Bay Area.

Power Service

• Provides electric power for all San Francisco municipal uses, such as MUNI and the International Airport.
• Sells surplus power at cost to Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, according to long-term contracts.
• When applicable, sells further surplus power on the wholesale market to other public utilities.
• Purchases power from the open market to meet seasonal needs, as necessary.

High Quality Water

• HHWP water is so pristine, it exceeds federal and state quality standards, and as a result is not filtered.
• San Francisco has the largest unfiltered water supply on West Coast, and it is one of a small number of unfiltered city water supplies in the nation.

Reservoirs, Dams and System Capacity

• Major Reservoirs: O'Shaughnessy (360K acre feet); Eleanor (27K acre feet); Cherry (270K acre feet).
• Number of dams: Five.
• Hydroelectric Plants: Four (total capacity of 380,000 kw).
• Total storage capacity: 659,600 acre feet. (The SFPUC maintains an additional 238,700 acre feet of additional storage in the Bay Area).
• Holds exchange storage rights of 570,000 acre feet in the New Don Pedro Reservoir, which is owned by Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts.
• HHWP system is designed to meet a peak demand of 400 million gallons a day.

Federal Law, Fees and Contributions

San Francisco holds its Hetch Hetchy water rights under California law. However, authorization to build reservoirs on federal land required an act of Congress - the 1913 Raker Act. The Raker Act requires the SFPUC to recognize prior water rights of the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts and obligates the release of water into the upper Tuolumne for fishery purposes (according to various agreements with the U.S. Dept. of Interior). The Raker Act also prohibits the sale of water or power to private entities for resale. Although the act calls for an annual use fee of $30,000, the SFPUC contributes over $1 million a year to Yosemite National Park for a variety of maintenance and improvement programs. The SFPUC is also currently paying over $3 million to rebuild the sewer system that serves the Tuolumne Meadows area of the Park. In addition, the SFPUC pays at least $3.5 million each year for environmental mitigations around the Tuolumne River.

Moccasin

Many HHWP employees work in Moccasin, CA, located 135 miles east of San Francisco. The Project Operations Division and Maintenance Engineering Unit are located here. These HHWP divisions keep much of San Francisco's water and power flowing. The small group of engineers and draftspersons who make up Hetch Hetchy's Maintenance Engineering Unit work on many projects in support of Project Operations.

Resource Management

The Resource Management Group manages operations planning for HHWP's resources. In addition, project management staff direct complex, multi-faceted and politically sensitive projects for the SFPUC. On a daily basis, the group manages releases from HHWP's upcountry reservoirs. Runoff from rain and snow melt is forecasted using a variety of data sources and statistical models in order to make prudent reservoir release decisions for protection of the water supply, water quality and dam safety. These factors are considered along with hourly prices in the western U.S. wholesale power market to produce a balanced generation plan for HHWP. The Resource Management Group also provides technical, legal and regulatory analytical support for HHWP's long term capital program. The Group directly manages HHWP's wholesale power supply, transmission and distribution contracts, including those with PG&E, the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, and the Western System Power Pool. In addition, they provide metering, billing, field design consultations, construction management and other technical assistance to HHWP's wholesale and retail customers.

Bureau of Light, Heat & Power

A division of Hetch Hetchy Water & Power (HHWP), the Bureau of Light, Heat & Power (BLHP) is responsible for providing and maintaining adequate and energy efficient lighting on San Francisco's streets. Their streetlight crews respond to outages, damaged poles and conduits.

BLHP maintains approximately half of the 40,000 streetlights in the city - the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is responsible for the remaining 20,000 streetlights. All of the 40,000 lights in San Francisco use HHWP power. Generally, streetlights without visible wires are owned and maintained by BLHP, while streetlights mounted on wood poles are maintained by PG&E