Energy Resources Customer Services Aug 19 2026

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SPEAKER_06: Good evening and welcome to the energy resources and customer services committee and special board meeting of August 19th

SPEAKER_06: This meeting is being recorded and can be accessed on Smed's website

SPEAKER_06: Please remember to unmute your microphone is speaking in order that our virtual to knees may hear you

SPEAKER_06: The microphone will display a green indicator light when the mic is on.

SPEAKER_06: For members of the public attending in person that wish to speak at this meeting, please

SPEAKER_06: fill out a speaker's request form located on the table outside this room and hand it

SPEAKER_06: to security.

SPEAKER_06: Members of the public attending this meeting virtually that wish to provide verbal comments

SPEAKER_06: during the committee may do so by using the raise hand feature in Zoom or pressing star

SPEAKER_06: 9 while dialed into the telephone toll-free number at the time public comment is called.

SPEAKER_06: Technical support staff will enable the audio for you when your name is announced during

SPEAKER_06: the public comment period.

SPEAKER_06: You may also submit written comments by e-mailing them to public comment at SMUD.org.

SPEAKER_06: Written comments will not be read into the record but will be read to the board electronically

SPEAKER_06: and placed into the record of the meeting if received within two hours after the meeting

SPEAKER_06: ends.

SPEAKER_06: Chief legal officer, please conduct a roll call.

Unknown: Director Sanborn?

Unknown: Here.

SPEAKER_04: Director Fishman?

Unknown: Chair Buie-Thompson?

SPEAKER_04: Present.

SPEAKER_04: Director Sanborn and Chair Buie-Thompson are present.

SPEAKER_04: Director Fishman is absent but I understand on his way.

SPEAKER_04: Also present are directors Rose, Herber, Kurth and present Tamaya.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_06: Item number one on tonight's agenda is to brief the board and SMUD's community impact

SPEAKER_06: plan.

SPEAKER_06: We have Dr. Markeese Webster, the director of DIB, learning and sustainable communities

SPEAKER_06: and then Tara Porter will speak after her.

SPEAKER_06: I guess are you going first?

SPEAKER_06: Order backwards.

SPEAKER_06: So Tara Porter, director of customer operations and assistance will be speaking first.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

Unknown: Good evening.

SPEAKER_14: My name is Tara Porter.

SPEAKER_14: I'm director of customer operations and assistance.

SPEAKER_14: Tonight alongside my colleague Dr. Markeese Webster, we're excited to provide an update

SPEAKER_14: on our community impact plan.

SPEAKER_14: Before we get started, I would like to acknowledge and thank the staff.

SPEAKER_14: This work would not be able to be performed without many of the folks that are in this

SPEAKER_14: room along with the folks that are not in this room today.

SPEAKER_14: But I just want to say thank you for all the work that you do.

SPEAKER_14: Also want to take this opportunity to thank our board.

SPEAKER_14: We appreciate the support and participation that you provide for our community impact

SPEAKER_14: plan.

SPEAKER_14: We appreciate your presence and your support.

SPEAKER_14: In 2021, we launched our zero carbon plan and committed to leaving no community behind.

SPEAKER_14: In 2022, we launched our community impact plan to deliver on that commitment.

SPEAKER_14: We leveraged our sustainable communities resource map, which you see there in the middle, where

SPEAKER_14: we used that to identify the areas that we should focus on.

SPEAKER_14: And then we also developed a comprehensive portfolio of programs and services to meet

SPEAKER_14: customers where they are.

SPEAKER_14: These strategies ensure smut is strengthening our workforce and communities and ensuring

SPEAKER_14: all benefit from our clean energy transition.

SPEAKER_14: We spent the past few years scaling initiatives, standing up new programs and services, and

SPEAKER_14: expanding outreach efforts into new neighborhoods and business districts.

SPEAKER_14: We've invested time and energy to develop relationships with our community and build

SPEAKER_14: bond trust within smut.

SPEAKER_14: We've taken time to educate our customers on our zero carbon plan, helping them to understand

SPEAKER_14: how electrification can benefit them and how they can partner with smut on our collective

SPEAKER_14: journey to our clean energy future.

SPEAKER_14: Going forward, we're continuing to incorporate our daily operations, our efforts into our

SPEAKER_14: daily business operations.

SPEAKER_14: We're building momentum to meet our customers' needs.

SPEAKER_14: We've expanded our low to moderate income programs and are working to incorporate what

SPEAKER_14: we've learned into future programming and initiatives.

SPEAKER_14: An update on our spending.

SPEAKER_14: So the original investment, or excuse me, the total investment has been $66 million.

SPEAKER_14: Over the past year, I'm happy to report that 99% of our investment has directly benefited

SPEAKER_14: our customer programs.

SPEAKER_14: We're going to be spending this evening providing updates in these four key areas that you see

SPEAKER_14: on the left-hand side.

SPEAKER_14: We're working alongside our trusted community partners to deliver culturally responsive

SPEAKER_14: in language outreach and education that increases awareness, builds trust, and helps customers

SPEAKER_14: participate in smut programs and services.

SPEAKER_14: We're reducing barriers to clean energy adoption by providing low and no-cost solutions through

SPEAKER_14: neighborhood electrification and business district electrification and nonprofit solar

SPEAKER_14: and storage programs.

SPEAKER_14: These investments help lower energy costs while improving comfort, health, safety, resilience,

SPEAKER_14: and overall quality of life.

SPEAKER_14: We're collaborating with local governments and jurisdictions, community organizations

SPEAKER_14: through industry partners to advance innovative infrastructure solutions that strengthen community

SPEAKER_14: resilience, support grid modernization, and ensure the benefits of the clean energy transition

SPEAKER_14: are shared across our region.

SPEAKER_14: We're investing in the region's future by preparing the next generation of clean energy

SPEAKER_14: careers, strengthening our work-worth pathways, supporting local businesses, and fostering

SPEAKER_14: regional economic growth.

SPEAKER_14: Through partnerships with educational institutions, employers, and community-based organizations,

SPEAKER_14: we're expanding access to quality jobs and building the workforce needed to achieve a

SPEAKER_14: clean energy future.

Unknown: Thus far, we've done a great job of reporting on outcomes, which you'll see on the right-hand

SPEAKER_14: side.

SPEAKER_14: Since 2022, we've installed over 6,500 residential and 260 commercial electrification measures,

SPEAKER_14: which rolls up to around 447 all-electric equivalent homes, and also yields a reduction

SPEAKER_14: of over 1,130 metric tons of carbon reduced.

SPEAKER_14: To give you a visual, that's about the equivalent of planting 25,000 shade trees.

SPEAKER_14: Pretty significant.

SPEAKER_14: These outcomes are great because they provide a sense of how the investment has been spent

SPEAKER_14: and the hard work that our teams have been doing.

SPEAKER_14: But it doesn't articulate the impacts and the non-energy benefits that are most important

SPEAKER_14: to our customers.

SPEAKER_14: With that in mind, we've spent the last six months asking our customers about the non-energy

SPEAKER_14: benefits and the impacts that are not tangible in the outcomes that you see at the top.

Unknown: 33% of participants reported better sleep and attributed it to participation in the

SPEAKER_14: program.

SPEAKER_14: They're telling us things like, I'm no longer sweating and hot overnight.

SPEAKER_14: I now have a working AC unit which has changed the quality of my sleep, especially on hot

SPEAKER_14: nights.

SPEAKER_14: We've learned that our customers that are participating in our programs through CIP

SPEAKER_14: have two to three times higher prevalence of chronic health conditions, such as COPD,

SPEAKER_14: emphysema, arthritis, allergies, to name a few.

SPEAKER_14: 30% of those participants noted improvement in their asthma and allergy symptoms.

SPEAKER_14: 20% noted improvement in their arthritis.

SPEAKER_14: 54% of customers said that the air quality inside their home has improved with the energy

SPEAKER_14: upgrades to their homes.

SPEAKER_14: When we look at customers that received an HVAC, that increases to 71% in terms of them

SPEAKER_14: feeling like their air in their home is cleaner.

SPEAKER_14: We've also supported improvements in economic mobility.

SPEAKER_14: For example, our workforce development efforts, we provided training to 566 people.

SPEAKER_14: 249 of those folks were placed into employment.

SPEAKER_14: So that's about 44%, which is pretty great.

Unknown: Finally, evaluation research found that net energy usage decreased across all subsets.

SPEAKER_14: So not only are our customers feeling more comfortable in their homes, they're using

SPEAKER_14: less energy overall.

SPEAKER_14: We're still early in quantifying the non-energy benefits work, and while our sample size is

SPEAKER_14: small, understanding these benefits suggests that we're on the right path.

SPEAKER_14: As we continue to learn and hear from our customers, we'll continue to adjust and adapt.

SPEAKER_14: Customer trust is one of the leading indicators of product adoption.

SPEAKER_14: When customers trust a company, they are more willing to try its products, share data,

SPEAKER_14: stay engaged, and recommend the product to others.

SPEAKER_14: So we spend a whole lot of time in this space of customer engagement and trust.

SPEAKER_14: In our customer experience relationship survey, we ask SMUD as a company I trust.

SPEAKER_14: 81% of our customers said that they do.

SPEAKER_14: So we know that our customers have a high trust in SMUD.

SPEAKER_14: In looking across industry insights, 81% of consumers say they need to trust a brand

SPEAKER_14: to buy from it.

SPEAKER_14: So it's very important that we continue to strengthen our trust and keep that high trust

SPEAKER_14: with our customers.

SPEAKER_14: I'd love to provide some examples of things that we've done in this space.

SPEAKER_14: Through the SHINE application process, we connected with Sacramento Eagles, IRE 9, which

SPEAKER_14: is a fraternal nonprofit organization which is located in Ward 6.

SPEAKER_14: There was a CES assessment that identified some potential energy savings and ultimately

SPEAKER_14: the organization received incentives and funding to support energy efficiency improvements.

SPEAKER_14: This year, that organization also has become an active partner in hosting two Avondale

SPEAKER_14: neighborhood walks, which helps to strengthen our neighborhood connections while increasing

SPEAKER_14: awareness of residential energy efficiency opportunities.

SPEAKER_14: Event engagement is often the first touch point in what can be a much deeper relationship

SPEAKER_14: with SMUD and benefits the nonprofit and our community greatly.

SPEAKER_14: In spring of 2025, as an example, we held a meet SMUD event in North Highlands.

SPEAKER_14: At that event, there was a representative that attended from the Twin Rivers School

SPEAKER_14: District, and he wanted in.

SPEAKER_14: And so in June of 2026, we partnered with the school district to deliver another meet

SPEAKER_14: SMUD event to them where we had over 300 community members participate where they learned information

SPEAKER_14: on ways to lower their energy bill.

SPEAKER_14: They could sign up for energy assistance, learn about pathways to careers in the field

SPEAKER_14: of sustainable energy.

SPEAKER_14: And small businesses had the opportunity to learn about our seed programs.

Unknown: As you're aware, we also have our annual Connecting Our Communities Resource Expo, and that's wildly successful.

SPEAKER_14: My colleague is going to provide an update in those numbers in her SD5 monitoring update today.

Unknown: So I won't steal her thunder.

SPEAKER_14: But what we learned with that is that there are customers that it's hard for them to get here.

SPEAKER_14: And so what we did is we have delivered Neighborhood Expo.

SPEAKER_14: We had our first one in June, and it was held at the Folsom Cordova Community Partnership.

SPEAKER_14: We saw 167 customers that participated in that.

SPEAKER_14: The space is pretty small, so we had about 14 community-based organizations that participated in that,

SPEAKER_14: with services ranging from financial literacy, health, dental, childcare, other utilities, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_14: We have another event scheduled tomorrow that's a Neighborhood Expo at the Salvation Army where President Tamayo will be delivering,

SPEAKER_14: you'll be doing our opening remarks.

SPEAKER_14: There you go.

SPEAKER_14: And so happy to let you know that we're expecting over 400 people attending that event tomorrow.

Unknown: Our marketing program is grounded in research, and using what we hear from our customers helps to build trust and improve our ability to connect with our customers.

SPEAKER_14: As an example, we had 90 homeowners from South Florin, Avondale, and Strawberry Manor that participated in three focus groups since October.

SPEAKER_14: Recruitment was done in multiple languages, Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and the focus group was also offered in multiple languages.

Unknown: Two of our customers, or two of the participants, took advantage of that opportunity and took the focus group in Spanish.

Unknown: The platform that was used is pretty neat.

SPEAKER_14: The person facilitating the focus group is able to type their questions and reactions in English, and that translates live to the language of choice.

SPEAKER_14: And so now customers who may not have previously been able to engage directly with SMUD have an opportunity to do so.

Unknown: As I mentioned earlier, one of the clearest lessons that we've learned through our work we are doing in this space is that customer trust is paramount.

SPEAKER_14: It's one of the leading indicators of product adoption.

SPEAKER_14: For many of our most vulnerable customers, the barrier isn't just that they don't have awareness of the program.

SPEAKER_14: It's whether they trust the organization doing it.

SPEAKER_14: And so while we're investing in neighborhood walks, we're partnering with community organizations that they trust, and local events, those allow us to meet customers where they are,

SPEAKER_14: listen to their concerns, and connect them with resources that improve overall affordability and quality of life.

Unknown: Throughout the Metaview Neighborhood Project, we had plenty of opportunities to engage with those customers, help them address their needs of having their HVAC, water heater and cooking units replaced due to age, workmanship and efficiency.

SPEAKER_14: We received plenty of words of gratitude from these customers, and there's one that stuck out in particular, and then I also have another card that we received that I want to pass around as well.

SPEAKER_14: The customer that stuck out in particular to me told us, I want to thank you for, I want to thank you, let me start over.

SPEAKER_14: I want to thank you for your SMUD program.

SPEAKER_14: All I had was a small heater through winter.

SPEAKER_14: I'm 80 years old and have arthritis.

SPEAKER_14: That is why I participated in your program.

SPEAKER_14: Your workers did the work, your workers that did the work were very kind and sympathetic and did a great job.

Unknown: I appreciated your help very much.

Unknown: While it's still hard to pay my bills, especially now that everything has gone up so much,

SPEAKER_14: I'm really hoping that you please keep the program going so maybe other seniors can also be helped.

SPEAKER_14: I'm very happy.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you again.

Unknown: And with that, I'll pass it over to my, I'm going to invite Dr. Webster up to finish us out and then we'll answer any questions.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_02: Good evening, everyone.

SPEAKER_02: You know, I got to do my switcheroo here real quick.

SPEAKER_02: All right.

SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Tara.

SPEAKER_02: So our business district work applies the same principle that Tara has been highlighting.

SPEAKER_02: Trusted relationships create opportunity.

SPEAKER_02: Many small business owners are focused on keeping their doors open and serving their customers.

SPEAKER_02: They don't always have the time, the expertise, or the resources to navigate electrification projects on their own.

SPEAKER_02: Through business walks, partnerships with our property business improvement districts, or PBIDS, and chambers,

SPEAKER_02: our business advisory council, and direct technical assistance, such as that provided by our strategic account advisors,

SPEAKER_02: we're helping businesses understand what's possible and removing barriers that might otherwise prevent participation.

SPEAKER_02: This year, we expanded awareness of SMUD commercial programs through 71 business-focused engagements

SPEAKER_02: and provided direct technical assistance to businesses pursuing electrification projects.

SPEAKER_02: Beyond reducing admissions, these investments help businesses lower operating costs, improve resiliency, and create capacity for future growth.

SPEAKER_02: And one good example of a commercial customer who we have helped is C-Chat, the children's choice for hearing and talking.

SPEAKER_02: They started really with a SHINE project that was focused on energy-efficient windows

SPEAKER_02: and that has now expanded to a solar and storage for nonprofits program.

SPEAKER_02: And so they, in June, celebrated the launch of a new solar and battery storage system.

Unknown: And this project is already delivering significant results.

SPEAKER_02: With the organization's May 2026 energy usage cost reduced by 77 percent, compared to last year in May at the same time.

SPEAKER_02: These energy savings will allow C-Chat to redirect resources towards its mission while improving long-term energy resilience and sustainability.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's talk about kitchens.

SPEAKER_02: Kitchen electrification is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of our work.

SPEAKER_02: And some might say the kitchen is really the heart of the home.

SPEAKER_02: I think that, so we'll just leave that there.

SPEAKER_02: While customers are increasingly interested in electrification, cooking remains deeply personal and culturally significant.

SPEAKER_02: That means adoption requires more than incentives.

SPEAKER_02: It requires education, demonstration, hands-on experience, and leveraging our community partners.

Unknown: Our approach has focused on helping customers see and experience induction technology for themselves through community demonstration projects,

SPEAKER_02: workforce training opportunities, and increased incentives for commercial customers.

SPEAKER_02: Since 2022, we've completed 162 kitchen electrification measures and currently have additional projects in development.

Unknown: What we're learning is that once customers experience the technology firsthand, many of their concerns and misconceptions begin to disappear.

SPEAKER_02: And so I want to talk for a moment about the pictures that you see here.

SPEAKER_02: I know Sunil. That is the homeowner that is in the first picture there.

SPEAKER_02: I met him actually during this spring's Habitat for Humanity Women Build event.

SPEAKER_02: Just a side note, he didn't tell me until after I volunteered very quickly to dig holes for tree planting that that probably wasn't the thing that I wanted to raise my hand for.

SPEAKER_02: But I did, and so here we are.

SPEAKER_02: But Sunil, thank you, Sunil, is really an example of the nexus between SMUD and organizations like Habitat.

SPEAKER_02: SMUD pays for the electrification measures in these new homes, solar, battery, kitchen upgrades.

SPEAKER_02: So from the time a family crosses the threshold into their new home, they're experiencing electrification benefits, safety, improved air quality, and education.

Unknown: And then in the middle picture there, commercial customer adoption.

SPEAKER_02: SMUD supports projects like this because it creates opportunities for residents while helping communities become more familiar with electric technologies.

SPEAKER_02: The all-electric kitchen give residents hands-on experience with equipment they might encounter in future jobs, helping them build relevant skills and confidence.

SPEAKER_02: It also provides a chance to see firsthand how electric appliances can be safe, reliable, and easy to use.

SPEAKER_02: By investing in projects like the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation and Heartland Child and Family Service Kitchen upgrades,

SPEAKER_02: SMUD is helping prepare residents for future workforce opportunities while supporting the transition to cleaner energy.

SPEAKER_02: And so just really quickly, the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation, we've partnered with them over the next three years to jointly offer these three things.

SPEAKER_02: So one, kitchen demonstrations with guest chefs provided by SMUD.

Unknown: Two, kitchen use by community members for the purpose of hands-on experience, as we've talked about, so important.

Unknown: And then three, sponsorship and tables at events to provide community education on the use of electric appliances.

Unknown: And then Heartland Child and Family Services.

SPEAKER_02: The project included the installation of three new electric kitchen appliances and portable induction hobs to support hands-on culinary instruction.

SPEAKER_02: And this upgraded space is helping prepare the first cohort of six Del Paso Heights residents as they participate in a kitchen and hospitality training program designed to really help them build their skills and think about new career pathways.

SPEAKER_02: And then SMUD customer building electrification programs have revamped our kitchen incentives this year in an effort to capture the real savings that can be obtained from fuel switching and commercial kitchens.

SPEAKER_02: We are partnering with our strategic accounts team to engage with the Restaurant Association to help educate small and medium businesses on the specific benefits to decarbonizing in their kitchen spaces.

SPEAKER_02: And my favorite, it's not my favorite, I shouldn't say that, it's all my favorite, but the What's Cooking, really super excited about what happened back in May.

SPEAKER_02: And some of you, many of you in this room got to experience that.

SPEAKER_02: So SMUD hosted 146 students from local high schools at the inaugural Watts Cooking Competition at Consumas River College.

Unknown: Students competed in a culinary challenge designed to strengthen their cooking skills while showcasing the benefit of clean, energy efficient induction cooking technology.

SPEAKER_02: Students also got exposure to career pathways in the culinary arts.

SPEAKER_02: Local chefs, they were out there, they were out there, serving as judges, providing professional feedback and industry insights to students throughout the event.

SPEAKER_02: And SMUD really invests in all kitchen, excuse me, all electric kitchen projects because they help make clean energy technology a normal part of everyday life and really showing the benefits to the communities that we're serving.

SPEAKER_02: And this helps reduce confusion, supports workforce development, and creates safer and more energy efficient gathering spaces.

Unknown: So a little bit about our reliable and resilient infrastructure.

SPEAKER_02: As we expand electrification, we continue to encounter infrastructure challenges that traditional solutions don't always solve efficiently.

SPEAKER_02: The Community Impact Plan has given us the flexibility to test innovative approaches, strengthen partnerships, and identify solutions that can be scaled more broadly.

Unknown: Whether that's smart panel technology, collaboration with permitting agencies, or creating engineering solutions for commercial customers, our focus has been finding ways to reduce cost, remove barriers, and accelerate adoption.

SPEAKER_02: Perhaps most importantly, these efforts are generating lessons that extend well beyond individual projects and can benefit future customers across our service territory.

SPEAKER_02: We have completed seven residential smart panel projects so far.

SPEAKER_02: And just a couple benefits just a share of smart panels, deferred infrastructure costs, right?

SPEAKER_02: So thinking about ways to reduce or delay the need for costly panel upgrades, better use of existing capacity, electrification enablement really expands that.

SPEAKER_02: And an improved customer experience.

SPEAKER_02: One quick highlight, one customer in particular, Vijay, was able to electrify his home and remove all gas-fueled appliances and equipment in his home by taking advantage of smart panel technology.

SPEAKER_02: With the new technology, he was able to replace his water heater, stove, oven.

SPEAKER_02: I mean, he did it all, y'all.

SPEAKER_02: HVAC, he got a new energy efficient heat pump, water heater, induction stove, and an installation of electric vehicle circuits.

SPEAKER_02: So when he's ready to buy an electric vehicle, he'll be all ready.

Unknown: And then finally, really quickly, our partnership with the city of Sacramento.

SPEAKER_02: So these projects require a lot of permitting, as one would imagine.

SPEAKER_02: And so SMUD has been working with Streamline Sacramento, a group created to help streamline the city's development and approval process.

SPEAKER_02: And this collaboration has resulted in some projects really moving forward in some spaces where once they have been stalled in that permitting process.

Unknown: And then finally, a word about workforce and economic development.

SPEAKER_02: A clean energy future requires a skilled workforce propelled to build, maintain, and support it.

SPEAKER_02: Through the community impact plan, we've invested in workforce development partnerships that create pathways into family-supporting careers while helping address regional workforce needs.

SPEAKER_02: Over the past year, these efforts helped train 121 individuals across the Sacramento region while strengthening partnerships with chambers, PBIDS, labor organizations, and workforce providers.

SPEAKER_02: Our goal is not to simply create jobs, it's to ensure that the economic opportunities created through the clean energy transition are accessible to the communities that we serve.

SPEAKER_02: And I talked to you all last week in my SD13 presentation about economic development and what we're doing in that space.

SPEAKER_02: But SMUD's economic development work focused in this space on expanding access to SMUD programs and resources, the trust building and sustained engagement.

SPEAKER_02: Key initiatives include the SEED program, remember me talking about SEED?

SPEAKER_02: I won't quiz you.

SPEAKER_02: And efforts to enhance quality of life for businesses with priority areas, notably PBID districts.

SPEAKER_02: By delivering outreach such as business walks, multilingual materials, and collaboration with PBID leaders, SMUD has successfully engaged a diverse range of local businesses.

SPEAKER_02: And we're funding PBIDS that allow us access to commercial customers.

SPEAKER_02: And quick example, Local 104, a new partnership.

SPEAKER_02: Sheet Metal Workers Local 104, that partnership provides heat pump and HVAC workforce and supports electrification through additional rebates and incentives to approved local contractors.

SPEAKER_02: So we've got a good workforce piece going there as well.

SPEAKER_02: And then our CIP workforce development partnerships with grid alternatives and the Northern California Construction Training.

Unknown: Both of these programs offer skilled trades, pre-apprenticeships that are available to the community for free.

Unknown: And they include wraparound services that support and encourage successful career pathways in utility related sectors.

Unknown: All right.

SPEAKER_02: So as we look ahead, the most important takeaway is that the community impact plan is not ending, it's evolving.

SPEAKER_02: Over the past several years, we've learned valuable lessons about customer trust, outreach, affordability, innovation, and long-term impact.

SPEAKER_02: Those lessons are now being embedded into how we do business every day.

Unknown: While the community impact plan began by addressing barriers faced by underserved communities, the practices we've developed are improving how SMUD designs programs, engages customers, and delivers value across our entire service territory.

Unknown: The community impact plan has helped us move beyond simple measuring program participation to understanding how our work affects people's lives.

Unknown: We're carrying forward a deeper understanding of how to engage customers, stronger partnerships across our region, innovative approaches to electrification challenges, and industry-leading work around customer-centered outcomes.

SPEAKER_02: In other words, we're creating a separate way, not creating a separate way of serving certain customers, we're building a better way of serving all customers.

SPEAKER_02: Whether that's through neighborhood walks, lobby days, data-informed customer outreach, or the way we identify and connect customers to available resources, these approaches are becoming a part of SMUD doing its business every day.

SPEAKER_02: And the community impact plan isn't just about reaching more customers, it's about building a stronger, more resilient utility that delivers value for everyone while ensuring every customer has the opportunity to participate in and benefit from our clean energy future.

Unknown: And with that, I'll say thank you, invite my colleague back up here in case there are questions.

Unknown: Hello. Hello.

SPEAKER_06: Any questions? Rosanna?

Unknown: Hello there. I just want to say that, you know, this report is magnificent.

SPEAKER_07: I don't know who it was, but one time I went out to give a speech for SMUD, and somebody from CARES Group, I'm sure, came up with the sentence, you know, SMUD exists to make your life better.

SPEAKER_07: And that really hit me, because it is true, I mean, we're going to do the basics, you know, we're going to keep the lights on, the rates low and green power, but we're also going to help you make your life better through going electric, through our low-income programs, solar programs, I mean, endless programs that help us continue to invest in the community.

SPEAKER_07: And that's what I love about SMUD. You guys are like the frosting on the cake.

SPEAKER_07: And it's really gratifying to go out and speak in the community and know that the community appreciates it. SMUD's been there before me, and they're in partnership.

SPEAKER_07: So I just want to say to the whole team, I know I see a lot of you out there, too, that this is so important for the reason why our utility was created.

SPEAKER_07: We really are here to serve our customers and make their lives better. So I want to thank you for your report.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

Unknown: Really impressive report, and I'll just, you know, mirror a lot of what Rosanna said.

SPEAKER_03: The team that does this work is out there every day with our customers, and we hear how awesome you are.

SPEAKER_03: So again, Team Awesome, label applies to all of you, and we really want to thank you for what you do, because we hear it every time we go out.

SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love so-and-so. I love so-and-so. This person was so helpful. It's really amazing.

SPEAKER_03: But to me, this is what sets SMUD apart from other utilities. I've lived around the country, never. Anywhere did I live that we loved our electric utility, let me assure you.

Unknown: This is the only utility that I have ever used that we love it, but it's really for this.

SPEAKER_03: I think we deliver power reliably, we do it safely, we have great staff and all those things, and we keep our rates low.

Unknown: But this, to me, is what sets us apart. So thank you for what you're doing, and I love this plan. Do check adjust your learning as you go, and you're adjusting the plan as you go, and that makes total sense.

Unknown: And I can tell you, I'm actually just was emailing with Laura Engway today about trying to get the new chancellor from Los Rios Community College District out to see the ARC facility, where we have the SMUD Innovation Hub and the Workforce Development for electrification and solar installations,

SPEAKER_03: but we also have the electric kitchen, so we can stop there and have lunch. And it just all ties together, and then of course I wanted to go show them the children's receiving home,

SPEAKER_03: which of course Shiloh and the team had put on wonderful solar that saved them 40% on their energy costs so we can better serve children. It all comes together, and I just want to thank you.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: Yeah, ditto. But let me elaborate just a little bit. You know, especially the work that we do with immigrant communities and other communities that are difficult to reach for whatever reason, I think it's just so important.

SPEAKER_10: And as an example, President Tamayo and I were able to go last Saturday night to the Iranian American Cultural and Educational Center business awards, beautiful event, and Radio Bhamdahd is part of the Cultural Center.

SPEAKER_10: They've been recipients of a SHIDE grant. We've helped them with some other things. And the outreach that they allow us to do to that community, many of whom do not speak English or don't speak it well, is truly amazing.

Unknown: And you know, these are people who I can't imagine what they're going through, right, because their adopted country is bombing their homeland. And so at a time of great world strife, for them to say, yes, we trust the government, we trust SMUD where we're living now, I think is just an amazing thing.

Unknown: And that's just one example, right? So many immigrant communities are coming from places of strife, poverty, war, whatever. And for them to arrive here and find a government agency that they can trust and rely on and it helps them live a better life is something that's truly amazing and a wonderful testament to what you do. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10: Thank you.

Unknown: Anybody?

SPEAKER_06: Yeah. First, I wanted to ask a question about slide number four.

SPEAKER_11: Well, actually, go forward. It's four on mine, but it's the one where you have the community impact plan spending.

Unknown: And you, I think you mentioned $66 million.

SPEAKER_11: $61 million.

Unknown: $61 million.

SPEAKER_11: Yes.

SPEAKER_11: Okay. So and that's what this bar graph represents or?

SPEAKER_11: It's $66 million. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02: Sorry.

SPEAKER_02: Okay.

SPEAKER_02: It is $66 million.

SPEAKER_11: Yeah, you're trying to take $5 million back away from me.

SPEAKER_11: That's our payment.

SPEAKER_11: No, I just wanted to ask and make sure I heard that correctly because, you know, actually, that's a really significant investment and it's not just the money.

SPEAKER_11: It's what you said about that.

SPEAKER_11: It's how we're doing business, how we're relating to our customers.

SPEAKER_11: So, you know, it's not just when I mentioned, you know, sustainable communities or community impact plan and, you know, people initially think, oh, yeah, it's this little one, one or two person office.

SPEAKER_11: So, no, no, it's how we're doing business.

SPEAKER_11: This is this is what we're here for.

SPEAKER_11: So I'm just very impressed by the report.

SPEAKER_11: None of it's a surprise because, you know, I've seen a lot of these different aspects of it and participated in a number that I know the rest of the board participates in a lot of these.

SPEAKER_11: So it really makes it real to us that we're able to interact with the people that staff are interacting with and really hear directly from the community what this means to them.

SPEAKER_11: So I think it's just a great body of work.

SPEAKER_11: It's the thing that I'm most proud of about what SMUD does.

SPEAKER_11: And, you know, as as Director Herber said, you know, we're here to make the lives of the people, people's lives in our community better and really to make the community better.

SPEAKER_11: And I think that we're really doing a great thing and definitely on the right track.

SPEAKER_11: So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_11: And thanks to all the staff.

SPEAKER_11: I know there's a lot more staff involved, but I see a lot of you guys all over the place and I know you do great, great things out there.

SPEAKER_11: I hear about it all the time about individuals.

SPEAKER_11: So thank you very much.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

Unknown: Sure.

Unknown: Brandon, do you have Rob?

Unknown: Go ahead.

SPEAKER_06: Just very briefly, we've been at a number of events this year in the community and we bring the whole crew out there.

SPEAKER_08: We provide childcare.

SPEAKER_08: We provide the attendees a meal.

SPEAKER_08: And then SMUD is there with multiple tables giving them information.

SPEAKER_08: And so I love to see that level of engagement through this program that we're doing and really bringing it to people.

SPEAKER_08: It's the really hard, challenging work is to meet people where they are.

SPEAKER_08: And then and also the community walks that we do and the business walks.

SPEAKER_08: Right.

SPEAKER_08: And I'll say this when you go out to conferences like the fancy dinners and we're talking to people, I get amongst the most traction.

SPEAKER_08: We really as a board know what's going on on the ground and you see that from the other utilities and our peers how impressed they are that we're out there doing that core work.

SPEAKER_08: And so I just want to compliment the staff and thank them, especially for all their hand holding as they always do for us when we show up and get us to the right place at the right time.

SPEAKER_08: I just appreciate all that work.

SPEAKER_08: Thank you.

SPEAKER_08: Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: Thank you.

Unknown: Rob?

SPEAKER_03: Thanks.

Unknown: I agree with everything that's been said so far.

SPEAKER_01: So I just want to add one thing to it rather than continue on.

Unknown: One of the things that I've noticed over time and I really truly appreciate is that all of your work helps people make better decisions.

SPEAKER_01: You know, confronted with so much noise in the world today, there's always information flying at people and there's a lot of low quality stuff coming at them.

SPEAKER_01: But no, not you and not SMUD because you're there to help make the right decision in their investment future.

SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got challenges.

SPEAKER_01: There's always some things they can do and lots of things they can't do.

Unknown: But when that one time they step up to the plate, they're informed and they're able to make a good swing at their future with that.

SPEAKER_01: So thank you.

SPEAKER_01: Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: I just wanted to specifically highlight some things that I've heard from people.

SPEAKER_06: In particular is the electrification efforts that we've done and infrastructure improvements just on the micro level.

SPEAKER_06: I get someone's business.

SPEAKER_06: It's something that when I've gone out into the community, you know, my family ran a restaurant in a small business and they're just hair on fire most of the time.

SPEAKER_06: And they are not thinking about their panel.

SPEAKER_06: They're not thinking about can I upgrade this?

SPEAKER_06: They're just thinking about just getting staff to show up most of the time.

SPEAKER_06: And that's one of the areas where I really appreciate that we are proactive in going out rather than just sending stuff.

SPEAKER_06: I think in the past I've been here for a long time, it was just awareness and sending information.

SPEAKER_06: But now with the business box and then going out and working with our ambassadors in the community with different organizations,

SPEAKER_06: I think that has made the biggest difference from what I've heard from people is that we are actively engaging people with a human rather than just emails, letters.

SPEAKER_06: I know I don't open even from SMUD.

SPEAKER_06: I just more curiosity to see what we're sending people.

SPEAKER_06: But so that's the thing that I would like to encourage and continue.

SPEAKER_06: I know it takes a lot of effort from staff to schedule.

SPEAKER_06: But that's probably the top thing that I've seen people have when we've just showed up and said, hey, your lights can be improved.

SPEAKER_06: This can be just simple things like that.

SPEAKER_06: I think oftentimes we look at very large AC and solar.

SPEAKER_06: For a lot of these businesses, it's not even those large ticket items.

SPEAKER_06: It's insulation.

SPEAKER_06: It's light bulbs.

SPEAKER_06: It's in some cases just telling them, again, when is the best equipment or things to switch out and not needing these large kind of huge changes because they don't have time to shut down.

SPEAKER_06: They don't have time to rip out things all the time.

SPEAKER_06: So those smaller improvements I really would like to encourage and I continue to love and see in all the updates.

SPEAKER_06: So that's just I know you do a lot of things, but that was the one area that I really wanted to highlight.

SPEAKER_06: Just the small changes really can make a big difference.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_06: Any other questions or comments?

Unknown: Okay.

SPEAKER_06: Awesome.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: That's it for you all.

SPEAKER_06: Any people on one have a card on three, but not on one?

SPEAKER_06: Okay.

Unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: No public comment from the virtual attendees.

SPEAKER_04: Okay.

SPEAKER_06: So item number two is to discuss the Monterey report for SD5, customer relations.

SPEAKER_06: And we have Tracy Carson.

SPEAKER_06: She's the director of customer success and community energy services.

SPEAKER_06: Good evening.

SPEAKER_05: Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: You know, as I prepare for this report every year, ask myself, what are what are you here to do, Tracy?

SPEAKER_05: And I'm here to quickly and effectively share with you all of the wonderful work that the SMUD staff does across the organization that really illustrates just how much they care about our community.

SPEAKER_05: So, of course, I'm going to be going over the monitoring report details, the 2025 results, customer satisfaction, value for you pay, accomplishments, highlights.

SPEAKER_05: But I do want to call out three star players in the audience tonight.

SPEAKER_05: Edie McDonald, who has done a wonderful job supporting us through all of the market research and this report itself.

SPEAKER_05: And we also have Marie Brohm, who runs our commercial delivery department.

SPEAKER_05: She and her team of fantastic strategic account advisors really deliver on a lot of this work.

Unknown: And Jessica Rhodes, who leads our contact center operation and handles thousands, if not millions of calls every year.

SPEAKER_05: And we couldn't do without her.

SPEAKER_05: Of course, the entire SMUD organization, but those are some three star players.

SPEAKER_05: They're here tonight.

SPEAKER_05: Next slide.

SPEAKER_05: I will not belabor the policy.

SPEAKER_05: You all know what we're here to do is to deliver a phenomenal customer experience.

SPEAKER_05: We measure that in a few ways.

SPEAKER_05: Customer satisfaction with 95 percent, value for what you pay, of course.

SPEAKER_05: Customer satisfaction is our transactional measure.

SPEAKER_05: Value for what you pay is our perception measure.

SPEAKER_05: It really raises the bar.

Unknown: Next slide.

SPEAKER_05: I'm next lighting myself tonight.

SPEAKER_05: Normally, I say it to you guys.

SPEAKER_05: That's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_05: I got it.

SPEAKER_05: Okay.

SPEAKER_05: So our results are phenomenal.

SPEAKER_05: Year over year, 97 percent overall customer satisfaction.

SPEAKER_05: I did want to call out one thing on this slide.

SPEAKER_05: You'll see that our IVR payment arrangement score is slightly lower than maybe we've seen in the past.

SPEAKER_05: Still 92 percent and certainly an A rating.

SPEAKER_05: However, I wanted to share with you that in 2025, we launched a new IVR, an interactive IVR, a natural speech IVR,

SPEAKER_05: lots of new technology for our teams and our customers to get used to.

SPEAKER_05: So we saw a few bumps in the road there that quickly recovered.

SPEAKER_05: A value for what you pay.

Unknown: Again, phenomenal ratings here, two points above 2024.

SPEAKER_05: You will see that residential is slightly lower than commercial, maybe asking why.

SPEAKER_05: We heard from our customers that in 2025, we returned to standard payment arrangements post-COVID,

SPEAKER_05: but that the economy really hadn't bounced back yet, and they're still just sort of feeling the pain.

SPEAKER_05: And I think that's why you're seeing a little bit lower in 2024 and maybe residential a little lower in 2025.

SPEAKER_05: But overall, we're heading in the right direction, and that's great news for us.

Unknown: Can you believe it?

SPEAKER_05: We've been at this game now, value for what you pay for 10 years.

SPEAKER_05: And if you look at the 10-year trajectory, it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_05: We went from 65 percent to 72 over the 10-year period.

SPEAKER_05: Yes, some highs and some lows, some highs with the COVID years where we were not disconnecting,

SPEAKER_05: really bringing out the smud tier to support you.

SPEAKER_05: And then we saw that kind of level back out, and now we're seeing it tick up again.

SPEAKER_05: We have some positive drivers with EV rate solutions.

SPEAKER_05: Hearing customers appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05: Hearing customers have noticed the interconnection experience improvements.

SPEAKER_05: We know the building codes have changed.

SPEAKER_05: All new homes have solar on their homes,

SPEAKER_05: so we're seeing more customers learning and engaging in that space.

SPEAKER_05: And we've had some field work, outbound communications that customers are really complementing us on.

SPEAKER_05: We're now sharing with them in advance that we'll be at your home to do some work,

SPEAKER_05: and we're looking to expand those messages in the future.

SPEAKER_05: So again, 10-year view, we've really moved the needle.

Unknown: We'll get into a few details here.

SPEAKER_05: So residential customer and community experience.

Unknown: I wanted to highlight, Tara mentioned our community expo.

SPEAKER_05: The 2025 expo attendees were 520, the largest event we've had to date,

SPEAKER_05: and we were thrilled with that.

SPEAKER_05: Nothing but positive feedback from customers.

SPEAKER_05: I know a few of you have attended.

SPEAKER_05: I would encourage everyone to do so.

SPEAKER_05: It's a wonderful environment where you see customers in our lobby

SPEAKER_05: and getting the information that they need from not only SMUD, from other agencies.

Unknown: I also wanted to highlight the $4.6 million in bill assistance.

SPEAKER_05: We continue to give the funding to our customers,

SPEAKER_05: and they're giving us, of course, that feedback, that they appreciate the support.

SPEAKER_05: 382,000 customers enrolled in bill alerts, proactive notifications to help manage costs.

SPEAKER_05: This was sort of a theme in 2025.

SPEAKER_05: How do I manage my costs?

SPEAKER_05: How can you help support me?

SPEAKER_05: What can I do?

SPEAKER_05: What can we do together?

SPEAKER_05: And we received great feedback from our customers.

SPEAKER_05: They appreciate that support.

Unknown: Switching to commercial, giving you a few highlights.

SPEAKER_05: We had $11 million in building electrification incentives.

SPEAKER_05: 40% over 20—up 40% over 2024.

SPEAKER_05: A few highlight stories to share.

SPEAKER_05: Gilmore Heating and Air did a fleet electric vehicle enhancement.

SPEAKER_05: They installed 15 handles going above and beyond what we ever expected.

SPEAKER_05: City of Sacramento, 67 handles at libraries and community centers,

SPEAKER_05: looking for the support from SMUD but also leaning into the programs themselves.

SPEAKER_05: What else might be worth highlighting here?

SPEAKER_05: I think those were the two that I wanted to really lean in on.

SPEAKER_05: A lot of great work in the commercial space as well.

SPEAKER_05: Could I ask just a quick question, if that's okay?

SPEAKER_07: Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05: You have $11 million for electrification incentives, which is great.

SPEAKER_07: And then we have $1.74 million for energy efficiency incentives.

SPEAKER_07: And I guess I just want to make sure that we're not forgetting about energy efficiency

SPEAKER_07: and what a difference it can make, you know, even before we think about electrification.

SPEAKER_07: Is there any reason why those numbers are low?

Unknown: Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05: So energy efficiency, the definition has essentially changed quite a bit.

SPEAKER_05: Building codes have changed.

SPEAKER_05: So what qualifies as an energy efficiency product has really changed.

Unknown: The building codes now require energy efficient products.

SPEAKER_05: So the money has shifted to actual fuel switching.

SPEAKER_05: So we think it's beneficial across the entire organization, right?

SPEAKER_05: When you think of transitioning from a gas to an electric heat pump, as an example.

SPEAKER_05: Energy efficiency, the standards are much higher in order to achieve the incentives, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05: So the world is changing in a good way.

Unknown: Many things are energy efficient.

SPEAKER_05: So the funding shifts from one type of interaction to another.

Unknown: Is that helpful?

Unknown: Yeah.

Unknown: Okay.

Unknown: So I wanted to also share with you a little bit of the great work that we're doing in 2026.

SPEAKER_05: I know I'm here in August, and we're looking a year plus in the review mirror.

SPEAKER_05: But we're doing some wonderful work, not only in the commercial space, but residential.

SPEAKER_05: So first, you remember that we introduced a low use optional rate for our customers.

SPEAKER_05: We're really focusing on awareness and recruitment to that rate, because it gives customers a discounted system infrastructure fixed charge.

SPEAKER_05: So that's been definitely an effort this year.

SPEAKER_05: We also are being proactive with our commercial customers on specific account research.

SPEAKER_05: When they're maybe going into a potential delinquency status, we found that customers new into our territory, they may have their mailing address different from their local address,

SPEAKER_05: and they're not receiving their very, very first bill.

SPEAKER_05: So instead of introducing them into that not so awesome experience of collections, we're reaching out in advance.

SPEAKER_05: Marie and her team are making hundreds of thousands of phone calls engaging with customers, and we're really seeing positive results.

SPEAKER_05: They're so happy that we didn't let it head the negative direction, and we're being proactive about that.

Unknown: We're also expanding commercial development webpage to include large load project process.

SPEAKER_05: We've been talking a lot about that, but giving information to our community about how they need to engage with us early and often so we can help that process along.

SPEAKER_05: And then in November, we'll be launching an AI-based contact center QA tool where we'll listen to 100% of our phone calls and offer proactive feedback and guidance to our customer service representatives.

SPEAKER_05: Ongoing, we're transitioning to our new My Account.

SPEAKER_05: That new system will deliver a digital wallet to customers that includes Apple Pay and Google Pay, and customers are super excited about it.

SPEAKER_05: So not only did we do great things in 2025, we're doing great things in 2026 that we'll of course tell you about next year, all the results.

Unknown: An additional portion of the policy is that SMUD customers shall be treated in a respectful and dignified manner.

SPEAKER_05: We do that by educating and bringing our employees along across the entire organization.

SPEAKER_05: We've had more than 640 Web and e-learning trainings in 2025.

SPEAKER_05: We continue to refine touch points and journeys that are assessed and redesigned over time, continuing to improve a lot like the Sustainable Communities team does with their processes and the Community Impact Plan.

Unknown: We've had real-time trainings, bulletins, ongoing information that go out to our staff.

SPEAKER_05: And then we've had 968 Instructure-led training attendees.

SPEAKER_05: So lots of work goes into providing a phenomenal customer experience, but it's worth it.

Unknown: An additional part of the policy is that SMUD customers shall communicate a procedure for customers who believe they have not received fair treatment from SMUD to be heard.

SPEAKER_05: We did not have any official hearings in 2024.

SPEAKER_05: And every year I share this with you, and we get to the why.

SPEAKER_05: Why is it that we haven't had any hearings?

SPEAKER_05: Because our staff and you all do such a wonderful job.

SPEAKER_05: We've had more than 1 million contacts go through our contact center in 2025, with 99.9% of those being resolved at the staff level, and less than 1% escalating.

SPEAKER_05: I personally did not have to engage with a customer that was escalated in 2025, but we certainly have a process in place to ensure we get all questions answered, and our staff does a wonderful job at it.

Unknown: And then, of course, I feel like this is my ultimate objective, is to share with you how many awards.

SPEAKER_05: I feel like we should do guests.

SPEAKER_05: We should guess.

SPEAKER_05: Hey, you got it.

SPEAKER_05: You got it.

Unknown: It's on the page, right?

SPEAKER_05: So at one point we said, can we really do one a week?

SPEAKER_05: And we kind of challenged ourselves.

SPEAKER_05: And the answer is clearly yes.

SPEAKER_05: But I also want to caveat that by saying, every year is different.

SPEAKER_05: Not every year presents the same award opportunities, so I want to be sure to give our community marketing and customer relations team a shout out.

SPEAKER_05: They do a wonderful job of telling our story.

SPEAKER_05: But what struck me the most this year is that it's across multiple industries.

SPEAKER_05: It's not just about the electric industry.

SPEAKER_05: Of course we earn awards there, and safety through the Large Public Power Association.

SPEAKER_05: But we also win awards for corporate citizenship through Sacramento Business Journal, hiring veterans, gold medallion awards.

SPEAKER_05: So it's across the entire organization, because it's not just about one department.

SPEAKER_05: Every department earns us an award, or two, or ten, or 63.

Unknown: With that...

SPEAKER_05: I just wanted to make sure that our CEO pays attention to this slide right here.

SPEAKER_05: We have her back.

SPEAKER_05: Let's just put it that way.

SPEAKER_05: We will absolutely do our best as we always do, and we appreciate the external award and the internal gratification to deliver to our customers.

Unknown: So with that, I would open it up to questions, and then of course ask you all to accept the monitoring report.

Unknown: Any questions?

Unknown: Rosanna.

Unknown: Yes, of course, I have to say something.

SPEAKER_07: I just want to say that you guys do a terrific job.

SPEAKER_07: I mean, I know the kinds of questions that come in from our customers, and some of them are not in a great mood when they write the email.

SPEAKER_07: But I have found this area to really be responsive and to get the job done.

SPEAKER_07: And I tell you, I have such respect for Brandy Bolton.

SPEAKER_07: Every time I've tested her, she's like coming through with flying colors, and you have instilled that in your staff.

SPEAKER_07: And so I want to say thank you to all of you, because we have excellent customer service.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: Great report, Tracey.

Unknown: I guess following you, Rosanna, is the thing tonight.

SPEAKER_03: So I have a similar situation.

SPEAKER_03: I want to thank Brandy personally, because last weekend, one of my customers called me, and in total panic, he's a realtor.

SPEAKER_03: And the house that he was going to have an open house for had zero power, and they couldn't figure out what happened.

SPEAKER_03: And the long story short was very similar to what you had said.

Unknown: The owner was a man who had just died.

Unknown: His wife didn't even know he owned this rental house.

SPEAKER_03: And so the stuff was getting sent to a different address.

Unknown: Long story short, on a weekend, Brandy and the team fixed it and got the power on so he could have the open house, and the grass wasn't burning up, and all the things.

SPEAKER_03: And he was incredibly grateful.

SPEAKER_03: But the only thing I couldn't figure out was, if I was a customer that didn't know Brandy's cell phone number, how would I get help?

SPEAKER_03: Because when I did the little chat bot, he was confused and couldn't figure out how to help me.

SPEAKER_03: So is there a number for customers on the weekend that if they don't know a board member, they don't know somebody that they could reach us?

SPEAKER_05: Absolutely. So in an emergency, customers can call our customer service line, go through outage, stay on the line for an emergency, and there will be a disfecture to pick that call up.

SPEAKER_05: So in that case, without power, is this an emergency? Stay on the line. You'll get there.

SPEAKER_05: We also have self-service tools that we'll support.

SPEAKER_05: So going online to my account, they could have moved in and turned on their power remotely. The technology exists to do that.

SPEAKER_05: But maybe they didn't know that. They didn't know the account. They didn't even know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: And the wife was senior. So anyway, I just want to thank you all. You're amazing.

SPEAKER_03: Every time we call and kick something down to you, we always get really good response. And thanks to the team. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03: Thank you.

Unknown: Greg?

Unknown: 97 percent? What are you slacking?

SPEAKER_05: Hey.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

Unknown: Brandon.

Unknown: Just thank all of our call center staff. I've covered a hot line, a big chunk of my career, and it's always challenging and difficult work, and you're never quite sure what you're going to get when you pick up the phone.

SPEAKER_08: And so it's a testament to how many of these are being resolved. And just honestly, how little of a number of customers say how little, a few components that percolate their way up to the board members is incredibly low.

SPEAKER_08: And so I just want to thank all those staff.

Unknown: Anybody else?

Unknown: I just had a quick question. You had mentioned the IVR payment, because I saw that, what will be those changes to improve that? Because I saw that the number dipped a little bit, the payment arrangements. And I know we have a new process. Is it just the implementation that made it? Would you say?

SPEAKER_06: Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: We'll dip in what are we going to do to each other.

SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06: There were a few things that we pulled out from the verbatim reports, and now with our new IVR, we can actually go in and listen to the entire interaction. So when a customer is migrating through the IVR, we can hear what they're saying, we can identify where their frustration exists. So just that is a huge improvement, where when someone has an experience, we can find out why.

SPEAKER_05: The payment in particular, one major driver we saw, so the customer was making a one-time payment and a minimum payment, the total wasn't reflecting that they had made that payment. So I make my payment, I think everything's okay, and then I go to check my balance, and it still reports my old balance. So we've since resolved that, we're seeing the numbers come back up.

SPEAKER_05: Okay. I can see where people might be.

SPEAKER_06: That was my only question, but thank you. And I do appreciate the numbers. We dipped a little bit in the experience in the last few years, and it was nice to see that inching back up.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Dave?

Unknown: Yeah, just real briefly. I personally am very thankful that very few things come to me. But really what that reflects is that those things are being resolved before somebody has to go to the trouble of tracking me down. I'm not that hard to find.

SPEAKER_11: So I really appreciate on behalf of our customers how frequently these things are just resolved without ever having to resort to contacting the board member and then us doing extraordinary things. It really happens very seldom, and it's a great thing for our customers. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04: Thank you.

Unknown: Okay. Thank you. Do we have any cards? Perfect. No public comment. Okay. That's number three. We have SD15, outreach and communication. Our presenter is Sarah. She's the interim director of marketing and corporate communications.

Unknown: All right. Thank you, Director Woodie-Thompson, and good evening, board members. Pleased to be here tonight to present our 2025 monitoring report for SD15. You heard a lot tonight about the really incredible things that our teams are already doing. So I have the privilege of sharing how our outreach and communication supports and connects that work with our customers.

Unknown: All right. And in traditional fashion, I am not going to read all the words on the slide here of what is included in SD15, but I want to highlight a couple of things to set the tone for the look back that we're going to do for 2025.

SPEAKER_12: First, of course, being community-owned means we're working to improve the quality of lives for our customers. Like you said, Rosanna, working to make their lives better. And to be able to do that, we really need to focus on informing them, educating them about the tools that we have available, and then we need to focus on the ways that we can improve our community.

SPEAKER_12: And the things that can help them manage their energy needs and make their lives better. Another element in this SD15 is that we know we're in an incredibly diverse region. So for us, that means that we need to take a tailored approach. And there's not a one-size-fits-all way that we can communicate with all of our customers and community.

SPEAKER_12: In 2025, we were coming out of a really crowded communications environment. The election at the end of 2024, there was a lot of messages, a lot of angst, also a lot of focus on the economy and affordability. So for that, in 2025, we really leaned into focusing and reinforcing SMUD's value.

SPEAKER_12: We had a couple of major campaigns. We focused on our low rates campaign. It was our community-owned campaign, and it was telling community members how our low rates, some of the lowest in California, keep $1.8 billion in their pockets compared to our neighboring utility.

SPEAKER_12: We also did our We Power Business campaign, where we reinforced our low rates, reliable service, clean energy, and our Strategic Account Advisor support.

Unknown: Before I move on, in traditional fashion, there's plenty of faces in the room who are a part of this amazing work, so I wanted to acknowledge this is a roll-up of the entire organization. This is a roll-up of everything you heard from Dr. Webster, from Tara, from Tracy, and so everyone at SMUD has a part in the components that we're going to talk about tonight.

Unknown: All right, so 2025 at a glance in some of our numbers and channels. Really exciting to share the scale and variety of the types of communication and outreach that we do.

SPEAKER_12: For the first time ever, we surpassed 1 billion customer impressions. This is huge. We've never done this before. This is the first. It was 300 million impressions over 2024.

Unknown: What I want to call out, which reinforces the diversity of the region that we serve, is that of those, over 50% of them were ethnic customer impressions.

SPEAKER_12: That's things that we're doing to reach customers in language, in channels that they watch like Univision and Telemundo. So really, really impressive, and those numbers reflect the community that we serve.

SPEAKER_12: On average, TV and radio, customers heard our messages 33 times. In the gray box, you'll see another variety of ways in which we communicate with our customers.

SPEAKER_12: A couple of call-outs, still incredibly active in social media. We know some of our younger demographics are really active in that space, and it's evolving. It's evolving a lot, so doing a lot of work in that space.

Unknown: We are also adapting to our evolving media habits of our customers. We've got a lot of cord cutters. They're not watching traditional television anymore, so we're experimenting and testing out new platforms through streaming. It's called Over the Top.

SPEAKER_12: OTT, over the top. I can't remember what that stands for. I'll get back to you. But on platforms like Amazon, Hulu, Disney+, NBC Universal, so a lot of experimenting and testing going on in those new emerging platforms.

SPEAKER_12: I wanted to also call out, while we're very digital first in a lot of our communications, we're still using direct mail. It's a really important channel for some really important things.

SPEAKER_12: So, for example, we had our Meter Change-Out program, and so we used direct mail to make sure that our customers really got the information that was really essential for them to have with something like that.

Unknown: I wanted to leave you on this slide that, for us, it's simply not just about the mass number of impressions and the channels that we're in, but really, it's the art of bringing the right information to the right customers in the right spaces. And that's really what we're going for here.

Unknown: One of the ways we do that, we heard a lot about this, is through our multi-language outreach. In 2025, we supported 23 different languages and dialects in all of our marketing communication materials. That's an incredible number.

SPEAKER_12: We also translated, as you know from last year, our website into 15 different languages, and we're proud to share that that had 75,000 page views through the end of the year.

SPEAKER_12: So, people are using that service, people are getting information. It's really incredible to see the uptick of information people are accessing because we're able to translate the languages.

SPEAKER_12: We're also using things like QR codes so that we can give people in-language material and they can scan it and get directly to that source on our website.

Unknown: And what we're noticing, you heard a little bit of the examples from Tara and Dr. Webster, is that it's really changing the customer's experience. So, when we go do our neighborhood walks, we get material to those neighborhoods in languages we understand that they speak.

SPEAKER_12: And they're telling us from those materials that they received that they're willing to open their door and have conversations with SMUD representatives. And that's really what it's all about. It's about removing those barriers and building that trust.

Unknown: One thing you'll see next year, not on here, but this is an example of how we're working to understand the communities more closely. Our median is a language we've also added this year. So, next year you'll see 24 languages.

SPEAKER_12: And we found that out through working, like Director Fishman said, with these communities who need resources in languages that we now know and understand because we're boots on the ground, getting out there, working with them, and trying to understand their needs and target our communication to them.

Unknown: In 2026, we are overhauling our website. I think most of you know that. And another big focus of that effort is going to be on accessibility, a big part of that work. And not just language accessibility, but also audio and visual needs.

Unknown: Speaking of Team Awesome, as Director Sanborn says often, our employees are a big part of how we get out and connect with our customers and community. Through SMUD Cares, we volunteered almost 17,000 hours with a whole variety of organizations. That doesn't even scratch the surface of the types of organizations that our employees support and care for.

Unknown: It's an incredible range, but also, more importantly, a lot of our employees serve on community and nonprofit boards. So, that seat at the table where organizations who we're partnering with and who are doing work in hand with us, when their decisions are being made, is helping us understand and learn what our community needs and wants. So, it's really helping us build these relationships and continue to do the great work that we do.

Unknown: Now, speaking of events, some of you may be able to attest to this. If you're out talking to utility peers or industry peers, if we tell them the amount of events that we do per year, they're probably floored. It's not a surprise, because nearly 2,000 events and partnerships in one year is absolutely incredible. It's 143 more than 2024.

Unknown: The breakout here gives you just an opportunity to understand the variety of the types of events. And if anyone in here is like our former CEO, Paul Lau, you might be doing the math. That does equate to about five events per day. And it's absolutely incredible. Everywhere at SMUD, we're out there with our community doing this outreach. A couple things to highlight here.

SPEAKER_12: Because everybody is so excited to have SMUD present at their various events, we do need to get a little bit smarter about our partnerships. And we're maximizing, we're teaming together, we're maximizing the resources with our partner agencies so that we can make a deeper impact and really working to understand what's working and focus on those events.

SPEAKER_12: A couple highlights of other large events from 2025. We had, for the first time in Sacramento, ever, the food festival, Terramadres. A very high profile event. We had a massive presence and a really good opportunity to bring induction cooking technology to our customers and community. So that was incredible.

SPEAKER_12: And we have really notable year over year success with our Giving Fridays at the State Fair events. So that's where we partner with local media to collect food for the local food bank. In 25, we collected 35,500 pounds of food for the Sacramento food bank. We continue to exceed those numbers. You'll hear a little more about our accomplishments in our CEO's report next week for this year. But what that reflects is a conversation that we're going to be talking about.

SPEAKER_12: And it's a comprehensive approach to not just the event itself, but the partnership with the media and the marketing and the actual event outreach and organization and coordination. So just like you saw on the last slide, all of these organizations reflect the same level of cultural, ethnic, and special population diversity.

Unknown: I cannot continue on without thanking you, the SMUD board. You really, truly are part of our story. You're sharing our story. I'm not sure if anyone kept track of what you did in terms of formal speaking engagements in 24, but you're up by 25 in 2025. You did 168 formal speaking engagements with SMUD.

Unknown: You're out there on the nights, weekends, early mornings, and beyond just that number, though, it's really the presence that you give. You're our strong advocates. You're talking, you're listening, you're sharing information, and you really are helping tell the story.

SPEAKER_12: So I would love to just say thank you on behalf of all of us for everything you do for our community.

Unknown: All right. Now we're shifting into the charts and graphs portion of this report. Tracy talked a little bit about value for pay, and what I'm going to do now is break down by demographics.

SPEAKER_12: The first thing we see here is our overall value for what you pay for our residential customers the past five years. And I'm pleased to share that in 2025, all of our ethnic group value for pay numbers increased.

SPEAKER_12: There were some common things among the results from our customers of things we're doing well, opportunity areas, and some potential solutions that we're already working on to implement with these customers.

SPEAKER_12: So first they're telling us we're doing a lot, the foundational stuff, really well. We're making it easy to do business, things like bill pay, start, stop, transfer your service, and giving them the information they need to manage their energy use.

Unknown: They also said we're doing really well and providing reliable service. Those are the non-negotiables. Those are the foundational things, and so we're glad to hear that they're experiencing that we're doing those things really well.

Unknown: They also said, though, that there's opportunity for more opportunities for them to feel in control of their energy use, and things that they would like to see more programs and solutions that really help meet their needs.

SPEAKER_12: And we're doing that. We're doing that in a lot of ways, and we'll continue to do that. It's things like our Meet Smut events, our lobby days, our targeted language messaging. Tracy mentioned our new low use fixed system infrastructure charge that we'll be rolling out, and we hope that that will give us a little bit of an uptick in our value for pay.

Unknown: We're also recognizing that any of these customer groups, they're not made up of the same kind of people, right? So we need to continue to tailor our outreach, but also combine it with our broader mass marketing and mass outreach.

Unknown: Cautiously optimistic, where we stand today in 2026 in the middle of the year, that we're going to have strong results for value for pay for next year. And of course, we're not stopping here. We're continuing to always find ways to improve.

Unknown: These next few slides I'm going to go through a little bit more quickly. And the reason for that is there's not a lot of movement here. These are customer awareness trends of our major programs, of some of our major programs.

SPEAKER_12: So I'm going to show you all customers, and then we're going to go through the ethnicity breakouts. But what you'll see is that we relatively remained stable in 2025 across the last several years.

Unknown: We did see a little bit of softening in things like awareness of our rebates and incentives in the Smut mobile app, and saw a little bit of a teeny bit of a lift in our Greenergy program across all of our customer groups.

Unknown: When it comes to our black customer value for pay, we did see some nice gains in a lot of areas. And actually, in our first slide, I forgot to mention, we really saw a good strong uptick in our black customer value for pay. We saw some really nice gains overall from the 2024 numbers.

SPEAKER_12: Most notably, there was an uptick in Smut mobile app and rebates and incentives with this group.

Unknown: For our white customers, the trends were also pretty consistent. Not a lot of movement here, but some ever so slight softening in our rebates and incentives, and an increase in awareness of Greenergy. Just a couple examples.

Unknown: For our Hispanic customers, overall awareness did see some nice lifts in a few areas, including our EPIR program, our EV rates, and our Greenergy program.

Unknown: And finally, our Asian American and Pacific Islander groups. Pretty steady with the most notable shift in awareness of rebates and incentives.

Unknown: These numbers are good. They're steady. I just sort of want to be... we've spent an enormous amount of our communications time in the last few years on 2030. Does that get captured in any of these statistics?

Unknown: So these ones we're specifically talking about program awareness. We definitely do have other perception data asking about awareness of our 2030 Zero Carbon Plan and their support of that. So we do have that data separate, but these are specifically talking about programs.

SPEAKER_08: Thank you.

Unknown: Could you share anything about that?

Unknown: Rosanna, could you share anything about what you've learned about the 2030 plan awareness, or is it too soon for that?

SPEAKER_12: It's definitely not too soon, but it's not on the top of my head as current interim director, but Kara may have info.

SPEAKER_13: Thanks for the question, Director Herber, Kara Chatfield, interim chief marketing and communications officer.

SPEAKER_13: What we consistently see is that when our customers are aware of our goals and all the work we're doing in clean energy, they're very supportive of it.

SPEAKER_13: It fluctuates a little bit. If we've got a campaign in market, we see nice lifts, but overall, very, very supportive of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_13: Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: So all those charts seem to run between 50 and 70 percent awareness, and some, like to me, the rebates and incentives are so important for them to make the pivot to electrify is going down slightly.

Unknown: Are you going to talk about what can be done to get these up a bit?

Unknown: I can definitely talk about some of the things that we might be observing that might impact that.

SPEAKER_12: So I started out saying when we started 2025, we were very aware that economy and affordability was top of mind for a lot of our customers.

SPEAKER_12: So these are programs that require an investment from these customers.

SPEAKER_12: And so I think for a lot of customers and the ones that we're getting results from in the survey data, the extra money that they're putting out there for investing in technologies that they need to electrify might be not top of mind for them.

SPEAKER_12: So there's definitely an impact of the results that we might be seeing right now. There's definitely a lot more that we can do to mitigate and work on continuing to bring forward rebate incentive marketing communications.

Unknown: All right. So my final slide in closing, what I wanted to do is go back to where I started and just reinforce that when we do outreach and communication to support SC15, our goal is really simple.

SPEAKER_12: It's to meet customers where they're at and connect them with the things and information that make their lives better.

Unknown: I had that in here before you said that.

SPEAKER_12: A couple of examples of unique and different ways that I think that we're accomplishing this and things that we're working on for this year and worked on last year as well.

Unknown: With media particularly, we're working on focusing on pulling the curtains back and bringing customers inside behind the scenes in some of our infrastructure projects or other utility investments so that they can really get a sense of what SMUD is doing to provide them that reliable

SPEAKER_12: foundational service that they expect from us. You'll see here this is Chief Operating Officer Frankie Madermit talking to KCRA. He had a great feature last year at one of our substations.

SPEAKER_12: The second thing we're doing, which we think is one of the first utilities in the nation to do this, is to bring an AI-powered smart search to our website.

SPEAKER_12: This rolled out this year and it's been incredibly successful in being able to bring information to our customers quicker.

SPEAKER_12: Now, you may have experienced searching things on our website before. If you said, hey, I want to lower my bill, you might just get a series of a bunch of links and it would be hard for you to navigate that information.

SPEAKER_12: Now with our new AI-powered smart search, customers can...we actually have a great example of a customer who, you can't read it, it's way too small, but he's self-employed and was looking for ways to lower his bill.

SPEAKER_12: So goes into the smart search and says, looking for a way, I'm self-employed, looking for a way to lower my bill. And our AI smart search gives really quick and easy information and steps for things that he can do right then and there in such a simple way.

SPEAKER_12: So it's not just about putting up a webpage and making sure the information is out there. It's about bringing it forward to them and meeting them where they're at and how they're looking for the information.

SPEAKER_12: And finally, economy, affordability, it's still on the top of the mind of our customers. So we're leaning into the things that we know they expect from us. That's low rates, it's a reliable service, it's clean energy, and you'll see that reflected in some of our campaigns, our low rates campaign and our powering the moments that matter campaign and really just showing up for them so that they know that we're here to power the moments in their lives that matter.

SPEAKER_12: And really, that's all it's about, building trust and connecting our customers with the things that they value. So with that, I would like to request that the board adopt the monitoring report for SC15.

Unknown: And take any questions.

SPEAKER_12: Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to say on that last slide, I just love that we use our online crews, I think that's really to actually promote. I think it's great that our actual staff are getting on some of these that are willing to do it because I just think it's it connects us to the community.

SPEAKER_03: I think even closer when people have actually seen people out there. But thank you for everything. I mean, we get again, I get a ton of people talking to me about your ad campaigns are fantastic. It resonates. I see them and they're everywhere. I see them on buses. I see them here. It's just it's really profound and our videos are amazing. Really tell the story. So thank you for all you do. Thank you.

Unknown: The media landscape seems to have changed a little bit since I was at PIO here for Y2K.

SPEAKER_10: So, but what strikes me about it is it's expanding. It's not like you're switching from one thing to another, you're just adding more and more and more. And that's for for media, but also for just our general communication channels.

SPEAKER_10: And I guess I'm wondering, at what point do we have to start dropping something off and making choices between doing this or doing that? And maybe that's maybe that's a question for Kara or Brandy or somebody. I don't know.

Unknown: Yeah, right. Continuing to do all the things everywhere. That's not quite possible. I'll let Kara take that one.

SPEAKER_12: Thanks for the question, Director Fishman. I wouldn't say it's about stopping doing things. I think it's about having a really good flight deck that can throttle things up and other things down. So, you know, the media landscape has become really fragmented and there's new channels all the time, you know, sub stacks everywhere now, right?

SPEAKER_13: People are getting information in so many different places. So, a lot of the digital channels have been really effective at helping us reach very specific segments of customers, whether it's over-the-top television or streaming radio, Pandora, or I Heart or whatever.

SPEAKER_13: And that's been really efficient and it frees up resources so that we really can dig deep and do the time-intensive boots on the ground type work, too. So, our staff does a great job of learning to transition in new spaces and I think that's why we're able to do things other utilities aren't able to do.

SPEAKER_13: And I took a note of what Director Sanborn said, which is what we do. We plan, we do, we check, and we adjust. And that's why we can do things like the AR search that no one else is doing. We just try it and see if it works and adjust if we need to.

SPEAKER_10: Thank you. If you want my Y2K communications plan, I'd probably have it somewhere.

SPEAKER_12: I do.

SPEAKER_10: No, I'm sure I do.

SPEAKER_10: One of those two.

SPEAKER_10: I'm sure I don't have it, actually, but thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Do you have any other questions? Brandon?

Unknown: Yeah, I'll be.

Unknown: I know this is another question. It's just making sure, so I'm making sure we're not getting overstretched in asking too much of our staff when you see, you know, we're talking about five events a day on average.

SPEAKER_08: And I definitely wanted to keep that in the back of our minds, right, that we can't necessarily expect these numbers to keep growing and growing year after year.

SPEAKER_08: And we've seen for a number of years now that I've gone, we've always kept our positions very targeted in what we allow to grow, just to keep the balance in check and the rate increases in checks.

SPEAKER_08: But it's definitely something we want to be aware of and make sure we're finding that balance because I don't want to, as staff, I don't want to burn out staff, right?

SPEAKER_08: And I know that they feel that stress when they're running around just constantly.

SPEAKER_08: So something that's just been in the back of my mind a little bit.

SPEAKER_08: In terms of, it's a good point, in terms of, I think, I'm going to give some, a little bit of an opinion. I'm just sort of curious, we would focus on our 2030 plan.

SPEAKER_08: I'm curious how we're going to strategize and adjust in the next year or two.

SPEAKER_08: We're doing our IRP. I think we're going to see some adjustments on where we're going, but I'll be curious how that gets put into some of our future messaging going into next year.

SPEAKER_08: You see it in these awareness numbers. They're stagnant. My hypothesis, right, that I don't see the real data numbers is, those are probably stagnant because we probably have other things that have gone up, which is what we've been focusing on with a great deal of intention.

SPEAKER_08: So, but it's an excellent report and it just shows us how much work our staff is doing out there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_12: Thank you.

Unknown: Any other comments? I just wanted to acknowledge, I really appreciate that we go above California's threshold language count.

SPEAKER_06: That's, and we actually actually service the 23. I work in healthcare and many healthcare sites and call centers only do like the top eight threshold languages and mostly just do Spanish and English and definitely not for their websites.

SPEAKER_06: I didn't want to note that because I don't think people realize that this is an anomaly in public service, both in government and healthcare entities.

SPEAKER_06: It's very expensive and it's very time consuming to spot check languages and people will gravitate if they can connect.

SPEAKER_06: And so I did want to highlight that in case people were not aware that this is the amount of work we do for translation is above and beyond.

SPEAKER_06: It's more than what California does. It's more than what public entities do because I think that's the biggest barrier for people's understanding the information that's available.

SPEAKER_06: And I also wanted to, listening to the comments about awareness, I think the 18 years I've been on the board there has been that question over and over again about how do we increase the numbers of awareness.

SPEAKER_06: And I just didn't want, I wanted to reiterate what we've been saying for decades is that oftentimes people's awareness is what they care about.

SPEAKER_06: Whether or not they saw the item or registered it oftentimes is where they are in their mental or emotional state.

SPEAKER_06: And so I would, I have a differing opinion in terms of getting numbers up and things because it takes an incredible amount of money to move.

SPEAKER_06: I think that our numbers are actually quite significant and very good if you look at industry benchmarks because humans are humans.

SPEAKER_06: And when they're answering surveys, they could have seen and been aware whether or not they register it, especially if there's someone that's low income, right?

SPEAKER_06: They're probably going to be paying attention more to deeper rates, right? Or rebates or incentives.

SPEAKER_06: Or if they are someone that possibly is looking at EV. So I would kind of, again, I'm one person, caution because it does take a significant amount of money to move the needle.

SPEAKER_06: And I am very proud of our continual overall awareness course because it is very hard if you look at industry averages to get above 30, 40 percent awareness because there is so much noise out there.

SPEAKER_06: So I have always appreciated the amount of work, especially of the programs.

SPEAKER_06: I know it's changed over time to what we have wanted people to be aware of.

SPEAKER_06: And I think right now it's a good balance. And so I appreciate the hard work, especially.

SPEAKER_06: And last, on the search, this month's search has been a pain in the heart of my side for a long time.

SPEAKER_06: And it was really hard even during board meetings. I just want to search for things to get the information because I like to search before I ask in public.

SPEAKER_06: And it was really hard. And so now the site is much better and much more intuitive because as we all know in call centers, we like people to self-serve.

SPEAKER_06: And if they can find the information themselves quickly and efficiently, it significantly lowers that pain that they feel.

Unknown: And then having a call, each call ranges in cost when we look at ranges from $12 to $32 per call, depending on what that person needs.

SPEAKER_06: And so if we can continue to improve our website so people can self-serve, the chat I know has greatly improved.

SPEAKER_06: And people accessing that, that will help drive our overall cost and just customer satisfaction.

SPEAKER_06: So I just wanted to thank the staff on those items.

Unknown: Thank you. And I do want to add on the Smart Search, we're also actively monitoring what people are searching for so that we can find the things that we can go out and serve them better with.

SPEAKER_12: And we can also improve that search. If we find errors or things that might not be serving the customers in the way they're searching, we can also work to improve that and build that model.

Unknown: Does anybody have any other comments? Dave, do you?

SPEAKER_11: I just want to touch very briefly on the languages that are available.

SPEAKER_11: I think that's just really important that we have information available in a lot of different languages.

SPEAKER_11: And I know some of these communities, there's a very large number of people in some of these communities that really are not fluent or really even able to use English at all.

SPEAKER_11: And I think this makes us much more approachable. It makes that information that may be incredibly important to a lot of these folks, especially very recent immigrants, who are just trying to figure out our entire society.

SPEAKER_11: Having our stuff in their language is really important. And even beyond just having the information available, all the partnerships that we referred to, reaching the Afghani population, reaching the Chinese population, Vietnamese population, I think it's just really important that we have those partnerships and the information to back it up.

Unknown: Thank you.

Unknown: We have one person here that would like to speak on this item. So Mr. Wright, if you would like to come up. Did anybody have any before we let Sarah go? Thank you. Appreciate it.

Unknown: Thank you, Chair Brie Thompson and members of the committee and the board. My name is David Wright. I do have a couple of suggestions, but I want you to know that I love and appreciate SMUD very much.

SPEAKER_00: I often have suggestions, but they're given in a spirit of love and appreciation and of continuous improvement. So no matter how awesome we all are, we can always get even more awesome.

Unknown: So first, I want to really acknowledge that the speakers are more than usually articulate and well spoken tonight. And that's probably because they're in communications and outreach. Good job.

SPEAKER_00: SMUD's community outreach programs are great. On the other hand, I think SMUD is spending way too much on advertising, especially since you're a monopoly utility. Why do you need to advertise? Why did I need to hear your name 33 times? Or maybe more than that when I can't go out and get a different electric utility.

SPEAKER_00: So that's a lot of money is going into that advertising. I think it could be put to better use.

SPEAKER_00: Second, I think that you should consider whether you are advertising in a fully transparent way to your customer owners. There's a lot of emphasis on SMUD and Sacramento as a clean power city.

SPEAKER_00: Yes, true, relative to many cities and many utilities. But are you talking on these advertisements about being behind on your 2030 zero carbon trajectory? Are you talking about burning natural gas to sell power outside of your service area, which is not clean?

SPEAKER_00: It may repay costs, but it's causing pollution and carbon release.

SPEAKER_00: Then there are the dirty gas plants in historically impacted areas. The zero carbon plan says McClellan and Campbell will be closed by 2024 and 2025.

Unknown: I'll send you the exact language of the zero carbon plan, but suffice it to say they are not closed and they're still polluting in those historically impacted communities.

Unknown: So has there been any discussion or engagement or communication or outreach with the affected communities around those plants? And how are we making Sacramento a clean power city in relation to those impacts?

SPEAKER_00: So I think it would be great to see less self congratulatory advertising, more self examination and less money spent on advertising. Thanks.

Unknown: Do you have any other speakers on line? No, we do not.

SPEAKER_04: Item number four is to discuss the CO2 Negotiate and Execute Amendment number one for the Transmission Agency of Northern California, also known as TANK, project agreement number three.

SPEAKER_06: And we have Chad here. He's the manager of energy contracts.

Unknown: Yes, and I agree. I'm in the enviable or unenviable position of following my colleagues fantastic presentations.

SPEAKER_09: On a topic that's probably you're not going to see it on the advertisement or have a customer call in about it.

SPEAKER_09: But the goal of this presentation, hopefully by the end of it, you all have an appreciation for a very critical component of our resource portfolio that provides reliable, affordable and clean power to our customers.

Unknown: So tonight I'm here to request authorization for the chief executive officer and general manager or her designee to negotiate and execute the First Amendment to the Transmission Agency of Northern California's project agreement number three.

SPEAKER_09: So a little bit of background on what TANK is. So TANK is a joint powers agency that was established by a group of California publicly owned utilities back in 1994.

SPEAKER_09: And the initial purpose of TANK was to construct the California Oregon Transmission Project. And that's a transmission line that goes between the California-Oregon border and central California.

Unknown: Today, TANK's primary purpose is to provide transmission to its member utilities, of which SMUD is one, as well as provide the day-to-day operations, maintenance and upgrades to the COTP.

Unknown: The current membership includes 15 publicly owned utilities, which there is a list of multiple cities that you can see, as well as the Plumas Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative. Both MID and TID are members, as well as SMUD.

Unknown: Some background on the COTP. The COTP, as well as the Pacific AC Intertie, which is also known as the PACI, forms the California-Oregon Intertie.

SPEAKER_09: And this is a key high-voltage transmission line and group of lines that make up the COI. And the COTP is one of the three lines. And it's a 340-mile, 500-kV transmission line and related facilities that runs from the Captain Jack substation in southern Oregon, all the way down to just south of Tracy in central California.

SPEAKER_09: And this high-voltage transmission line was completed and energized in 1993.

SPEAKER_09: Now, this line is extremely important, as I mentioned earlier, because it provides TANK members and SMUD with bi-directional transmission to the Pacific Northwest. And this is critical for both spot and long-term purchases.

SPEAKER_09: This also gives us access to the Western Power Pool Reserve Sharing Group, which is extremely critical during peak load-serving days.

SPEAKER_09: And then, of course, part of those spot and long-term markets is this important transmission provides us access to the clean hydro that comes down from the Pacific Northwest, the wind, as well as other regional renewables.

Unknown: In addition to providing transmission access, it also gives us market diversity, so not just pricing for products here locally or in the California ISO markets, but it also allows us to access the markets in the Pacific Northwest and look at those arbitrage opportunities.

Unknown: And then, of course, risk mitigation, like I mentioned earlier, during times of constraint, system constraint, if our local resources and assets are running at full tilt on peak days, we are leveraging all of our import capabilities from the ISO.

SPEAKER_09: So this gives us another resource to access energy from the Pacific Northwest.

SPEAKER_09: And, you know, when your blood pressure alarm reminder goes off in a presentation, it's probably counterproductive to taking blood pressure medicine.

SPEAKER_09: And I thought I had turned that off. Yeah. I might have to double the meds after tonight. My apologies.

Unknown: The doctor's not going to be happy.

SPEAKER_09: So SMUD's current total share of the COTP transmission is 559 megawatts of north to south capacity, transport capacity, and then 402 megawatts from south to north.

SPEAKER_09: And of that amount, almost 400 of it is from our ownership position from a south to north perspective and just under 300 from a south to north perspective.

SPEAKER_09: That comes from our ownership percentage.

SPEAKER_09: And then the rest of it, which is about 160 megs running from north to south, is from long-term layoffs that SMUD has picked up from other tank members that no longer need their COTP transmission, and then 120 megawatts of south to north.

SPEAKER_09: And you can see the various terms expire on those long-term layoffs between 2034 and 2039. So we'll have that 559 megawatts for quite some time.

Unknown: This gives you a little bit of a picture just to kind of orient you with what the COTP is, where it is.

SPEAKER_09: So primarily focused on the left side of the graph, you see Captain Jack, which is the substation and the northern termination of the COTP.

SPEAKER_09: Again, that's in southern Oregon. And then you see down at the bottom the Tracy substation. That is the southernmost termination point for the COTP.

SPEAKER_09: And then I'll just point out over there on the far right, I think it's blue, I'm colorblind, but midway, ETC writes 48 megawatts.

SPEAKER_09: That is also some transmission access that allows us to go south with the COTP and access some of our projects, such as the Cal Energy geothermal generation that we received from that contract.

SPEAKER_09: We're allowed to schedule that up through on those rights. So this just gives you some orientation on the COTP.

SPEAKER_09: So as far as this particular amendment and transaction, the project agreement number three back in March of 1990 was entered into by the TANK members.

SPEAKER_09: And the project agreement number three provides for various member rights and obligations associated with all of our ownership in the COTP, including the percentages that each owner has, what costs are associated with our ownership rights and obligations, and then how to assign rights and obligation amongst the members.

SPEAKER_09: If there's some trading back and forth, like the long term layoffs that I mentioned earlier that SMUDs picked up in times past. And then of course the voting requirements for how the members vote on changes to the agreement.

Unknown: With this particular amendment, the first amendment, we are essentially streamlining how changes to member participation percentages are processed. So it's largely administrative.

Unknown: Essentially it's allowing changes to these membership percentages. If the two that are exchanging memberships, if they agree, then essentially we don't need to come back and amend the entire agreement.

SPEAKER_09: We can just have the TANK commission vote and process these percentage changes.

SPEAKER_09: And then we're going to be updating the appendices to reflect all of the different existing member participation percentages. So the south to north, north to south, as well as if there's layoffs that are currently impacted, we're going to have appendices that are updated.

SPEAKER_09: The agreement's a bit out of date. But there's no changes, I want to be clear, there's no changes being made to the ownership percentages of anyone as a result of this amendment number one.

Unknown: And then there's various other minor or non-substantive changes to the agreement that's just kind of cleaning up some things that have gotten stale over the years.

SPEAKER_09: So the main key thing here is the bottom bullet. There's no material impact to member costs, rights, or obligations as a result of this amendment. And you may be asking, well, why am I here?

SPEAKER_09: Well, it's because we did not have the key language in the agreement back from 1993 that said the CEO and general manager can make changes to this amendment so long as they're not material.

SPEAKER_09: You know, we don't have to come back to the board. We did not have that key language in the board resolution from 93. So that's why we're here today. And that language is in the board resolution now.

SPEAKER_09: So we won't have to waste your time with non-substantive, non-material impacts going forward. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

SPEAKER_09: I'll wait into these dangerous waters. How does the amendment handle these agreements that we have to take over other people's pieces of that transmission capacity for a certain period of time? Is it baked into this, or are they separate side agreements that are incorporated by reference?

SPEAKER_08: Yeah, they're separate side agreements. So for instance, we have an agreement with Palo Alto for some long-term layoffs with Silicon Valley Power. So those are separate side agreements that have to be negotiated amongst the members.

SPEAKER_09: But then they ultimately get approved and reflected in the appendices, which is one of the appendices that we're adding as a result of this amendment to add in the layoff percentages and how it's affecting members' rights and obligations so that it's clear the termination. So yes.

Unknown: And then that first bullet point speaks to how these member participation percentages are processed. So if two members want to strike a deal and exchange or assign the rights to another member, then that can happen.

SPEAKER_09: And as long as those two folks have signed off, it goes to the Tink Commission, they vote, and then there doesn't need to be an amendment to the agreement. So those voting rights and how that process takes place is all spelled out in the PA-3 agreement.

SPEAKER_09: Have you seen any strategizing or jostling? Does the long-term forecast indicate that we'll probably be exporting far more power than we ever used to in the future over the next decades from high desert solar into the Pacific Northwest, but it's always traditionally been coming the opposite direction?

Unknown: Yeah. Members are—their interests in COTP is definitely changing as the market changes, right? With EDAM, you're hearing some things about how members have different interests in the COTP and in transmission.

SPEAKER_09: So each member is situated slightly differently. Some members are members of the California ISO, which is also why we picked up some of the layoff agreements because they joined the California ISO.

SPEAKER_09: And so they were not able to optimize the COTP transmission, but SMUD is. So yes, each member has a different situation, and those interests are changing as the market evolves.

SPEAKER_09: And then lastly, any controversy within the org, like, within these changes that we should know about?

SPEAKER_09: No. So SMUD and MID are two of the last of the 15 members to approve these amendments. Everybody else has already taken it to their governing bodies and approved it. So we are one of the final folks to get it approved.

SPEAKER_09: Thank you.

Unknown: Okay. Do we have any cards or questions?

SPEAKER_06: We have no public comment, no.

SPEAKER_06: Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06: Thank you. Any cards on items not on the agenda?

SPEAKER_06: I don't see any hands for items not on the agenda.

SPEAKER_04: Written comments received items not on the agenda will be included in the record if we're received within two hours of this meeting. And was there any summary in the community direction?

SPEAKER_06: No, I don't have any summary.

SPEAKER_06: Great. Thank you, everyone.