California needs new energy infrastructure to accommodate its economic expansion and population growth. Utilities now have the regulatory support to return to their traditional role of building and owning this critical infrastructure. SDG&E and SoCalGas are leading the way, investing in improvements to provide increased reliability, greater access to clean energy from renewable sources and expanded energy-efficiency programs.

The Palomar Energy Center, which came online in 2006, is the first major natural gas-fired power plant to be built in San Diego in more than 30 years. It can supply enough power for approximately 360,000 homes. The Sunrise Powerlink is a proposed 150-mile transmission line from California’s Imperial Valley to San Diego that will import enough electricity to supply approximately 650,000 customers by 2010, improving reliability and providing access to clean energy from renewable sources. SDG&E is on track to supply 20 percent of its customers’ energy needs from environmentally sustainable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and landfill gas by 2010. Regulatory approval is expected in 2007 on SDG&E’s proposal to install a two-way “smart meter” communications system throughout its service territory — technology that gives customers greater control over energy use and costs, and speeds outage detection and response.