The City of Santa Clara’s municipal electric utility, Silicon Valley Power (SVP), updated its load development fee and connection fee in FY 2023/24. On April 18, 2023, a public hearing was held on the adoption of the FY 2023/24 Municipal Fees. In the Quick Links below, there are a set of useful documents with a summary of the adopted fees along with a fee comparison.

Quick Links

Fee study/analysis based on FY 2021/22 data.

• Cost Scenarios
• Fee Analysis 
• Frequently Asked Questions

Municipal Fee Schedule

See the Connection and Load Development fees in the Electric Utility section of the City's Municipal Fee Schedule.

Connection Fees

Connection Fees are applied to dwellings including single-family, accessory units, duplexes, groups, multiple family, and mobile homes [apartments, condos, duplexes, single family homes, townhomes, and mobile homes] as defined within Section 18.06 of the City Code. These fees are intended to recover the typical or average costs of material and labor required by SVP to install and connect to SVP’s system. Residential Connection Fees are broken down between connection type such as overhead or underground and further defined as ‘Residential Connection/New Single-Family’ and ‘Residential Connection/New Multiple Units’ described below:

1. Overhead Lines – Residential Connection/New Single-Family: (Dwellings include: Single-family): The current and proposed fee uses a “per lot” fee structure.  The fee is calculated based on average number of kVA units required per dwelling then multiplied by the determined cost per kVA.
2. Overhead Lines – Residential Connection/New Multiple Units: (Dwellings include: Accessory Unit, Duplex, Groups, Multiple Family Units [Apartments, Condominiums & Townhouses] and Mobile Home Park):  The current and proposed fee uses a “per unit” fee structure and is based on average number of kVA units required per dwelling then multiplied by the determined cost per kVA.
3. Underground – Residential Connection/New Single-Family: (Dwellings include: Single-family): The current and proposed fee uses a “per lot” fee structure and is based on average number of kVA units  required per dwelling then multiplied by the determined cost per kVA.
4. Underground – Residential Connection/New Multiple Units: (Dwellings include: Accessory Unit, Duplex, Groups, Multiple Family Units [Apartments, Condominiums & Townhouses] and Mobile Home Park): The current and proposed fee uses a “per unit” fee structure and is based on average number of kVA units required per dwelling then multiplied by the determined cost per kVA.

Load Development Fees

Load Development Fees are applied to commercial and industrial customers. The fees are calculated based on a predetermined amount of kVA requested within certain levels further defined in the following section titled Collection of Fees. These fees are categorized into four different groups that allow for the system average costs within Table 7 to be apportioned according to the type of commercial facility:

1. Commercial Facilities <12kV – For commercial facilities <12kV, the customer takes service at the secondary level and SVP provides the load transformation from the 12kV system to meet customer voltage requirements. The proposed fee is based on the demand established on the installed service panel rating at the customer’s location. The customer’s fee is determined by taking the calculated kVA value from the customer’s service panel and multiplying it by the determined cost per kVA specified.
2. Commercial Facilities 12kV – For commercial facilities 12KV, the customer takes service at the primary level and provides their own load transformation directly from the 12kV system.  The proposed fee is based on the demand established on the installed service panel rating at the customer’s location.  The customer’s fee is determined by taking the calculated kVA value and multiplying it by the determined cost per kVA specified.  
3. Commercial Facilities Dedicated 12kV – Commercial Facilities Dedicated 12kV customers have a dedicated substation built to service the customer’s facility.  The customer executes a Substation agreement with the City and pays all costs of substation construction including design and engineering.  Once the substation is constructed, SVP owns and operates the power transformation at the 12kV level.  Each special facilities agreement or substation agreement includes a representation of how the customer plans to consume capacity from the system including timing for increases in peak load.  The customer’s fee is determined by taking the calculated kVA value and multiplying it by the determined cost per kVA as specified.  
4. Commercial Facilities Dedicated 60kV – Commercial Facilities Dedicated 60kV customers have a dedicated substation built to service the customer’s facility.  The customer executes a Substation agreement with the City and pays all costs of substation construction including design and engineering.  Once the substation is constructed, SVP owns and operates the system to the 60kV level prior to the power transformation.  The customer’s fee is determined by taking the calculated kVA value and multiplying it by the determined cost per kVA specified.