Strategic Plan Update Addresses Challenges and Opportunities

The energy landscape is quickly evolving to be greener, smarter, and more resilient. Seattle City Light's six-year Strategic Plan is our roadmap to ensure that we are also evolving to safely deliver affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible service for many years to come.

Our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan Update was formally approved by Seattle City Council this week. To respond to new industry challenges and opportunities, our new Strategic Plan Update addresses the steps needed to make meaningful progress toward our climate goals, invest in new resources, and improve our transmission and distribution systems to reliably meet this future demand.

Supporting growing demand for electricity

Demand for electricity is growing. Over the past decade, Seattle saw declining electricity usage as advancements in efficiency offset our city's growth. Now, electrification is expected increase energy use much more rapidly than we previously predicted. Building electrification is growing three times faster spurred on by commercial and residential heat pump adoption. Transportation electrification growth is up 70%, primarily due to fleet electrification. To meet this growing demand, we must procure new, clean resources. In just two years, our anticipated need for additional resources to be acquired over the next 10 years has quadrupled from 400 MW to over 1800 MW.

Adapting to climate change

In recent years, regional drought conditions, lower snowpack, and weather-induced early runoff have reduced hydropower generation across the Pacific Northwest. Market prices across the West are rising and growing more unpredictable, fueled by growing demand and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Coordination amongst utilities will be needed ensure an uninterrupted and low-cost energy supply for our region.

Meeting clean energy milestones

The move to 100% carbon-free energy across the nation is the right thing to do. Federal, state, and local legislation is having a profound impact on the electric utility industry. Washington's Clean Energy Transformation Act sets specific milestones to reach a 100% clean electricity supply by 2045. Carbon-neutral since 2005, City Light is ahead of the game though these changes mean greater competition for new renewable energy resources. Fortunately, many programs are fueling billions in new investment to support clean energy technologies, decarbonization, and overhauling the nation's power grid to meet aggressive goals.

Improving reliability and resiliency

Investment in addressing our aging assets is crucial for us to ensure we can reliably meet Seattle's energy needs in the years to come. This includes systematically replacing components that have reached the end of their useful life and modernizing our grid to harness technological improvements to improve reliability and resiliency.

Prioritizing our shared energy future

City Light partners with customers to shape our shared energy future, prioritizing equity, reliability, affordability, and predictability. Our customers help inform our programs and services with special focus on the needs of community members most impacted by environmental inequities. To do this, we need to increase engagement with priority populations by expanding our customer outreach through new partnerships with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and community-based organizations.

Investing in our infrastructure, addressing climate change, and supporting decarbonization and electrification will improve reliability and create economic opportunities for residents in all communities where we operate. City Light empowers customers with information, resources, and financial support to help them save energy and money. We are enlisting on our customers to help manage load peaks through time of use rates , demand response and customer-installed batteries and solar.

Identifying strategic priorities

To address these strategic areas of focus, the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan Update identifies targeted outcomes along five key strategic priorities:

1. Improve Customer Experience
2. Create Our Energy Future
3. Develop Workforce & Organizational Agility
4. Ensure Financial Health & Affordability
5. We Power

The strategic planning process involves extensive research and collaboration between utility employees, customers, community members, business leaders, the City Light Review Panel, the Mayor's office and other City department personnel.

Following yesterday's adoption of the Strategic Plan with its included rate path, the next step in our process will be to propose a comprehensive rate ordinance to City Council to be passed before any new rates would take effect.

To read more about the process and this year's update, visit our Strategic Plan page.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.