SDG&E Touts Diverse Suppliers, Nearly $2.6B In Economic Impact

SAN DIEGO, CA — San Diego Gas & Electric generated $2.59 billion in direct economic impact in 2023, contracting with more than 2,000 businesses for goods and services, according to a report recently released by the utility company.

More than 43% of SDG&E's total expenditures were with diverse suppliers — "enterprises owned by minorities, women, LGBT individuals, service-disabled veterans and persons with disabilities," according to the company's annual supplier diversity report released Wednesday and submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Nearly 600 — or one-third — of the suppliers who did business with SDG&E in 2023 were diverse businesses. In 2023, SDG&E's spending with diverse businesses reached $450.6 million in San Diego County and $950.7 million in California.

"We are laser-focused on maximizing every dollar for our customers, while also growing economic opportunities for small and diverse businesses in our region," SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn said. "Championing people by creating opportunities through diversity, equity and inclusion is one of our core values."

SDG&E contracts with suppliers for vegetation management, undergrounding, civil engineering and electric construction to IT, fire prevention, project management and material procurement and transport. The utility began its supplier diversity program in the 1980s.

"Large employers like SDG&E play a significant role in sustaining and growing our region's economy because of the large volume of goods and services they purchase," said Mark Cafferty, president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. "Our research has shown that if major companies make small shifts in procurement to direct more spending locally, it can help create thousands of jobs and add tens of millions of dollars to the local economy."

The report comes weeks after Sempra Energy, SDG&E's parent corporation, announced to investors that it made close to $3 billion in profits last year. SDG&E alone took in a record $936 million in profit, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Power San Diego, a group seeking to replace SDG&E with a city-owned utility, has been gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to buy out SDG&E in an effort to lower rates. The group has called Sempra's profits "egregious" when looking at the electricity rates in San Diego, which are higher than every other major population center in the United States besides San Francisco and Honolulu, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

SDG&E commissioned a report released Wednesday which claims Power San Diego's plan would cost $9.3 billion and ultimately raise rates.

But Power San Diego claims the acquisition of SDG&E's infrastructure and power grid would run around $2.5 billion and prompt a rate reduction of 20%.

— City News Service