San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headworks (SFPUC)

Cupertino Electric’s Public Infrastructure team is working with general contractors and trade partners to upgrade the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) Headworks facility. The SFPUC project, part of San Francisco’s Sewer System Improvement Program (SSIP) and overall $2 billion upgrade effort, will replace the 35-year-old Headworks building, modify the Bruce Flynn Pump Station and construct an odor control structure. According to the SFPUC website, 80% of San Francisco's water goes through the Headworks facility, which is the first step of treating wastewater by removing debris (like baby wipes) and grit (like sand) before it moves to the next step of the water treatment process. Because of the percentage of municipal water that goes through the Headworks facility, this wastewater treatment facility project is extraordinarily important to the health and well-being of San Francisco residents.

Included in this project is the construction of a new odor control building and a newly designed influent pump station. CEI was selected as a core trade partner covering the entire electrical scope of work for a 44,000-square-foot industrial process building. Part of the project scope includes installation of instrumentation and control systems, new medium voltage substations, switchgear, motor controls, variable frequency drives, a small solar photovoltaic 9PV) system, walk-in environmentally-controlled electrical houses, variable frequency drives for plant influent pumps, a complete Profibus network communication system and integration of all the process control systems. CEI is also responsible for installing and implementing the SFPUC-provided distributed control system, along with the installation of low-voltage systems. Part of the installation required temporary power and controls for the SELs lift station. Prior to the start of construction, CEI helped to construct an interim temporary influent pump station on a design/build basis that will stay in place until the new pump station is completed and commissioned around 2024.