Advance Construction Scheduling Makes Difference for Sunnyvale Project

"A game changer." That’s how Scott Hardester, founder of Radius Design in Walnut Creek, describes advance scheduling, PG&E’s enhanced process for completing new-service connections.

In its 2023 memorandum of understanding with the California Building Industry Association (CBIA), PG&E committed to advance scheduling — assigning construction crews as soon as customers pay their contracts — to improve how often the company meets customer-connection deadlines.

For the third phase of CityLine Sunnyvale, a mixed-use project vital to reviving downtown Sunnyvale (Santa Clara County), advance scheduling made all the difference, said Hardester, the utility-service designer for CityLine developer Sares Regis Group.

“Words cannot express our gratitude for the partnership we experienced with PG&E on this project,” he said. “I cannot stress enough the amount of team effort that went into it. It was PG&E telling the developer, ‘If you do your part, we’ll do our part.’ Both companies met their obligations. None of the Herculean tasks by Sares Regis or PG&E should be taken lightly.”

As tenants prepare for their July move-ins, here’s a look at how PG&E and Sares Regis brought the project in on time — and why advance scheduling mattered so much.

‘You can’t wait’

Sares Regis had big goals for the city block at 200 W. Washington Ave.

As part of the company’s six-block CityLine Sunnyvale redevelopment to transform the former Sunnyvale Town Center, a shuttered Macy’s would make way for three buildings with stores, offices and 479 apartment homes, including 53 affordable units.

It’s a project that would have “a tremendous impact on the city of Sunnyvale and the housing crisis,” said Thor Hoskins, assistant vice president of development for Sares Regis.

Sares Regis faced a “critical path” that required electric service to test mechanical equipment ahead of a May 1 deadline lenders set for the start of leasing, said Visakha Bounlutay, the PG&E industrial power engineer who led the project’s Service Planning & Design (SP&D) effort.

As the project neared completion in the second half of 2023, advance scheduling kicked in. Based on the developer’s feedback, the SP&D team set a customer on-time delivery date for a new-service connection by March 1.

Prior to advance scheduling, PG&E would not schedule new-service construction work until a customer had gotten all environmental, agency and land permits and had completed local building and fire-safety inspections. PG&E also required customers to have their job site 100% construction-ready.

That protocol often meant customer waits of up to 12 weeks for crews.

That delay wouldn’t work for Sares Regis and the delicate ballet it choreographed to meet its lender’s deadline.

“Once you’ve done thousands of things to get your building ready, you can’t wait another 12 weeks for construction,” Hardester said.

The developer had scheduled vendors on a precise timeline to test elevators, life-safety equipment and other systems to obtain city occupancy permits. Missing the customer’s energization deadline would have “done a lot of damage to their timeline, because it can take months to reschedule vendors for testing,” Bounlutay said.

In contrast, through advance scheduling, PG&E schedules construction crews as soon as the customer pays their contract. The company sets a construction date based on customer on-time delivery, and then PG&E and the customer complete permitting, inspections and construction readiness in tandem as the date approaches.

That means PG&E’s construction crews can begin work as soon as the customer and project are ready.

“Rather than making the customer sequentially finish each phase of development and pre-construction, the customer and PG&E work on parallel paths to meet the customer’s on-time delivery date,” Hardester said. “In this case, Sares Regis communicated that very hard on-time delivery date to PG&E. PG&E and Visakha were very accommodating.”

Communication and coordination

As the march toward construction proceeded, the advance scheduling process would keep the team on track.

For example, some electrical panels didn’t arrive on time, while another was damaged in a fall from a truck. The construction schedule helped Sares Regis focus its replacement efforts, Hardester said.

Meanwhile, PG&E was already planning the mobilization of roughly 50 crews to connect powerlines to CityLine, a downtown infill project surrounded by residents and dozens of adjacent businesses, including a Whole Foods store and a 12-screen AMC movie theater.

To minimize disruptions, PG&E would need special permission from the city of Sunnyvale to shut off power to the area. It would need to complete the job in one night. And ahead of the work, it would have to notify hundreds of nearby residents and business owners.

Bounlutay prepared the PG&E team by communicating the customer on-time delivery date early and often to every involved line of business. She looped in PG&E’s general construction team as soon as the customer on-time delivery date was set. In weekly meetings, she reminded teams of the date and discussed progress. She also stayed in constant contact with Sares Regis and Hardester.

Rey Ontiveros, a PG&E General Construction crew foreman, also got involved early, meeting with Sares Regis representatives at the job site once the buildout was scheduled. He and his team stayed on track coordinating work with city agencies, Sares Regis contractors and nearby businesses even while responding to a series of damaging winter storms across the PG&E service area in early to mid-February.

Bounlutay also brought in PG&E meter technicians to discuss dates to set electric meters with the customer. Metering technician crew leader Bobby Porras and his team made a plan to test the project’s electric meters days before construction, so they could install meters as soon as the connection work was complete.

“Driven in part by the advance scheduling process, early engagement with the customer on all these fronts made a big difference,” Bounlutay said.

Hardester agreed.

“The whole project team was very well-aligned, with a clear understanding of their roles,” he said. “Visakha was always available to help. She was a staunch supporter of this project and made sure we didn’t experience delays from the usual variances and issues that can happen on large projects.”

A ‘jaw-dropping’ effort

On the night of Feb. 19, the teams’ efforts paid off.

PG&E construction crews were released from emergency-response work that morning and moved directly into preparation for the construction of the CityLine connection.

“Any challenges we had were overcome by sticking to the plan,” said Mark Wiebe, a field engineer with PG&E’s transmission and distribution general construction team.

Hardester said his jaw dropped when he saw the PG&E effort under way.

“The entire street was closed off and full of PG&E personnel,” he said. “It was a huge effort with a tremendous amount of coordination involved.”

The construction team completed its work that night. Because of the field metering team’s advance meter testing, they were able to install the meters immediately after CityLine’s energization.

“The customer was ecstatic about that,” Bounlutay said. “Usually, setting meters takes an additional 10 days.”

The project was fully energized on Feb. 21, more than a week ahead of schedule.

Hoskins noted that the final phase of CityLine Sunnyvale was the second straight project on which PG&E “was able to come through on schedule.”

The other was Residences @ Shoreline in Mountain View, a community of 203 rental apartments and 100 for-sale condominiums. Roughly 30 of the apartments and 10 of the condominiums are affordable housing.

Hoskins credited the customer on-time deliveries to PG&E’s work with the CBIA through technical and advisory committees. He also thanked PG&E SP&D Senior Director Matt Ventura and his team for their work with the CBIA to “improve deliveries of new construction projects.”

“The efforts we are making in the committees are making a difference,” he said.

Added Hardester: “What we’re hearing from PG&E is, ‘Tell us your customer on-time delivery date, and it is our obligation to meet it.’ Now, we’re seeing that happen. Matt and his team are doing their best to improve customer on-time deliveries. I can see things changing. We needed help to make this project happen, and we got that help. I’m just extremely grateful for PG&E’s teamwork on CityLine.”