Sweet Outcome: PG&E Teams Persevere to Accommodate Citrus Company Expansion

By Jennifer Robison

FOWLER, Calif. — More mandarin oranges, fewer midnight work shifts.

That’s the happy tradeoff international fruit packer and shipper Bee Sweet Citrus made in early 2024, thanks in part to the tenacious work of PG&E’s Service Planning & Design, Business Energy Solutions and Electric Distribution Planning teams.

To achieve that balance, Bee Sweet added a 220,000-square-foot mandarin cold storage and packing center to its existing 500,000-square-foot center in Fresno County. The goal of the expansion? Increase production capacity and eliminate overnight hours to improve employee recruiting and retention.

The 500-employee company’s growth also provides a vital boost to Fowler, a small agricultural town of 6,700 seven miles south of Fresno.

“Fowler doesn’t have many large businesses, so Bee Sweet has a big footprint for the city and its residents,” said Alan Koobatian, the PG&E Service Planning & Design industrial power engineer who helped complete Bee Sweet’s new-service connection. “It was important to the community for the company to expand so that they could have at least as much production during the day alone as they had around the clock.”

There was just one issue: The electric distribution lines that served Bee Sweet’s existing facility were at capacity. Providing more power would require electric equipment upgrades that wouldn’t be complete until late 2024—a year longer than Bee Sweet could wait.

“We didn’t want to build a new facility and not be able to get power for a year,” said Bee Sweet General Manager Thomas Marderosian.

That solution wouldn’t come easily, but the team would get it done.

Surging electric demand

After decades of stable electric demand, California’s power needs have surged in recent years as its economy has grown and the state electrifies its transportation and housing sectors.

The Central Valley reflects those trends as much as any other region: Bee Sweet was competing for expanded electric capacity on its circuit with EV charging stations and other load growth.

Bee Sweet’s expansion would double the company’s energy demand and cause distribution overloads unless PG&E increased capacity on the electric circuit, said Mike McCarty, a PG&E manager of electric distribution planning.

In partnership with PG&E’s Electric Distribution Planning group, the Service Planning & Design team undertook several load studies to pinpoint options for serving Bee Sweet’s proposed expansion.

The load studies determined that PG&E would need to install new powerlines that could support additional energy demand in multiple locations along the existing circuit. But they also found that the upgrades could be split into two projects to accelerate work on the portion of the line that fed Bee Sweet, making the project easier to fund, design and execute, McCarty said. In the meantime, Bee Sweet’s electric load would be restricted at certain times of the day.

Bee Sweet was onboard with the approach, which allowed the company to get its new facility up and running by May 2023, albeit still scheduling overnight shifts to accommodate daytime load restrictions while PG&E completed its capacity work.

PG&E finished the capacity work affecting Bee Sweet in December.

“At the beginning of this project, in early 2022, it was definitely up in the air on how long it would take,” Marderosian said. “It was looking like we’d have to hold off on our project for a year. It took an extended effort between ourselves and the PG&E team, but once we had the plan, everything started falling into place. Alan was very instrumental in helping us navigate the process, getting the right resources involved and pushing things through.”

Added PG&E Electric Distribution Planning Supervisor Vincent Rodriguez-Ruiz: “We were definitely able to complete this project more quickly by having a strong partnership with the customer and being proactive in our process to secure the resources to get this project completed.”

‘Really appreciative’

As a result of the completed electrical work, Bee Sweet no longer has load restrictions: The company’s expanded facility reached full production capacity in February.

The 20 percent of the workforce—roughly 100 employees—who worked nights now all punch in during the day, Marderosian said. The expansion also yielded new jobs in more skilled positions, creating more opportunities for employee development and higher pay.

“They’ve been really appreciative of the new schedule and how it helps their families,” he said.

On top of serving Bee Sweet, the electric upgrades will benefit the larger Fowler community, said PG&E Electric Project Manager Steve Barrow. Work continues on the second part of the capacity upgrade, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2024 to serve other parts of the city’s commercial district and enable additional business expansions.

PG&E Central Valley Region Vice President Josh Simes said the effort shows the white-glove service PG&E strives to bring to each new-service connection.

“The Bee Sweet project demonstrates the value of regionalization and our ability to effectively convene local, cross-functional teams to engage in breakthrough thinking and winning solutions for our hometowns,” Simes said. “Our goal is to operate as one PG&E in delivering white glove service to all our customers, regardless of the challenge at hand.”