# How SWP allocations work > An SWP allocation is the percent of its Table A contract amount each State Water Project contractor can expect that year, set by California's Department of Water Resources. It is announced around December 1, starts deliberately low, and is usually revised upward through spring. _Updated Jul 9, 2026._ An SWP allocation is the share of contracted water the State Water Project will deliver, expressed as a percent of Table A amounts. The California Department of Water Resources runs the SWP and sets the number for its 29 public water agency contractors. The first allocation of the year comes out around December 1, before most of the winter has happened, so it is deliberately conservative and is usually revised upward as the season delivers. ## What Table A means Table A is the schedule in each contractor's long-term agreement that lists its maximum annual SWP request, in acre-feet. It is the denominator for the percentage. A 30 percent allocation means a contractor can take 30 percent of its Table A number this year. Table A is a ceiling on entitlement, not a promise of delivery, which is why the allocation percent moves every year with the water supply. ## Who the SWP serves The SWP is tilted toward cities. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is by far the largest contractor, so the SWP allocation matters enormously to urban Southern California, with a meaningful slice going to San Joaquin Valley agriculture as well. That urban tilt is the main reason the SWP and CVP numbers can diverge in the same year. [Chart: SWP Statewide allocation](https://the-waterline.com/allocation/swp-statewide-swp) ([data](https://the-waterline.com/allocation/swp-statewide-swp.md) — chart image: https://the-waterline.com/charts/allocation/swp-statewide-swp/chart.png) The chart above tracks the statewide SWP allocation as DWR announces and revises it. The shape to look for is a low December opener climbing through winter and spring storms. ## Why SWP and CVP percentages differ The two projects draw from an overlapping supply but carry different contract math, different reservoirs and different obligations, so their percentages rarely match. It is normal to see the SWP announce one figure while the CVP announces another for a similar class. They are answering slightly different questions about different books of contracts. For how the two projects compare head to head, see the CVP vs SWP guide. The Waterline reports SWP announcements as DWR publishes them and does not predict where the allocation will settle. ## Related data + guides - [SWP statewide allocation](https://the-waterline.com/allocation/swp-statewide-swp) - [How CVP allocations work](https://the-waterline.com/guides/how-cvp-allocations-work) - [CVP vs SWP, explained](https://the-waterline.com/guides/cvp-vs-swp) --- Canonical URL: https://the-waterline.com/guides/how-swp-allocations-work