(Photo: PG&E’s planned outages left 15,000 customers in the dark in Tehama County, California on October 10, 2019. Credit: @kellisaam on Twitter)
California Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) CEO William Johnson this week urging the utility to refund small business customers for their hardships during the recent public safety power shutoff (PSPS) in the state.
Newsom wrote that 738,000 customers in 35 counties endured extensive outages. PG&E had shut off power in stages to prevent wildfires during dry and windy conditions. It was the largest PSPS in California’s history.
“The unacceptable scope and duration of this outage was the direct result of decades of PG&E prioritizing profit over public safety, mismanagement, inadequate investment in fire safety and fire prevention measures, and neglect of critical infrastructure,” the governor’s letter said.
He added that PG&E’s website crashed multiple times and call centers had long wait times, preventing customers from accessing critical information. Newsom urged the utility to provide each small business customer affected by the public safety power shutoff with an automatic credit or rebate of $250, funded by shareholders.
Last week a spokesperson for PG&E told the Enterprise-Record that customers wouldn’t be eligible to have revenue losses reimbursed through the Safety Net program. A Stanford University expert estimated that losses for small commercial and industrial customers could total nearly $2.5 billion.
California Public Utilities Commission president Marybel Batjer also sent a letter to Johnson, and summoned him and other PG&E executives to an emergency regulatory meeting today, the Mercury News reported. “The scope, scale, complexity and overall impact to people’s lives, businesses, and the economy of this action cannot be understated,” she wrote. “Loss of power is not a mere inconvenience — it endangers lives and property.”
Her letter outlined corrective actions that include speeding up the restoration of power with a goal of under 12 hours, and developing systems that ensure PG&E’s call centers and website stay available during critical high-volume times.
Johnson himself admitted last week that PG&E had not delivered on its commitment. “We were not prepared to manage the operational event,” he said, according to the New York Times.