PG&E customers to get millions in refunds
| Thursday, Oct 15 2009 05:12 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Oct 15 2009 05:17 PM
Loading Stories
Advertisement
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s request to refund $424.4 million to electric customers. Both sides said the refund has nothing to do with a raging controversy over the utility's SmartMeter program.
"We bill customers according to the expected market price for energy," said PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles.
The refunds are part of a seasonal adjustment that occurs every year, he said.
When energy prices are higher than expected, customers see higher bills, he said. When energy costs less than expected, as happened this year, customers get the difference between the expected and actual price credited back to them.
Because of the economy, "weeks ago, we asked the CPUC for approval for this year to issue bill credits in a lump sum rather than amortizing them across several months as is typically the case," Boyles said. "The CPUC has approved that request."
The refunds will be delivered in the form of a credit on customers' December bills, providing a public relations bump at a time when both the commission and the utility are under fire from the state Senate's majority leader, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter.
"PG&E's customers will receive a bill credit as the holidays approach," commission president Michael Peevey said in a statement. "Some residential electric customers of PG&E may see a credit as high as a couple of hundred dollars, while the average is expected to be approximately $35."
PG&E couldn't immediately say how much of the $424.4 million would go to Kern County customers.
Meanwhile, Florez says he still hasn't received any response from a letter he sent to PG&E.
The letter followed anger and shouting over the unusually high bills at a town hall meeting Florez organized in Bakersfield earlier this month. Florez has scheduled another hearing Oct. 21 in Fresno.
After the meeting and considerable pressure from Florez and the public, the commission agreed to conduct independent testing of SmartMeters that many blame for skyrocketing power bills.
SmartMeters allow PG&E to read electrical use remotely through radio signals. Since 2006, the company has been gradually installing them in place of analog meters that must be read manually.
Florez called the timing of the refunds an "amazing" coincidence, and asked how customers came to be overcharged in the first place.
"What is interesting is the fact that PG&E was blaming the (rate) tier structure for the high bills people were receiving during the summer while all along they knew that they were overcharging customers for the true cost of generating electricity," he said in an e-mail.
Twice in the last year, PG&E won commission approval to raise rates by a total of about 8 percent. The increases were to cover costs associated with system maintenance and the replacement of electricity purchasing contracts made by another agency during the energy crisis of 2000-01. The company now has a tiered rate structure that charges higher prices to the heaviest users.
"While I can appreciate the complexities of determining future power costs, I think this is yet another blow to PG&E's credibility, especially at a time when they are asking customers to trust them while we embark on the SmartMeter experiment," Florez said.
PG&E wants to "ensure that customers have confidence in us, and in the SmartMeter technology, which is why we have already taken steps to engage an independent third party to perform an independent test of our meters," Boyles said.
"We welcome Public Utilities Commission engagement in that process, and will work with them to ensure that both the PUC and our customers are satisfied that the tests are truly independent and conducted in a manner that is consistent with industry standards," he said.
