Utility shut-offs soar for poor PG&E customers

The number of low-income households cut off by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. after they fell behind on their utility bills jumped 75 percent this year, according to a state report released Thursday.

For the 12 months that ended in August, 91,393 low-income households lost their utility service, compared with 52,202 in the previous 12-month period. Most soon paid to have service restored.

The report, from a division of the California Public Utilities Commission, found that shut-offs increased throughout the state as the recession devastated home finances.

But the increase has been most notable at San Francisco’s PG&E. Statewide, the number of low-income homes that lost electric or gas service grew by 27.6 percent, the report found. The report examined data from California’s big investor-owned utilities, and does not include the public utilities in Sacramento and Los Angeles.

The report’s authors aren’t sure why the number of disconnected customers is growing so quickly at PG&E, compared with other utilities in the state. PG&E rate hikes last fall and this spring may have played a role. So may the utility’s new SmartMeters.

The advanced electricity and gas meters, being installed throughout Northern and Central California, allow PG&E to shut off service via a wireless signal, without sending an electrician to the home. The easier process may be leading to more shut-offs, said Dana Appling, director of the utility commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates, which issued the report.

“All they have to do is flip a switch,” she said, adding that her division doesn’t have solid proof that the meters are leading to more disconnections.

SF Chronicle