Late-paying power customers given leniency

People who fall behind on their gas and electric bills were granted extra protection Thursday by the state Public Utilities Commission.

Companies including Pacific Gas and Electric Co. now must inform residential customers whose accounts fall into arrears that they can arrange to pay off their debt over a period of at least three months -- and up to 12 months -- as long as they keep current during that time.

It is up to customers to contact their utility to set up a payment plan.

The commission also prohibited the state's investor-owned utilities from requiring credit deposits of customers who fall behind on their payments or get disconnected.

The commission's interim actions address growing complaints that California's largest utilities have been less than accommodating to customers facing financial hardship.

Nearly 70,000 California households have their power cut off every month, according to the consumer advocacy group TURN.

"The utilities should be in the business of keeping the lights on, not shutting them off," TURN's executive director, Mark Toney, said in a news release.

Sen. Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, called it "shocking" that the commission had to step in to force utilities to inform customers of their right to a payment plan, or to stop the companies from requiring deposits of customers who have already established their credit.

But he also took aim at the commission, which he said shares blame for customers' hardships because of the rate increases it has approved in recent years.

"It's pretty simply," Florez said by e-mail Thursday, "when you continue to raise rates in a bad economy you're going to have more families facing shut off."

The commission's vote signaled the start of a policy review expected to result in permanent rules come June. Public comments on the policies are due to the commission March 12.

PG&E defended its own policies in a Thursday e-mail stating that its service disconnections fell by 38 percent in 2009 as compared with 2008. It said its January disconnections are down by 6 percent from the same month last year.

The company said it has set up 27 percent more payment plans over the last 12 months.

But consumer advocates say the practices of PG&E and other utilities remain burdensome.

To re-establish service after a disconnection, utilities charge deposits amounting to twice the average monthly bill, according to the commission's consumer advocacy division.

The division recently reported that disconnections are becoming more common.

"The utilities themselves have even reported that 2010 would see an even greater increase in customer disconnections," division Director Dana Appling said in a news release.

The division said PG&E SmartMeters would contribute to an increase in disconnections because the utility can use the devices to cut off service remotely.

TURN spokeswoman Mindy Spatt said the commission ought to ban disconnections by SmartMeter, as the regulatory body originally considered doing. She said this would give customers more time to pay their bills.

"We want to see the process slowed down and the consumer given more opportunities to pay," she said.

An e-mailed statement by PG&E spokeswoman Nicole Liebelt emphasized that PG&E works to avoid service shutoffs.

"The fact remains that (we) do everything we can to help our customers before it ever gets to the point of disconnection for non-payment," she wrote.

"The remote capabilities of of SmartMeter... do not change that process."