SDGE Disconnects Rise to Low Income Households, but at Slower Rate Than Other Utilities
By Don Bauder
November 23, 2009
A report by the California Public Utilities Commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates, a division of the PUC that represents interests of ratepayers, indicates that at the major state utilities, service disconnections for lower-income households rose 19% last year (Sept. '08-Sept. '09). That increase is disturbing, said the division. San Diego Gas & Electric's disconnects to lower-income households rose only 4% during the period. SDGE's total residential disconnect rate was lower than the national average.
Power consumers are categorized by priority. Lower-income households obviously have a lower consumer priority than many other customers.
Bets are that the disconnect rate for the highest-priority consumers hovers right around zero.
CPUC's authority to categorize ratepayers is found at Cal. Public Utilities Code section 2771 (search PUC at http://leginfo.ca.gov). The authority includes a liability shield for utilities that cut power to low-priority consumers after CPUC issues an order to allow the cutoff (PUC sect. 2775). Talk to County Supervisor Dianne Jacob for her take on that while she and other stakeholders discuss SDG&E's high-wind power cutoff proposal that the CPUC earlier denied and ordered into mediation.
Response to post #1: Unfortunately, it's not just utilities that give lower-income households a lower priority than other customers. Best, Don Bauder
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