If your lights went on on October 9, in what was the first round of PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoffs, you may wind up getting a credit on your bill.
Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month called for the utility to compensate customers who were hurt by the first power shutoff.
Bill Johnson, the president and CEO of PG&E, admitted some kind of rebate is warranted.
"These are extraordinary times, it was an extraordinary event," Johnson said. "We've finally had enough time to sit down and think about that, to talk to our board about some of the things that we did that didn't go very well — our website, all those issues — and we thought this was a pretty good idea to show a little recognition to our customers, that some of those things didn't go right."
Related
Power has been cut repeatedly to millions of people in California when weather conditions increased the chance that damaged or faulty PG&E equipment could spark a wildfire.
During the Public Safety Power Shutoff that began October 9, the utility's website crashed repeatedly when people needed information about outages the most. Many customers complained of being frustrated by what they called PG&E's lack of communication during the planning of the shutoffs and while they were being carried out.
What's not clear at this point is what the rebates will look like.
"What we told the governor and his folks is that we agree with his suggestion, as to how that gets done, the mechanics, I don't know the answer to that," Johnson said.
Newsom has suggested that PG&E offer a $100 credit per household and $250 per business.
As far as how PG&E plans to handle planned power outages in the future, it's a work in progress, Johnson said.
"Going forward, I think we need to have a policy debate or discussion about what is the right way to deal with these interruptions."