Compensation for Extended Outages

STORMS MESSAGE: If you are a residential customer and have gone without power for at least 48 hours due to severe storm conditions, you may qualify for a payment under PG&E’s Safety Net Program. This program provides for the automatic payment of $25-$100, which is paid about 60 days following the storm outage. In some cases, processing may take 90-120 days (heavy storm season).

While our crews and emergency response teams at PG&E do everything they can to keep the lights on, there are rare occasions when Mother Nature impacts our ability to keep power flowing to every one of our customers.

We understand how inconvenient it is for customers who go without power for 48 hours or longer due to severe events, such as a storm. That is why PG&E created the following:

• Call our outage hotline at 1-888-PGE-4PGE or 1-888-743-4743 to speak with someone about your particular outage.
• PG&E will provide payments to residential customers we determine were without power for more than 48 hours due to a severe storm.
• The payments will range from $25 up to $100, depending on the length of the outage.

Of course, PG&E is working to minimize the potential for outage problems in the future. While we cannot guarantee that Mother Nature will never behave badly, we can tell you, day and night, over 18,000 men and women are focused on providing our customers with responsive service at fair prices. We are constantly working to improve and strengthen our electric system and find ways to safeguard against future outages.

Eligibility

• The Storm Inconvenience Payment provision of the Safety Net Program applies to residential customers only (rate schedules E-1, E-6, E-7, E-8, E-9, EA-7, EM, ES, ESR, and ET); customers also may be enrolled in programs such as CARE and medical baseline.
• Businesses, agricultural accounts, multi-family building common areas, streetlights, and all other customers other than residential customers are ineligible for Storm Inconvenience Payments.
• Storm Inconvenience Payments will not be issued to customers in areas where access to PG&E's electric facilities was blocked (mud slides, road closures or other access issues).
• The outage must have occurred during a major weather-related event that caused significant damage to PG&E's electric distribution system. (Customers who experience an extended outage of 24 hours or longer not related to a storm or severe event, may be eligible for a payment under the Service Guarantee Program.)
• The outage must have lasted more that 48 hours.
• Storm Inconvenience Payments are in increments of $25 ($100 maximum per event). Payment levels are based on the length of the customer's outage:
  • 48 to 72 hours $25
  • 72 to 96 hours $50
  • 96 to 120 hours $75
  • 120 hours or more $100
• Both bundled-service and direct-access residential customers qualify for Storm Inconvenience Payments.
• Storm Inconvenience Payments will be issued to the customer of record.
• A customer with multiple residential services such as a primary residence and a vacation home is eligible for Storm Inconvenience Payments at each location where there was a storm-related outage of more than 48 hours.
• Customers must have an open account (service agreement) in good standing at the time of the outage and at the time payment is issued (generally 45 to 60 days after the event).
• For master-metered accounts such as mobile home parks, the customer of record will receive the Storm Inconvenience Payment.