Last week another result of PG&E’s decades of mismanagement and greed —power shut off to 800,000 households to lower the risk of potential wildfires caused by poorly maintained lines.
Half a million families lost food. Thousands of businesses were shuttered, impacting paychecks for many, many more workers. The cost to our state economy is estimated to be $2.5 BILLION dollars.
Consumers bear the brunt of these shutoffs, just as they've borne the brunt of fires, explosions, bailouts and bankruptcies. PG&E can't continue to rake in profits from California families while passing along all the economic risk to us as well.
SEE IF YOU QUALIFY FOR COMPENSATION at PG&E
RESIDENTIAL SAFETY NET / STORM INCONVENIENCE PAGE
<big>Residential customers may qualify for the PG&E Safety Net</big> program which offers the following:
- Payments to residential customers who are without power for more than 48 hours due to a severe events, like storms (as determined by PG&E).
- The Safety Net program, which pays $25 to $100 automatically 60 to 120 days after the outage. The amount may depend on the outage length.
Check your eligibility for the Storm Inconvenience Payment
Find out if you can receive a Storm Inconvenience Payment through the Safety Net program:
- The Storm Inconvenience Payment provision applies only to residential customers with rate schedules E-1, E-6, E-7, E-8, EM, ES, ESR, ET, E-TOU and EV. [Find your rate schedule on your monthly bill.]
You may also be enrolled in programs such as CARE or Medical Baseline Allowance.
- Businesses, agricultural accounts, multi-family building common areas, streetlights and all other non-residential accounts are ineligible for Storm Inconvenience Payments.
- If you’re in an area where access to our electric facilities is blocked due to mudslides, road closures or other issues, you’re ineligible for a Storm Inconvenience Payment. If your equipment prevented us from restoring your power and extended your outage, you are also ineligible for this payment. Examples of equipment include service drops and faulty weatherheads.
- Outages must be the result of a major weather-related event that caused significant damage to our distribution system.
- Outages must last more than 48 hours.
- We provide Storm Inconvenience Payments in increments of $25, with a $100 maximum payment per event. Payment levels are based on the length of your outage:
- 48 to 72 hours: $25
- 72 to 96 hours: $50
- 96 to 120 hours: $75
- 120 hours or more: $100
- If you have bundled service and direct access, you qualify for Storm Inconvenience Payments.
- We issue Storm Inconvenience Payments to the customer of record (the person whose name is on the account).
- If you have multiple residential services such as a primary residence and a vacation home, you can receive Storm Inconvenience Payments at each location. This rule requires that the storm-related outage lasts more than 48 hours.
- Service agreements with PG&E must be in good standing at the time of the outage and at the time we issue payment. Payments typically arrive 45 to 60 days after the event.
- For master-metered accounts such as mobile home parks, the customer of record receives the payment for the master meter only.
PLEASE NOTE: If you experience an extended outage that isn't related to a storm or severe event, you may be eligible for the Service Guarantee Program. Get more information about this program. Visit Service Guarantee Program.
Get additional information
To learn more about outage compensation, visit the Outage Compensation FAQs or contact the extended outage line at 1-888-PGE-4PGE (1-888-743-4743) to speak with a representative.
And although PG&E has said it won't pay other kinds of claims,
you may submit a claim if you believe that PG&E caused a loss for which you should be compensated. You can make this type of claim using various methods, but online is the fastest way for us to process it.
TURN advises customers who suffered losses to document them and demand reimbursement. Learn how to submit your claim for damages — scroll down at this linked PG&E page. The time to document any losses and request reimbursement is NOW. PG&E's website explains how.
<big>Californians should not have to choose between risking a wildfire and accessing basic utilities. It is PG&E's greed and mismanagement that made these shutoff necessary — PG&E should bear the cost.</big>
If you place a claim, and are dissatisfied with PG&E's response, you can complain to the CPUC through TURN’s website here: http://bit.ly/Complain2CPUC.
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