PG&E auto-enrolling past due customers into smaller payment plans

With the end of a COVID-19 related service disconnection moratorium, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) opted this week to instead begin automatically enrolling past due customers into monthly payment plans that divide their balance across 24 months.

By dividing up these outstanding balances — of at least 60 days overdue — into smaller bills over a lengthy period of time, PG&E hopes to begin moving back toward normalcy, while continuing to shield the bulk of customers from shut offs. For residential customers, the balance will be divided equally over the two years of payments, while small business customers will have payments calculated based on no more than 10 percent of their average bill over the same period. The new arrangements will come into force by the end of the month.

“We are here to help customers during these times of increasing financial hardships,” Marlene Santos, PG&E executive vice president and chief customer officer, said. “We want as many customers who are eligible to take advantage of these programs. Even as COVID-19 customer protections come to an end, our support won’t. The new payment plans were created to assist customers to pay down their past-due balance over time and protect them from disconnection of service due to non-payment.”

The new plan comes with conditions, though. If residential customers miss more than two payments or small business customers even a single payment over the course of a year, they will be removed from the payment plan. At that point, if payment isn’t received within 45 days, PG&E could terminate their gas and/or electric service.

The new auto-enrollment feature will not affect enrollment in other financial assistance programs, such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program or PG&E’s own Medical Baseline Program.

Prior to this, PG&E operated under a disconnection moratorium first put in place for the COVID-19 emergency in March 2020.