SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (San Francisco News Online) — California regulators have approved stronger protections for households that fall behind on electric bills when dangerous heat is forecast.
At its July 16 meeting in San Francisco, the California Public Utilities Commission approved Resolution E-5468. The decision changes when investor-owned utilities can disconnect service for nonpayment during extreme heat and moves the state away from a single, one-size-fits-all temperature rule.
What the commission approved
The resolution approves, with modifications, a joint filing from Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas.
In the filing, the utilities asked the commission to change the trigger for pausing shutoffs from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to Level 3 on CalHeatScore, a heat-health forecasting system. The CPUC went further than that request and lowered the trigger to Level 2.
The commission also said 90 degrees is an appropriate interim trigger threshold. In the resolution’s words, the electric utilities must “implement an interim trigger threshold of 90 degrees within a 72-hour lookahead period until the full CHS data is available and each IOU’s system is able to implement the CHS API.”
What is CalHeatScore?
CalHeatScore is a heat-health forecasting tool developed by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Instead of relying only on one statewide temperature number, the CPUC is moving toward a system that reflects the heat risk in different parts of the state.
That matters because a dangerous heat wave in one region may not look the same as heat in another. A regional tool can be more protective when local conditions create a higher health risk.
Who has to comply, and when?
The CPUC ordered the electric investor-owned utilities to put CalHeatScore Level 2 into effect within six months of final adoption of the resolution.
Until the full CalHeatScore system is available and each utility can use the API, Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric must use the statewide 90-degree threshold within a 72-hour look-ahead period.
The rule is meant to protect customers from having service cut off for nonpayment during extreme heat events, when losing electricity can quickly become a health and safety problem.
What the rule does not cover
The new protections apply to disconnections for nonpayment during extreme heat.
They do not change how utilities handle outages caused by equipment failures, wildfire-prevention shutoffs or other emergencies.
Why the change matters
The commission’s action replaces a statewide standard that had used a single temperature trigger. The new approach gives regulators and utilities a more local heat standard and a clearer fallback rule while CalHeatScore is still being rolled out.
The resolution also requires annual reporting for three years on implementation costs and customer arrearages, giving the commission data it can use to judge how well the policy works in practice.
For households already struggling with bills, the policy is designed to reduce the chance that a heat wave turns into a public health emergency.
The bigger picture
The CPUC’s decision shows how California is trying to link utility policy with public health planning. Instead of asking only whether a day is above a fixed number, the commission is now using a heat-risk tool built for California conditions.
That makes the shutdown rule more targeted, and it gives regulators a way to update protections as temperatures rise and extreme heat becomes more common.