OAKLAND — PG&E is ranked nearly at the bottom of a list of dozens of big utilities nationwide in terms of customer satisfaction, although the embattled power company’s rank is improving, a new survey shows.
The unsettling results, released Tuesday, were contained in the latest energy utilities study produced by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The survey reported results for 27 United States utilities that were listed by name.
Oakland-based PG&E was ranked No. 23 out of 27 U.S. utilities listed by name in the 2024 survey.
While the near-worst ranking in 2024 was dismal, PG&E’s placement on the latest list topped its ranking as No. 27 in the 2023 survey.
The survey measured customer satisfaction using 10 benchmarks.
The categories are: the ability to provide reliable electricity service, quality of the mobile app, the reliability of the mobile app, ease of understanding the monthly bill, website satisfaction, ability to restore electric service after an outage, courtesy and helpfulness of company staffers, information about energy saving ideas, efforts to support green programs and efforts to support the local community.
PG&E also ranked poorly when the four major utility providers in California were compared with each other.
Sempra, owner of San Diego Gas & Electric, was ranked 12th; Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was ranked 18th; PG&E was ranked 23rd; Edison International, owner of Southern California Edison, was ranked No. 25.
PG&E has come under criticism in the wake of a decade of disasters that included a fatal gas explosion in 2010 that destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood, a string of fatal infernos that torched vast swaths of land in Northern California and intentional power outages to reduce the chances of wildfires.
More recently, PG&E’s skyrocketing electricity costs have shoved monthly utility bills higher, a financial jolt that has infuriated a growing number of the company’s customers.
Starting in early January, PG&E monthly bills averaged roughly $294.50 a month for the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services, according to estimates provided by the company to this news organization.
That combined bill was 22.3% higher than the average monthly charges that went into effect the year before, at the start of January 2023, when combined bills were $240.73 for the typical residential customer.
A recent decision by the state Public Utilities Commission set the stage for PG&E to raise monthly bills yet again on an interim basis, a decision that will begin to have an impact in April or May.
PG&E customers are also concerned because their monthly bills are rising far faster than the Bay Area inflation rate as measured by consumer prices.
Over the 12 months that ended in February, consumer prices in the Bay Area rose 2.4%. Put another way, monthly bills for PG&E customers are rising about nine times faster than the general inflation rate in the nine-county local region.