San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) customers could get bill credits earlier this year amid increased gas costs as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) discusses the matter on Thursday.
State utility regulators held a meeting to consider distributing the California Climate Credits to customers earlier this year due to sky-high costs that impacted residents in January. Typically, the credits, which come from a state program, are distributed in April and October.
SDG&E
If the CPUC approves moving up the credits, utility customers could see it applied to their bill as early as February. According to SDG&E, customers on average could be given a $43 credit that would be applied to their bill.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
The possibility comes as the utility service marked up prices amid an increase in natural gas prices, according to SDG&E. It warned customers in December that a price hike was imminent due to an increased market price for gas and in January, residents received sticker shock with their bill.
“Some of the customers are opening up their January bill now and they don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Anthony Wagner, a spokesperson for SDG&E. “Those are the customers that we want to speak with.”
Resources have been made available to help customers struggling with their bills. SDG&E said it was working on making $1 million available in customer assistance through the Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N) program. N2N provides up to $300 in one-time grants to help utility customers with past-due bills.
Relief is expected to be on the way, however, since the price for natural gas is expected to dwindle. The commodity price of natural gas decreased by 68% from January's prices, from $3.45 per therm to $1.11 per therm.
