Cross-functional Effort Improves PG&E’s New-Service Connections

By Jennifer Robison

OAKLAND — The epic winter-storm season that swept across Northern and Central California from December through March did more than knock out service to millions of PG&E customers. 

The storms also delayed nearly 1,500 new-service connections scheduled in the first quarter. 

However, by the end of June, through its New Business Recovery Unit, PG&E’s Service Planning & Design team, Gas and Electric Operations and Operations Support teams had completed essentially all gas and electric new-service connections to projects affected by the 15-storm series, for which the company marshaled 7,200 personnel to restore electric service to a record 7 million customers. 

The completed service connections include roughly 500 high-priority jobs, such as public-safety work, affordable housing communities, transportation-electrification projects, critical public infrastructure and connections for customers who were displaced or experienced extreme financial hardship. 

PG&E also worked with stakeholders and local governments to determine local jobs of critical importance. 

“We are pleased with the progress that has been made, and even more so with work PG&E and CBIA leadership and local builders have done to solve customer energization challenges exacerbated by growing housing demand and other priority state policy action,” said Joaquin Pons, a spokesman for the California Building Industry Association trade group. “CBIA is seeing PG&E’s new leadership stay true to their commitment to the home building industry to improve their performance and better partner with us to get homes connected faster and with a better customer experience.” 

Catching up on storm-delayed new business is part of PG&E’s broader commitment to improve new-service connections—a key area of the company’s business that had slowly degraded in recent years. 

“We are deeply committed to our purpose of delivering for our customers and hometowns,” said PG&E Senior Vice President of Gas Engineering Christine Cowsert. “We know that our new-service connection process has fallen short of some customers’ expectations, and that delays have real-world effects on our customers. Delivering excellent customer service every day is a major component of our 10-year strategic plan. That’s why we’re prioritizing meeting our customers’ new-service needs with additional resources and improved processes.” 

Finding efficiencies, streamlining applications 

To improve new-service connections, PG&E has dedicated a full-time team to creating a more streamlined process. The team is finding new efficiencies to reduce the time from customer application to connection by almost half, and to reduce the time to estimate a project from six months to one month. 

The new-business connections team has also made it easier for customers to complete an application for a new-service connection. Online applications now include text prompts and checklists of the information PG&E needs to begin the connection process.  

The goal is to educate customers upfront to reduce the number of incomplete applications and to ensure a project is ready to go as soon as customers file their applications. 

The Service Planning & Design team’s improvements are already paying off in results for customers. 

Schedule attainment — a measure of how many planned construction projects are completed — reached roughly 80 percent in May and June, after falling as low as 10 percent in January and February. The company has also reduced its design backlog by more than 18 percent since March. PG&E is now clearing 100,000 hours of new business work each month. 

“One of our stands is that people will find it enjoyable to work with and for PG&E,” said Matt Ventura, senior director of Service Planning & Design. “To help bring that stand to life, we have completely reimagined our new-service connection processes. We’re excited to see how that work is already benefiting our customers in substantial ways, and we look forward to sharing news of additional improvements in the coming months.” 

Collaborating with regulators, industry 

To keep customers at the center of the enhanced new-service connections process, PG&E’s Service Planning & Design team has partnered with key groups to better understand their concerns and needs. 

That effort includes regular meetings with building trade groups, regulators and other stakeholders to get their feedback and to inform them of PG&E’s progress. The team shares updates and ideas with members of the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission, among other agencies. 

The team has also partnered with process-design experts from Stanford University for guidance on new procedures, and hosted meetings with other investor-owned utilities also looking to improve their new-business connections processes. 

And they’re collaborating with the California Building Industry Association through new technical and advisory committees staffed by builders, developers and industry leaders.  The committees hold monthly meetings to discuss ongoing and emerging topics, and they’ve established a priority-project list to identify urgent needs before they become bigger issues. 

The teams are also working together on proposed legislative solutions that recognize the diverse needs of PG&E’s large customer base. 

Legislative solutions should include timely rate-case decisions for predictable cost recovery and stable cost of capital, and funding to expand capacity through infrastructure investments to meet California’s bold affordable housing, economic development and decarbonization goals. 

“This vital new-business work is happening in communities where we at PG&E also live and work,” Ventura said. “Beyond the important work that we’re doing to help California meet its goals related to affordable housing, decarbonization and economic growth, we’re excited about the opportunity to show up differently in our hometowns and provide that white-glove service our customers deserve. It’s gratifying to find ways to improve our customers’ experience with PG&E.”