A California state agency is recommending PG&E Corp. pay $165.7 million in fines and penalties for mismanaging preemptive blackouts last fall to prevent wildfires, saying the company cut power to thousands of customers with no warning, Bloomberg News reported. If approved by state regulators, the proposal from the Public Advocates Office of the California Public Utilities Commission would force PG&E to give $400 refunds to many of those customers, who lost electricity service without prior notice during three blackouts last October. For blacked-out customers who rely on medical devices in their homes, PG&E would spend up to $5,000 per person to provide backup power, such as a generator or battery. PG&E started resorting to deliberate blackouts after its equipment caused some of the worst wildfires in California history, forcing the company into bankruptcy last year. The utility emerged from Chapter 11 in July after having paid $25.5 billion to resolve fire claims. “We want PG&E to be held accountable,” said Nathaniel Skinner, safety branch program manager with the Public Advocates Office. “We see some improvement -- we hope they improve -- but this is about how they performed during these events.” California regulators opened a probe into last year’s shutoffs, which caused widespread disruptions and forced the closure of schools and businesses. During one outage in October 2019, PG&E cut power to more than 2 million people across Northern California.
