Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), based in San Francisco, provides electric and natural gas service to a total of 9.3 million customers in 47 of 58 counties in northern and Central California.

PG&E, the primary subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, has approximately 6,270 MW of regulated generation. That includes the largest privately held hydroelectric portfolio in the U.S., natural gas, a relatively small amount of coal, and an increasing share of renewables (primarily solar).

PG&E has a troubled past. In 1996, the company was ordered to pay settlements of $331 million to residents of the small unincorporated town of Hinkley, CA, after it was found that the utility had contaminated the community’s drinking water with hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen. (The film Erin Brockovich was based on the Hinkley story.) In addition, as a direct result of the 2001 California energy crisis, PG&E filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it could no longer buy power on the open market at a price below what it could charge customers.

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Smart Grid

CEO Peter Darbee aggressively promotes the utility’s green stance and the utility has launched numerous AMS and smart meter projects in the past few years and arguably has has the nation’s most ambitious program. It is currently deploying new meters at the rate of 10,000 per day; the company aims to install 10.3 million new meters at the nearly 6 million homes and businesses across its entire grid by 2011. The utility estimates that roughly 90% of the $1.7 billion cost of the project will be offset in savings over its 20-year life, of which over half will owe to meter-reading savings.

Renewables

PG&E is aggressively pursuing renewable sources. In May 2009 it signed contracts with Oakland-based BrightSource Energy for 1,310 MW of solar thermal power, representing the nation’s largest solar deal to date. About the same time it contracted with Solaren to purchase power from giant solar collectors in outer space.

 It also signed a long-term agreement for 103 MW of wind-generated power and is exploring options for wave power generation in the Pacific Ocean.

For vendors only …

The company is dysfunctional and tends to shoot from the hip.