SDG&E; Rebate Cools Pain of Soaring Bills

Rebate checks averaging $260 per household were mailed to San Diego Gas & Electric customers in south Orange County in the past week, a welcome respite from the rising bills that customers have been receiving from the utility this summer.

All 100,000 SDG&E; customers in the county should receive checks in the next five weeks, spokesman Art Larson said Tuesday. Small-business owners can expect a rebate of about $870, he said.

Overall, SDG&E; said that about 1.1 million customers--most of them in San Diego County--will receive rebates totaling $390 million.

Customers can also expect a modest $34 credit on bills over the next two months. The credits, resulting from savings from long-term power contracts the utility made earlier, will cost SDG&E; an extra $100 million, Larson said.

In response to skyrocketing power costs, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday for a declaration urging the state attorney general to investigate how the power industry generates and distributes electricity.

Alicemarie Odell, 76, of San Juan Capistrano is one of those who has felt the sting. A widow who gets by on $1,200 a month from Social Security and a few dollars from part-time work at a local community center, Odell said her electric bill rose from $24 in May to $89 in June and then mysteriously dropped down to $44 in July.

“This has definitely affected me because I constantly think, ‘Should I turn this thing on?’ ” she said. “It’s like the fleecing of Southern California.”

The rebates and credits were the only good news in the utility industry Tuesday, when California’s power system was pushed close to its limit for the second straight day.

Sizzling temperatures throughout the state increased demand for electricity, forcing the California Independent System Operator to call a Stage Two alert and cut electricity to mostly large industrial customers. These customers buy power at a discount and agree to have their service interrupted when the supply of electricity is tight.

State power authorities project even higher energy demand for today and are urging power users to save as much electricity as possible.

California’s heat spell has sent electric bills skyrocketing for SDG&E; customers, and the rebates and credits offer only a brief respite from rising power costs.

The rebates stem from savings accrued by SDG&E; by paying off bonds almost three years early. The notes, due in March 2002, were paid off in July 1999. The utility managed to recover its costs quickly by selling generating plants it owned in Chula Vista and Carlsbad.

SDG&E; customers are the first in the state to pay the daily market price for power under a deregulation plan approved by the Assembly. Currently, typical households are billed 17.6 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to about 4 cents for the same usage last summer.

“This is the price that we pay for electricity. There is no markup at our end. Our role is that of a delivery company, delivering and distributing electricity,” Larson said.

But SDG&E; adds on a charge ranging from 4 cents to 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour to deliver electricity to the typical home, Larson said. This means that SDG&E; customers pay as much as 24.1 cents per kilowatt hour when all costs are combined.

Southern California Edison spokesman Steve Hansen said the utility’s customers pay between 12 and 14 cents per kilowatt hour, including the company’s cost of delivering electricity to households.

SDG&E; workers and retirees, however, are under a different payment plan. Employees with at least one-year service get a 25% discount on their bills, and they too will receive rebate checks, Larson said. Retirees with at least 10 years’ service with the utility get the same discount, he said.

While Orange County supervisors have called for an investigation of high electric bills, some San Diego County supervisors have taken a tougher stance, encouraging consumers to pay only half of their SDG&E; bill to protest high electricity rates.

Times correspondent Scott Schudy contributed to this report.

* BEATING THE HEAT

State imports electricity to keep the lights on. C2

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Power Prices Up

The wholesale price of electricity has soared in recent months for reasons that include rising demand due to hot weather and the 1996 law that opened California’s electricity industry to competition. Here are average prices for electricity traded in the California Power Exchange where about 80% of the state’s electricity is bought.

Jan. 1999: $0.0235

July 2000: $0.1057

Cents per kilowatt hour

Source: California Power Exchange