Electrical and gas corporations: collection of charges.

The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations, as respectively defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. An existing decision of the commission governs retroactive billing by gas corporations and electrical corporations and imposes a 3-year limit on utility billing adjustments for meter and billing errors for commercial customers. This bill would require the commission to reconsider that decision and, if it has not done so in a proceeding by January 1, 2011, open a proceeding to examine whether the 3-year limit on billing adjustments for meter and billing errors is an appropriate timeframe for small commercial customers of gas corporations and electrical corporations.