Electrical corporations and gas corporations: rates and charges.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. 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. Existing law requires the commission to direct each gas corporation and electrical corporation that, for some portion of residential customers, employs every-other-month meter reading and estimates bills for months when the customer's meter is not read to include in its tariffs the methodology it employs to estimate bills for those months. This bill would require the commission, in a new or existing proceeding, to evaluate the energy usage estimation methodologies and mechanisms of electrical corporations and gas corporations in order to correct inaccurate energy usage estimates.