Big holdup for new Northern California housing? PG&E

Hundreds of newly constructed apartment buildings and businesses in Northern California are sitting empty at any given time because the projects must wait on one entity, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., to turn on the lights.

PG&E, the state’s largest utility, has long had a bad reputation among builders for the pace at which it connects buildings to the electrical grid, a process known as interconnection that occurs before a finished building can be occupied. But housing advocates and developers say those delays have grown increasingly worse in recent years, forcing many to leave buildings vacant for months amid the state’s worsening housing shortage.

There were 319 commercial and multi-family buildings waiting for PG&E to turn on power as of late February, according to PG&E data obtained by state Sen. Scott Wiener’s office. Of those, 134 buildings had been waiting for more than two months and 95 had been waiting for more than three months.

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PG&E said it’s working to speed up electric connections for new customers. But the company’s resources have been taxed by urgent work preventing wildfires that have “required significant financial and workforce resources,” PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said. The company’s service territory covers much of northern and central California.

More (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-housing-projects-pge-17828169.php

Wiener will, or has, introduced legislation (Senate Bill 83) that would require investor-owned utilities to complete connection to the grid within eight weeks of official inspection.