‘A Great Opportunity’: Service Planning & Design Workshops Build Relationships, Inform Customers

A recent workshop in PG&E’s North Valley and Sierra Region showed how continued partnership is improving processes for new-service customers.

Nearly 50 home builders, general contractors and others attended the California Building Industry Association-PG&E New Business Workshop at PG&E’s West Sacramento Resource Management Center on April 29. There to listen—and help—were 25 PG&E coworkers from teams including Service Planning & Design, Permitting, Land, Inspections and Solar Interconnection.

Workshop goals included:

• Listening to the feedback of developers to learn how PG&E can improve its processes
• Helping customers understand the new-service application process
• Sharing tips to move projects quickly from application to completion
• Discussing new state regulations
• Strengthening relationships between builders and PG&E

Mike LaFortune, vice president of land acquisition and development at Woodside Homes, called the workshop “a significant milestone” in the two-year collaboration between the California Building Industry Association and PG&E to improve new-service connections.

“This is a great opportunity to share and engage with PG&E,” he told attendees. “We didn’t have a go-to avenue of communication before we began working closely together. I highly recommend that you get involved. Engagement between the CBIA and PG&E is great. We’ve opened up communication to explain what we need and to learn what PG&E needs, and to find solutions.”

PG&E Senior Director of Service Planning & Design Matt Ventura added that though there’s still work to do, the team’s progress is clear.

“We are trying very hard to change and modify how we do business,” Ventura said. “We’re in Year Three and it feels very much like we continue to move forward. In 2023, when we started tracking customers waiting for power, we were in the multi-thousands. Now, we’re at 303. Our goal is to get this to zero.”

Workshops key to improvements

April’s was the third in an ongoing series of California Building Industry Association-PG&E workshops. Prior events were held in San Ramon and Stockton in summer and fall of 2024.

Each workshop includes a walk-through of the new-service process, from application to closeout. PG&E coworkers also share improvements made in partnership with the association, including:

• A streamlined application process that requires fewer documents
• Advanced project scheduling
• Centralized support for escalations
• Interim power solutions

Those improvements are paying off: PG&E’s six-month design backlog of early 2023 is now less than a month. The company energized nearly 14,000 new-service customers in 2024. That was up roughly 40% from 9,800 connections in 2023.

Aaron Takahashi, a program manager with Service Planning & Design’s Customer Experience team, said the workshops have been key to PG&E’s new-service improvements.

The team plans more opportunities for education and relationship-building.

In addition to a planned fall workshop in Fresno, Service Planning & Design has launched quarterly webinars featuring in-depth discussions on specific topics developers are interested in. Topics include upgrades and adding capacity; estimating for contracts; scheduling inspections; decarbonization; and application portal familiarization.

“The continued dialog we have through the year with the CBIA provides their members a voice with PG&E,” Takahashi said. “While we hear that PG&E is slow to change, we also hear that things are getting better every year. Events including the workshops, monthly CBIA meetings and webinars enable the dialog to continue to drive these improvements.”

Jeff Short, director of government and public affairs for the North State Building Industry Association, said many of his group’s members have told him the workshop was a positive experience. Not only do they now better understand PG&E’s new-service processes and timelines, but they’re building “helpful relationships” with the company.

“These workshops are, for many BIA members, the culmination of our ongoing efforts to increase communication between the homebuilding industry and PG&E,” Short said.

Workshop attendee Santiago del Rio, vice president of project management with Roseville, Calif.-based USA Properties, agreed.

“As a result of these workshops, we feel better in the access we have, and we have seen big improvements in dealing with issues and getting connected,” he said. “It’s hard to carve out a whole day to get together, but we appreciate the PG&E team for doing so.”