PG&E New-Service Connections Jump Nearly 40% in 2024 as Processes Improve

PG&E’s Service Planning & Design team made major progress in 2024 to reduce the company’s new service connections backlog. 

Now, the team has plans to make even greater headway in 2025. 

“We’re proud of the improvements we made last year in serving our new-business customers,” said PG&E Service Planning & Design Senior Director Matt Ventura. “We worked tirelessly to deliver many more projects on or before the customer’s expected completion date. We look forward to even bigger gains in 2025.” 

A record year in 2024 

PG&E made 13,640 new-service connections in 2024. That included a single-month company record in October with 1,700 new-service connections. 

The year-end total was a dramatic jump from prior years. New-service connections were up nearly 40% from 2023, when PG&E completed 9,800 new-service connections. It was a 70% improvement compared to 8,000 new-service connections in 2022. 

The leap in connections helped reduce PG&E’s backlog of design work in progress by 30%. 

What’s more, PG&E’s streamlined work processes allowed the company to complete its 2024 connections work under budget. The company spent about 6% less than its $1.4 billion new-business budget for the year. That includes $24 million in savings while decreasing the average time from application to completion by 13%. 

Driving the higher numbers? Improvements from working closely with the California Building Industry Association, customers and other stakeholders. 

For example, PG&E launched a New Business Program Management Office to coordinate a team of coworkers from across the company. They focus full-time on improving connections processes. 

The Service Planning & Design team has tested new ideas based on customer feedback. The team has also reduced the waiting time between each step in the process. 

And the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved additional funding for new-service connections. 

As a result, a six-month project design backlog in early 2023 fell to less than a month by the end of 2024. Application improvements have cut the number of required documents from customers by more than half. 

“Our New Business Program Management Office brought together a dedicated team to focus every day on how to accelerate our work and serve thousands more new-business customers,” said Office Lead Steven Fischer. “That focus paid off in 2024, when our process improvements, combined with more funding, helped us make major progress.” 

Connections by region 

The company’s Bay Area and South Bay/Central Coast regions saw the most new-service connections in 2024. 

PG&E completed more than 3,600 connections in the Bay Area. That included 2,438 residential projects and 406 commercial projects. The company also made 223 electric vehicle charging connections. 

In the South Bay and Central Coast Region, the company completed more than 3,400 new-service connections. Of those, 2,146 were residential projects, 246 commercial projects and 273 EV charging connections. 

Other regional new-service numbers include: 

• 2,836 connections in the Central Valley 
• 1,876 connections in the North Valley and Sierra 
• 1,845 connections in the North Coast 

Across the service area, nearly 900 new-service connections in 2024 were for new-home subdivisions. 

What’s new in 2025 

PG&E plans other process improvements through this year. 

The company is seeking CPUC approval to allow developers to hire PG&E-approved contractors for electrical tie-in work. That work is now limited to PG&E crews. 

PG&E will continue to work closely with regulators and stakeholders to comply with new state mandates that set reasonable average time periods for new-service connections. 

And PG&E filed with the CPUC in October for additional funding in 2025 to connect even more new projects to the grid. A decision is expected this spring. 

If regulators approve the funding, new-service connections would jump yet again — to roughly 19,000 projects in 2025. 

“We’re excited about potential opportunities to serve thousands more new-service customers in 2025,” Ventura said. “We’re on the right track to strengthen our service in ways that meet both the needs of our customers and the state’s new energization timelines.”