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WHEREAS, SCE has been fined by the California Public Utilities Commission in the past due to <br />prolonged service disruptions, most recently being levied a $24.5 million penalty as a result of a <br />prolonged outage that resulted from a wind storm in 2011; and, <br />WHEREAS, although SCE provides a claim process by which its customers may seek <br />compensation for financial losses incurred as a result of prolonged service disruptions, SCE appears to <br />reject most such claims; which places an unreasonable burden upon its customers and creates a false <br />impression that customers will be compensated for their losses; and, <br />WHEREAS, at least one other investor-owned utility in California, Pacific Gas and Electric <br />(PG&E) in Northern and Central California, has existing programs and procedures in place ("Safety Net" <br />and "Service Guarantee") that automatically and directly compensate its customers when they are affected <br />by prolonged service disruptions, including disruptions due to weather events and other causes, without <br />the need for customers to seek compensation through a claim process; and, <br />WHEREAS, these PG&E programs provide for "Storm Inconvenience Payments" of $25 to $100 <br />for weather-related service disruptions of forty-eight (48) hours or more; as well as $30 service credits in <br />instances of where the customer's electrical service is not restored within four (4) hours, or the customer <br />is not provided with a time for service restoration within four (4) hours; the customer is without electrical <br />service for twenty-four (24) hours or more in the event of unplanned service disruptions (unless the cause <br />of the disruption is completely beyond the utility's control); and the customer is without electrical service <br />as a result of a planned service interruption where less than seventy-two (72) hours' notice is provided to <br />the customer; and, <br />WHEREAS, local governments within SCE's service area believe that requiring SCE to <br />implement automatic and direct compensation programs for prolonged service disruptions, similar to <br />those implemented by PG&E, will provide tangible relief to citizens, businesses and institutions that are <br />adversely affected by prolonged outages, and will incentivize SCE to improve the reliability of its <br />equipment and service; and now therefore let it be, <br />RESOLVED by the General Assembly of the League of California Cities, assembled in San Jose <br />on October 2, 2015, that the League calls for the Governor and the Legislature to work with the League of <br />California Cities to enact legislation or to otherwise compel SCE to create a program to automatically <br />provide direct compensation to its customers affected by prolonged electrical power outages under <br />specified circumstances; and let it be, <br />FURTHER RESOLVED that such program shall be modeled upon PG&E's "Safety Net" and <br />"Service Guarantee" programs, and shall cover weather-related events and planned and unplanned service <br />disruptions. <br />Background Information on Resolution No. 4 <br />Source: City of Rancho Palos Verdes <br />Background: <br />The City of Rancho Palos Verdes and other cities in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County have <br />longstanding concerns regarding the ineffective process by which Southern California Edison (SCE) <br />addresses residents' claims, and desires to obtain the League's assistance in correcting that process. On <br />the Palos Verdes Peninsula, SCE's aged infrastructure has caused fires and repeated, prolonged power <br />18 <br />