Winter Gas Savings Program

Save gas and earn extra cash by simply cutting back your natural gas usage this winter. Here's how the program works:

• PG&E customers are automatically enrolled
• Simply reduce your gas usage by 10% or more in January and February and receive a 20% credit on your bill this spring
• If your gas savings is below 10%, you will receive a one-to-one credit
  (e.g. save 5%, earn a 5% credit)
• The more you reduce the more you earn!

Eligibility
Virtually all core gas service customers¹ can participate in the program as long as the following three conditions are met: (1) begin service with PG&E before November 2009; (2) maintain continuous service at the same service address through February 2010; and (3) initiate service at that address prior to January 2009.²

Bill Credit Methodology
If you’re an eligible customer, you will receive a 20 percent bill credit if you reduce your cumulative gas use by 10 percent or more, or receive a one-to-one bill credit for gas reduction below 10 percent (e.g. if you reduce your cumulative gas usage by 5 percent, you will receive a 5 percent bill credit.)

Conservation Period
PG&E encourages you to conserve during the four typically coldest months of the year, December through March, when gas usage and bills are generally at their highest. Usage comparisons and bill credits for the Winter Gas Savings Program are based upon prorated January and February usage.³ However, conservation should begin as soon as the meter is read in December and continue until the meter is read in March in order to fully capture the average daily January and February usage that will be used to determine your bill credit.⁴

Base Year Usage Calculation
PG&E will employ the base-year calculation method using the average usage at the service address (premise) during the last three years for January and February, if available, and apply a system-wide normalization adjustment for weather.  This will establish base year usage.

Weather Adjustment
PG&E will include a weather adjustment to base year usage to reflect the difference between current and base year Winter Gas Savings Program period temperatures (as measured by Heating Degree Days) so your conservation efforts can be more fairly measured.  PG&E will adjust the base year usage to reflect colder or warmer weather as defined in the revised Schedule G-10/20 Plus.⁵

“PG&E" refers to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation. © 2009 Pacific Gas and Electric Company. All rights reserved.

¹ Customers served on one of the following PG&E rate schedules qualify for the program: G-1, G1-NGV, GL1-NGV, GM, GS, GT, GL-1, GML, GSL, GTL, G-NR1 and G-NR2.
² PG&E will allow premise usage, also known as a customer service address, to be used to calculate the base year usage target.
³ For customers billed with SmartMeter™ data in place prior to the start of Winter Gas Savings Program, usage comparisons and rebates will be based upon actual daily usage during the program period January 1 – February 28, 2010.
⁴ For bills that contain days outside of the Winter Gas Savings period, an Average Daily Usage for the bill is calculated and then prorated for the number of days in the Winter Gas Savings period.
⁵ To incorporate this adjustment into the program and provide successful customers with their rebate as soon as possible, PG&E will use recorded Heating Degree Days (HDDs) through at least mid-February 2010 and forecast HDDs for the remaining part of February 2010. Recorded and forecasted HDDs are based on temperature readings at eleven National Weather Service stations located in PG&E's service area. Those eleven stations are mapped to surrounding geographies and represent weather conditions in those areas. The temperature readings are weighted by gas sales in those eleven areas and a composite service area-wide estimate of HDDs is calculated.