Californian energy utility Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) is considering a wide array of measures to improve its financial situation, including possible new corporate structures and governance schemes. It estimates that a potential split of its business units into separate electric and gas companies appears feasible from a technical and operational perspective but also warned that this would also be a costly endeavour that would likely raise customer rates. If implemented, this would increase operational focus by each entity and reduce the risks of being managed by a single entity.
In January 2019 PG&E filed for Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code due to the liabilities it faces (estimated at more than US$30bn) in connection with wildfires occurring in Northern California in 2017 and 2018. Lawsuits are now paused and creditors are not able to call loans or demand interest payments, which leaves room for reorganising the company and allowing a more effective settlement of disputes. PG&E hopes to be able to exit bankruptcy in as little as two years.
The company provides electricity and natural gas services to approximately 16 million people in northern and central California. It has approximately 5.4 million electric customer accounts and 4.3 million natural gas customer accounts. It operates 106,681 circuit miles (171,976 km) of electric distribution lines and 18,466 circuit miles (29,718 km) of interconnected transmission lines. As for the gas network, it owns 42,141 miles (67,819 km) of natural gas distribution pipelines and 6,438 miles (10,360 km) of transmission pipelines.