In response to growing difficulties with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. connecting construction projects to the power grid, the Fresno City Council is exploring the feasibility of creating its own municipal utility district, among other measures.

Two weeks ago, builders were informed by the utility giant that because of worker furloughs, it could be 150 days before PG&E contractors could get gas and electricity to new subdivisions, according to Mike Prandini, president of the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Fresno and Madera Counties.

Those postponements could jeopardize getting people into their homes.

In a complaint sent to the California Public Utilities Commission, the BIA called it a “de facto moratorium on new home construction.”

“The devastating impact of PG&E’s unilateral decision on the homebuilding industry, and the home-buying public, cannot be overstated,” the complaint states. “Buyers of new residential homes in Fresno and Madera Counties have been waiting many months for their homes to be constructed and are relying on the timely closing of their escrows so that their mortgage interest rate locks do not expire.”

Attorney Kurt Vote with Fresno-based Wanger Jones Helsley law firm penned the letter.

A response from PG&E states that requests for gas and electric service are outpacing forecasted demand and that available resources are both reduced and more costly.

A number of homes are already in escrow simply awaiting power and gas hookups, Prandini said. For buyers expecting their homes to be ready in the next few weeks, that means finding a place to live in the interim. An alternative is renting at costly month-to-month rates. In some cases, the result could be having to requalify for a loan should mortgage terms expire.

The problem goes beyond just housing. Officials with the State Center Community College District also penned a letter to PG&E regarding delays in building the new West Fresno campus, Prandini said.

A source with the district confirmed the letter was written, but officials with Chancellor Carole Goldsmith’s office said the letter was “unshareable.”

The BIA letter states that builders with projects in Southern California Edison or San Diego Gas & Electric coverage areas are not experiencing such problems.

“Many of our BIA members build homes in more than one location, and they have personal experience that SCE and SDG&E do not have nearly the same level of transformer problems as PG&E,” the letter stated. “Further, SCE and SDG&E continue to energize new projects, while PG&E has simply shut down that process for the remainder of 2022 — at a minimum.”

Prandini hopes PG&E will bring back crews to begin reenergizing projects on schedule or that builders can get some certainty with timelines.

Creating a new utility district can be done, but it takes time, Prandini said. The City would have to buy PG&E assets before they can begin distributing energy.

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, along with Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Tyler Maxwell, will  host a news conference Monday to discuss an item at the next council meeting about hiring a consultant to determine feasibility of a municipal power district.

Frustration with California’s largest investor-owned utility is nothing new as PG&E is only two years removed from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and contending with the liability fallout from its equipment sparking California wildfires.

For more than a decade, local agencies have been exploring another service model called community choice aggregation, which would allow them to purchase electricity on the open market that would be distributed on PG&E’s infrastructure.

Read the Friday issue of the Business Journal for the full story about PG&E’s latest connection issues.