DATE: Nov. 13, 2017 TO: BIA|Bay Area Executive Officer Bob Glover FROM: BIA|Bay Area East Bay Executive Director for Governmental Affairs Lisa Vorderbrueggen RE: Summary of BIA|PG&E Task Force Meeting on Nov. 1, 2017 Dear Bob, Here are the highlights of the third BIA|PG&E Task Force meeting, which was held in San Ramon on Nov. 1, 2017. You will also find attached an updated PG&E leadership contacts list, which is available for members’ use in the event specific situations require escalation. The online project owners’ “dashboard” promised this fall has been pushed to February 2018 after PG&E switched software platforms. The “dashboard” will provide builders with specific details about the status of their projects, upcoming deadlines, scheduled inspections, etc. In the interim, PG&E agreed to host demo sessions of the company’s existing “Customer Connects” online system, which provides limited information. (Watch BIA’s Monday Weekly Reports for announcements of dates and times for the demonstration sessions.) PG&E may also be able to add fields onto the Customer Connects system if builders have specific requests. In addition, the utility is working on providing telephone text notifications of project-related event changes through Customer Connects. PG&E is rolling out its new project cost estimating system and expects to apply it to all new development by the end of 2017. Once it is fully implemented, PG&E’s goal is to cut the time it takes to complete contracts by two-thirds. For example, the utility’s goal in 2018 is to reduce the time to deliver contracts for small and medium projects from its current 73 days to 44 days. Developers continue to struggle with high turnover among PG&E’s assigned project or job managers, a trend fueled by high housing prices as the utility employees transfer frequently among their offices. PG&E reports that it is continuing with the consolidation of its 70 design centers into 12, a shift that the agency believes will significantly reduce the transfer rates. In 2018, PG&E will require all project designers to be certified. Currently, the utility reports that 22 percent of applications are approved after the second submittal, 25 at the third submittal and 53 percent at the fourth or later submittal. PG&E wants to reduce that figure to 89 percent approval at the second submittal. Gas and electric designers will each have a separate