SAN FRANCISCO— The California Public Utilities Commission today unanimously agreed to reduce the temperature that triggers a statewide ban on utility disconnections to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, rejecting corporate utilities’ proposal to keep the threshold at 100 degrees.

Commissioners also required utilities to use CalHeatScore before disconnecting power to a household. The first-in-the-nation tool forecasts and ranks heat severity in areas across California and identifies groups most susceptible to extreme heat.

“This is a truly groundbreaking decision that should be a model for other states and will absolutely save lives in California,” said Meya Saenz Zagar, energy justice campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Extreme heat fueled by human-driven climate change is killing people across our state. Lowering the threshold temperature and requiring utilities to use the CalHeatScore means lifesaving relief to vulnerable people who risk having their power disconnected. People are struggling to pay skyrocketing utility bills as temperatures soar, and they shouldn’t have to decide between food and electricity.”

In June 2025, the commission called for greater public health protections from extreme heat. It required utilities to propose temperature thresholds triggering a ban on disconnections that reduced customers’ relative heat exposure and to rely on data-driven tools.

Environmental, community and ratepayer advocacy groups had urged regulators to lower the temperature threshold to prevent ratepayers from having electricity shut off for nonpayment during the hottest days. Investor-owned utilities proposed keeping the statewide temperature threshold at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The commission disagreed, saying in today’s resolution that the investor-owned utilities’ “proposal to retain the current threshold of 100 degrees would violate the Commission’s clear direction… and would conflict with the input of every non-IOU party.”

“Extreme heat and utility disconnections are a dangerous combination that can put lives at risk. Today's decision recognizes that access to electricity is essential for health and safety during increasingly frequent heat events,” said Lee Trotman, communications director at The Utility Reform Network (TURN). “By requiring utilities to use CalHeatScore and lowering the temperature threshold for disconnection protections, the CPUC has taken an important step to better protect Californians — especially seniors, families with young children, people with disabilities, and low-income households — from losing power when they need it most.”

Populations vulnerable to extreme heat often face a high risk of electricity disconnection. By requiring utility companies to use the CalHeatScore, the commission will close gaps in current disconnection protections to ensure California’s most vulnerable don’t lose power during the hottest weather.

Those groups include children, older adults, pregnant people, people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, workers, people who lack access to cooling or hydration, unhoused people, and those unaccustomed to the expected level of heat.

A 2025 Center analysis of six investor-owned utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric, found the corporations shut off electricity in some of the country’s poorest communities, including during the hottest summer months.

In 2024 PG&E shut off power nearly 46,000 times to households unable to pay their bills. In 2025 California’s three major investor-owned utility companies disconnected their customers’ power for non-payment more than 422,000 times, a roughly 33% increase from 2024.