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Utility companies

Shining a light on our broken power grids, and the risks they pose

by Kai Ryssdal and Sarah Leeson
Aug 30, 2022
"California Burning" tells how the struggle to manage aging infrastructure, climate change and the bottom line can lead to disaster.
The Camp Fire destroys a home in Northern California in 2018. Author Katherine Blunt discusses the disaster's consequences for the region's residents and for the Pacific Gas and Electric utility in her book "California Burning."
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Texas homeowners startled by "hijacked" thermostats

by Scott Tong
Jun 23, 2021
The changes were made by utilities trying to manage overtaxed power grids.
Customers who found their homes warmer than they'd programmed had actually consented to these changes, which were made by an energy-management firm called EnergyHub.
George Frey/Getty Images
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What might PG&E — and its customers — get from partnering with Tesla?

by Andy Uhler
Jul 30, 2020
They've broken ground on a battery facility that could help the utility meet state energy storage requirements.
The more efficient storage facility should make it cheaper for PG&E to produce energy, which should, eventually, trickle down to ratepayers.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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California mayors want customers to run PG&E

by Justin Ho
Nov 5, 2019
Several California cities are pushing for a public takeover of the investor-owned utility.
A fallen PG&E utility pole lays on a property burned during the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on Oct. 28, 2019.
Philip Pachecho/AFP via Getty Images
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Massive power shut-off would cost businesses in California

by Meghan McCarty Carino
Oct 8, 2019
As the risk of wildfire and natural disasters increase with climate change, power disruptions could become more common.
Towers carrying electrical lines in south San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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