SoCalGas Announces Approval of 10-Year Mobile Home Park Safety Upgrade Program
State approves program that gives mobile home residents enhanced safety, reliability and cost savings by replacing privately owned gas systems with direct utility service
LOS ANGELES, April 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced it has received state approval to provide safety and service upgrades to thousands of additional mobile home parks through a ten-year Mobilehome Park Utility Conversion Program. Since its inception in 2014, the program has upgraded infrastructure and enhanced safety at more than 16,000 mobile homes in more than 244 mobile home communities throughout SoCalGas' territory. Now, due to the program's success, the CPUC voted to establish it as a ten-year, ongoing program, authorizing SoCalGas to upgrade up to half of the approximately 132,000 mobile homes in its service territory to direct utility service through 2030.
The MHP Utility Conversion Program is completely voluntary. Participating mobile home communities receive a new, professionally installed gas system that provides enhanced home safety and energy reliability for residents. As direct SoCalGas customers, residents can also sign up for a variety of SoCalGas' energy savings and assistance programs that can help them save money.
"This program will enhance safety for thousands of families across our service territory." said Rodger Schwecke, SoCalGas' senior vice president of gas operations and construction. "With direct utility service, families will also have access to a host of energy savings and assistance programs that will help mobile home park residents save money and live more comfortably."
"As the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Home Communities, I applaud the California Public Utilities Commission's ten-year continuation of the Mobile Home Park Utility Conversion Program," said Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino). "This program continues to help residents of mobile home park communities across California, and I appreciate SoCalGas' participation in this program."
"The process from start to finish was incredibly smooth with minimal issues," said, Jamie Taylor manager of a Gardena, California mobile home park called Los Flamingos Lodge, which had direct utility service installed last year. "The entire SoCalGas team was efficient and worked seamlessly with our residents to get the work completed in a timely manner. Our mobile park's direct SoCalGas service will help us maintain state compliance guidelines and will allow park management to focus on other areas that can help improve our community for our residents."
Enrique Lopez, a resident at Peter Pan Mobile Village in Compton, California, received direct utility service last year. "SoCalGas did a great job," he said. "Everything is going well, and I am very happy with my gas service."
Mobile home park residents with direct natural gas service will have advanced meters, which allow customers to have access to their hourly natural gas usage on a next-day basis and enable them to better manage their gas usage and save money. New SoCalGas customers will now also be able to set up their own "My Account" to view and pay their bill online, schedule service and/or sign up for paperless billing. Income-qualified customers can also benefit from energy savings and assistance programs that can help them save money. More information about these programs is available at socalgas.com (search "Assistance") or by calling 1-800-252-0259 (available in English and Spanish).
Owners of participating mobile home communities also see benefits. Owners will no longer have to maintain or be liable for privately-owned gas systems and instead can contact SoCalGas directly for service needs. Direct service also saves owners time, since they no longer have to read meters, bill residents or respond to service questions. The program covers costs for installing new utility service at each mobile home community including, individual resident meters.
Nearly 80 percent of all mobile home communities in SoCalGas' territory applied to participate in the initial pilot program. For more information about the mobile home park utility conversion program and how to apply, please visit https://www.socalgas.com/stay-safe/safety-and-prevention/mobilehome-park-utility-upgrade-program.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable gas service to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying clothes or other uses. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to Californians— about 45 percent of electric power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.
SoCalGas' vision is to be the cleanest gas utility in North America, delivering affordable and increasingly renewable energy to its customers. In support of that vision, SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for our customers. From 2014 through 2018, the company invested nearly $6.5 billion to upgrade and modernize its pipeline system to enhance safety and reliability. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based in San Diego. For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.
SOURCE Southern California Gas Company
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