Medical BaselineAll residential customers are billed a certain amount of their natural gas and electricity use at their utility company’s lowest residential rate. This is called the "Baseline Allowance" and it is set depending on what climate zone your home is in and whether it is the utility’s "winter" or "summer" season.
Extra allowances of natural gas and electricity are billed at the lowest rate for customers who rely on life support equipment, or those who have life threatening illnesses or compromised immune systems. The extra allowances are called Medical Baseline.
"Life support equipment" means equipment that uses mechanical or artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a vital function, or mechanical equipment that is relied upon for mobility both within and outside of buildings. This includes:
§ All types of respirators, iron lungs, hemodialysis machines, suction machines, electric nerve stimulators, pressure pads and pumps, aerosol tents, electrostatic and ultrasonic nebulizers, compressors, IPBB machines and motorized wheelchairs.
Also, in consideration of their increased heating and cooling needs, the Medical Baseline allowance is available to:
- Paraplegics and quadriplegics, multiple sclerosis patients, scleroderma patients, and people being treated for a life threatening illness or who have a compromised immune system.
Please contact your utility for more information:
- PG&E
- Edison
- SDG&E
- SDG&E also has a program called Marking Appliances for the Blind. If your relative or friend has limited vision, an SDG&E service technician can go to that person’s home and mark range dials and thermostats to make them easier to use. To request this service for someone, call 1-800-411-7343 to make an appointment.
- SDG&E’s Temperature Sensitive Program offers advanced notice of power outages. If extreme heat poses a health risk for anyone in your home and your living space must be kept at a constant temperature, sign up for advance notification of rolling blackouts. SDG&E offers automated notification calls in case of state-directed power outages that could affect customers who are vulnerable to extreme temperatures.
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