After having built 4 houses and working with PG&E on the fifth one, I must say that working with PG&E is the most difficult and frustrating part of any project if you care about finishing on time. Depending on the extent of your project, you may have to rely heavily on PG&E and time is not a priority for them.
Gas
If you are doing a full demolition or need to relocate your meter, you will need to have PG&E do a gas cutoff. A gas cutoff is where they go to the neighborhood gas main, and they cut off the main feed to your meter. To do that, they usually must dig a 4 ft x 4 ft x 4 ft hole at the connection point to the neighborhood gas main to be able to get inside the hole and cut off your gas. There’s no other way to do it and no valve on the line like you would have at your water meter. If you are doing a new construction, they need to cut it off so that there’s no chance a piece of heavy equipment accidentally rips into the live gas line. If you need to relocate your meter, PG&E wants you to replace your main feed with newer materials, and, there’s no way to connect the meter to the neighborhood gas main without running a new pipe. So, PG&E and the City will typically require you to do your gas cutoff before you even start your project. As of now, PG&E will do your gas cutoff for no cost, even though there is a significant amount of work. However, it may take some time. I’ve seen the time range for my projects from 2 to 6 MONTHS. Keep this in mind and plan ahead. Even if you are living in the house and you request your gas cutoff too early, it shouldn’t be a problem, as they’ll take your guidance for the date you want to do the cutoff, even if it is further out.
You’ll need to request that your gas be connected back, which also will take some time. I’ve also seen it take several months but since the last house and new houses are all-electric, I don’t know the current lead times. Before they do the installation, you will need to have a trench done according to the PG&E Greenbook, and it will have to be done with a company that is “certified” by PG&E to do the trenchwork. Because of the limited number of “certifications”, this can get costly. PG&E will give you the option for them to do the trenching, but it will be a lot more expensive and take a lot more time. Regardless of who does the trenching, there will be a significant charge for them to run the new gas line between the neighborhood main and the location of your meter. Many cities in the Peninsula now only allow gas for cooktops and fireplaces (and California is moving away from gas altogether) and going all-electric is great for the environment and can be big cost savings.
Electric
If you are doing a full demolition or need to relocate your main panel in your remodel, you will need to put in an application to have PG&E disconnect your electrical service from the house and connect it to a temporary power pole before you can do the demolition. If you are doing a remodel in which you don’t have to remove the wall that has your current main panel, PG&E, and the City may not require you to use the temporary power pole, and you can skip that step. Given the number of projects each PG&E rep is assigned, engineering lead times, and crew lead times this also may take several months. Again, plan ahead to avoid slowing down your project.
For new construction, most cities will want you to do underground electric. If you are doing a remodel, your city may allow you to keep your power overhead. Underground is going to cost more, but it looks much nicer. To do underground, you will need to dig a trench for PG&E in accordance with their Greenbook. If the closest power pole to your house is not in the corner of your yard, you may want to and may be able to get an exception with your city, but it will take some work. Regardless of whether you are doing overhead or underground, if you are doing a new construction or significant remodel, you will likely need a new, larger electric service. That new electric service will require another PG&E application. On the last project, PG&E suggested that I apply for my new service when I started the construction of the house! I didn’t believe it, but I requested the new service at the start of construction anyway. When we moved in 6.5 months later, PG&E still took an additional 3 months to connect power, so we lived with temporary power until then, always making sure that the car charger or air conditioning wasn’t on at the same time as the water heater or clothes dryer. My family wasn’t happy with me. It would have even been a few months later if it weren’t for daily emails requesting immediate service from when we moved in. So, under realistic conditions, it would have taken PG&E 12 MONTHS to reconnect service from the time I put in the request. Plan ahead!