Palo Alto Utilities - Palo Alto, California

Valorie B.

Palo Alto resident for 34 years. I am beyond frustrated with the nagging/bullying by CPAU about getting a heat pump water heater. They're relentless! The program's FAQ page is completely useless -- all rah-rah and no substance. And the contractor is in Stockton. No one is responding to my questions/concerns, just giving me vague platitudes that the process is painless and I'm going to love the new water heater. When the City buried the power lines on my block 30 years ago, the communication was professional, the costs were detailed, the whole process was transparent, and the contractor was local. Not this time.

Bill H.

I like Palo Alto Utilities. Very few outages and good rates compared to rest of CA. When I had solar installed, they inspected and approved very quickly.

David

In the year I had service with them, they did not answer the phone once. The “manager” Lorraina was not helpful.

Talha B.

PAU is actually a decent provider relative to the monstrosity that is PGE. Our rates are relatively low, 14 cents tier 1 and 20 cents for tier 2 (PGE is more than double). The PAU website and sign up process are clunky but the staff are helpful over email or if you call them. It's nice to be able to speak to someone in Palo Alto rather than a PGE call center. All in all, I'm grateful we have PAU over PGE.

Also, the power outages other are referencing were not the fault of PAU. PGE still owns the transmission lines and are the source of the power coming into the city. They're more a middleman but they actually do a fairly good job at it.

Timothy K.

Experienced a power outage literally the first weekend living in their jurisdiction. They took over 45 minutes to update their power update map which they claimed was "up to date" and called literally 35 times and got hung up on every single time. It was almost an hour before I was finally able to get a call through just to the automated system but was never allowed to speak with a live agent.

Fran W.

Woke up to a sewer backup next to my sidewalk. ugh! I called Public Works and they prioritized a service call to repair the problem. The service person arrived within the hour, and the problem was resolved quickly. Great service, Thank you!

I H.

I have notified them, on numerous instances, of serious and compelling repairs and/or design deficiencies in particular El Camino Real with so many roadway surface irregularities all without a courtesy of a reply!

Srija T.

Their website is poorly made. Needs some work.