Utility deposits:

Plan floated to exempt Wine Country fire victims from some costs, penalties.

A consumer group wants California regulators to temporarily waive utility-account deposits for people hit by this month’s devastating wildfires, and prevent companies from cutting off service for late payments.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees utility companies, The Utility Reform Network noted that more than 100,000 people at least temporarily were displaced by fires that swept through eight counties, with the North Bay suffering the worst damage. Those people will need to repair or rebuild their homes or find new places to live. Many probably will move several times in the coming year.

“We’re talking about tens of thousands of people affected — it’s not a small number,” said Mark Toney, executive director of TURN. “This is a kind of disaster relief that the commission can do right away.”

Toney plans to present the idea to the commission during its regularly scheduled hearing Thursday in Sacramento. TURN also wants energy, water and communications utilities to stop billing for service to homes that were either destroyed or so badly damaged that they can’t receive the service. In response, the commission’s executive director, Timothy Sullivan, sent Toney a note Wednesday saying the commission’s staff is “evaluating emergency consumer protections raised in your letter.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Wednesday asked the commission for permission to waive the usual fees for installing temporary power hookups to properties under construction in the fire zones. The installation costs would instead be added to a running account of all the money PG&E has spent responding to the fires, money that could later be incorporated into PG&E’s rates with the commission’s approval.

PG&E has already has told customers that people who lost their homes in the fires will be billed only through Oct. 7, the day before the Wine Country wildfires erupted. People in the affected areas whose homes survived can contact PG&E about extending payment plans if needed.