Coming off three SF PGE outages in a week, west side business owners are demanding more reimbursement from the utility. PGE says they might oblige, but businesses have to fill out an application and then just hope for the best. PGE was already in apology mode for the giant SF blackout the weekend be fore Christmas, a power outage that lasted for as long as three days for some Sunset and Richmond District businesses and residents. So it did not help that PGE soiled the bed again, not once but twice this weekend, with a Saturday blackout affecting 6,000 households in the Sunset and Panhandle, and then another Sunday outage hitting 11,000 households in the Richmond and Presidio.Even before this weekend’s blackout déjà vu, PGE hoped to make the controversy disappear with offers of $200 credits to residents and $2500 credits to small businesses. But KTVU reports there was a rally of Sunset residents and business owners Monday morning demanding more reimbursement, as after all, $200 might cut it for residents who had to throw out a couple hundred bucks worth of food, but many businesses lost as much as $60,000 with the day-long blackout completely nuking their Saturday before Christmas.Moreover, the bureaucratic PGE reimbursement process is seen as not well-suited to the Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking business owners of the Sunset District.  "This form is very burdensome to many people, especially Chinese language speakers, of which there are many here in the Sunset District and many of our small businesses, which are immigrant-owned and are Chinese speakers," rally organizer Lee said at Monday's protest.For their part, business owners say the $2,500 PGE has offered is a drop in the bucket compared to the vast sums they lost over the blackouts. "That day we lost over half our business," the owner of Loaf HK Bakery and Restaurant told KTVU. "Saturday is our most busy day. It's the weekend right before Christmas. You know, it's like everybody's coming in and then just like that, just nothing."A report in today’s SF Business Times says that PGE is willing to reimburse businesses more than $2,500. But this sounds like an onerous application process, with absolutely no guarantees that anyone gets reimbursed what's they're owed."Depending upon their business hours, if [loss of profits] exceeds that $2,500 and they only have one service address, they can submit a claim through our claims process, which is on our website," incoming new PGE CEO Sumeet Singh told the Business Times.He refers to this online reimbursement application. For those who do not apply, affected residential addresses will simply see a $200 credit on their bill, affected businesses will see a $2,500 credit."We came out with a bill credit, which is not typical, but our view is that it was very important to do that and provide immediate relief," Singh added. "And then those that have damages beyond that, we're going to be working with them very closely, ensuring we're expediting the process and it's not getting caught up in a neverending back-and-forth."But notice that PGE is not necessarily promising anyone anything, they’re just putting out an application process where people can ask nicely and hope for the best. And as Sunset, Panhandle, Richmond, and Presidio residents learned during this weekend’s blackouts, hoping for the best may not be a sound strategy when dealing with PGE.Related: Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Leaves 200,000+ In the Dark, Disrupts Muni and BART [SFist]Image: PGE utility service truck parked on city street in front of modern apartment buildings, San Francisco, California, December 4, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) ...read more read less