SACRAMENTO – The Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (Energy Safety) today released its Draft 2026 Executive Compensation Structure Guidelines for electrical corporations. Release of the draft guidelines initiates a 30-day public comment period.
Opening comments must be received by June 1. Reply comments must be received by June 11. Comments and reply comments must be submitted to the Executive Compensation Guidelines Docket (#Guidelines-EC) via Energy Safety’s e-filing system.
Energy Safety does not set or approve the actual salaries of corporation executives.
The guidelines assist electrical corporations seeking Certificate (formerly safety certification) in developing their executive compensation structures. Electrical corporations are statutorily required (Pub. Util. Code § 8389(e)(4)(Pub. Util. Code § 8389(e)(6)) to have an executive compensation structure that meets specific criteria to be eligible for the Certificate.
The Certificate process is designed to encourage electrical corporations to invest in safety and improve safety culture to limit wildfire risks and reduce costs. An electrical corporation with a Certificate is presumed to have acted reasonably in proceedings before the CPUC to recover costs of a utility-caused wildfire unless demonstrated otherwise.
