Medical Baseline

What is Medical Baseline?

Medical Baseline consumers are billed for natural gas and electricity use at their utility company’s lowest residential rate.

All residential customers are billed a certain amount of their natural gas and electricity use at their utility company’s lowest residential rate. This is called the “Baseline Allowance,” and it is set depending on what climate zone your home is in and whether it is the utility’s “winter” or “summer” season.

If you rely on life support equipment, have life-threatening illnesses, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, are paraplegic or quadriplegic, or a compromised immune system, you can have extra allowances of natural gas and electricity billed at your utility company’s lowest rate through the Medical Baseline program. “Life support equipment” means equipment that uses mechanical or artificial means to sustain, restore, or supplant a vital function, or mechanical equipment that you rely on for mobility both within and outside buildings. 

Who Qualifies for Medical Baseline?

The customers or a full-time resident in the customer’s home must meet one of there three criteria:

  • They rely on life support equipment, or

  • They have a life threatening illness or compromised immune system, or

  • They have a condition for which additional heating or cooling is medically necessary to sustain the patient's like or to prevent their health form deteriorating.

How to Apply

To request for applications and more information, customers can contact their local utility company or visit their website. Online applications can be found on the utility’s website.

For additional information on consumer support programs visit:

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)