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SACRAMENTO – About 30 percent of customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison qualified for rebates on their power bills in June – surprising state officials who thought only a fraction of the utilities’ customers would cut their energy use to get a rebate. 

In San Diego, 38 percent of San Diego Gas and Electric Co. customers qualified for Gov. Gray Davis’ 20/20 rebate program, which gives a 20 percent rebate to customers of the three utilities who cut their power use by 20 percent over last year. 

“We were hopeful that we would get between 10 percent and 20 percent participation. From the looks of it, Californians are exceeding those expectations,” said Roger Salazar, spokesman for the governor. 

Of the 1.5 million electric bills processed by PG&E so far this month, nearly 30 percent qualify for the rebate, said Staci Homrig, a PG&E spokeswoman. Early forecasts set that number at 10 or 20 percent. 

Conserving electricity saved residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers of PG&E $7.6 million in credits. Residential users earned $3.7 million; the others $3.9. 

Edison customers saw rebates totaling $5.4 million. Residential users earned $2.5 million, commercial customers saw rebates totaling $2.8 million and agricultural customers earned $101,798. 

SDG&E customers saw $1.5 million in rebates on their statements – $1.1 million to residents and $400,000 to others. 

Salazar said the conservation efforts were higher, even though June temperatures were hotter this year. 

“There were 10 days last year where electricity load was over 40,000 megawatts. This year, we had zero days, even though it was hotter,” Salazar said. 

SDG&E customers had to trim their use by only 15 percent to qualify, because of high electric bills and conservation efforts from the previous summer. 

The rebates compare electric use from this summer to last summer, and are available to about 10 million homes and businesses who receive their electricity from PG&E, SDG&E or Edison. The rebate was intended to arrive at summer’s end but now appears on each monthly bill. 

“We continue to be impressed by the herculean efforts of Californians when it comes to conservation,” said Salazar. “But we need them to continue to save energy if we’re going to get through the summer.”