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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — PG&E Corp. reported sharply higher profits at its bankrupt utility on Tuesday and disclosed $64 million in employee bonuses, punctuating a stunning reversal of fortune in the power market over the past year. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $529 million, or $1.45 per share, during the final three months of 2001 — rebounding from a loss of $4.1 billion, or $11.34 per share, at the same time in the previous year. 

The fourth-quarter loss of 2000 stemmed from an accounting charge to cover the huge deficit the company accumulated as California’s wholesale electricity prices soared far above the utility’s then-frozen retail rates. 

For the full year, PG&E Corp. earned $1.1 billion, or $3.02 per share, bouncing back from a loss of $3.4 billion, or $9.29 per share, in 2000. “We would view these as solid results in any year,” PG&E Chairman Robert Glynn said. 

Last year’s performance qualified about 6,200 of PG&E’s administrative employees for $64 million in bonuses, a 28 percent increase from the $50 million in bonuses distributed in the prior year, company spokesman Ron Low said. 

The 2001 bonuses, paid last week, averaged slightly more than $10,000 per eligible employee. The company drew upon revenue from its utility’s customers to pay for about 25 percent of the bonuses, with the remaining amount coming from shareholders’ pockets, Low said. 

PG&E gave its employees the money even though its main business — Pacific Gas and Electric — is still trying to devise a plan to repay billions in debt and emerge from bankruptcy court protection. 

The company didn’t need bankruptcy court approval to distribute the bonuses because they are “part of the company’s normal course of business,” Low said. 

A consumer activist blasted the bonuses.“Instead of paying bonuses, they ought to be lowering rates,” said Bill Ahern, energy analyst for Consumers Union. Ahern and 24 other PG&E customers last week asked state regulators to rescind the largest electricity rate increase in California history, imposed in June to help the state’s ailing utilities. The customers contend falling wholesale power prices have turned the June rate increase into a windfall for PG&E. The widening gap between retail electricity rates and wholesale power costs enabled PG&E to recover about $458 million, or $1.26 per share, that it previously had written off.