But that article doesn't say anything about dividends? It mentions profits a few times but gives no details about that aspect of the story. Instead the only specific examples of spending that it gives are employee bonuses.
In PG&E's world in context of this comment thread. Dividends are any payout amount that was not captured in the regulatory framework. Salary is a captured expense. Bonuses are paid from a pool when a surplus is created, or rather a profit is made, or more bluntly when dividends are earned.
Legally, you're correct. PG&E has been operating counter to those rules for a while.
You have to know the context. The bonuses weren't to the PG&E workers that maintained the lines. The bonuses were to the higher managers who made the "clever" cost-cutting decisions.