PG&E’s Power Customers Hit with 20% Rate Hike

Electricity rates for Pacific Gas & Electric customers will rise an additional 12% this year, on top of an 8% increase they began seeing last month. Depending on who you talk to, PG&E residential ratepayers will see average monthly bill increases $16–$30 above what they paid in 2021. The CPUC projects an average increase for residences of $16 a month while The Utility Reform Network estimates average ratepayer bills will spike $20-$30. Making matters worse is that a further 30% rate hike is in store for 2023, according to TURN. The four members of the California Public Utilities Commission lamented ever-increasing rates, not just for PG&E customers, but also those of the other investor-owned utilities. Over the last few months, the regulators approved higher rates for Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, too. Commissioner Darcie Houck worried about the ability of customers to pay their bills, given the higher costs of food, consumer products and gasoline. Nonpayment of utility bills is rising. She said she supported the increase to avoid even higher rates caused by a postponement. “We have to make every effort to control the cost of services,” said CPUC President Alice Reynolds. Spiking natural gas prices The CPUC Feb. 10 approved the utility’s 2022 forecast $3.4 billion increase over last year’s, principally to cover generation costs that have increased because of spiking prices for the natural gas that fuels power plants. “Natural gas commodity prices for this winter in California and across the country are 90% higher than the prices seen last winter,” Paul Doherty, PG&E spokesperson told Current . “We have not seen prices this high on a sustained basis since 2008.” The increase also includes higher transmission costs okayed by federal regulators and rate increases that were approved as part of PG&E’s 2020 general rate case, Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma said. Customers who get their electricity from community aggregators will not see higher generation rates. They make up 60% of the utility’s 5.5 million customers. In fact, their rates will drop an estimated 14% because the exit fee imposed on former PG&E ratepayers served by community energy, from Marin Clean Energy to Silicon Valley Clean Power, will be lower, according to the approved decision. “As market electricity prices increase, so does the value” of the power included in the exit fee bought on behalf of customers when they were PG&E ratepayers, according to Doherty. PG&E passes through the cost of energy purchases directly to its customers and does not mark up that cost, both the CPUC and PG&E pointed out.

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PG&E’s Power Customers Hit with 20% Rate Hike

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