What Goes Up in 2004 Goes Up in 2005

With the exception of small commercial and residential customers in two territories, utilities? electric rates increased beginning January 1. Gas rates for the transmission portion of bills also generally increased while the commodity is pegged to the market price?and that keeps going up, too. On a system level, Pacific Gas & Electric?s rates increased 2.6 percent, Southern California Edison?s went up 0.17 percent, and San Diego Gas & Electric?s rose 0.1 percent. PG&E?s rates were originally estimated to increase even more, but true-ups at the California Public Utilities Commission reduced the total increase from $315 million to $274 million. PG&E?s residential rates are up 3.4 percent from last year but down from the original 4.1 percent forecast in October 2004. The utility?s small business rates increased 2 percent, while the October estimate had them rising as high as 2.7 percent. Agricultural rates increased even more than the originally estimated 4.3 percent to 4.7 percent. Edison?s residential rates decreased by 0.5 percent. The company?s business rates increased by 0.3 percent. Large industrial customers? rates increased 0.36 percent, while agricultural users saw a 0.23 percent increase. SDG&E?s residential rates decreased by 0.4 percent. Small commercial rates went down 1.3 percent, but medium, large, and industrial rates increased by 2 percent. With gas rates, the commodity portion of the cost is pegged to market costs and is passed through to customers. However, the transmission portion of gas rates also generally increased at the beginning of the year. PG&E?s rates are the result of a settlement called the Gas Accord III. PG&E?s power plant customers who take service off the backbone pipeline found that their rates declined 92.4 percent, and if those customers take gas off a nonbackbone pipe, rates declined 17 percent. Duke?s Moss Landing plant is an exception?although it is a distribution customer, PG&E agreed to give it a credit to bring its rates down in exchange for Duke?s agreement to abandon litigation. Unbundled industrial customers with transportation-only rates saw a 0.1 percent increase if they tap into the distribution line; an 8.9 percent decrease if they take gas off a transmission line; and a 42.6 percent decrease if they can siphon directly from a backbone pipe. Unbundled small commercial customers with transportation-only rates saw an increase of 7.7 percent, but large commercial users found a 4.8 percent decrease. Bundled small commercial ratepayers saw a 3 percent increase, and large commercials got a slight decrease of 0.6 percent. Residential customers got a 16.5 percent increase attributed to the transportation portion of the bill, while PG&E estimated that residential users will see an overall 3.1 percent increase. SoCal Gas rates increased over all categories this year. The least affected were core commercial and industrials with a 0.3 percent increase. Also on the low side of increases for transportation were residential customers, with a 1.4 percent increase. Retail noncore customers saw a 15.3 percent increase. Wholesale noncore customers saw a 25.6 percent change.

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What Goes Up in 2004 Goes Up in 2005

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