PG&E rates to increase nearly 13% after state regulator vote

Customers on average will pay an extra $30 to $35 per month after the new rate goes into effect. The change starts on Jan. 1, which means some customers won’t see the new rate reflected until they receive their bill in February, PG&E said in a news release. 

Thursday’s vote resolved PG&E’s General Rate Case, or GRC, which is a public review process that the company must undergo every four years with the CPUC. PG&E’s GRC application is for a three-year period, from 2023-26. 

The utility first proposed the rate increase in June 2021, saying the increased rates would help provide “safe and reliable service” and pay to mitigate risks related to wildfires. The plan that was approved Thursday was an alternate proposal presented by CPUC commissioner John Reynolds, the CPUC said in a news release.

A key part of PG&E’s wildfire risk mitigation plan involves “undergrounding,” or moving power lines below the surface in the areas most vulnerable to fires. Thursday’s plan will fund the undergrounding of 1,230 miles of lines, PG&E said, helping reduce wildfire risk from company equipment by 94%. The CPUC said in its release that in addition to undergrounding, inflation “ranked among the top drivers in PG&E’s request” to raise rates.

Under Thursday’s plan, the CPUC approved a $13.5 billion revenue requirement for PG&E for 2023 instead of $15.4 billion, the revenue the company originally requested, the commission said. The CPUC also said PG&E had originally requested an increase of $38.73, or 17.9%, in the combined bill for the typical residential customer. The plan approved Thursday corresponds to a $32.62 increase, or 12.8%.

This isn’t the first time in the past year that PG&E increased its rates. In January, the company notified customers about higher bills because of a high demand for heating as temperatures dropped, the company said in a news release. At the time, the utility predicted that energy bills from November 2022 to March 2023 would be more than 30% higher than the same time the previous year.