OAKLAND — PG&E electric bills have soared far faster than the already high inflation rate in the Bay Area, jolting the company’s customers with increasingly weighty utility costs.
Even worse, an array of proceedings before the state Public Utilities Commission could result in decisions that push PG&E monthly bills for electricity and gas services even higher.
The forbidding prospect of higher utility bills arrives at the same time that the Public Advocates Office at the PUC has released a report detailing the rise in electricity bills for the three major investor-owned utilities in California, including PG&E.
Over a roughly three-year period, PG&E bills for the average residential customer have hopped 38% higher, or an average of 12.7% a year, the PUC public advocates reported.
Yet over that same approximately three-year stretch, the Bay Area inflation rate, as measured by the consumer price index, rose 11.7%, according to this news organization’s review of reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That works out to an average yearly increase of 3.9% in the Bay Area inflation rate.
Put another way, PG&E electricity bills are rising three times as fast as the overall inflation rate in the Bay Area.
“Electric bills are generally rising due to higher electricity use (air conditioning as an example) and higher overall electricity prices,” the Public Advocates Office stated in its report.
Oakland-based PG&E said it was reviewing the report from the advocates office.
“We are working to keep overall customer costs at or below assumed inflation, between 2% and 4%,” said Mike Gazda, a spokesperson for PG&E.
PG&E electricity bills have also skyrocketed over a recent 12-month period when compared with inflation.
The cost of electricity provided by utility companies in the Bay Area — essentially a proxy for PG&E monthly electric bills — rocketed higher by 12.3% in the region, during the one-year period ending in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Over the same 12 months, the Bay Area inflation rate — while still painfully high — rose by 3.4%, the federal agency reported.
“We reduced our operating costs by 3% in 2022, and are currently managing 125 projects companywide to further reduce costs,” Gazda said.
During the most recent three years, the other two major California utilities are also showing outsized increases in electricity bills. One of the major utilities topped PG&E’s 38% bill increase while the other imposed bills that rose at a slower pace.
Southern California Edison, which serves the Los Angeles County region, hit its customers with an increase of 44%. San Diego Gas & Electric, which serves the San Diego County area, reported an increase of 35% in electric bills.
So far in 2023, PG&E electricity bills have risen at a far greater pace than bills that San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison have imposed on their customers.
Over the first nine months of this year, monthly electricity bills jumped 10% for PG&E customers, 5% for Southern California Edison ratepayers and were unchaged for San Diego Gas & Electric customers, the Public Advocates Office reported in an email it sent to this news organization.
Those who might have the toughest time paying higher electricity bills are being jolted badly by the rising costs.
“Low-income households are most disproportionately impacted by higher rates and bills,” the Public Advocates Office stated.