Rate increases go into effect for PG&E customers Average monthly residential gas and electric bill increased by $8.73 a month

Gas and electric rate increases went into effect Monday for commercial and residential customers of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

The average monthly PG&E residential gas and electric bill increased by $8.73 a month, which includes $5.01 to support additional electric improvement work and $3.72 for gas – a total increase of approximately 4.6 percent.

PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno said the rate change is needed to ensure the safe and reliable delivery of clean energy.

“We are committed to keeping customers’ costs as low as possible, while meeting our responsibilities to provide safe, reliable and clean energy service, even as our changing environment presents significant new challenges and risks,” Moreno said.

Moreno said commercial customers may see an average electric monthly bill increase of $7.46 from $221.35 to $228.81, with small business customers seeing a 3.4 percent increase.

Last December, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the March 1 rate increase as part of the utility company’s 2020-2022 General Rate Case multi-party settlement agreement.

“It’s important to know that our rate case was examined and approved by our regulators in a very public process,” Moreno said.

The rate increase is meant to help the company reduce wildfire risk through hardening its electric system, vegetation management, and adding more technology

and tools throughout its network of weather stations and cameras to monitor fire-danger conditions.

“This also includes efforts to continue making the public safety power shutoff program better and build

on the improvements from the 2020 program by upgrading the electric system to ensure PSPS is a last resort and improving support for impacted customers and communities when PSPS is necessary,” Moreno said.

The gas increase will help the company cover costs of

maintaining and operating its gas infrastructure, including gas storage and pipelines.

It also reflects costs for mandated social programs, such as low-income customer discounts and energy efficiency programs, Moreno said.

None of the generated

funds through the rate increase can be used to pay for legal claims from wildfires that occurred in 2015, 2017 and

2018, or for executive pay – shareholders are responsible for those costs.

Moreno said the rate change is effective through Dec. 31, 2022.