PG&E seeks approval for $2.7 billion increase in bills

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday asked state regulators for permission to collect an extra $2.7 billion from its customers over the course of three years, using the money for technology upgrades and improved disaster response.

The request covers the years 2017 through 2019. If the California Public Utilities Commission approves it, monthly bills for a typical PG&E residential customer would rise about $4 in 2017. The company did not immedately offer an estimate of how much bills would climb through 2019.

“Our customers want us to be the safest and most reliable energy provider in the country while also supporting California’s goals to be the leader in renewable energy and emerging energy technologies,” said Tony Earley, chief executive officer of the utility’s parent company, PG&E Corp. “This proposal supports these goals while also balancing the need to keep customer bills as low as possible.”

California utilities regularly file three-year revenue requests, formally known as general rate cases, with the commission. They rarely get all the money

they seek. PG&E asked for a revenue boost of $5.25 billion during its last three-year rate case, covering 2014 through 2016. The utilities commission approved $2.4 billion.

The new request comes as utility rates in California are about to undergo their biggest changes since the electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001.

In July, the utilities commissioners made fundamental reforms to the way they calculate rates, narrowing the difference between electricity prices paid by people who use large amounts of power versus those who use the least. But those changes — by themselves — did not alter the overall amount of money each utility is authorized to collect from its customers year by year. PG&E’s new request would do precisely that.

If approved, it would boost PG&E’s revenue by $457 million in 2017, another $489 million in 2018 and an additional $390 million in 2019. The extra money would fund smartgrid technology to help integrate rooftop solar power into the utility’s grid, construction of a backup control center for natural gas operations and faster response times to complaints of possible gas leaks, according to the company.

PG&E’s latest request will face resistance from consumer groups.

“PG&E’s been playing this tune over and over, saying ‘We need more money for reliability, we need more money for safety,’ ” said Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network. “We’re understandably cynical, because at some point, haven’t we paid enough?”