Pacific Gas and Electric Company is requesting another rate hike. Ian Cull reports.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is requesting another rate hike.
This time the utility said it needs the money to connect thousands of new customers to the grid.
After four rate hikes this year, PG&E customers who spoke to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday said it is hard to keep track of the reasons why their bills keep going up.
If PG&E's latest request for additional funding is approved, the increase could raise the average customer's bill by $4.33 a month. That would be on top of increases customers have seen in January, April, September, and October of this year.
However, PG&E notes it did allow one rate hike to expire this fall, which dropped the average bill by $21.
The utility said it needs additional funding to help connect more than 13,000 customers to the grid and to help fund capacity upgrades.
"My first question would be, 'How much profit did you make last year? And how much do you need?' Because, to me, if you're putting more people on the grid that's just the cost of doing business," San Jose resident Brett Lunceford said.
The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, is a utility watchdog group and is asking state regulators to deny PG&E's request.
"Four rate hikes in a year is really unusual, especially when customers are used to maybe 1-2 rate hikes," TURN Communications Director Lee Trotman said.
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TURN argues the California Public Utilities Commission set caps just months ago to protect customers from excessive spending.
"You agreed to this, and now you're asking for more money in 2025 and 2026. So it's as if the caps didn't exist," Trotman said.
PG&E said the request is in response to the California legislature's Powering Up Californians Act and notes that any increase in bills would not happen until 2026 when the projects are done.
"PG&E will recover costs only for what it spends, and the CPUC will review spending to ensure it is just and reasonable," PG&E said in a statement. "Also, adding thousands of new connections will help spread fixed grid operations and maintenance costs across more customers."
The utility declined NBC Bay Area's request for an interview on Tuesday.
