Brace yourselves, PG&E customers. Bills could be going up again for at least the fourth time this year.
The California Public Utilities Commission will vote on another proposed rate increase next week – frustrating news for residents already struggling to keep up with the current price of power.
"Honestly, my husband is going to divorce me if I turn the air conditioning on one more time," Robin Strandberg of Orinda said.
On Sept. 1, electricity rates increased by 0.5%. If state regulators approve the new increase next week, PG&E said monthly bills could jump another $6 by the end of the year.
"It's compounded by our insurance rates, our water bills, our energy bills, our food prices, our gas prices," Strandberg said. "It gets to a certain point where we have to start cutting things."
PG&E filed for the latest rate hike request back in January. The utility said the hike would help it recoup the nearly $950 million it lost during winter storms that hit between December 2022 and March 2023.
"When is it going to stop?" Tina Elliott of Orinda said. "Is it going to be every three months, every four months? When does that stop? How do I know how to budget for our bills?"
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The Utility Reform Network (TURN) opposes PG&E's rate hike request, arguing that it places an increased burden on ratepayers. The watchdog group noted this is the fourth rate hike this year.
"PG&E customers were hit with a $34 increase at the beginning of the year," TURN Executive Director Mark Toney said. "Customers were hit with another $4 increase in March. Customers were hit with another increase of at least $6, and there is going to be more before the end of the year."
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The utility said it continues to work on cost-cutting measures that will ultimately bring prices down in the future and noted customers will see a one-time $55 climate credit in October that should help offset bills.
PG&E officials also noted that a temporary 9% rate decrease that began in July means that ultimately more customers should still be paying less even if the new hike is approved.
Utility critics said all those reductions and credits are only temporary relief to what feels like an ongoing problem of repeated rate hikes.
"As soon as it goes down, they come in with another request so that the bill goes back up," Toney said. "The fact is even with the decrease they are talking about, temporary decrease, customers are still paying far more today and later in the year than before the beginning of the year."
