PG&E, the largest utility company in California, has announced that customers have likely seen and will continue to see significant increases in their bills this winter, SFGATE reported, to the tune of about a 32% spike. That reportedly translates to an average of $79 per month from November through March.

PG&E is blaming these higher electricity and gas bills on this winter’s below-average temperatures and greater heating demand across the West Coast, as well as higher global natural gas prices, in its statement regarding the sticker shock. (Of course, last summer, the company also reported a downturn in profits and higher expenses related to burying power lines and paying wildfire victims’ families, but that wasn’t in the press release.)

PG&E said that its customers have “used more natural gas than the five-year historic average this winter, with November usage 20% higher, December 10% higher, and January to date [as of January 27] about 3% higher.”

And that’s not all — a PG&E spokesperson told SFGate that even after fall 2023, the average customer's monthly bill could still continue to rise, with an expected rate increase of 16.3%, or about $35.40. PG&E needs the California Public Utilities Commission approval to increase what it's allowed to charge its gas and electric customers from 2023 to 2026, and the company just requested these higher rate adjustments, which could start in fall of 2023.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, in the past two decades, CPUC has approved about half of PG&E's requests. In February of 2022, the CPUC authorized a 9% jump in rates — which was unrelated to PG&E's new requests for 2023 and beyond

PG&E's attempts to increase prices are still facing criticism by many of its customers and consumer advocacy groups. Some customers are unhappy with the timing of the increase, especially after facing economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent storms.

"Hundreds of people are calling to say they can't afford to pay their bills, they're afraid of being shut off," The Utility Reform Network (TURN) executive director Mark Toney told ABC7 about the potential price increases. "They're cutting back on their prescriptions, cutting back on food. People should not be faced with the choice of heat or eat."

Customers could get some relief soon, SFGATE reported, as the state's Climate Credit program distributes credits that lower Californians’ energy bills once a year in April. (The credits come from large companies buying carbon pollution permits, and that money offsets natural gas costs in residential energy.) However, the CPUC voted this week that utilities could send out those credits "as soon as possible."

Image via Unsplash/Jorge Gardner.

Now you can score a little rebate for conserving electricity during the most brutal hours the California power grid experiences, as a Flex Alert rebate program kicks in today at 4 p.m.

California residents can rightfully feel we dodged a bullet Tuesday night by avoiding rolling blackouts for a second consecutive day, and this could absolutely be attributed to regular folks heeding the call and conserving energy. But that was still pretty much a margin-of-error victory, and this now-week-long (and still going) scorcher still very much requires we conserve electricity, particularly between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.. Wednesday and Thursday nights could very easily see rolling blackouts in effect all over northern California.

So PG&E is finally doing something to proactively get people to conserve energy during those hours when the California power grid faces its most extreme duress. KGO reports that PG&E will pay you for conserving energy during peak usage hours, under a new program called  Power Saver Rewards.

This rebate program does not apply every day. It only applies during the specific hours when we’re under a Flex Alert, which the California Independent System Operator (ISO) defines as “a call for consumers to voluntarily conserve electricity when there is an anticipated shortage of energy supply.”

But we’ve got a Flex Alert looming in just a few hours, as there is one scheduled for Wednesday between 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.

You do have to enroll in the program to get the rebates applied to your PG&E bill, but enrolling is incredibly easy. All you need is your name, phone number, email address, and PG&E account number. You can easily complete this process by 4 p.m. today.

“PG&E will calculate how much energy you normally use during peak hours of 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.,” ad KGO explains. “If you use less energy during those hours on Flex Alert days, PG&E will credit your account. You get $2 for every kilowatt hour you save.”

The appliances that use the most power, and therefore you’d want to avoid using them during these hours, include air conditioners, water heaters, electric stoves, and electric vehicle chargers.

A skeptic could say that PG&E could have and should have started doing this 20 years ago. Fair point. But it’s also impressive that they’ve rolled this program out pretty quickly, and more importantly, at the time when it’s most urgently needed.

So do sign up as quickly as possible if you’re a PG&E customer. After all, if you put it off for five or six hours, you might not have electricity at that point.

Related: Heat Stuff: Santa Rosa Sees All-Time High-Temp Record Broken, More Energy Conservation Needed Wednesday [SFist]

Image: Jon Moore via Unsplash

Expect your monthly PG&E electric and gas bill to inch even higher in the new decade.

According to East Bay Times, PG&E has said that customers will see a spike in their electric bills, but a small dip in their gas expenditures; combined, however, monthly expenses are still expected to increase. The still-bankrupt, legally embattled utility company filed formal papers Friday that outlined the potential for substantially higher power costs later in 2020.

“PG&E typically consolidates changes to its electric rates several times a year to help limit the number of rate changes faced by our electric customers,” the utility said Friday in response to the swelling rates. “PG&E changes its natural gas rates every month, as required by the PUC [Public Utility Commission] to better reflect competitive monthly gas market costs.”

How much exactly is the increase? Nominal, though still worrying, especially given the fact that PG&E has gone on record to say these rate increases could continue to climb.  Per their reported figures, customers who have a combined electricity and gas service from can expect a $2.64 a month increase, starting January 1st. Also, it's worth noting that this example is based on the average ratepayer and consumer, one that doesn’t fall in PG&E’s program of discounted rates for low-income customers, nor consumes who use a larger-than-average amount of gas and electricity.

More specifically, those same account holders will see a $3.29 a month spike in their electricity bill, a roughly 2.7 percent upcharge, but a 65 cent decrease their gas bills, representing a 1.3 percent decrease.

But a number of other actions are still in limbo, put forth by the PUC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission— all of which could make those price ascend. Worst case scenario? More than $5 could be tacked onto current account holders' bills, monthly.

These utility increases come at a time where PG&E is considered responsible for 1,500 California wildfires, per the Wall Street Journal, that have happened over the past six years, responsible for virtually every single one of California's catastrophic wildfires since 2015. It's possible that with some legal persuasion and other financially scavenging plans — like these utility increases, amassing to an overall $575M rate hike — the company could emerge from bankruptcy in 2020.

Related: SF Offered to Buy PG&E’s Local Power Lines for $2.5 Billion, Beleaguered Utility Turned It Down

Elected Officials Statewide Push for Consumer Takeover of PG&E

PG&E Admits to More Than 200 Damage Incidents That Could Have Started More Wildfires

Image: Flickr via phedot

A power outage brought the world as we know it to a halt today in the SOMA / LORI neighborhood, most egregiously affecting SFIst HQ. (Damn you to hell again, PG&E.) From what we can tell, power along Third Street from Townsend up to Harrison is sans electricity as of 1:15 p.m.. For those of you who need electricity and a wireless connection in the hood, we recommend going to Epicenter Cafe at 764 Harrison, between Third and Fourth streets. They have wifi, power, passersby AND great coffee. UPDATE: Power had been restored. Please leaved 21 Amendment and South Park, and return to your offices at once.

Tomorrow, March 29, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. millions of people will turn of their lights to make a statement about climate change. It's all a part of Earth Hour, a green event conceived by the World Wildlife Fund. Over 100 U.S. cities are participating in the do-goodery, including Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, and, of course, San Francisco. While this won't do much insofar as saving the planet--which is doomed!--it will make a dark and profound statement about conservation and the environment.

Earth Hour has some suggestions on keeping the earth green and stuff:

Simple things like turning off appliances while not in use and switching your light globes to energy efficient bulbs, will all help us reach our goal of reducing our annual emissions by 5%. Even something as simple as turning out lights when you’re not in a room and switching to cleaner sources of electricity like "green power", make a big difference.

We concur. SFist, however, cannot promote the use of energy-saving bulbs; the light they give off is atrocious. But if soft and forgiving light is not an issue with you, you might consider switching to them.

We will be shutting our electricity down for an hour tomorrow starting at 8 p.m. and hope you join us.