PG&E says its customers could see a nearly $6-a-month hike in power bills under a new deal with regulators and consumer groups to help fund the beleaguered utility’s wildfire-prevention efforts.
The monthly increases for electricity and gas would show up in customers’ bills sometime in 2020 if the state’s Public Utilities Commission gives final approval to a settlement, revealed Friday, that was crafted amid PG&E’s ongoing federal bankruptcy case.
The deal sketches out how much funding PG&E should receive for a host of endeavors aimed at sharply reducing the risk of wildfires in the wake of several catastrophic and lethal infernos sparked by the utility’s equipment in recent years.
Monthly bills for the average customer who receives gas and electricity from PG&E would rise $5.69 a month, up 3.3 percent from the current monthly bill of $172.52 for the average customer who is not in the utility’s low-income program for discounted rates.
Electricity customers would see an average increase of $4.90 a month, up 4 percent from current monthly bill levels of $121.12, according to estimates provided by PG&E.
Gas customers would see an average increase of 79 cents a month, a 1.5 percent increase from present monthly costs of $51.53.
The money would be used for a number of programs that PG&E and state officials hope will reduce the odds of a disastrous wildfire.
“This agreement furthers our commitment to deliver safe and reliable energy to our customers including making our system more resilient to the growing threat of wildfires,” Pacific Gas and Electric Utility Chief Executive Officer Andy Vesey said.
But state Sen. Jerry Hill, a harsh critic of PG&E whose district includes parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo County said, “This is a third-rate, unsafe, irresponsible utility for which we have historically paid a first-rate price in our monthly bills.”
Eight parties, including two units of the PUC and the consumer group TURN, reached the settlement with PG&E.
“The parties agree that the CPUC should approve funding for PG&E’s ongoing wildfire prevention efforts, risk monitoring, emergency response, increased vegetation management, hardening of PG&E’s electric system, and other new and enhanced safety measures to further reduce wildfire risk,” PG&E stated in a prepared release.
The full five-member PUC would have to approve the proposed settlement before changes in monthly bills would go into effect. And before the commission makes a final decision, a full hearing process supervised by an administrative law judge, along with a public comment period, would be required.
Confronted by a forbidding landscape of liabilities and wildfire-linked claims, PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January, listing $51.69 billion in debts and seeking to reorganize its shattered finances.
The parties to the settlement with PG&E that agreed to the concept of higher rates include: the PUC’s Public Advocates Office, consumer group TURN, Coalition of California Utility Employees, the PUC’s Office of the Safety Advocate, National Diversity Coalition, Center for Accessible Technology, Small Business Utility Advocates, and California City-County Street Light Association.
Among the reasons Sen. Hill was dismayed by the proposal is that he argues PG&E had already been granted cash from ratepayers through PUC-approved rate increases to assure a safe electric system.
Despite that previously authorized funding, PG&E’s equipment has been deemed the cause of multiple wildfire catastrophes in 2015, 2017, and 2018.
“PG&E wants to charge all over again for things they should have paid for to be a safe utility,” he said. “For some reason, it appears the PUC believes PG&E should get the money all over again. And PG&E may get away with it.”