OAKLAND — PG&E customers face the forbidding prospect of higher monthly bills — starting this spring — now that a state law judge has smoothed out a pathway to interim rate relief for the utility behemoth.
An administrative law judge for the state Public Utilities Commission has issued a proposed decision that clears the way for the PUC commissioners to make a final decision in March that would authorize PG&E to extract more money from customers. Law Judge Camille Watts-Zagha issued the proposal.
PG&E customers could be paying $4 to $6 more a month for their utility service if the powerful five-member PUC panel agrees with the proposal issued by the PUC law judge, estimated Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN.
Oakland-based PG&E said while it is still crunching numbers, it believes the monthly bill impact might be less than the $4 to $6 range.
The higher bills could take effect in April or May if the PUC agrees with the proposed ruling.
“PG&E is authorized to recover a maximum of $516 million (75% of PG&E’s total request of $688 million) in interim rates,” Judge Watts-Zagha stated in her proposed decision.
The state PUC is slated to meet in early March to decide on the judge’s proposed ruling.
PG&E seeks interim approval for the higher bills to cover expenditures in recent years related to wildfire safety as well as modernization, safety and compliance spending for the utility’s electricity and gas systems.
“These costs were not included in prior rate proceedings, and we have requested to recover these costs over multiple years to limit the impact on customers,” PG&E spokesperson Mike Gazda said in comments emailed to this news organization.
PG&E believes that interim rate relief could help cut long-term costs for customers.
“Delaying the recovery of costs could negatively impact our ability to secure competitive finance rates and increase the costs for capital investments,” Gazda said.
PG&E’s efforts to institute higher monthly bills on a speeded-up schedule have emerged at a time when PG&E is poised to report a profitable 2024 and anticipates a rosy 2024.
During a business update in November 2023, PG&E predicted 2024 would produce profits of $1.31 to $1.35 a share. If that occurs, the 2024 profits would leap 10% above the anticipated earnings per share for all of 2023, which itself is expected to be 10% greater than 2022.
Despite its predictions of a profitable 2024, PG&E said it must confront an intensified squeeze on its finances.
“Interim rate relief would help mitigate the extraordinary financial pressure currently facing PG&E,” the company stated in a regulatory filing.
Toney believes the PUC will agree to the proposal. He noted that the state PUC has approved four prior requests by PG&E for interim rate relief.
“The chances are good that this will sail right through,” Toney said.
