Pacific Gas & Electric Co. electricity rates

It serves 1.9 million residential customers, making it one of the larger utilities in California. At 39.62¢ per kilowatt-hour it is among the more expensive utilities in California, 19.2% above the statewide average of 33.25¢.

Its customers use very little electricity by national standards, 500 kilowatt-hours a month against 871 nationally. Dense housing, a mild climate or heating that runs on gas rather than electricity all push consumption down, and any of them can leave a household with a modest bill despite a high rate.

A shareholder-owned company whose rates are set by the state regulator, including an approved return on the capital it has invested. That matters because a bill is not only the cost of generating electricity: it also carries the cost of the network, and who owns that network changes how it is paid for.

In 2024 the average Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customer went 509 minutes without electricity across 2.15 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is far worse than typical, and figures at this level almost always reflect a major storm season rather than everyday performance. A single hurricane or ice storm can dominate the annual number.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. offers time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing to residential customers. 171,636 households were enrolled, about 9.2% of its residential base.

These plans are opt-in almost everywhere. They reward households that can move laundry, dishwashing, water heating or electric vehicle charging out of the late-afternoon peak, and they cost more than the standard rate for households that cannot. How to tell which group you are in.

861,211 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 5,455.16 megawatts. That works out to 463.8 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption here is exceptionally high. That usually means some combination of a high retail rate worth displacing, strong sunshine and favourable export rules, and it tends to bring its own regulatory argument about who covers the fixed cost of the network. What exports are actually worth.