PG&E Asks for Residential Rate Increase in California

Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. - June 22, 2003

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wants to lower business energy bills at residents' expense, to the chagrin of consumer advocates.

The San Francisco-based energy company last week filed a proposal with the California Public Utilities Commission that would increase the average monthly electric bill for residents by $3.76, though the company stressed that "low-to-average" use customers would see little or no change. In contrast, the average monthly bill for the largest class of businesses would drop by $9,043.77.

Pacific Gas and Electric said the proposal constitutes a more equitable split between residents and businesses, which it says have born the brunt of energy rate increases since the California energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. Medium and large commercial and industrial customers saw rates spike 50 percent to 120 percent, while 43 percent of residential customers saw no change over 1996 levels, the company said.

"Certainly we're not here to make our residential customers' lives more difficult, but this is returning to the traditional cost-sharing method we diverted from during the energy crisis," said company spokeswoman Christy Dennis.

The rate increases would apply only to above-average-use customers, technically defined as 130 percent of baseline quantities. State law prohibits altering rates for use at or below that level.

Still, consumer advocates said the price impact could be significant on the sunnier side of the Bay.

"For people living in Contra Costa County, that ought to be really troubling, because the ones who don't use a lot of energy are by and large the ones who don't use air conditioning," said Bob Finkelstein, executive director of San Francisco-based consumer group the Utility Reform Network. "If I'm out in Antioch and it's 95, I need that air conditioning."

PG&E's filing is the second step in a so-called general rate case, a process of defining customer rates, that utilities are asked to undertake every three years by the PUC. The proposal would not change PG&E's overall revenue. If the plan is approved by an administrative judge and the PUC, it would take effect in late 2005 or early 2006.

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