A number of area residents reported their PG&E bills rose markedly last month.
Amy Good was feeling concerned and wrote, "Anybody know what's up with PG&E? My bill went from 160-450 with no change in use! Only change is the new year!!!!"
Brenda Reynolds added, "Mine too!"
Suzanne J. Heffner, "Same."
Nikki Gardea, "Same!"
Julianna Erdman, "Same. Our bill almost tripled."
Christina Holmes-Bull, "Same! From 250 or 300 to 800!!"
Erin Herschbach Lamb, "From $500 prior winter to $945 and $1100 for us!"
The increased bills are mostly due to a jump in energy consumption, not a jump in rates, according to PG&E, the region’s main provider of electricity.
The bigger bills often cause puzzlement and consternation, even among those who expected an increase. Stacey Lundy wrote, "our usage went up because the past couple months have been colder than usual. higher usage = higher bill." Megan Wood said "Ours went way up too. I was shocked. Rates went up! Going up again in March too."
Robert Johnson warned, "In March they will start to charge a surcharge for anyone exceeding their 'baseline' usage."
The utility last summer won state approval for a gas rate increase that amounts to an average of $7 a month when calculated on an annualized basis.
Customers’ bills “remain well below the national average,” PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said in an email.
The California Public Utilities Commission is the government agency that oversees all public utilities. http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/Contactus/
Every three years, PG&E submits a request for funding to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) called a General Rate Case (GRC). This process includes several public hearings across the service territory, whereby the Commission gathers input from the public, as well as evidentiary hearings where PG&E and all interested parties testify in a public proceeding before an Administrative Law Judge.
https://www.pge.com/en_US/about-pge/company-information/regulation/general-rate-case/grc.page
