Yes, there is help. Please visit our financial assistance page to see what you’re eligible for. We reduced customer bills by more than $1 billion in 2024 thanks to our financial assistance programs. And now through 2026, we’re working to keep rate increases to no more than 2-4% without compromising our safety progress.

It’s true – PG&E is both public service and for-profit, which might seem like a contradiction. But healthy profits are actually crucial to running our utility. When we start big projects, like the safety and reliability upgrades we’ve been rolling out, we need a sizable upfront investment. So we borrow money from investors. That allows us to get started right away and then pay over time. The more investment we have, the faster we can upgrade the grid.

Investors also want us to do what’s right for customers, because that benefits everyone in the long run. For example, for five years, from 2018–2023, we didn’t pay returns or dividends to investors on the money we borrowed. Over time, we’ll pay investors a larger share of profits because that improves our credit rating, which lowers our cost of borrowing—a saving we can pass onto you.

Every one of us wants PG&E to be a utility you can trust. To earn that trust, we have to spend money on the grid and the gas system. And we can’t do that without being profitable. It’s the way to be safer, faster.

When equipment is up-to-date and in good condition, tragedies can be prevented. We’ve learned this lesson the hard way. And we won’t forget those tragedies. We use the company’s past failings to drive us forward.

One more thing: although we’re an investor-owned utility, we’re highly regulated by the state, meaning we can’t earn any profit we want. The state decides which costs are fair and necessary for PG&E to provide safe and reliable energy. And prices are set through a public process that includes participation from customer advocates, community organizations, and environmental groups.

The bottom line is, we’re not in this alone. Our utility is made up of corporate, customers, shareholders, and the state commission all in it together. We realize this doesn’t make the bills any easier to pay. But we hope the clarity might help make sense of this complex business. If you want to see if you qualify for assistance paying your bill, check out our assistance programs.

First of all, we know the rate increases have been difficult for many customers. But we can assure you, no part of fines or costs related to wildfire lawsuits that were settled through our bankruptcy are being passed onto customers. Those costs are paid out of our profits. We agreed to these terms with our regulatory agency (the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC) and that information is open to the public.

The rate increases help us make our gas and electric system safer. We’ve invested in technologies that reduce wildfire risk. We’ve also moved 800 miles of powerlines underground at a 10% lower cost than forecast. Our hard work is paying off. In 2023 and 2024, not a single major damaging wildfire was caused by our equipment.

The other reason prices have gone up is because of state policy. State-mandated public purpose programs like energy efficiency programs and low-income customer assistance have increased by more than 100%. The state also subsidizes energy prices for customers who install solar panels at their homes. Customers without solar pay about 15% more for their energy to fund these subsidies.

State policies also require us to cut back trees around powerlines, resulting in about 1.8 billion dollars in costs per year, every year. That work helps keep you safe, but it’s also 10% of your total electrical bill. It's safer and cheaper in the long run to move the highest wildfire risk lines underground.

Other expenses are simply market-driven. Just like you don’t control what you pay at the gas pump, we don’t control what we pay for the natural gas that warms our homes in the winter.

So while there is no one single reason for price increases, there is one truth to bear in mind. We’re working on solutions. We have over 250 efficiency projects underway to streamline processes, renegotiate old contracts, reduce waste, and save money, all without compromising on our safety progress. In 2024 alone these projects saved more than $650 million that we’ve reinvested in delivering a safer, more reliable energy system.

The good news is that in 2025-2026, some of our costs expire and will be removed from rates. We’ll also finish collecting costs for wildfire prevention and storm response done in previous years.

While all of this is playing out on our side, there may be things you can do. There are assistance programs available depending on income, but there are also efficiency upgrade programs open to everyone.

You might also be able to save money by changing your rate plan. We have a rate tool online that checks your usage and recommends the lowest rate type based on what you’ve done in the past, as well as other ways to save electricity. We hope you find some of this information useful.

No, we can’t. The prices customers pay are decided by the state. The state regulator decides which costs are fair and necessary for us to continue providing safe and reliable energy service. Prices are set through an in-depth public process that includes active participation from customer advocates, community organizations and environmental groups.

First, check that you’re not looking at phone and internet wires. Those may stay up even as ours go underground.

If they're PG&E powerlines and you live in a high wildfire risk area, they may be on our schedule to go underground. We're slated to bury 10,000 miles of powerlines in the highest wildfire risk areas. If you live outside a wildfire risk area, you probably won't see lines going underground.

Why? We want to be efficient with our time and resources. Undergrounding lines usually costs several million dollars per mile. The good news is that the work is coming in below the cost we forecasted. Even better news: according to state reporting (PDF), as a result of our safety upgrades, we’ve reduced customers’ exposure to catastrophic wildfire risk due to our equipment by more than 90% from only a few years ago. And that factors in the effect of wetter winters.

It’s true that strengthening poles and insulating powerlines (system hardening) costs less per mile than undergrounding. But you have to factor in vegetation management. Because even when we insulate lines, we still have to trim the branches around them. And in spring when they grow back, we have to do it all over again. It’s required by our state regulators, and it costs over a billion and a half dollars a year.

Undergrounding in the long run is less expensive. And it doesn’t only solve problems on hot, dry, windy summer days. It also protects our powerlines from falling branches in winter storms. All in all, undergrounding is the only way to get 98% of the risk off the equipment. 

This question comes up a lot. Customer prices are not increasing to enrich executives or shareholders. Here’s how the pricing works. Our state regulator (the CPUC) sets the rules for how much profit we can make. Currently, the CPUC has authorized we can earn up to 10.28% on our capital investments. We reinvest the vast majority of our profits back into energy system improvements.

It’s important to pay shareholders a return that compares to other utilities, so we can attract the investment needed to continue to improve California’s energy system. Paying a better return also improves our credit rating, which lowers our cost of borrowing, and that’s a saving we can pass onto you.

It’s worth mentioning who the typical utility investor is. They’re not your Wall Street hedge fund types, hard charging for big returns. These days, our investors are mostly pension funds and 401k administrators. That means individual investors are firefighters, teachers, police officers and many retirees. They’re looking for somewhere safe to put their money, a company that can offer a steady return.

The cost of our senior executives’ salaries isn’t making your bill higher. Our executives’ compensation is subtracted from the profits that the state regulator says we are allowed to earn. Plus, 75% of what those top executives earn depends on whether PG&E hits its safety, operational and financial targets. So, less progress equals less pay.

Yes! We’ve developed technology that makes us much safer. One example is Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings, or EPSS for short. If a branch hits a line in a high wildfire risk area, we can now cut power in a tenth of a second.

Another example is undergrounding powerlines. Our goal is to underground 10,000 miles of wires in high wildfire risk areas. We’ve already accomplished 800 miles and we came in 10% under budget.

A third example is the 1,500 weather stations we’ve added since 2017. They’re equipped with more than 600 high-definition cameras, which offers visibility into more than 90% of the high fire-risk areas we serve.

Using advanced modeling technology, our weather stations inform us of important conditions. What do they pick up on? Well, there are 100 trillion data points, so we’ll spare you the full list. A few are temperature, humidity and wind speed.

We use all this data to calculate areas that are at the most risk of wildfire to better prepare and respond. For example, we now have a seven-day forecast for public safety power shutoffs. On top of that, AI allows our weather station cameras to detect smoke at night that would be invisible to the naked eye. Tools like these enable us to get word out to our emergency response partners, such as CalFire, faster and more accurately than ever before.

That’s a long way of saying yes, you’re safer. According to state (PDF) data, there were 55% fewer ignitions related to our equipment in 2024 than there were just a few years ago. And that even factors in the changes in weather. In fact, not a single catastrophic wildfire in 2023 and 2024 resulted from our equipment.

A recent Stanford University report (PDF) described PG&E as one of the best utilities in the nation when it comes to wildfire preparedness planning and readiness. We’re proud of our progress in keeping you safe.

It’s also worth mentioning that even if you don’t live in a high wildfire risk region, our updates have made you safer. Fewer wildfires means safer air and water quality, plus the protection of wildlands, an important feature of California’s climate-resilient ecosystem.

We know you feel the price increases. You’re not alone. Many of our customers are speaking out about this. Please know not a day goes by that we don’t continue the search for lower operational costs while keeping safety on its upward climb. We know we can’t erase your concerns overnight, so we’ll keep bringing you new data as it comes in. And hopefully, over time, you’ll feel protected.

Most people think “more rain means less fire.” Sounds reasonable. But the opposite is true: wet winters often lead to more intense fire seasons the next year because of the increased grass and vegetation growth. Those flourishing plants essentially become a gigantic pile of fuel during the dry summer, making it easier for fire to spread.

The real reason for fewer utility-related catastrophic wildfires is not more rain; it’s the changes we’ve made in the way we operate the grid and the upgrades we’ve been making in response to continued extreme weather.

Like many of you, we wanted proof to know for sure if our upgrades are paying off our safety goal. We worked with the CPUC, the state utility commission, to give us that data. They took the number of fires, divided by how many high-risk days we saw that year and gave us the totals. In 2017, the total was 3.23 and in 2024, it was 1.44. We’re now more than twice as safe as we used to be.

Clean energy might feel like a luxury, but renewable energy, especially solar power and batteries, are lowering energy costs and making life better for many Californians. Remember those rolling blackouts, when there simply wasn’t enough power to go around? Solar power coupled to large-scale batteries has largely solved that problem.

PG&E now has almost 2,400 MW of battery storage with another 1,900 MW coming on board in the next 2–3 years. This means we’ll be storing solar power during the day when we almost always have more than we need. Then, those batteries release power back onto the grid during high-demand hours in the evening. These are times when we might otherwise be relying on fossil fuels. Batteries also help provide power on the hottest summer days when there may not be enough power to meet demand.

We’ve connected more than 800,000 residential solar customers to the grid, more than any other US utility. Those customers are seeing lower energy bills, and we’re all seeing a lighter carbon footprint.

It’s true that you do pay a premium for some of the solar power the state requires us to buy, a requirement that was established back when solar power was more expensive than it is now. Because of how the state subsidizes energy prices for solar customers, customers without solar pay about 15% more for their energy to fund these subsidies.

That said, the cost of large-scale solar power has fallen so dramatically that it remains one of the faster and cheapest ways we can add more energy to the grid. This will help us avoid relying on gas, which can be more expensive. Why? Because it’s harder to ensure the supply will be safe and steady. In fact, in January 2025, most residential customers who do not receive discounts will pay about 4% less for electricity than they did in January 2024, as long as their electric use stays about the same, while gas rates are expected to increase 9.4%. It's another good reason to look into electrifying your appliances.

As many Californians know, our grid needs to be ready for a lot more electricity. Already, one in four cars sold here is electric and that number is only going up. The state has a 2035 goal that every car and light truck sold here will be electric.

Residential and commercial heating and industrial processes are going electric too. Overall, as homes and businesses shift from fossil fuels to electricity, it looks like we’ll need to deliver about 70% more electricity by 2040.

So is renewable energy good for the environment? Yes, but it’s also a great, low-cost way to meet California’s power needs for the future.

Rates have increased and you’re feeling it. You deserve to know where your money goes. So here’s how the electricity bill breaks down.

A third of your bill goes to buying or making the energy you need. PG&E passes those costs directly onto you without charging any markup.

About 22% of your bill pays for the operations, maintenance and upgrade of the energy system that delivers power to your home.

Believe it or not, a third of what you pay is driven by state policy. Like what? The biggest portion (about 10% of your bill) is the tree trimming we are mandated to do around our powerlines. (Long term, we know that undergrounding powerlines will be safer and cheaper). This third also includes the cost of financing low-income assistance programs and the cost of mandates which require us to buy some renewable energy at prices that are higher than market rate.

What’s left? 10% on state-approved earnings, and 5% on taxes.

Seeing the breakdown might not make the bill any easier to pay. So please know, we’re doing what we can to lower operational costs while keeping you safe. We’re finding efficiencies as we go, and we’ve got our eye on ways to stabilize rates. Check back here often. We'll update our “Stabilizing prices” page as percentages change.

It might feel like we, as a company, have whole-heartedly embraced upgrades and renewables and all we talk about is forward-leaning action. But make no mistake. We don’t ignore the past and we don’t expect you to, either. We all hold our customers’ experiences close at heart. The company’s past missteps are a major reason for the safety overhaul of our energy system. While we know we can’t repair the past, our company-wide culture of safety helps us not repeat it.

How can you be sure? Here are some specifics. The main cause of equipment-related fires is trees hitting lines. Putting lines underground nearly eliminates that risk, which is why we’re undergrounding 10,000 miles of powerlines, more than any utility in the country.

Another technology we’re proud of is called Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS). This technology allows us to detect when an object like a branch or a tree strikes a line. In a tenth of a second, power is automatically cut to that line. All of the lines in our high wildfire risk areas have EPSS enabled.

We’ve also developed a drone-based inspection program that helps us efficiently check our equipment up and down the service region without having to send out a person in a truck to every single pole and tower. Last year, drones with high-definition cameras onboard helped us inspect 600% more electric poles and towers than the prior year.

We’re the first California utility to run fully remote inspections. And our drone inspection program is the largest in the world. More visibility means more information. More information means better preparation. We’re not only prepared for what might happen but what might never happen.

Short answer, yes!

Long answer: we’ve introduced smarter technology into our outage communication systems. When something unexpected happens, a tree branch hits a line for example, our safety shutoff device will interrupt your service so that the branch won’t ignite. What happens then is that our smart tech sends you estimated restoration times via text, email, landline, or all three. You’ll also receive a link to our outage center so you can track our progress online. Often, we can redirect power from nearby so that during our repairs you don’t have to go without. If not, just know we’re working as fast as we can, and we’ll send you a confirmation when your power is restored.

For our scheduled system upgrade and maintenance outages, the process looks a little different. We’ll let you know about a week in advance and remind you the evening before. During the outage, we’ll update you with estimated restoration times and send a final notification when the job is complete.

How would you like to be notified? Log into your PG&E account and select your preferences: text, email, landline, or all three.