Did PG&E Rates Go Up? Every Change From 2023 to 2026, and What Comes Next

Not in 2026. PG&E's residential average rate fell about 7.5% on January 1 and 3.7% on March 1, to 33.7 cents per kWh, per the CPUC Public Advocates Office. But prices climbed through 2023 and jumped on January 1, 2024, and the average is still 39% above January 2021. PG&E's 2027 rate case could push bills up again.

So the honest answer depends on which bill you compare. Against 2025, a PG&E customer's per-kWh price is lower. Against 2021, it is much higher. This page walks through every change since 2023 with its date, size and cause, all from PG&E's rate tables and the Public Advocates Office's quarterly reports. For all utilities side by side, see the California utility rate tracker.

Every PG&E rate change since mid-2024, and why

The Public Advocates Office reports each change as a percentage of the residential average rate for customers who buy both delivery and generation from PG&E. The causes are almost all wildfire-cost recovery switching on and off, plus the yearly generation forecast.

2023 and early 2024: the steep part

The quarterly reports above start in mid-2024, so for the earlier years we use PG&E's own residential rate tables, specifically the Tier 1 price on the tiered E-1 plan. It is one plan, not the average, but it moves with the average and goes back further.

The January 1, 2024 jump came weeks after the CPUC resolved PG&E's 2023–2026 general rate case on November 16, 2023. The CPUC cited inflation and a large investment in undergrounding power lines among the top drivers of PG&E's request and approved 2,008 miles of hardened lines, 1,230 of them underground. Tier prices on other plans, and the full list of E-1 dates, are in our PG&E tier rates guide.

Why the March 2026 cut did not lower every bill

On March 1, 2026, PG&E moved part of its costs into the Base Services Charge, about $24 a month for most customers, and lowered the per-kWh price to match. PG&E's bill explainer says lower electricity prices may or may not lead to a lower total bill, because each customer's usage differs. SCE, which made the same change in November 2025, says low-use homes may see higher bills and high-use homes lower ones, and the same arithmetic applies at PG&E. If your bill went up anyway, work through why a PG&E bill runs high, and check the CARE and FERA discounts, which cut the daily charge to about $6 or $12 a month.

Why PG&E rates went up over ten years

Measured from January 2016 to June 2026, the Public Advocates Office puts PG&E's increase at 69%, and it names three main statewide drivers, citing the CPUC's SB 695 report: wildfire mitigation and wildfire liability costs; transmission and distribution investment; and rooftop solar incentives under net energy metering. Its shorter windows show how much of that came recently: up 39% since January 2021 and 8% since June 2023.

Will PG&E rates go up in 2027?

Probably, though nothing is decided. PG&E's 2027 general rate case proposes raising revenue from $14.8 billion in 2026 to $19.9 billion by 2030, 34%. The Public Advocates Office's analysis, updated June 24, 2026, argues that PG&E's description of rates as stabilizing leaves out requests outside the rate case, such as Diablo Canyon, undergrounding and wildfire cost recovery. Counting those, it estimates total revenue could go from $15.4 billion to $22.2 billion, and the average bill could rise about 16% in 2027 and 30% by 2030 if all are approved. Its separate projection for the rest of 2026, which counts only filed requests, is about 33.9 cents per kWh by December 31.

The rate tracker is the place to check for anything newer. For the other two big utilities, see the SCE rate history and SDG&E rate history; for PG&E's current time-of-use prices, the PG&E TOU guide; and for a bill-reading walkthrough of the 2026 changes, our PG&E 2026 rate guide. If rising rates have you weighing solar, start with whether solar under NEM 3.0 still pays.