How to Lower Your Electric Bill in California: Start With the Moves You Can Verify

The four things that actually move a California bill

Everything below sorts into one of four levers:

• Rate plan and timing. Under time-of-use pricing, the same kilowatt-hour costs more or less depending on when it's used. PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E each set their own on-peak window (Step 2 below has the current hours for each), and shifting laundry, EV charging, or the dishwasher outside that window is the highest-leverage change most households can make without spending anything.
• Baseline allowance and tiers. Utilities are required to price a “baseline” block of energy — sized to roughly 50–60% of an average customer's usage in the local climate zone — at the lowest rate, then charge more for usage above it. Baseline territory, heating source, and the season all move where that line falls.
• Fixed charges. California's investor-owned utilities also bill a flat monthly Base Services Charge that doesn't move with usage — currently $24.15 for most residential accounts. See the fixed-charge breakdown for what it covers and why it exists.
• Usage. What's left is the part under direct control — air conditioning, water heating, and any other high-draw equipment. Step 5 below covers finding it from the account's own billing data.

For scale, California's statewide average electricity price was 27.04 cents per kWh in 2024, the second-highest of any state. In a rate environment like that, the first three levers matter as much as cutting usage.

1. Establish the real baseline

Gather at least two bills and, when available, a full year of usage. Compare kWh per day and electric charges per day so weather, billing period length and one-time adjustments do not distort the decision. Then mark the rate plan and any separate generation provider shown on the statement. If PG&E sends the bill, the PG&E-specific steps to lower the bill put its discounts, plans and peak hours in order.

2. Compare the rates available to the account

Use the CPUC rate-comparison tool and the utility's own account tools. Compare the current plan with residential, CARE and EV options that actually apply at the service address. Look at when the household uses electricity before switching a time-of-use plan.

On-peak hours by utility (2026):

Each utility runs more than one time-of-use plan, and the window can shift by season — confirm the current plan and window for the account before moving usage around it. Full rate-plan detail: PG&E's time-of-use rates, SCE's time-of-use rates, SDG&E's time-of-use rates.

3. Check CARE and FERA before buying anything

The CPUC says qualifying customers at the large regulated electric utilities receive a 30–35% CARE discount. FERA applies an 18% electric bill discount for qualifying households above the CARE income range. Income limits change, so use the current CPUC table and apply through the utility instead of relying on an old article or salesperson.

Both discounts also cut the flat monthly Base Services Charge: CARE customers pay $6/month instead of the standard $24.15, and FERA customers pay $12/month — savings of about $18 and $12 a month respectively, on top of the percentage discount. Current income limits, effective June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027:

On PG&E, the guide to CARE and FERA discounts shows what each discount takes off the bill and how to enroll. Source for the limits above, and for how to apply through each utility: the CPUC's CARE and FERA page.

4. Check Medical Baseline and no-cost efficiency programs

Medical Baseline provides additional qualifying energy use at the utility's lowest residential rate for customers with specified medical needs. The CPUC also lists the Energy Savings Assistance Program, which can provide no-cost weatherization and certain efficient equipment to income-qualified households. Eligibility and available measures belong to the current utility program.

At PG&E, that additional allotment is about 500 kWh a month — roughly 16.7 kWh a day — on top of the standard baseline, granted on medical need rather than income, with a doctor's certification. SCE, SDG&E, and LADWP run comparable Medical Baseline programs at the account's own utility; confirm the exact allotment there, since it isn't necessarily the same number.

5. Reduce the load the bill proves is expensive

Use the bill and interval data to find the hours and equipment driving consumption. Shift flexible loads only when the current rate plan makes that useful. Before paying for insulation, appliances, controls or other work, check the utility's current rebates and get the complete installed cost in writing.

6. Put solar on the same measuring stick

A solar quote should start from the same full-year usage record. Ask for monthly production, shading and loss assumptions, projected onsite use, grid imports, export credits and charges that remain after installation. Compare the cash price and complete contract terms. If a quote cannot show those numbers, it has not shown what happens to the bill.

Where solar fits among these four levers

Solar addresses the usage lever most directly. It doesn't touch the fixed charge, and under net billing it interacts with — rather than replaces — the rate plan and baseline structure above: a system sized to the account's own usage history can reduce what's billed at retail rates, but the Base Services Charge still applies, baseline and tier boundaries still apply, and the time-of-use window still determines what solar production is worth at each hour. None of that argues for or against it. It's the same measuring stick as everywhere else on this page: pull the usage history, compare it to what a proposal claims, and treat a solar quote as one more rate scenario to check against the current bill.

Check the bill for the California Climate Credit

This one isn't an action — it's a line item to expect. Funded by the state's Cap-and-Invest program, the credit is applied automatically to PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E residential electric accounts (and their CCA customers), with no enrollment, no income test, and no effect from having solar or net metering. LADWP and SMUD customers don't get it — the credit only applies to utilities the CPUC regulates, and those two are municipal.

For 2026, PG&E and SCE residential electric customers are getting $36.18 and $36.00, and SDG&E customers $49.36 — and each of those amounts is paid twice, once in August and again in September 2026, so a PG&E account gets $72.36 in all. That's a change from the April/October pattern of past years: the CPUC moved the schedule to land during the higher-usage summer months instead. It shows up as its own line on the statement, separate from usage charges, so it won't turn up in a rate comparison. Full amounts and dates (checked September 24, 2026): the CPUC's California Climate Credit page.

Use the guide for the utility printed on the bill

California does not have one residential electric bill. Start with the provider named on the statement, including any separate generation provider, and use the matching guide:

• PG&E high-bill guide
• SCE high-bill guide
• SDG&E high-bill guide
• LADWP high-bill guide