California Utility Rate Tracker: Current PG&E, SCE, SDG&E and SMUD Rates

As of June 2026, the average California residential electricity rate is 33.7¢/kWh at PG&E, 34.4¢/kWh at SCE, and 45.5¢/kWh at SDG&E, based on the CPUC Public Advocates Office's most recent quarterly rate report. SMUD customers on the Fixed Rate plan — an opt-in alternative to SMUD's default Time-of-Day rate — pay a $27.00 monthly fixed charge plus 13.71¢/kWh (October–May) or 21.89¢/kWh (June–September), effective January 1, 2026. These figures — and the income-graduated fixed charge now in effect at all three investor-owned utilities — are checked against CPUC and utility sources below, last verified September 22, 2026.

This is a reference page, not a savings estimate. It does not compare solar, name an installer, or state what any household would save. Figures are restated exactly as the cited sources report them, with the one exception noted below: the 12-month change figures, which this page calculates itself and labels as such.

Current Average Residential Rates by Utility

All rates below are the CPUC Public Advocates Office's “Residential Average Rate” (RAR) — a bundled generation-plus-delivery average across the whole residential class, excluding the California Climate Credit (a twice-yearly bill credit, not a rate). This is the same basis the Public Advocates Office uses for its own utility-to-utility comparisons. It is a residential figure and a business property is not billed on it: a commercial project is compared against its own tariff and against commercial solar cost per watt in California.

PG&E, SCE and SDG&E figures: CPUC Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report, p.8, 20, 22, 24. Checked 22 Sep 2026.

Note 1 (SMUD): SMUD is a publicly owned utility and is not covered by the CPUC Public Advocates Office reports, and it does not publish a single blended, CPUC-style average rate, so no comparable 12-month change or “most recent change” percentage can be sourced for it. The figures above are for SMUD's Fixed Rate plan, an opt-in alternative — SMUD's actual default rate for smart-meter customers is the Time-of-Day (5–8 p.m.) Rate, not the flat rate shown here; see SMUD's own rate page for those figures. SMUD raised rates 3% effective January 1, 2026, superseding the $26.20/month + 13.31¢/21.26¢ figures previously shown here, and its board has approved a further ≈3% adjustment effective January 1, 2027.

Note 2 (LADWP): LADWP is a municipal utility outside CPUC jurisdiction, and unlike PG&E, SCE and SDG&E it doesn't publish a single composite average-residential-rate figure, so no blended rate or 12-month percentage is shown. Its residential rates page does publish current per-kWh prices by tier and quarter, including adjustment factors; the row above shows the standard R-1A plan from that page, checked 23 Sep 2026. Tier sizes depend on climate zone and billing cycle. The full tier and time-of-use tables are on our LADWP rates page. The older rate-summary PDF (LADWP_Electric_Rates.pdf) dates from 2019 and is not used.

Officially reported multi-year change (source-stated, not calculated)

Source: CPUC Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report, p.8. Checked 22 Sep 2026.

What Changed This Month

Based strictly on the CPUC Public Advocates Office's Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report (the most recent published as of 22 Sep 2026) and each utility's cited advice letters:

• PG&E filed no new rate change in Q2 2026 — its residential average rate has been flat at 33.7¢/kWh since the March 1, 2026 decrease. That decrease (Advice Letter 7846-E, ≈−3.7% vs. January 1, 2026) reflected the end of two wildfire-cost-recovery programs (2021 WMCE and 2023 WMCE Interim Rate Relief) and the start of PG&E's income-graduated Base Services Charge, which cut CARE-customer rates by about 6.8%.
• SCE filed Advice Letter 5829-E, effective June 1, 2026, a roughly 0.1% residential-average-rate decrease versus January 1, 2026 rates, driven by a $650 million wildfire self-insurance revenue-requirement update, a $240.3 million cut to the 2026 energy-efficiency program budget, and a 2023 Energy Resource Recovery Account true-up.
• SDG&E filed Advice Letter 4843-E, effective June 1, 2026, a roughly 2.0% residential-average-rate decrease versus April 1, 2026 rates, following a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order reducing SDG&E's Base Transmission Revenue Requirement by about $112.2 million.
• Despite these quarter-over-quarter decreases, the Public Advocates Office's own framing is that all three utilities' rates remain far above 2016 levels (PG&E +69%, SCE +101%, SDG&E +97% over ten years) and above general inflation (CPI +42% over the same comparison window in the report's chart).

No savings estimate, solar comparison or program-eligibility claim is made anywhere in this section; it restates only what the cited sources state. Source: Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report. Checked 22 Sep 2026.

Why Rates Moved in 2026

PG&E (−3.7%, effective March 1, 2026). Two wildfire-cost recovery programs finished paying off their balances — the 2021 Wildfire Mitigation and Catastrophic Events (WMCE) charge and its Interim Rate Relief add-on — cutting rates by about 4.9%. That was partly offset by a new 2023 WMCE charge (about $746.6 million in added distribution revenue) and by the rollout of the income-graduated Base Services Charge, which on its own lowered CARE customers' per-kWh rate by about 6.8%.

SCE (roughly flat, −0.1%, effective June 1, 2026). SCE's wildfire self-insurance reserve rose to $650 million in the June filing, up about $380.7 million from the prior quarter — the largest single cost pressure — offset by other adjustments. Earlier in the year (January 1, 2026), SCE's rate had already moved on a $444 million net revenue change tied to energy-cost-recovery accounting.

SDG&E (−2.0%, effective June 1, 2026, after an 11.4% increase on January 1, 2026). The January increase traced to a $184.6 million jump in the Portfolio Allocation Balancing Account (which recovers generation costs) plus prior-year under-collections. The June filing reversed part of that, driven mainly by a $112.2 million transmission-cost reduction ordered at the federal level.

SMUD (+3%, effective January 1, 2026). SMUD's board approved matching 3% increases for 2026 and 2027, citing new generation and storage projects for state clean-energy compliance, grid infrastructure spending (including a new operations building), rising commodity costs, wildfire prevention, and inflation.

The income-graduated fixed charge is now live everywhere. All three CPUC-regulated utilities have implemented it — SCE and SDG&E in Q4 2025, PG&E on March 1, 2026. Details in the status section below.

Sources: CPUC Public Advocates Office Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 Electric Rates Reports; SMUD 2026-2027 Rate Proposal Fact Sheet. Checked 22 Sep 2026.

How to Read a Rate Schedule

A utility “rate” isn't one price — it's several charges stacked together, and the composite cents-per-kWh figures above blend all of them into a single average. When you read your own bill or a utility's published tariff, you'll typically see:

• Generation charge — what you pay for the electricity itself. On a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) account, this line comes from your CCA, not the utility.
• Delivery / transmission & distribution charge — what you pay the utility to move that power over its wires, regardless of who generated it.
• Fixed (customer/base services) charge — a flat monthly amount that doesn't depend on usage. Since late 2025–early 2026, this is income-graduated at PG&E, SCE and SDG&E (see below).
• Time-of-use (TOU) periods — most residential plans price electricity higher during a “peak” window, commonly late afternoon into evening, and lower overnight or midday. Exact peak and off-peak hours differ by utility and plan — see PG&E's time-of-use schedule, SCE's time-of-use plans and SDG&E's time-of-use schedule for the current hour-by-hour schedules rather than reading them off this page.
• Tiers — some plans, including SMUD's flat-rate schedule, charge more per kWh once usage crosses a threshold within a billing period.
• California Climate Credit — a twice-yearly bill credit, not a rate. The composite figures on this page use the CPUC's Residential Average Rate (RAR) methodology, which excludes the credit, so your actual bill can look lower than these ¢/kWh figures suggest in the months the credit lands.

If you want the peak/off-peak breakdown for a specific plan rather than the current composite average, use the utility-specific guide linked above.

12-Month Rate History

The CPUC Public Advocates Office publishes this data quarterly, not monthly — so this table reflects the quarter-end snapshot each report captures rather than 12 separate calendar months. Where the underlying report gives a specific rate-change date within the quarter, that date is used instead of the report's cover date.

Checked 22 Sep 2026 for every row shown. The CPUC Public Advocates Office's cadence has been to publish roughly one month after quarter-end, so a Q3 2026 report is expected around late October–early November 2026; this table will be updated with that snapshot once it publishes. See publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/press-room/reports-and-analyses.

The Income-Graduated Fixed Charge, Explained

CPUC Decision 24-05-028 (issued May 15, 2024) ordered PG&E, SCE and SDG&E (plus Bear Valley Electric, Liberty Utilities and PacifiCorp) to replace part of their per-kWh rate with a flat monthly charge that scales with household income:

All three utilities have now implemented it:

• SCE and SDG&E — Q4 2025 (SDG&E's effective date was October 1, 2025)
• PG&E — Q1 2026 (effective March 1, 2026; PG&E's own billing page describes the standard-tier charge as “around $24.00 per month”)

The tradeoff, per PG&E's own explanation: the per-kWh energy price drops to offset the new fixed charge, so your total bill may or may not change — it depends on how much electricity you use. For the full mechanics and bill examples, see our California's $24 fixed charge, explained page.

This is a flat charge that does not vary with usage, layered on top of (and, for CARE customers, partly offset against) the volumetric rate — it is not the same thing as the “current average rate” figures above, which already reflect its effect on the class-average RAR where applicable.

Sources: CPUC Decision 24-05-028, checked 22 Sep 2026; CPUC Public Advocates Office Q2 2026 Report, pp. 20–24, checked 22 Sep 2026; PG&E Base Services Charge page, checked 22 Sep 2026.

PG&E Rate History and Recent Changes

PG&E's residential average rate was 33.7¢/kWh as of June 2026, unchanged since a March 1, 2026 decrease of about 3.7% from January 1, 2026 rates (Advice Letter 7846-E). Over the trailing five quarterly snapshots this page tracks, PG&E's reported rate moved 38.6¢ (June 2025) → 37.8¢ (Oct 2025) → 35.0¢ (Jan 2026) → 33.7¢ (Mar 2026) → 33.7¢ (Jun 2026, no change). Over longer horizons, the Public Advocates Office reports PG&E's rate up 8% over three years, 39% over five years and 69% over ten years. PG&E's income-graduated Base Services Charge began March 1, 2026. See the current-rates and 12-month history tables above for full sourcing.

SCE Rate History and Recent Changes

SCE's residential average rate was 34.4¢/kWh as of June 1, 2026, a roughly 0.1% decrease from January 1, 2026 rates (Advice Letter 5829-E). Over the trailing five quarterly snapshots, SCE's reported rate moved 31.2¢ (June 2025) → 35.3¢ (Oct 2025) → 34.5¢ (Jan 2026) → 34.5¢ (Mar 2026) → 34.4¢ (Jun 2026). Over longer horizons, the Public Advocates Office reports SCE's rate up 4% over three years, 56% over five years and 101% over ten years — the largest ten-year and five-year increase of the three utilities on this page. SCE's income-graduated Base Services Charge began Q4 2025. See the current-rates and 12-month history tables above for full sourcing.

SDG&E Rate History and Recent Changes

SDG&E's residential average rate was 45.5¢/kWh as of June 1, 2026 — the highest of the three utilities on this page — a roughly 2.0% decrease from April 1, 2026 rates (Advice Letter 4843-E) following a FERC-ordered reduction in its Base Transmission Revenue Requirement. Over the trailing five quarterly snapshots, SDG&E's reported rate moved 41.5¢ (June 2025) → 41.0¢ (Oct 2025) → 45.7¢ (Jan 2026) → 45.7¢ (Mar 2026) → 45.5¢ (Jun 2026). Over longer horizons, the Public Advocates Office reports SDG&E's rate up 5% over three years, 42% over five years and 97% over ten years. SDG&E's income-graduated Base Services Charge began October 1, 2025. See the current-rates and 12-month history tables above for full sourcing. None of this is the rate on any one household's bill, because SDG&E bills residential customers on time-of-use plans: SDG&E time-of-use rates sets out the peak windows and what changing plan does.

Rate Questions by Utility

The averages above answer “how expensive is my utility?” These are the next questions people ask about each one, answered from the utility's own rate pages and tariffs (checked 23 Sep 2026), with a link to the full guide.

PG&E

How much did PG&E change rates this year? Down, so far. The Public Advocates Office figures in the history table above show PG&E's residential average at 37.8¢/kWh on October 1, 2025, 35.0¢ on January 1, 2026 and 33.7¢ from March 1, 2026, with no change in the second quarter. Its 2025 averages were 38.6¢ in June and 37.8¢ from October 1. PG&E says it has cut prices five times in two years. The Public Advocates Office warns that PG&E's 2027 rate case and other expected requests could raise the average bill 16% in 2027 if all are approved.

Who approves PG&E rate increases? The CPUC. PG&E's core costs go through a general rate case every four years; its 2027–2030 case was filed on May 15, 2025, and PG&E does not expect related rate changes before January 2027. Fuel, transmission and public-program costs go through separate proceedings, and each approved change reaches prices through an advice letter. The CPUC's Public Advocates Office argues for customers in those cases.

What are PG&E's time-of-use plans? E-TOU-C (peak 4–9 p.m. every day, PG&E's standard plan), E-TOU-D (peak 5–8 p.m. on non-holiday weekdays), EV2-A for home EV charging, E-ELEC for electric homes and the separately metered EV-B. Hours and March 1, 2026 prices are in PG&E time-of-use rates, and every schedule, including tiered E-1, is listed in PG&E rate schedules.

What is E-ELEC? PG&E's Electric Home plan, for homes with an EV, battery storage or an electric heat pump, and the plan the CPUC requires for new solar on the net billing tariff. From March 1, 2026 it charges 55.214¢/kWh on summer peak (4–9 p.m.), 39.026¢ part-peak and 33.358¢ off-peak (midnight–3 p.m.), and 32.063¢, 29.854¢ and 28.468¢ in winter, plus the Base Services Charge.

Do data centers get special rates from PG&E? PG&E's list of electric rate schedules has no data-center schedule; large customers are billed on its large commercial and industrial schedules. What is new is how they connect. PG&E's Electric Rule 30, an interim rule effective December 4, 2025, covers transmission-level service at 50 to 230 kV for non-residential applicants, and PG&E says it has developers pay for grid infrastructure upfront so other customers are protected if a project stalls. PG&E estimates that each new gigawatt of data-center demand could lower the average household bill 1–2% over time by spreading fixed costs; that is PG&E's estimate, not a CPUC finding.

How do I start solar with PG&E? PG&E's steps: make the home efficient, choose a licensed contractor (PG&E says an active A, B, C-10 or C-46 license), and have the contractor submit the interconnection application. PG&E reviews it, runs an engineering review, completes any grid upgrades and then gives permission to operate. New systems go on the Solar Billing Plan; PG&E says unfinished NEM2 applications moved to it on April 15, 2026. PG&E also warns that surplus power is paid at only about 2–4¢/kWh, so an oversized system does not pay. See PG&E's solar programs.

SDG&E

What are SDG&E's super off-peak times? On weekdays, midnight to 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; on weekends and holidays, midnight to 2 p.m. They apply on TOU-DR1, EV-TOU-5 and SDG&E's other three-period plans. From August 1, 2026 the TOU-DR1 super off-peak price is 37.433¢/kWh in summer and 43.719¢ in winter, and EV-TOU-5's is 13.090¢ and 12.332¢. See SDG&E time-of-use rates.

SMUD

What did SMUD charge per kWh in 2025? On the standard Time-of-Day (5–8 p.m.) Rate from May 1, 2025: 36.55¢ peak, 20.77¢ mid-peak and 15.05¢ off-peak in summer, and 17.24¢ peak and 12.48¢ off-peak the rest of the year, with a $26.20 monthly System Infrastructure Fixed Charge. From January 1, 2026 those became 37.65¢, 21.39¢, 15.50¢, 17.76¢ and 12.85¢, with a $27.00 charge.

SMUD rate increases. SMUD's board approved 3% increases on January 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027; SMUD estimated they add $4.35 and then $4.48 a month for the average residential customer. Its schedule already lists the 2027 prices: 38.78¢ summer peak and 13.24¢ non-summer off-peak, with a $27.80 fixed charge. The 2024 and 2025 increases were four steps of 2.75%.

When do SMUD summer rates start? June 1, and they run through September 30. Peak is 5 to 8 p.m. on weekdays only; weekends and SMUD's 11 holidays are off-peak all day. See SMUD peak hours.

SMUD vs. PG&E rates. SMUD's comparison of a 750 kWh month as of June 1, 2026 shows $149 at SMUD and $290 at PG&E; SMUD says its rates average more than 50% below PG&E's. Per kWh, SMUD's summer peak is 37.65¢ against 52.24¢ on PG&E's E-TOU-C, and its off-peak is 15.50¢ against 39.94¢. The fixed charges are similar: $27.00 a month at SMUD and about $24 on PG&E's standard tier.

SMUD's EV charging rate. SMUD has no separate EV plan. EV owners on the Time-of-Day Rate get 1.5¢/kWh off all use between midnight and 6 a.m., every day, once a plug-in vehicle registered with the DMV at the same address is on the account. That makes overnight power about 14.00¢ in summer and 11.35¢ the rest of the year.

SMUD SolarShares. Residential SolarShares supplies your home from solar farms SMUD built in the Sacramento region, with no panels on your roof. It runs for 20 years: charges of $2.00 per kW a month in year one fall to $0 by year six, then turn into credits that grow to $2.25 per kW from year 12. Solar and Storage Rate customers cannot join, and it does not satisfy the Title 24 solar requirement for new homes.

LADWP

LADWP Tier 1 vs. Tier 2. On the standard R-1A plan, Tier 1 is the first 350 kWh a month in Zone 1 or 500 kWh in Zone 2 (700 and 1,000 kWh on a two-month bill), and Tier 2 is the next block. For July to September 2026, Tier 1 costs 26.408¢/kWh and Tier 2 32.267¢; from October 1 they are 27.292¢ and 33.151¢. From October to May, Tier 3 costs the same as Tier 2. See LADWP rates.

Finding your provider and its rates

Who is the electricity provider in my area? Your bill names it. Otherwise, the CPUC's rate comparison tool takes a ZIP code, city or county and lists the investor-owned utility and community choice aggregators there; the California Energy Commission's service-area map covers city and district utilities too. The step-by-step lookup is in electricity rates by ZIP code.

Electric supply rates near me. California has no open market for household electricity supply. If your city joined a CCA, the CCA sets the generation price and the utility still delivers the power; otherwise the utility supplies both. Buying from another supplier, Direct Access, is capped and allocated by lottery (see Direct Access in California).

Sources for this section, checked 23 Sep 2026: PG&E residential rates table; PG&E tariffs; PG&E Electric Rule 30; PG&E on data centers; PG&E 2027 general rate case; PG&E on the March 2026 bill; Public Advocates Office PG&E fact sheet; PG&E getting started with solar; SDG&E pricing plans; SDG&E TOU-DR1 and EV-TOU-5 rate tables; SMUD Rate Schedule R-TOD; SMUD rate archive; SMUD Time-of-Day details; SMUD rate comparison; SMUD EV rates; SMUD SolarShares; LADWP residential rates; LADWP rate guide; CPUC rate comparison; CEC service-area map; CPUC net billing.

How These Rates Are Calculated (Methodology)

Primary sources used

1. CPUC Public Advocates Office quarterly Electric Rates Reports — the authoritative, independent (not utility-authored) source for the Residential Average Rate (RAR) figure used throughout this page. Published roughly one month after each quarter closes, at publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/press-room/reports-and-analyses.
2. CPUC decisions and advice letters (docs.cpuc.ca.gov) for structural changes such as the income-graduated fixed charge (Decision 24-05-028) and the utility advice-letter filings cited by the Public Advocates Office reports.
3. Utility-published rate schedules (e.g. SMUD's Residential Rate Guide) for publicly owned utilities not covered by the CPUC Public Advocates Office reports.

Definitions

• “All-in average rate” / Residential Average Rate (RAR): total residential class revenue divided by total residential kWh sold — a blended figure across all rate tiers, time-of-use periods and customer types within the residential class. This is not the same as any single tariff's per-kWh rate, which varies by usage tier, time of day, climate zone and CARE/FERA enrollment.
• Bundled System Average Rate (SAR): a related but broader figure covering all customer classes (residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, etc.), shown in the source reports for context but not used as this page's headline number.
• Excludes the California Climate Credit: a twice-yearly, non-rate bill credit (funded by cap-and-trade allowance revenue) that the Public Advocates Office explicitly nets out of its RAR figures; this page follows that convention.

What is excluded from this page

• Non-CPUC-regulated utilities beyond SMUD/LADWP (e.g. other municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives).
• Commercial, industrial and agricultural rates.
• Any savings, payback or “switch to solar” calculation.
• Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) generation rates, which differ from IOU bundled rates and are not covered by the Public Advocates Office reports used here.

Update cadence

Monthly review; substantive rate-table updates only when a new CPUC Public Advocates Office quarterly report publishes (expect roughly: end of April, end of July, early November, mid-February) or when a utility files a rate-changing advice letter the Public Advocates Office has not yet rolled up.

Sources and How We Update This Page

Every figure on this page traces to one of the primary sources below, each with the date it was checked.

This page is reviewed monthly; the rate tables above are substantively updated only when a new CPUC Public Advocates Office quarterly report publishes or a utility files a rate-changing advice letter the Public Advocates Office has not yet rolled up. See our methodology page for how California Rate Relief sources and corrects its content generally.

Related Reading

• why your bill can run higher than the average rate suggests
• finding the rate for your address
• every PG&E residential rate schedule
• how solar export credits are calculated
• NEM 2.0 vs. NEM 3.0
• ways to lower your bill
• what solar costs in California