California Utility Rate Tracker

California's big investor-owned utilities change their electricity rates several times a year, and the changes are buried in regulatory filings most people never see. This page collects, in one place, the current average residential rate for California's major electric utilities, how that rate has moved over the last year and over time, and the fixed monthly charges that ride along with it — all sourced directly from the California Public Utilities Commission's own watchdog office and each utility's own published tariffs. It exists so a reporter, researcher or ratepayer can find a sourced, dated number without digging through PDFs.

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.

PG&E, SCE and SDG&E figures: CPUC Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report, p.8, 20, 22, 24. Fetched 17 Sep 2026.

Note 1 (SMUD): SMUD is a publicly owned utility and is not covered by the CPUC Public Advocates Office reports. SMUD 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 $26.20/month figure differs from the ≈$27/month figure sometimes referenced elsewhere; $26.20 is the figure printed in the sourced schedule. A 2026/2027 SMUD board-approved rate change was not found this pass (the “2026-2027 proposed rate changes” page returned a 404).

Note 2 (LADWP): LADWP is a publicly owned utility and is not covered by the CPUC Public Advocates Office reports. The only LADWP tariff document retrievable in this research pass (ladwp.com/.../LADWP_Electric_Rates.pdf) is dated July 1, 2009 and is not current; the ladwp.com residential-rates page and the rates.ladwp.com portal returned access errors to the research tool. No current LADWP rate is published on this page as a result.

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

Source: CPUC Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report, p.8. Fetched 17 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 17 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. Fetched 17 Sep 2026.

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.

Fetched 17 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

By CPUC Decision 24-05-028 (issued 15 May 2024), PG&E, SCE and SDG&E (plus Bear Valley Electric, Liberty Utilities and PacifiCorp) were ordered to add an income-graduated fixed monthly charge alongside a reduced per-kWh volumetric rate:

• Tier 1 (CARE-enrolled households): ≈ $6/month
• Tier 2 (FERA-enrolled or deed-restricted affordable housing): ≈ $12/month
• Tier 3 (all other residential customers): $24.15/month

Implementation was staggered by utility:

• SCE and SDG&E: began Q4 2025 (SDG&E's Base Services Charge took effect October 1, 2025 per the CPUC Public Advocates Office Q4 2025 report)
• PG&E, Bear Valley Electric, Liberty Utilities, PacifiCorp: began Q1 2026 (PG&E's Base Services Charge took effect March 1, 2026 per Advice Letter 7846-E)

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, fetched 17 Sep 2026; CPUC Public Advocates Office Q2 2026 Report, pp. 20–24, fetched 17 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.

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 Schedule R) 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 fetched for this page.

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.