Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has officially submitted a fresh proposal focused on energy system improvements to drive California’s economic growth and increase climate change resilience.
For better context, PG&E and the state’s other investor-owned utilities are required to make multi-year cost proposals every four years.
Anyway, assuming this particilaur proposal is approved in full, total residential combined gas and electric bills in 2027 will likely be flat compared to 2025 bills. More on the same would reveal that, if electric demand increases, as the California Energy Commission forecasts, bills could actually go down, considering the costs of operating the system would be shared across more customers.
Now, while PG&E’s GRC proposal, in isolation, will increase bills by a maximum of 3.6% in 2027, total bills are expected to be flat. This is, by and large, because other costs will come out of bills in 2026, including those related to the 2023 GRC, wildfire mitigation, and storm recovery.
All in all, PG&E’s core plan talks to stabilizing bills through 2030, something it will look to achieve on the back of a $15 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee. You see, the guarantee can very well save customers around $1 billion over the life of the loan.
Not just that, it may also birth a significantly better credit rating, further lowering future borrowing costs and energy demand growth from electric vehicles and data centers.
Talk about the company’s new proposal, as well as the ways in which it will increase safety and reliability for customers, on a slightly deeper level, we begin from its promise to implement a more modern grid moving forward. The intention here is to meet expected the historic growth in electricity demand from new homes, businesses, electric vehicles, and AI-focused data centers.
From a practical standpoint, this includes preparing the grid to serve 3 million EVs by 2030 and ramping up to 20,000 new customer connections per year by 2030.
Next up, the proposal focuses on enhancing wildlife safety through proven layers of wildfire protection. Here, PG&E will effectively replace 760 miles of powerlines with stronger poles and covered powerlines. It will further place 307 miles of powerlines underground in the highest fire-risk areas during 2027 so to reduce risk on those lines by 98%.
On top of that, the company will also install an extra 114 weather stations for better forecasting and situational awareness. Beyond that, it will look to improve tree trimming by bundling work, all for the purpose of reducing costs and minimizing impacts for customers.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in PG&E’s goal to bolster clean energy delivery and overall system resilience. To realize that, the company will actively finance lower-cost solar and battery energy storage for diversifying the grid’s existing power plant fleet and protecting customers from fuel cost volatility. Alongside that, it will install more microgrids in remote areas to reduce wildfire risk and lower costs, thus removing powerlines and decreasing the need for maintenance.
The company will also accelerate EV adoption to increase vehicle-to-grid capabilities so that EVs can serve as mobile batteries during peak summer energy demand periods. Finally, PG&E will get the ball rolling to modernize existing clean hydroelectric plants, and therefore, improve their reliability through actions like spillway enhancements.
Looking past the company’s consideration for clean energy, we must also mention how it will also replace 164 miles of distribution pipeline annually, and at the same time, upgrade internal pipeline inspections processes to extend the lifespan of pipelines. PG&E will further respond to more than 600,000 calls to locate and mark lines for reducing the likelihood of third-party pipeline dig-ins.
To top it all, the company will leverage advanced mobile leak detection technology to quickly fix gas leaks and reduce methane emissions.
“At PG&E, we want what you want—safe, reliable, clean and affordable energy for all. We are on a journey to transform PG&E and improve how we serve our customers at a lower cost,” said Patti Poppe, CEO of PG&E.
