PG&E wants its investors to get a better return. Customers would pay higher rates
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wants to increase the amount of profit its investors can make, a move that could raise bills by roughly $5.50 per month for residential customers starting in 2026.
The company asked for the increase Thursday in a filing with the Public Utilities Commission, saying it wanted to make itself more attractive to investors, especially in light of the destructive fires in the Los Angeles area earlier this year.
“Investors could decide to curtail or limit their investments in California utilities if the risk of recovering their investments is too great, just as certain home insurance companies pulled back from the California market due to concerns about their ability to recover their costs,” the company said in the filing.
The request is likely to add even more frustration with the company among customers and legislators at the Capitol.
“I’m absolutely stunned by the size of the increase they are requesting,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, also known as TURN. “We have an affordability crisis, they reported record-breaking profits two years in a row.”
PG&E is one of the largest utility companies in the country and it provides gas and electric to roughly 16 million people in Central and Northern California.
It recorded a $2.47 billion profit last year after earning $2.24 billion in 2023. The company makes its profit primarily through charges to customers for its infrastructure projects, including undergrounding power lines.
The request would change its “return on equity” level for investors to 11.3%. It currently sits at 10.3%. That level went into effect in January.
The company said it reinvests 97% of what it earns. Carla Peterman, a PG&E corporate affairs officer, told lawmakers at an oversight hearing last month that $86 million of its 2024 profit went back to investors.
It says raising the return on equity can improve the company’s credit rating and lower its borrowing costs. Its shareholders include individual investors but also retirement funds.
Lawmakers at the Capitol have said they are focused on how to lower utility costs for customers, while balancing the state’s climate goals, and have questioned why the Public Utilities Commission approved a series of rate increases for PG&E last year.
Costs have outpaced the rate of inflation in recent years and the average residential electric bill for the company was around $211 per month in January 2025, according to PG&E.
Terrie Prosper, a spokesperson for the utilities commission, said it was not yet known how quickly the company’s request would be addressed.
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
