Business & Real Estate
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
July 3, 2015
- Biggest restructuring in 14 years for electricity ratepayers
- Move affects PG&E, Edison, San Diego
- Higher rates for up to 40 percent of customers
Regulators overhauled the state’s system for pricing electricity for millions of Californians on Friday in a move that they said will simplify the structure and bring rates closer in line with costs. Many customers who use the least amount of energy will probably see rate increases, but regulators said the system will be more fair.
The Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to approve the most significant restructuring of electricity pricing since the Legislature froze rates for many customers during the 2001 energy crisis.
The decision affects electricity customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Although it will affect Yolo County and wide swaths of Northern California, it won’t affect the Sacramento Municipal Utility District or Roseville’s city-owned utility.
Michael Picker, president of the PUC, said the new structure could generate increases of about $5 a month for as many as 40 percent of three big utilities’ ratepayers, “but we really don’t know … . It’s a real grab bag as to how this is going to play out.”
Picker said the commission didn’t approve new rates Friday. Rather, it adopted a general structure, to be phased in over four years, with the exact details to be fleshed out by the PUC after hearing proposals from the big three investor-owned utilities.
“This is just a set of design changes,” Picker said in an interview. “(The utilities) will have to file stuff with us.”
The biggest change will be a flattening of rate tiers, which will narrow the price gap between the heaviest users and those who consume the least electricity. The result will likely be rate hikes for many of the lowest users.
The PUC’s reasoning? The Legislature froze rates in 2001 for the lowest-tier users, and since then costs have risen to the point that some of those users are paying below their actual cost. In that same time, prices have risen considerably for many customers who use more electricity. That “imposed ever greater inequities on large-family households that were pushed into higher tiers in hot climate zones,” the PUC said.
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“…proposals from the big three investor-owned utilities…”
Free market- Nope, only profit shared among a few.
And when profit is made, it’s rushed off to the Cayman Islands to evade paying American taxes.
Wouldn’t it have been better if the people owned their own power companies, (since we are all required by most city codes to have electrical hookup AND we have ZERO choices in who we buy our energy from?) whatever profit would be made would either lower the bills or inject back into the community.
But of course that falls under socialism (small ‘s’ not Socialism) and in America we put the profits for a few investors like “the big three investor-owned utilities” over the lives of “We the People”
In other words- You’ve been had!
Edison is the scummiest of th utilities. Their former president peveey ran the crooked PUC. Jerry Brown doesnt care how crooked his PUC steals from ratepayers. Hes too busy releasing dangerous criminals from state prisons and giving tax money to illegal aliens to woryy about us poor schmucks.
Governor Brown’s sister is on the board of Sempra. Gov. Brown has to date shown no interest in reforming the CPUC.
Sempra is the parent owner of Southern California Gas Company.
The Gas company is pretty decent all things considered. edison,on the other hand are the greediest scummiest pieces of human garbage around. Those dirtbags all belong in jail. Along with their cohorts the PUC.
Edison’s money-grubbing started with Thomas. The film industry started in New York and New Jersey, then moved to Hollywood to be farther away from Thomas Edison’s patent collection for cinometography. They were ready to slip into Mexico if needed.
With Google’s introductin of household wall batteries, there will be more and more households and businesses that do not need to rely on the electirical grid at all. But those remaining on the grid will continue to be billed for the cost.