“The money is way too much,” Silvestro said.Īccording to state law, utilities cannot profit by selling more electricity to customers, even during periods of high energy use. The Silvestros’ bill the previous month came to $442. The couple’s monthly baseline is 313 kilowatt-hours per month. Silvestro’s home used 1,511 kilowatt-hours for the billing period between July 20 and Aug. SDG&E officials expected the surcharge to affect about 71,500 ratepayers but the hot weather has boosted that number to almost 81,000, which represents almost 6 percent of SDG&E’s 1.4 million residential customers. The high usage charge went into effect last November but its larger impacts were not felt until this summer when temperatures soared. It applies to all ratepayers serviced by the state’s three big investor-owned utilities - SDG&E, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.
Jones said the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) instituted the charge as a way to encourage customers to conserve energy. This is considered the “high usage charge.” If usage exceeds 130 percent of the baseline, the price then goes up to 48 cents per kilowatt-hour in the summer and 40 cents in the winter for that tier.īut if usage exceeds 400 percent - or four times the baseline amount - the rate jumps to 55 cents a kilowatt-hour in the summer and 47 cents a kilowatt-hour in the winter. 31, the baseline increases as energy demand rises across the state.Ĭustomers in a standard SDG&E tiered billing system pay 27 cents per killowatt-hour in the summer and 23 cents a kilowatt-hour in the winter. The baseline is determined by the “climate zone” you live in - coastal, inland, mountain or desert - as well as whether you are strictly an electric customer or whether you use electric and gas.ĭuring the summer months of June 1 through Oct. The baseline establishes how many kilowatt-hours of electricity a home is deemed to need each month. It’s related to the “baseline allowance” commonly seen on of a residential customer’s statement. What about that expensive surcharge that hit Silvestro and other customers?
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