recently moved to California, and this is my first direct experience as a customer of PG&E. Unfortunately, it confirms much of what I had previously heard from professionals who have worked with the company.
PG&E has a reputation for aggressively resisting innovations that could reduce its workforce and lower energy costs. Instead, the company appears to focus on extracting higher revenue from customers by imposing a growing number of complex fees, manipulating hourly rates, and changing those rates on a daily basis throughout the year.
I have a strong background in mathematics, yet I am still unable to independently verify the correctness of my electricity bill. I am not referring here to the fairness of the charges themselves—those can be questioned by comparing PG&E’s rates with other energy providers—but to the basic transparency and verifiability of the billing process.
The NEM 3.0 rules promoted by PG&E further shift the benefits of solar panel installations away from homeowners and toward the utility itself. For example, when solar-generated electricity is used to charge an electric vehicle, rates are adjusted in ways that increase costs to the customer, effectively creating additional charges without corresponding value.
In my opinion, PG&E’s business practices warrant a thorough audit. Moreover, restructuring or splitting the company could lead to increased competition and, ultimately, better outcomes for customers.
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The Pacific Gas and Electric Company is an American investor-owned utility with publicly traded stock that is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building in San Francisco, California, United States.
