SDG&E Wants to Raise Its Rates Even More

San Diego Gas and Electric — which already charges its customers the highest electrical rate in the country — now wants to raise gas and electric bills even more — by almost 9 percent. This would begin in 2024 if state regulators authorize a proposed four-year spending plan submitted this week by the utility.

That means a typical residential customer would see their utility bills jump around $18 per month, according to the utility. (SDG&E defines “typical residential customer” as a user of 400 kwh hours of electricity and 24 therms of gas per month.)

“We know our customers may not take much comfort in this,” Scott Crider, senior vice president of external affairs at SDG&E, told Voice of San Diego Tuesday as he cried crocodile tears. “We recognize with all the inflationary pressure with higher gas prices, food and housing, there’s never a good time to ask for a rate increase.”

Investor-owned utilities in California have to submit justification for raising rates on customers to the state Public Utilities Commission in what’s called a General Rate Case filing. It’s basically SDG&E’s forecast on what it will cost to run its business largely for infrastructure and maintaining the system, said Jamie York, who leads the work on these filings. The 2024-2027 plan shows SDG&E wants to spend $3.02 billion in 2024. That’s almost 19 percent more than it planned to spend in 2023.

Craig Rose, an advocate for the city of San Diego to discard SDG&E and form a public utility, said these rate increases “make the case for public power.”

“How much better a case do we need for revoking the franchise (with SDG&E) than these constant rate increases,” Rose said.

Energy bills spiked dramatically in January, about 11 percent systemwide. So the extra spending isn’t welcome news for many. More than 25 percent of SDG&E’s residential customers owe money on their energy bills, according to the Union-Tribune.

It was just in April that Sempra, SDG&E’s parent, paid out its highest profits ever to its investors.

Crider said the spending is focused largely in three areas: powering a transition to clean energies, like building batteries and electric vehicle charging infrastructure; fixing gas lines; and protecting and preventing infrastructure from starting wildfires, including burying more power lines underground which is one of the costliest wildfire measure utilities can undertake.

How much the utility might spend in 2025 and years after would be proposed later after factoring in inflation. The CPUC has 18 months to review SDG&E’s spending plan.

The utility also wants to boost its cybersecurity budget, citing recent cyber attacks by Russia on Ukraine and U.S. organizations and industries. And SDG&E wants to spend more on developing hydrogen as a potential renewable energy resource.