PG&E Rate Increase 2026: Sept 1 Wildfire Hike Slips to 2027

The CPUC pushed its deadline to decide PG&E's 2024 wildfire-cost application to Feb 19, 2027, and PG&E has not asked for interim collection, so the Sept 1 increase is now a 2027 question, with the dollar math below.

The Sept 1 increase is slipping

PG&E's customer notice for its 2024 Wildfire Mitigation and Catastrophic Events application, A.24-11-009, proposes to start collecting on Sept 1, 2026, recovering expenses over one year and capital over four (PG&E customer notice). But the CPUC is not going to decide it by Sept 1. At its July 2 meeting, the Commission's consent agenda carried an order extending the statutory deadline for A.24-11-009 to Feb 19, 2027 (CPUC Public Agenda 3583, July 2, 2026, consent item 27). The proceeding was not on the July 16 agenda either.

Crucially, PG&E has not asked for interim rate relief in this case, unlike its 2023 WMCE filing, which began collecting 55% of costs subject to refund while the record was still open (PG&E reply to protests, Jan 6, 2025). With no interim collection and no final decision, $0 of the 2024 WMCE is in your rates today, and the earliest realistic start is now 2027.

What PG&E filed, whenever it lands, is still concrete. PG&E publishes the bill impact for a typical bundled residential customer at 500 kWh/month, and the surcharge is mostly per-kWh, so the arithmetic scales:

Low-usage apartment, 250 kWh: about +$0.70/month. That is PG&E's $1.40 example scaled by half ($1.40 x 250/500).
Median home, 500 kWh: +$1.40/month, PG&E's own figure (bill from $212.45 to $213.85, a 0.7% increase).
High-usage home, 1,200 kWh: about +$3.36/month ($1.40 x 1,200/500).

Gas moves too: a typical non-CARE home burning 31 therms/month would see gas rise about +$1.00 (from $75.25 to $76.25, 1.3%). A median combined home is looking at roughly +$2.40/month if the application is approved as filed, declining in later years as the capital piece amortizes off. None of this is approved.

How a wildfire bill becomes a surcharge on your bill

Once per issue, the mechanism. PG&E does not just raise rates. It files an application (like A.24-11-009) asking the CPUC to find its recorded costs "just and reasonable" under the prudent-manager standard, meaning PG&E used industry best practices and managed costs as a reasonable utility would. The CPUC's independent Public Advocates Office and groups like TURN test that claim in hearings. If the CPUC approves, PG&E implements the revenue requirement through an advice letter (Advice 5184-G carried the 2023 WMCE gas slice into rates March 1, 2026, per D.26-02-004). The surcharge then rides on your per-kWh or per-therm price and falls off when the amortization period ends. A utility can also ask to collect a share subject to refund before the record closes, which is how the 2023 WMCE started hitting bills in March 2024; PG&E chose not to do that here. Penalties, by contrast, come out of shareholder pockets and never enter this door, as covered last week.

The July 16 meeting: PG&E's $2.6B capital request delayed again

The July 16 CPUC agenda put two PG&E financing items up for a vote. Both were held over, per meeting-results reporting, while the one item the Commission did adopt was a heat-shutoff rule, not a rate (CalMatters, July 17, 2026; CalRegulatory, July 16, 2026 meeting results). The capital-structure item had already been held from the July 2 meeting at President John Reynolds's request (CalRegulatory, July 3, 2026).

The bigger of the two is A.24-08-004, PG&E's request to exclude about $2.6 billion from its debt-to-equity calculation: roughly $277 million tied to Dixie Fire claims, about $1.2 billion tied to Kincade Fire claims, and a roughly $1.4 billion interest-free Department of Water Resources loan supporting Diablo Canyon's extended run. The proposed decision of ALJ Amin Nojan, mailed May 21, 2026, denies the request, finding it does not qualify for an Affiliate Transaction Rule waiver and that deviating from PG&E's authorized capital structure is not in the public interest.

The dollar fight is honest because the two sides contradict each other. PG&E argues that being denied raises its financing costs by at least $50 million a year, which it says "could potentially" reach customers. The proposed decision says the denial "would not have affected customer rates." Against PG&E's $16.637 billion test-year 2027 revenue request, $50 million is about three-tenths of one percent ($50M / $16,637M = 0.3%), so even PG&E's own number is a rounding error on a monthly bill, and the CPUC says the on-bill effect is zero. The bigger stakes are financial: PG&E's authorized return, set in the CPUC's December 2025 cost-of-capital decision at 9.98% on common equity and a 7.61% overall rate of return with a 52% common-equity floor, stays in place (CPUC cost-of-capital decision).

The second held item, A.25-10-004, asked to lift PG&E's short-term borrowing authority by $2.0 billion to a $10.5 billion cap. The proposed decision grants half: +$1.0 billion, to a $9.5 billion cap, once PG&E pays $506,000 in statutory fees. Both PG&E items now roll to a future meeting, likely Aug 13.

What the CPUC did vote on: heat-shutoff protections

The one PG&E-relevant item the Commission actually adopted July 16 was a 4-0 vote strengthening when utilities can cut your power for nonpayment during heat. The CPUC lowered the backstop temperature threshold from 100 to 90 degrees and ordered utilities to adopt a region-specific heat standard within six months (CalMatters, July 17, 2026).

The rule matters because a single statewide number over-protects Fresno and under-protects the coast. The CPUC noted the extreme-heat threshold is already below 100 degrees in 41 of 58 counties; San Francisco treats 85 degrees as extreme, Del Norte County 76.8 degrees. The protections apply only to shutoffs for unpaid bills, not to PSPS wildfire outages or equipment failures. PG&E spokesperson Adrienne Moore told CalMatters that "disconnection is a last resort at PG&E, only after multiple attempts to contact customers and offer payment plans and assistance programs." This is not a rate change, but it is the rule that decides whether an unpaid summer bill costs you your power.

Tracking

2027 General Rate Case (A.25-05-009). Evidentiary hearings ended March 15, 2026; briefs filed April 20; reply briefs May 12. PG&E's proposed schedule submits the proceeding for Commission decision Aug 3, 2026 (CPUC GRC workshop schedule). The CPUC's own fact sheet still anticipates new rates in May 2027 (CPUC fact sheet, A.25-05-009). The headline standoff is unchanged: the Public Advocates Office forecasts about $840/year more by 2030 stacking all pending cost-recovery filings; PG&E counts about $128/year from the GRC alone (Public Advocates Office). The day a proposed decision posts, this becomes the issue of the year.

Base Services Charge. In effect since March 1, 2026, unchanged this cycle. Standard tier $24.15/month, CARE $6, FERA/affordable housing $12 (PG&E BSC page).