San Diego Gas & Electric customers will save a few bucks on their monthly bills for the rest of this year.
Residential customers who receive their electricity generation from one of the two community choice energy programs in the area — San Diego Community Power or the Clean Energy Alliance — can expect to see about a $6 reduction in their electricity bills.
About 85% of residential customers in SDG&E’s service territory are enrolled in Community Power or the Clean Energy Alliance.
For those remaining “bundled” customers, who get all of their utility services from SDG&E, the savings pencil out to about $3 per month.
The reductions started in the June billing cycle and run through the rest of 2026. The next change in electricity rates is anticipated to come in January of 2027.
The decreases are a result of a combination of items that have fallen off bills, SDG&E spokesperson Anthony Wagner said.
One of them relates to a ruling the California Public Utilities Commission made in December 2024.
At that time, the CPUC approved SDG&E’s general rate case that resulted in increases of 2.6% for electricity and 1.8% for natural gas for 2024 through 2027.
But the commission did not approve the decision until 2024 was almost over. As a result, the rate increases had to be amortized into customer bills for 18 months starting in 2025 to make up for what was not collected.
That 18-month stretch came to an end in the middle of this year, thus contributing to the current decreases.
In a separate matter, San Diego ratepayers will soon receive back-to-back discounts on their electric bills.
The California Climate Credit is funded through money generated from the state’s Cap-and-Invest Program that requires power plants, natural gas providers and large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy permits on the carbon pollution they produce.
It’s distributed across the state to all customers of investor-owned utilities, including SDG&E.
In the past, the CPUC allotted the electricity portion of the credit during one month in the spring and one month in the fall. But this year, the commission decided to apply the credits in August and September, since those are typically the hottest months of the year.
This year, SDG&E customers will receive a credit of $49.36 in August on their electric bills, plus another $49.36 credit in September.
Customers don’t need to sign up to receive the credits; they are automatically deducted from monthly statements.
“These credits provide timely relief,” SDG&E chief customer officer Dana Golan said in a statement, “helping offset costs during a period when energy use and bills can be higher.”
The dollar amounts of the credits fluctuate each year, depending on how much money the Cap-and-Invest Program generates.
Ever-increasing utility costs have become a sore spot for customers across California.
According to the most recent electric rates report by the California Public Advocates Office, the average per-kilowatt residential rate has increased 98% in SDG&E’s service territory in the past 10 years. Southern California Edison customers have seen a 101% increase over the same time frame, while Pacific Gas & Electric’s average residential rates have climbed 69%.