Customers with San Jose Clean Energy, the city’s primary energy provider, are set to get a break on their energy bill come January.
With the company’s reserves flush with cash, it has announced a plan to distribute $25 million in rebates to about 330,000 of its customers.
“Energy costs were lower than expected in 2025, which allowed (San Jose Clean Energy) to build reserves beyond what is required for financial stability,” company representatives wrote in a news release. “Because (San Jose Clean Energy) is community-owned, those dollars don’t go to shareholders — they go back to customers.”
The pot of rebate money will be split 50/50 between the city-backed energy seller’s commercial and residential customers.
For residential customers, who make up the vast majority of the company’s customer base, that comes to a one-time flat bill credit of $40. The rebate will appear on their January PG&E bill as a separate line item labeled “SJCE Community Energy Credit.”
Eligibility for the rebate extends to nearly all residential customers in good standing with the company as of Oct. 27, the release said. The one exception is the roughly 11,700 customers who have produced more energy than they have consumed over the past 12 months, typically because they use solar panels. These customers will be excluded because they have already received surplus energy payments.
Meanwhile, commercial customers will receive rebates ranging from $130 to $3,760 depending on the quantity of energy they consume.
The city launched San Jose Clean Energy in 2019 as a means of providing residents with electric power from low-emission sources, including wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric. Today, the company sells energy to nearly all San Jose residents, though PG&E still transmits and distributes the power and also handles billing.
San Jose Clean Energy officials said the upcoming rebate is intended in part to offset the expected increase of a state-mandated fee paid by PG&E customers, which could begin Jan. 1.
“Issuing the credit now ensures that customers see a benefit on their January 2026 bills — typically a high-bill period — prior to the implementation of new (San Jose Clean Energy) rates in March 2026,” San Jose Clean Energy Director Lori Mitchell wrote in a memo sent to the City Council.
A spokesperson for PG&E said its rates have declined over the past two years and are expected to drop again at the start of the new year.
City officials say San Jose Clean Energy has benefited from a mild summer this year, which helped reduce energy consumption and lower costs. With money pouring in, the company’s rate stabilization reserve — which will fund the rebate payments — more than doubled over the last fiscal year, reaching $106 million, according to the memo.
Councilmembers, who oversee San Jose Clean Energy, signed off on the rebate plan during their Tuesday meeting. During deliberations, Mayor Matt Mahan cheered the rebate and the modest financial windfall it will bring to residents.
“In a time when California’s No. 1 concern is cost of living … I am glad that we are showing that when we achieve savings, we can return those to folks and do our best to keep rates low,” Mahan said at the meeting.
Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.