California utility regulators Tuesday released a set of recommendations to California Gov. Gavin Newsom for reducing high electric bills, including paying for programs through non-ratepayer funding and tweaking benefits to customers who install rooftop solar.
The California Public Utilities Commission delivered its report that Newsom mandated in October as part of a suite of actions aimed at mitigating the rising costs of electricity in the state.
The report says the main factors driving high electricity rates are utilities’ wildfire mitigation spending and the cost shift that results from legacy net energy metering programs, which give credits to customers who generate electricity with rooftop solar and sell it to the grid. Investments in utility transmission and distribution infrastructure are a secondary factor driving rate increases, according to the report.
The report presents various ideas to reduce costs, including searching for other sources of funding to supplement wildfire mitigation programs and incorporating wildfire mitigation into utilities’ general rate cases, which would bring more scrutiny to spending in that area to prioritize the most cost-effective options.
