California Electricity Rates per kWh: PG&E, Edison, SDG&E and the Climate Credit

A 750 kWh month cost $139 in Turlock and $322 in San Diego on 1 June 2026. Your utility now decides more than your usage does, and a new $24 monthly charge has shifted the sums again.

Eight utilities, one 750 kWh month

Few places show how much a utility matters. SMUD publishes a comparison of what eight California utilities charged for a 750 kWh residential month as of 1 June 2026.

SMUD is a competitor in that table and picks its own basis, so treat it as a guide, but federal data agree. The three investor-owned companies sit in a band of their own. A home in Sacramento pays about half of what a home in the Bay Area pays for the same electricity. In 2025 the all-in price was 18.93¢ per kWh at SMUD and 26.48¢ at LADWP, against 37.52¢ at PG&E and 45.77¢ at SDG&E.

— in the last two columns: the utility reported no homes on delivery-only service to EIA for 2025, so none of its homes bought power from a supplier. All 9 are city utilities, public districts or co-ops.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

What the three big companies report

The state’s Public Advocates Office, the consumer voice inside the California Public Utilities Commission, tracks these three each quarter. Its report for June 2026 is the cleanest current picture.

Two readings stand out. The decade’s climb is enormous: since 2014, rates rose 93% at PG&E, 97% at SCE and 117% at SDG&E, while consumer prices rose 42%. Yet the last three years are far calmer, which rarely makes headlines. PG&E has made five cuts since January 2024, and it says its bundled rates are 13% below that month.

The strain on households has not eased. More than one residential account in five across the three companies is behind, about 20.6%, owing $619 on average. PG&E alone has 1,356,481 accounts in arrears. The Public Advocates warn that forecast rates count only known requests and will likely rise as more are filed. SCE’s latest change came on 1 October 2026, taking its 500 kWh bill from $185.85 to $188.64, partly on Woolsey Fire costs.

The $24 charge you cannot turn off

A new line changed the arithmetic. The Base Services Charge is about $24 a month, about $12 for FERA households and $6 for CARE households. SDG&E brought it in during October 2025, SCE in November 2025 and PG&E in March 2026, and usage prices were lowered in exchange.

It works like this. In a 200 kWh month, $24 adds 12¢ to each kWh. At 800 kWh it adds 3¢. Light users therefore lost part of what they could save by using less, and heavy users, including many inland homes and electric-vehicle owners, gained. That matters in a state with hot and cool zones this far apart: in SCE’s area, hot climate zone 15 averages about 700 kWh a month and cool zone 6 about 385.

If you have been cutting use to shrink your bill, a kWh saved is now worth a little less. If you are thinking about a heat pump or an EV, it has got a little better. CARE households get a discount of 30% to 35%, and about 40% in total with exemptions and the new charge, while FERA gives 18%. Both are worth an application, since neither is automatic.

Time-of-use or tiered: what to type

Most homes on PG&E, SCE and SDG&E are now on time-of-use, where the hour sets the price. Others pay a lower tier up to a baseline allowance tied to their climate zone. On a tiered bill, enter tier 1, the allowance, then tier 2. On time-of-use, the average of your last few bills is the best single figure.

If a CCA runs your generation

California closed most retail choice after the crisis of 2000–01. Instead a city or county can take over generation under community choice aggregation, while the big utility still delivers and bills. You are enrolled automatically and may opt out. Your bill then has a CCA line plus an exit fee, the power charge indifference adjustment.

EIA-861 for 2025, Sales to Ultimate Customers (residential): every utility, supplier and retail provider’s own report.

In 2025 the 5,776,231 homes served this way or by direct access paid 37.92¢ per kWh, while the utility’s own rates come to 36.95¢. Those homes used less power, which lifts the average once a bill has a fixed part. So it is a slim gap, and many CCAs sell cleaner power for close to the utility’s price.

Worked out from EIA-861 for 2025: suppliers’ revenue from homes plus the utilities’ delivery-only revenue, divided by the kWh, against the same kWh at each utility’s default-service price per kWh. Aggregation programmes count as suppliers. The averages hide wide differences between contracts.

August and September read low

The Climate Credit now arrives in August and September for customers of the three companies. It used to be April and October. That is why EIA’s average for August 2026 fell to 29.75¢, 3.9¢ below July’s, in a month when homes used far more. Cal Advocates says the credit trims the average rate by 2¢ to 3¢ over a year. In the older pattern, April 2014 fell 36% and May rebounded 63%.

Over the year to August 2026, the average bill ran from $133 in November to $235 in August. Statewide figures blur the coast and the Central Valley, so your own bill may look nothing like that.

No state has climbed faster

From 14.75¢ per kWh in 2010 to 32.33¢ over the last 12 months is 119%, the steepest rise of any state. Most of it is delivery: wildfire prevention and liability, grid work and programmes paid through rates. The wholesale power is a smaller part of the story.

Lowest use in the country

Among Pacific states, only Hawaii pays more per kWh, while Oregon and Washington, with their hydropower, sit below the US average. California homes use the least of anywhere (51st of 51), which leaves the yearly bill at 17th.

Across the border: Nevada 13.45¢, Arizona 15.39¢, Oregon 15.53¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

Reading Cal Advocates beside EIA

Cal Advocates’ average rates are residential averages for bundled service from utility advice letters, excluding the Climate Credit, so they run higher than EIA’s statewide all-utility figure, which counts cheaper public systems. The SMUD comparison uses its own assumptions and date. We have not used third-party figures for LADWP’s rate per kWh, because they disagree; the LADWP numbers here are SMUD’s and EIA’s.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• California, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 2.0 (6 November 2026): rebuilt around current utility data: a 750 kWh comparison of eight utilities, the Public Advocates figures for June 2026 including arrears and wildfire costs, the Base Services Charge and the moved Climate Credit.
• 1.1.1 (November 2026): wording and page heading tidied; no figures changed.
• 1.1 (5 November 2026): Climate Credit timing corrected to August and September from 2026, with a note on the August 2026 price.
• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.