DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

In January, I expressed wonder at PG&E’s “new math;” in spite of a bankruptcy that would leave ratepayers on the hook for a $7 billion bailout, the utility announced a 4.1% reduction in electricity rates. It made no sense then, but makes perfect sense now. I think my theory has turned out to be correct — it was a distraction. Now that a few months have gone by since anybody gave any thought to their electricity rates, PG&E has filed an application to raise them.

Two confusing and contradictory inserts accompanied my most recent statement. Multiple paragraphs of legalese can be summarized by this excerpt from one of the two pamphlets:

Does this mean electricity will cost me more?
Yes.

A table of revenue figures and percentages of change appears in each document. Curiously, the percentages are radically different. One shows a “Percent Change” for residential customers of 2.8%. The other shows 5.4%. I suspect one pamphlet was authored by PG&E, and the other by the PUC (Public Utilities Commission).

There’s one telling example:

The bill for a typical bundled customer using 542 kWh per month would increase $3.76 from $66.09 to $69.85. The average usage for customers using more than twice their baseline allowance is 876. The bill for this average bundled customer would increase by approximately $24 from $125.83 to $149.79 per month.

That’s 5.7% and 19%, respectively. Hmm, so much for that 4.1 reduction, eh?

The critical thing to remember is that since 1970, electricity rates have climbed an average of 6% per year. There is no reason to believe they’ll ever go down.

Ironically, the pending rate increase is good news for me; it means, in effect, that my photovoltaic system will pay for itself sooner.