PG&E Cuts Residential Rates 1.8% March 1, Humboldt Households Save About $5

A typical Humboldt household that receives both electricity supply and delivery from PG&E will see roughly a $5 reduction on its monthly electric bill beginning March 1, 2026, when the utility lowered bundled residential electric rates by 1.8 percent compared with February, PG&E said. The company calculated the roughly $5.14 monthly decrease using a typical residential consumption of about 500 kilowatt-hours per month.

Low-income customers on the California Alternate Rates for Energy program fared better in percentage terms: PG&E reported an 8.3 percent cut for CARE customers, equivalent to about $10.37 less per month under the same 500 kWh assumption. PG&E emphasized that the “typical” figures apply to customers whose usage matches that benchmark and cautioned that “each customer's usage varies so the lower price per unit of electricity used may or may not lead to a lower total bill.”

Natural gas customers saw the opposite movement. PG&E raised natural gas rates by 0.3 percent effective March 1, producing a typical residential gas bill increase of about $0.24 per month based on roughly 31 therms of use, and an estimated $0.16 monthly increase for a typical CARE gas customer using about 26 therms.

PG&E framed the March electric decrease as tied to accounting for completed safety and reliability projects: “Electric rates are decreasing because the costs for completed safety and reliability work coming out of rates exceed the costs for new investments authorized by PG&E's regulators,” the company said in its March 2 press materials. The same materials note a restructured electric bill debuts in March, including a new Base Services Charge designed to align PG&E’s billing structure with other large California utilities and utilities nationwide.

“We are delivering on our promise to lower prices for our customers again, even as national prices are expected to rise. Our actions match our promises: we’ve reduced electric rates five times since January 2024 and remain committed to finding new ways to save and pass those savings on to our customers,” PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe said in the company release.

PG&E also characterized the March action as the fifth electric rate reduction since January 2024 and the third consecutive electric price cut since last September. According to the company’s math reported by KRCRTV, “combined with previous decreases, residential bundled electric rates are 13% lower than in January 2024,” which the company equates to about $25 less per month assuming steady 500 kWh usage.

Not everyone welcomed the cuts as sufficient. Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said, “PG&E bills are still much higher than they were three or four years ago,” offering a consumer-advocacy counterpoint cited in regional coverage.

Regional context: KRCRTV cited the U.S. Energy Information Administration expectation that national electric prices will rise nearly 10 percent between 2024 and 2026, a contrast PG&E used when highlighting its local reductions. PG&E also invited North Coast residents to a virtual town hall at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, for Humboldt and neighboring counties to discuss the new rates, winter storm response and upcoming reliability upgrades.

PG&E concluded its March release with a forward-looking statement that “based on current information, the company expects typical residential electric rates to be lower overall in 2026 than in 2025,” while reiterating that individual household impacts will depend on each customer’s actual usage.