OAKLAND — PG&E monthly electric bills are lower than they were a year ago, the utility revealed, but costs for customers have remained dramatically higher since 2020.

Monthly electric bills for the typical customer averaged about $215 in March, down 3.2% from an average of $222 in March 2024, PG&E reported in a recent post about trends in bills.

“We’re intently focused on affordability as an important outcome for both our customers and investors,” PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe said during a conference call this week to discuss the company’s financial results for the January-through-March first quarter of 2025. “Our bills are down in 2025 compared to 2024, and we forecast them to go down again in 2026.”

Despite the slight decline, current bill levels in recent years have soared far higher than customers previously experienced.

“PG&E’s monthly bills are still way too high,” said Mark Toney, executive director of consumer group The Utility Reform Network. “Monthly bills are up 70% from just a few years ago.”

In January 2020, PG&E monthly bills were roughly $175 a month for combined services.

In January 2021, the average monthly bill rose 7.4% to $188. The January 2022 combined bill rose another 17.6% and then another 9% in January 2023 for an average of $241. In January 2024, bills averaged $294.

Monthly bills this past January for customers who receive combined electricity and gas services from PG&E were $295.

Toney argues that consumers experienced huge yearly increases because state regulators allowed PG&E to charge customers too much for wildfire mitigation work that should have been done sooner.

“PG&E was allowed to overspend for wildfire mitigation,” he said.

Despite the slight decrease in monthly electric bills last month, PG&E generated higher first-quarter revenue from both its electricity and natural gas operations, according to the company’s latest financial results.

During the first quarter of 2025 compared with the first quarter of 2024, PG&E produced $5.98 billion in total operating revenue, up 2.1% from the year before.

Electricity revenue for the first quarter was $4.14 billion, up 2%. Gas revenue was $1.49 billion, up 2.2% from the same quarter the prior year.

Profit totaled $607 million during the first three months of 2025, down 17.1% from the company’s profits in the same January-through-March first quarter of 2024.

The utility disclosed to analysts that it is preparing to file its general rate case in May with the state Public Utilities Commission. That wide-ranging rate proposal would cover a four-year period from 2027 through 2030.

“Our general rate case is one that truly reflects the power of our simple, affordable model,” Poppe said.

Oakland-based PG&E says the general rate case envisions monthly bills that would increase by no more than the general change in consumer prices.

“Our goal under the model is to stabilize bill increases at or below inflation or 2% to 4%,” Poppe said. “For our customers, it will reflect the benefits of the efficiency gains we’ve achieved in the past three years and, most importantly, interrupt a pattern of double-digit increases.”

PG&E intends to file the general rate case proposal around May 15.

“Our proposal will be a step in the process that will kick off a conversation about California’s ambitions and expectations and how PG&E can best serve those goals,” Poppe said.