OAKLAND — PG&E’s top boss said monthly energy bills should be flat or lower over the next few years — even as the utility has asked the state to authorize it to collect more revenue from its ratepayers.

The company said it has begun to rein in costs and improve efficiency to a greater degree than in previous years, allowing it can achieve that goal.

“This is not the old PG&E,” CEO Patricia Poppe said in an interview. “This is a turnaround story in the making.”

Thursday, the investor-owned utility asked the state Public Utilities Commission to approve additional revenue as part of the company’s general rate case, which PG&E files roughly every four years.“Although there is a revenue increase, we are decreasing other costs,” Poppe said. “The other parts of the bill are coming down. We are passing along the savings to customers.”

This new proposal covers 2027 to 2030, according to PG&E.

“Based on current information, if the proposal is approved in full, PG&E expects residential combined gas and electric bills in 2027 to be flat compared to 2025 bills,” PG&E said in comments the company released along with Thursday’s regulatory filing.

Consumer groups torched the proposal, saying any bill reductions arrive on the heels of massive increases in recent years. Over the five years that ended in January, PG&E bills have increased by 68.6%.

“PG&E can claim that customers might see slightly lower bills next year because current bills are artificially inflated due to the six rate increases last year,” said Lee Trotman, a spokesperson for consumer group The Utility Reform Network. “A slight decrease from these inflated rates does little to help customers experiencing an affordability crisis.”

The group has pushed a package of bills in Sacramento seeking more affordability, headlined by Senate Bill 254, which it said would reduce long-term ratepayer costs and provide immediate rate relief for users.

In January 2020, PG&E monthly bills were roughly $175 a month for combined services. In January 2021, the average monthly bill rose to $188.

The January 2022 combined bill rose another 17.6% compared with 2021, and then another 9% in January 2023 compared with 2022 for an average of $241 a month. By January 2024, monthly residential bills averaged $294, up 22% from the year before.

Monthly bills in January for customers who receive combined electric and gas service from PG&E were $295, a 0.3% increase over the one-year period.

Oakland-based PG&E predicted that the rest of 2025 will bring no further increases in electricity rates. In 2026, the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services should see lower bills compared to 2025, the utility stated.

“PG&E is requesting its smallest general rate case percentage increase in a decade, made possible in part by reducing costs and passing on savings to customers,” PG&E said.

If the general rate case impacts were the sole factor, PG&E monthly bills would rise $10.64 in 2027, $9.94 in 2028, $10.50 in 2029 and $11.08 in 2030, according to the utility. The annual average increase over the four years is 3.4%, PG&E estimated.

Other factors are in play, however, which, when they materialize, will help curb the impact from the general rate case, the utility said.

“Our goal is to also stabilize bills through this period,” PG&E said. “They could even go down.”

Public Utilities Commission decisions that authorized PG&E to recover prior costs are slated to expire and vanish from customer rates. The scheduled terminations of the cost recovery efforts, combined with PG&E’s push for greater efficiency and cost reductions, may help offset the revenue increases PG&E is seeking through the new general rate case, PG&E said.

There are other factors that could force costs lower, including a $15 billion U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee that enables PG&E to borrow money at sharply lower costs than the conventional market.

The state also could see higher energy demand, which would spread fixed grid costs.

Over the last three years, PG&E said it slashed operating costs and capital expenses by $2.5 billion.

PG&E on Thursday also identified several customer priorities:

Transform and modernize its power grid to meet what’s expected to be “historic growth electricity demand” from new homes, businesses, electric vehicles and data centers that are focused on artificial intelligence.

Improve wildfire safety by replacing 760 miles of power lines with stronger poles and covered power lines, placing 307 miles of power lines underground in the highest fire-risk areas, installing an additional 114 weather stations, and improving tree trimming.

Increase clean energy delivery by investing in lower-cost solar and battery energy storage, installing more microgrids in remote areas, modernizing existing clean hydroelectric plants and accelerating electric vehicle adoptions that could help them become mobile batteries during periods of peak electricity demand.

Strengthen the gas system by replacing 164 miles of distribution pipeline and upgrading internal pipeline inspections. PG&E will also respond to more than 600,000 calls to locate and mark gas lines.

“We can do upgrades more efficiently as more and bigger customers are added,” Poppe said. “We will keep pushing and pushing to lower bills. We can lower people’s costs.”