If you’ve been wondering, ‘Why is my PG&E bill so high?‘ You’re not alone. It’s one of the most common questions Northern California homeowners have right now. The easy answer is that California electricity rates are near historic highs. But the answer that actually saves you money is this: your home’s electrical system may be making a high PG&E bill even higher.
PG&E has cut residential rates five times since January 2024. Bundled rates are about 13% lower than they were at the start of that year, and the typical bill is roughly $25 less per month. That’s real, and worth knowing. But California electricity still costs nearly twice the national average. The gap between what PG&E customers pay per kilowatt-hour and what the rest of the country pays has grown from about 10 cents in 2020 to 23 cents in 2024.
For a homeowner in Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Auburn, or El Dorado Hills, that difference adds up to hundreds of dollars a year. The question worth asking is whether your electrical system is running efficiently at these prices, or quietly adding to your bill in ways you can’t easily see.
Why Are PG&E Rates Still So High in 2026?
The recent decreases came primarily from wildfire mitigation projects being completed and rolled out of rates. PG&E spent heavily on grid hardening, vegetation management, and equipment upgrades after the catastrophic fires of 2017 through 2019. As those project costs get paid down, they come off your bill.
But the underlying cost structure hasn’t changed much. California’s utility spending on transmission and distribution more than doubled between 2016 and 2025. The state’s push toward renewable energy, EV infrastructure, and grid modernization keeps adding costs that eventually get passed on to customers. The 2026 billing restructure added a fixed Base Services Charge of about $24 per month while reducing the per-kWh rate, which helps high-usage households but can increase costs for lower-usage ones.
Even after five rate cuts, PG&E customers pay roughly 23 cents per kWh more than the national average. A home using 800 kWh per month pays about $184 more per year than the average American household would for the same usage.
The rates may fluctuate, but the baseline isn’t going back to 2015 levels. Efficiency in your home’s electrical system matters more here than it would in most other states.
What Electrical Problems Make Your PG&E Bill Higher?
Could Your Electrical Panel Be Raising Your Bill?
Many homes in the Sacramento area were built in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s with 100-amp electrical panels. At the time, that was enough. A typical home back then had a refrigerator, a washer and dryer, maybe a window AC unit, and standard lighting. Today, that same house might also have an EV charger, a heat pump, a home office with multiple screens, and a smart TV in every room.
A panel running near its capacity doesn’t just trip breakers. It creates conditions where circuits and wiring run hotter than they should, and hotter wiring wastes energy. You’re paying for electricity that turns into heat inside your walls rather than powering the appliance you’re trying to run.
Warning signs worth paying attention to:
- Breakers tripping during normal household activity
- Lights that dim when the AC kicks on or the dryer starts
- A panel that feels warm when you open the door
- Breakers doubled up on single slots
- Older panel brands known for reliability problems, including Federal Pacific and Zinsco
An electrical panel upgrade to 200 amps gives your home room to run modern loads without strain and positions you for EV charging or a subpanel addition without needing another upgrade in a few years.
Is Old Wiring Adding to Your Electric Bill?
Aluminum wiring from the 1960s and 70s expands and contracts differently than copper, which loosens connections over time and creates heat at junction points. Knob-and-tube wiring, common in homes built before World War II, has no ground and can’t safely handle modern appliances. Even wiring from the 1980s and 90s can be undersized for the circuits it’s now serving.
Undersized wiring heats up under load. That heat is wasted energy, and at California rates, it shows up on your bill every month. It’s also a fire risk, which matters especially in homes where AC runs hard from June through September.
A home wiring inspection in Sacramento doesn’t require committing to any work. It just tells you what you’re working with.
Are Shared Circuits Costing You Money?
Refrigerators, dishwashers, microwaves, washing machines, and EV chargers are designed to run on dedicated circuits. When they share circuits with other loads, appliances draw more current trying to compensate for voltage sag, breakers trip unpredictably, and the wiring degrades faster than it should.
Dedicated circuit installation in Northern California homes is straightforward work. The appliance gets stable power, nothing is overloaded, and the system runs the way it was designed to.
Is Outdated Lighting Making Your PG&E Bill Higher?
Incandescent and halogen bulbs use roughly four times the electricity of LED for the same light output. In a home with 25 to 30 fixtures, the monthly difference is real money. LED upgrades pay back quickly at California rates.
Recessed cans from the 1990s and early 2000s are also worth looking at. Many don’t seal well and allow conditioned air to leak into the attic, which makes your AC work harder. Resealing or replacing them is a small job.
The Time-of-Use Factor
PG&E’s time-of-use rate schedules charge more for electricity used during peak hours, generally late afternoon through evening. A home that runs the dishwasher, EV charger, and dryer between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. pays significantly more than a home running those same loads at 11 a.m. or overnight.
An overloaded or poorly organized electrical system limits your ability to shift loads. If your panel can’t handle the dryer and the EV charger running simultaneously, you can’t take advantage of overnight off-peak rates the way a well-organized system can. That’s a monthly cost difference that compounds over the years.
What California’s Electrification Push Means for Older Homes
California is moving toward full electrification over the next decade. More households will swap gas furnaces for electric heat pumps, replace gas water heaters with electric ones, and add EV chargers as a second car goes electric. For homes built before 2000, that transition requires an electrical system that was never designed for it.
The panel, wiring, and circuit work that makes your home more efficient today is the same work that prepares it for those additions. You’re not paying for it twice.
How Do You Find Out If Your Electrical System Is the Problem?
If a licensed electrician hasn’t looked at your system in the last few years, a diagnostic visit is the right first step. You don’t need to commit to anything to find out what your panel is rated for, whether your wiring is appropriately sized for your current load, and whether any circuits should have been dedicated years ago.
Stones Electric offers a flat-rate $199 electrical diagnosis, credited toward any repairs you choose to move forward with. We serve Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Auburn, El Dorado Hills, Roseville, Yuba City, Woodland, Marysville, and Chico.
