San Diego Gas & Electric customers who have natural gas hookups in their homes will experience a smaller increase in their monthly bills under a new, revised decision that goes before the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday. The new proposal would result in average SDG&E residential customers paying $1.02 more per month if they use 25 therms, which works out to an increase of 1.8% over what they are currently paying. A therm is the unit of measurement for natural gas use over time. That’s a much smaller increase than what was suggested two months ago. In October, the original proposed decision called for SDG&E gas customers paying $5.01 more per month, which amounted to an 8.6% increase. The revision released Monday evening made practically no changes to proposed increases to SDG&E electric bills. It now proposes that residential electric customers using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity will pay $4.34 more per month, which translates to a 2.6% increase compared to what they currently pay. The proposed decision in October called for a 2.7% increase. Changes to gas and electric bills are part of a long and complicated process known as a general rate case that investor-owned utilities in California bring every four years before the utilities commission, known as the CPUC for short. Essentially a budget outline, the proposed decision estimates what the CPUC believes it will cost to maintain and upgrade SDG&E’s power system from 2024 through 2027. There are about 905,000 natural gas meters and 1.5 million electric meters in SDGE’s service territory. The proposed decision runs nearly 1,200 pages and has been discussed and debated for more than two years. The document includes potential changes for SDG&E’s sister utility, Southern California Gas, and was written by two CPUC administrative law judges, with the assistance of CPUC Commissioner Darcie Houck. One other noteworthy aspect of the revised proposal concerns placing power lines underground in fire-prone areas. Crews with San Diego Gas & Electric work on placing power lines underground near Ramona. (SDG&E) SDG&E officials recently requested approval to place 400 miles of power lines underground at an estimated cost of $2 million per mile and 200 miles of covered conductor (insulated outer layer is designed to protect power lines) over the course of four years. The total bill would come to $1.04 billion. But the revised proposal sticks to the wildfire spending package that was proposed in October — to underground 35 miles and install covered conductors along 100 miles each year. The total spending for all four years would come to $657.2 million. The package was proposed by The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a ratepayer advocacy group based in San Francisco. “While any rate increase is going to be painful for SDG&E customers, TURN is pleased to see the CPUC draw the line and reject this and other increases demanded by SDG&E,” the group’s communications director, Lee Trotman, said in an email. SDG&E officials expressed disappointment the commission did not OK additional wildfire spending “to underground powerlines in the windiest and most fire-prone areas” of its service territory. “Regardless, we recognize energy costs are important to every family and business and its essential to find the right balance between safety and affordability,” spokesman Anthony Wagner wrote in an email. “That is why SDG&E is focused on taking action to stabilize energy bills, reduce operating expenses and work with policymakers to improve energy affordability.” Looking at overall spending, the decision would adopt a revenue requirement in the first year of $2.7 billion for SDG&E’s combined electric and natural gas operations, which is $308.3 million lower than the $3 billion the utility requested. But the figure still reflects a 7.5%, or $188.6 million, increase over 2023’s revenue requirement. To go into effect, the proposed decision must be approved by a majority of the CPUC’s five commissioners. The vote is scheduled for Thursday at commission headquarters in San Francisco. Related Articles Energy | New $42M battery storage facility set for Camp Pendleton Energy | SDG&E crews restore power after record-breaking winds blow through San Diego Energy | San Diego Supervisors sidestep new rules for battery projects amid fire concerns Energy | Santa Ana winds gusting up to 92 mph cause SDG&E to shut off power to 51,000 households Energy | Hey San Diego, where is your energy coming from? Here’s a look The meeting comes as rising utility bills have become a pressing issue across California. CPUC Executive Director Rachel Peterson told the Union-Tribune in October that the proposed decision amounts to “a balancing act” to make sure SDG&E’s system remains reliable through 2027, while adhering to the state’s decarbonization goals and keeping rising rates in mind. “We really do take our job seriously as needing to ensure that investments in the electricity and gas systems are made,” Peterson said. “It’s just really unfortunate that at this moment in time, everything in California is so expensive and we’re fully aware of how utility bills are added on top of the general expense of living in California.” According to the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, San Diego had the highest price for electricity in the country in November, averaging 42 cents per kilowatt-hour. Urban Hawaii came in second, at 39.3 cents.