PG&E's household customers facing 8% increase in power bills

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric's household customers will be hit with an average rate increase of 8% to help the once-bankrupt utility pay for improvements designed to reduce the risks that its outdated equipment will ignite deadly wildfires in its Northern California service territory.

The higher prices, approved Thursday, take effect March 1 and are expected to boost the bills of PG&E's residential customers by an average of $13.44 a month. That may further strain the budgets of people struggling to make ends meet during a recession caused by the pandemic that is causing governments to curtail commerce and corral people at home in an effort to ease the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

California power regulators approved the increase after two years of wrangling between PG&E and a variety of groups battling to limit how much of the financial burden customers should have to shoulder for the utility's long-running neglect of a grid that supplies power to about 16 million people in a sprawling area.

PG&E's outdated equipment was blamed for causing a series of wildfires during 2017 and 2018 that killed more than 120 people and destroyed more than 27,000 homes and other buildings. The damage caused PG&E to file for bankruptcy in 2019, opening a legal avenue for the company to negotiate $25.5 billion in settlements with wildfire victims and others.

The San Francisco utility emerged from bankruptcy five months ago and is now seeking to upgrade its equipment and adopt other safety measures to avoid facing financial calamity — and a public relations catastrophe — again.

Under the agreement approved by California regulators, PG&E can't use any of its additional revenue to pay for its bankruptcy settlements or enrich an executive team that has been overhauled in recent...