Climate Changed
California Utilities Want Wealthy Defectors to Pay Up for Power
- Utilities losing customers to new type of power supplier
- PG&E says remaining customers getting stuck paying more
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PG&E Corp. has been losing customers in tony Marin County north of San Francisco since 2010 to a new kind of rival, and says their growing popularity is costing the utility’s remaining customers, to the tune of $180 million last year. That could balloon to $500 million in the early 2020s, according to a statement Tuesday.
California’s big three utilities are looking for ways to address this emerging issue. They helped make the state a clean-energy leader by striking some of the first big deals to buy wind and solar power. Problem is, those early contracts came with higher prices that were typically locked in for decades, and it’s costing them customers.