SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Gas & Electric customers have questions about their electric bills — specifically, why delivery fees are often higher than the cost of the electricity itself.
After viewers sent in their bills and posted their questions on Reddit, I brought those questions directly to SDG&E.
"Electric delivery fees are typically higher than the generation costs that they see on their bills every month... why is that?" I asked.
"We understand that affordability is a top priority for customers ... when you generate electricity here at San Diego Gas and Electric - we don't profit off of that," Anthony Wagner, a representative with SDG&E, said. "It's a pass-through directly to the customer. When you think about delivery, it's everything else that goes into delivering safe and reliable electricity into someone's home."
SDG&E does profit off the delivery portion of the bill. Think of it like buying a bottle of water — you're not really paying for the water itself. You're paying for the bottle, the cost it took to deliver it, and to keep it cold. With SDG&E, that means paying for pipes, wires, crews, towers and grid improvements. Investors or shareholders then profit off of the investment in the electric grid itself, Wagner explained.
This year, regulators limited shareholders' profits for SDG&E to under 10%.
"I would say that wildfire risk is definitely a component, greening the grid [and] all this battery storage.." Wagner said.
I also asked why SDG&E customers seemed to be using less electricity and still paying more than in years prior.
"We've noticed a decline in electrical sales over the last several years, about a five percent decline. That is mainly attributed to a slowing of electric vehicle adoption and a slowing of customers electrifying their homes. In what that does, it causes upward pressure on the rate itself," Wagner explained.
SDG&E's position is that customers are paying for a lower-risk, high-tech, green energy infrastructure — and that can come at a higher cost.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
