The state of California has a long history of developing new and innovative energy-efficiency programs, which have grown and evolved substantially since the 1970s. These energy-efficiency policies and programs have had a significant impact on the state’s per capita electricity use: it has remained essentially constant over the past 30 years—during which time per capita electricity use has nearly doubled across the U.S. as a whole.

Investor-owned utilities like PG&E administer energy-efficiency programs with oversight by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which establishes key policies and guidelines, sets program goals, and approves spending levels.

CPUC’s Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan includes four main objectives:

1. All new residential construction in California will be zero net energy by 2020.
2. All new commercial construction in California will be zero net energy by 2030.
3. The Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry and market will be transformed to ensure that its energy performance is optimal for California’s climate.
4. All eligible low‐income customers will be given the opportunity to participate in targeted energy-efficiency programs by 2020.

CPUC’s Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan

Using energy more efficiently is simply the right thing to do. It saves customers money on their energy bills. It is also the fastest, most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and combat global climate change.

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The amount of profit the CPUC allows PG&E to make is separated from the amount of gas and electricity sold through a process called decoupling.

Even though decoupling separates sales volumes from profits, it still allows for some fluctuation in revenues and rates based on actual sales. Sales can fluctuate from forecasts because of difficult-to-predict conditions such as weather, economic activity, and conservation. For example, electric sales may be higher than forecast during a period of unusually hot weather, or lower than forecast because of conservation efforts.

Since PG&E's profits generally do not depend on how much energy we sell, we have no reason to encourage customers to use more. On the contrary, we receive state-approved incentives to encourage customer energy efficiency, conservation, and use of renewable energy.

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You can request a rate analysis through your PG&E account representative or contact the Business Customer Service Center: Call 1-800-468-4743 or visit our website.

Throughout the year PG&E hosts free seminars and training workshops to help your business optimize its operations to use less energy. Learn about incentives and rebates available to businesses, the best practices in energy efficiency, and what’s new in energy-efficient technology. Topics include HVAC, lighting, motors and boilers, refrigeration, pumping, renewable generation and much more. For more information, visit www.pge.com/energyclasses, call 1-800-244-9912, or visit www.pge.com/stockton.

PG&E relies on trade professionals—contractors, installers, distributors, retailers and architects—to help raise awareness of our energy efficiency initiatives, incentives and rebates. Trade professionals sell, install or service energy efficient equipment, such as refrigeration, lighting, food service, agriculture, boilers, motors and HVAC. Find a qualified contractor in our online Trade Professional Directory.

Contact PG&E before beginning a project. Many of PG&E’s incentive programs require a pre-inspection and post-inspection to verify energy savings. You can reach us at the Business Customer Service Center at 1-800-468-4743 if you have questions about a project or how to apply for incentives.

PG&E’s Facebook page can be found by visiting our Facebook page. We cover PG&E news, tips, and various other topics. To get access to PG&E’s Facebook page, create your own Facebook account and "like" the PG&E Facebook page.

Follow us at “pge4me” on Twitter to receive PG&E news, helpful energy conservation tips, outage/incident updates, and customer service assistance. Visit us on Twitter.