PG&E Federal Loan Guarantee Approved

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through its Loan Programs Office (LPO), today announced the closing of a $15 billion loan guarantee to PG&E to finance grid modernization projects and potentially save customers up to $1 billion.

The loan guarantee is designed to align with state policy goals on lowering electricity costs for customers.

Savings from the lower-cost financing would be used to lower customer bills.

The portfolio of projects also could support up to 3,900 on-going construction and operations living wage jobs over the life of the loan.

Projects span PG&E’s service area

The federal financing would pay for planned projects that are intended to enhance California's energy infrastructure, help ensure reliability, and support distributed energy resources including battery storage and electric vehicles, while lowering costs for customers.

These are existing investment areas approved by the California Public Utilities Commission and California Independent System Operator, as applicable.

The portfolio of projects covers clean power generation, transmission and Virtual Power Plants (VPP), and supports federal and state climate goals, and customers, including:

Extend and expand clean power generation:

• Retooling and refurbishment to support the continued operations of PG&E’s hydroelectric power fleet which includes 61 powerhouses and produces more than 3.8 gigawatts (GW) of clean power or enough to power about four million homes.
• Increasing renewable energy integration through Battery Energy Storage Systems. PG&E currently has 4.2 GW of battery storage under contract, enough to power three to four million homes. 

Enhance the transmission system:

• Reconductoring and enhancing the transmission system to interconnect forecasted growth in clean energy generation.
• Expanding and upgrading substation and transmission line capacity to help reduce congestion and help ensure reliability.
• Deploying advanced sensors, telemetry and controls to support two-way power flow and resilient grid operations during heat waves, high winds, and other extreme weather events.

Enable virtual power plants (VPP) and two-way power delivery:

• Integrating more renewable energy and demand management by deploying and interconnecting VPPs. These networks of small energy-producing, storage or energy management devices, like batteries and electric vehicles, are pooled together to serve the grid.
• In 2024, PG&E had approximately 400 MWs of VPPs including several customer programs designed and operated to support various grid needs.

PG&E submitted its application to under the DOE’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (1706) Program in mid-2023.

DOE Announces $15 Billion Loan Guarantee to Pacific Gas & Electric Company to Expand Hydropower Generation, Battery Energy Storage, and Transmission | Department of Energy

Forward-looking statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs, expectations, estimates, future plans, and strategies of PG&E Corporation and PG&E, including regarding PG&E’s capital investment plans, the financial and operational benefits of the DOE loan guarantee, and estimated cost savings from the loan guarantee and projects to be funded by the loan guarantee. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which management believes are reasonable, and on information currently available to management, but are necessarily subject to various risks and uncertainties. In addition to the risk that these assumptions prove to be inaccurate, factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements include whether PG&E satisfies conditions precedent under the loan guarantee to draw funds, whether DOE determines PG&E is in satisfaction of conditions precedent under the loan guarantee to draw funds, whether funds are available to draw under the loan guarantee, the impact of any changes to laws or regulations regarding the DOE’s ability to guarantee loans, and the factors disclosed in PG&E Corporation’s and PG&E’s joint Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, their most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, and other reports filed with the SEC, which are available on PG&E Corporation's website at www.pgecorp.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. PG&E Corporation and PG&E undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.