Important definitions

Baseline Territory: PG&E's service territory is divided into Climate Zones or "baseline territories." The average amount of energy used by customers within each baseline territory is used by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to set the amount of energy that is billed at Tier 1 gas and electric prices.

Bundled Service Customer: Full-service customers who purchase both energy delivery services and energy generation from PG&E. This is in contrast to customers who purchase energy from a third-party Energy Service Provider, and pay PG&E for transmission and distribution costs.

Competition Transition Charges (CTC): The charge for legacy electricity contracts, signed prior to 1998, that are in excess of a California Public Utilities Commission-approved market price benchmark.

Connected Load Charge: A demand charge based on the capacity rating of the pumps connected to the meter.

Conservation Incentive Adjustment: A component of your electric charges designed to reflect tiered residential pricing. It provides a credit to customers who primarily use within the baseline (Tier 1), and a charge for all other usage.

Customer Charge: Customers on certain rate plans are charged a fixed fee for service, regardless of the amount of energy consumed, as well as charges based on usage.

Demand Charge: Many non-residential rates include a demand charge. Demand is a measurement of the highest usage of electricity in any single fifteen (or sometimes five) minute period during a monthly billing cycle. Demand is measured in kilowatts (or kW). High demand is usually associated with equipment start-up. By spreading equipment start-ups over a longer period of time, you may be able to lower demand and reduce your demand charges.

Distribution Charge: A charge for the lower-voltage system of power lines, poles, substations and transformers directly connecting PG&E's distribution lines to homes and businesses.

DWR Power Charge: Recovers the cost of bonds issued by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to purchase power to serve electric customers during the California energy crisis. DWR bond charges are collected on behalf of DWR and do not belong to PG&E.

Energy Commission Tax: A tax PG&E collects to fund the California Energy Commission based on the electric use during a billing period.

Energy Cost Recovery Amount (ECRA): These charges are imposed pursuant to law to help reduce the costs of financing PG&E's emergence from bankruptcy. One of these charges is the Dedicated Rate Component (DRC). The right to receive DRC revenues has been sold to a special purpose entity, the PG&E Energy Recovery Funding LLC, and PG&E is collecting this charge on behalf of PG&E Recovery Funding LLC. This charge does not belong to PG&E.

Franchise Fee: This surcharge pays cities and counties for the right to use public streets to provide utility services. PG&E collects the surcharges and passes them to cities and counties. This tax (if any) is charged as a percentage of your energy charges.

Gas Core Procurement Cost: The utility's cost to buy natural gas and transport it to its local transmission system. The price usually changes on the first business day of each month.

Generation Charges: The cost of creating electricity to power your home or business.

Heat Source: The permanently installed primary source of heating in a home.

Meter Charge: Customers on some time-of-use electric rates are assessed a meter charge to recover the additional equipment costs of providing customers with this type of service.

Meter Constant: A factor that converts electric meter read differences to kilowatt hours (kWh).

Multiplier: A factor that converts the gas meter read difference to Therms. The multiplier corrects for differences in elevation, delivery pressure and the heating content of natural gas.

Nuclear Decommissioning: A fee to restore nuclear plant sites to as near their original condition as possible once they are shut down.

Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA): The PCIA is a charge to ensure that both PG&E customers and those who have left PG&E service to purchase electricity from other providers pay for the above market costs for electric generation resources that were procured by PG&E on their behalf. 'Above market' refers to the difference between what the utility pays for electric generation and current market prices for the sale of those resources. Visit www.pge.com/cca.

Public Purpose Programs: Funds programs considered by law to benefit society, such as low-income ratepayer assistance and energy efficiency.

Recovery Bond Charge/Credit: Your bill for electric service includes a charge that has been approved by the CPUC to repay bonds issued for certain costs related to catastrophic wildfires. The Recovery Bond Charge (RBC) rate is currently $0.00798 per kWh. PG&E has also contributed certain amounts to a trust fund which is used to provide a customer credit equal to $0.00798 per kWh (Recovery Bond Credit). The right to recover the RBC has been transferred to one or more Special Purpose Entities that issued the bonds and does not belong to PG&E. PG&E is collecting that portion of the RBC on behalf of the Special Purpose Entities.

Rotating Outage Block: In the event of a power emergency that causes the California Independent System Operator to determine that rotating outages are necessary, this number indicates the order in which your power will be interrupted.

Serial: The serial code determines when a meter is read for billing. Visit Find your meter reading schedule.

Solar Choice Program: Solar Choice is a program that enables bundled customers to purchase solar energy to match either 50% or 100% of their energy use without the need for onsite installation. Learn more on our Community Renewables webpage and review the current tariff here (PDF, 400 KB).

Time-of-Use Electric Rate Plans: Instead of a single flat rate for energy use, customers on a time-of-use plan pay higher rates for energy on weekday afternoons and lower rates at other times. Prices also change by season, with higher prices in the summer and lower prices in the winter. This means that when you use energy is just as important as how much you use.

Transmission: The cost of transmitting electricity from power plants, over high-voltage lines and towers, to the distribution system.

Utility Users Tax (UUT): A tax we collect for a city or county government. The tax (if any) is a percentage of your energy charges.

Wildfire Fund Charge: Charge on behalf of the State of California department of Water Resources (DWR) to fund the California Wildfire Fund. For usage prior to October 1, 2020, this charge included costs related to the 2001 California energy crisis, also collected on behalf of the DWR. These charges belong to DWR, not PG&E.

Wildfire Hardening Charge: PG&E has been permitted to issue bonds that enable it to recover more quickly certain costs related to preventing and mitigating catastrophic wildfires, while reducing the total cost to its customers. Your bill for electric service includes a fixed recovery charge called the Wildfire Hardening Charge that has been approved by the CPUC to repay those bonds. The right to recover the Wildfire Hardening Charge has been transferred to a separate entity (called the Special Purpose Entity) that issued the bonds and does not belong to PG&E. PG&E is collecting the Wildfire Hardening Charge on behalf of the Special Purpose Entity. For details visit: Wildfire Hardening Fixed Recovery Charge (PDF, 192 KB) document.