Why Do California Electricity Bills Keep Going Up? What SDG&E and SCE Customers Aren't Being Told

I hear this a lot. And every time I do, I think "if you're wondering why California electricity bills keep going up, the answer isn't found on your bill. It's found in decisions being made far above your pay grade."

Someone opens the door, I introduce myself, and before I can say much else they tell me they're all set. Bills aren't too bad. Not interested. Have a good day.

And I get it. Nobody wants to be sold anything standing in their own doorway. That's fair.

But here's what I think about every time I drive away: that same homeowner is going to open their SDG&E or SCE bill next month. And the month after that. And every month for the next ten years. And the bill they consider "not that bad" today is going to keep becoming something else entirely — not because of anything they did or didn't do, but because of forces that have absolutely nothing to do with them.

So this post isn't a pitch. It's just information. What you do with it is entirely up to you.

Why Do California Electricity Bills Keep Going Up? Here's the Real Answer

Here's what most people don't know: your electricity bill isn't just paying for the power your house uses. It's paying for the entire grid... every wire, every transformer, every infrastructure upgrade - shared across every customer in your utility's territory.

And that grid is under more strain right now than at any point in modern history.

U.S. electricity consumption is projected to hit record highs in both 2025 and 2026, driven by a structural shift in demand that experts say is not temporary. The biggest driver? AI and data centers. (EnergySage)

Data centers could consume anywhere from 6.7% to 12% of all U.S. energy by 2028, according to the Department of Energy. One energy policy expert put it simply: "They're pretty much the whole boat when it comes to increases in electricity demand." (A1 SolarStoreA1 SolarStore)

These facilities run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at enormous scale. Every time a new AI model gets trained, every time you use a streaming service, every time a company runs its cloud infrastructure, that energy demand lands on the same grid your home is connected to.

So Who Pays for All That New Demand?

Here's where it gets personal.

In California, utilities are planning billions of dollars in grid upgrades to serve the surge in data center demand. In the South Bay alone, a cluster of transmission upgrades was approved in 2025 at a cost exceeding $2 billion... largely to serve data center load growth through 2039. (DECRA)

Those upgrades don't get paid for by the tech companies moving in. They get spread across the rate base - meaning every residential customer on that utility's system. Wild!

An independent state commission put it plainly: "The costs that data centers impose on the electrical grid should be paid by the centers themselves, not by average California families already struggling with high utility bills." That recommendation was made in early 2026. But attempts to require data centers to pay their fair share ran headlong into Big Tech lobbying, and what survived was a law requiring regulators to write a report about the issue by 2027. (GreenLancerSolar.com)

A report... by 2027..... while your bill goes up - now.

The Grid Also Can't Keep Up With Everything Else

Data centers are just one piece of it. The same grid is simultaneously absorbing the load from millions of new electric vehicles, new all-electric homes, and a general push away from gas appliances - all while managing wildfire liability costs, aging infrastructure, and deferred maintenance that's been building for decades.

In 2025, utilities across the country requested a record $31 billion in rate increases. Not because they're being reckless. Because the system is being asked to do more than it was built to do, and somebody has to pay for the gap. (SolarReviews)

That somebody, right now, is you.

What "Not That Bad" Actually Looks Like Over Time

The typical SDG&E customer's monthly bill is now just under $200 in 2026... that's more than six times what that same household paid for identical usage in the late 2000s. (Bestcompany)

Most of the homeowners who told me their bills weren't that bad a few years ago have called me back since. Not because they changed their minds. Because their bills changed for them.

The thing about utility rates is they don't ask permission. There's no opt-out. There's no negotiation. The CPUC approves the increases, the utility implements them, and they show up on your bill. That's the whole process.

The only variable any homeowner actually controls in that equation is how much of their energy they generate themselves.

I'm Not Saying Everyone Needs Solar

I mean that. Some households genuinely aren't good candidates right now - wrong roof, wrong usage profile, wrong timing. When I sit down with someone and the numbers don't make sense for their situation, I say so. That's the whole point of doing a real analysis instead of a standard pitch.

But "our bills aren't that bad" is not an energy strategy. It's a hope that something structural — something being driven by AI, by tech infrastructure, by regulatory decisions made in Sacramento and Washington — is somehow going to reverse itself and go the other way.

It hasn't yet. And the people making those decisions aren't losing sleep over your electricity bill.

I'm just one person. But if you ever want to actually look at your numbers — not to be sold something, just to understand what you're working with — that's exactly what I do.

— Rigo, My Solar Doc Independent Solar Broker | SDG&E & SCE Territory | Virtual Consultations Available Statewide