A PG&E statement can feel like it's written in another language, with charges and terms that don't obviously add up to the number at the bottom.
Once you know what you're looking at, though, it gets much clearer and can tell you exactly what's driving your cost.
Start with the summary
The first page is the quick version. It shows your total amount due, the due date, and usually a comparison to last month and to the same month a year ago. That year-over-year comparison is worth a look, since it shows whether your usage is really changing or whether rate increases are doing the work.
You'll also see your service dates, the number of days in the billing period, and your account details. It's the overview before the breakdown.
Electricity charges and how they add up
The heart of your bill is the electricity section, built from two basic pieces: how much power you used and what you paid per unit.
Your usage is measured in kilowatt-hours, or kWh. One kWh is a set amount of electricity, and everything in your home adds to the total. The bill shows how many kWh you used over the billing period.
What you pay per kWh is your rate, and it changes throughout the day. Which brings us to the part that trips up most people.
Time-of-use rates: when you use power matters
Most PG&E residential customers are on a time-of-use rate plan, which means electricity prices change depending on the time of day.
Power costs the most during the late afternoon and evening, often roughly 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., when demand across the grid is highest. It costs less during the rest of the day and overnight. So the same kWh can cost noticeably more or less depending on when you used it.
This is the single most useful thing to understand on your bill. It means two homes that use the exact same amount of power can pay different amounts, purely based on timing. If a lot of your usage lands in that pricey evening window, when everyone gets home, cooks, and turns everything on, it lifts your total. Your bill usually breaks out how much power you used in each time period, showing where your money is going.
The other line items
Beyond the energy charges, a few other items show up, and they're worth recognizing even if you don't control them directly.
Delivery charges cover getting electricity to your home through the grid, and generation charges cover producing the power itself. Various fees and adjustments can also fund state programs and grid costs. Depending on your situation, you may also see a minimum daily charge that applies regardless of usage. These vary and change over time, but breaking them out helps explain why the total is more than power times rate.
What your bill is really telling you
Together, your bill answers three questions: how much power you used, when you used it, and what it all cost. Those are exactly the things worth knowing if you want to bring the number down.
If your usage is high, you may be able to find efficiency wins. If most of it falls in the expensive evening hours, shifting some loads earlier or later helps. And if rate increases are quietly lifting your total year after year, which they have been across the North Bay, that points toward a bigger solution: making your own power.
Where solar changes the picture
Once you understand your bill, it's easy to see why solar makes such a difference. When you generate your own electricity, you buy fewer kWh from PG&E, so the usage side of your bill shrinks. Pair solar with a home battery, and you can cover those expensive evening hours with power you stored earlier in the day, targeting the priciest part of your bill.
The best part is that this works from your actual numbers, not a guess. We review your real usage and rate plan, then design a solar system sized to cover it. If you want help finding your usage history, our walkthrough on gathering your PG&E usage data shows where to look, and our post on what uses the most electricity in your home explains what tends to drive it.
We've been helping North Bay homeowners make sense of their energy and take control of it since 1984. We're 100% employee-owned; we've installed more than 9,000 systems across Marin, Sonoma, and Napa, and we're licensed as a General Contractor (B) and Electrical Contractor (C-10). We were also one of the first companies in California to earn the state's C-46 solar license, so you have a local team that can look at your bill with you and show you exactly what solar could do about it.
Want to see how much of your bill solar could take on? Contact SolarCraft or call Sonoma/Napa 707.778.0568 or Marin 415.382.7717.
