SDG&E Rate Changes in 2026: Tracking the Nation's Most Expensive Grid Power

Last verified July 2026 by Helios Energy Global. This is our running changelog of SDG&E rate changes — we update it as each filing and CPUC decision lands.

San Diego doesn't need convincing that its power is expensive; it needs the record kept straight. SDG&E's rates moved several times between late 2025 and this summer — one big step up, a new fixed charge, and a couple of small steps down — and each change lands differently depending on whether you buy generation from SDG&E or from a community choice provider like San Diego Community Power. Here's the ledger, and what it means for solar and battery decisions in San Diego County.

The SDG&E rate changelog: late 2025 through summer 2026

"Bundled" means SDG&E provides both delivery and generation. Customers of San Diego Community Power or the Clean Energy Alliance are "unbundled" — SDG&E's changes hit only the delivery portion of their bill.

Effective date	What changed	Size of change
Oct 2025	New Base Services Charge appears on bills — a fixed daily charge (around $24/month for standard service) under the CPUC's statewide flat-fee restructuring	~$24/month fixed, paired with restructured volumetric rates
Jan 1, 2026	Consolidated rate increase via Advice Letter 4757-E (filed Dec 2025)	Bundled average: 41.0¢ → 45.7¢/kWh (+11.4%); delivery-only: 25.2¢ → 28.2¢/kWh (+11.6%)
Jun 2026	Electric rate decrease	Modest — part of roughly $6–7/month combined relief for delivery customers across the June and August adjustments
Aug 2026 (scheduled)	Second electric decrease, plus California Climate Credit of $49.36 on August and September bills	~$100 total in summer credits per household

The January driver, per SDG&E's own rate alert, was mostly lower forecasted electricity sales — fixed system costs spread across fewer kilowatt-hours — partially offset by older authorized costs rolling off. Read that mechanism carefully, because it's the quiet engine of California rate inflation: as customers use less grid power (efficiency, solar, conservation), the remaining kilowatt-hours each carry more of the fixed cost. Using less doesn't make the system cheaper; it makes each unit pricier.

What the January 2026 increase means on a real bill

SDG&E published its own bill-impact estimates for a typical customer on the TOU-DR1 schedule using 400 kWh/month — worth noting that many single-family homes in inland San Diego County use two or three times that:

Customer type	Monthly bill, Oct 2025	Monthly bill, Jan 2026	Change
Bundled, non-CARE	$176	$195	+$19 (+10.5%)
Bundled, CARE	$103	$113	+$10 (+9.7%)
Unbundled (CCA generation), non-CARE	$115	$123	+$8 (+6.6%)
Unbundled (CCA generation), CARE	$64	$67	+$3 (+4.3%)

Scale those to a 2,200 sq ft home in Escondido, Santee, or El Cajon running summer AC at 900–1,200 kWh/month and you're looking at $400–$550 summer bills at bundled rates. For the fuller picture of what San Diego households actually pay, see our average electric bill in San Diego guide.

What's behind the trajectory — and what's coming

The structural layer under all of this is the 2024 General Rate Case, which the CPUC decided in December 2024. It cut Sempra's request substantially but still authorized SDG&E's revenue requirements for 2024 with roughly 3% annual post-test-year increases through 2027 — the CPUC estimated about $4.38/month (+2.6%) for a typical residential electric customer at the time. On top of that GRC layer stack the annual consolidated filings (like January's), transmission rates, and wildfire-related costs, which is how an authorized "2.6%" becomes an actual 11.4% in a given January.

And the next cycle is already underway: in June and July 2026, SDG&E began presenting its 2028 General Rate Case proposal to stakeholders — the opening move in the process that will set rates for 2028 and beyond. San Diego's City Council has meanwhile voted to back state legislation aimed at reining in utility costs. However that plays out, nobody involved is projecting SDG&E rates to fall meaningfully; the argument is about how fast they rise.

Rate layer	Status as of July 2026
2024 GRC (2024–2027)	Decided Dec 2024; ~3%/yr increases authorized through 2027
Annual consolidated filings	Jan 2026: +11.4% bundled; next consolidation expected Jan 2027
2028 GRC	Proposal presented to stakeholders June–July 2026; CPUC process ahead
Summer 2026 relief	June + Aug decreases, ~$49 climate credits in Aug and Sep

Solar and battery math at 46¢ under NEM 3.0

Here's the paradox of San Diego solar in 2026: NEM 3.0 cut export credits roughly 75%, the federal residential tax credit expired December 31, 2025 — and San Diego County remains arguably the strongest solar-and-battery market in the country. The reason is the retail rate itself. Every kilowatt-hour you don't buy from SDG&E is worth about 46¢ bundled — nearly double what the same self-consumed kilowatt-hour is worth in SCE territory, and triple what it's worth on many municipal utilities.

The design consequence is the same one NEM 3.0 teaches everywhere, amplified: exports earn hourly avoided-cost credits that average far below retail, so the money is in using your own production. Cover the daytime load directly, store the surplus, and discharge through the expensive evening hours. Against SDG&E's rates, the gap between what a stored kilowatt-hour saves you (retail) and what an exported one earns you (avoided cost) is the widest in California — which is why a battery isn't an accessory here, it's the engine of the payback, and why we wrote a dedicated guide to the best battery backup setups for SDG&E homes. Well-designed solar-plus-storage systems in SDG&E territory routinely model paybacks in the 6–9 year range even without the federal credit, simply because the avoided rate is so high — and every entry in the changelog above pushes it higher.

We install across San Diego County — 152 Google reviews, 4.9 stars — and we model your actual SDG&E rate schedule and CCA status rather than a countywide average, because as the table above shows, bundled and unbundled customers are living different rate realities.

Frequently asked questions

How much did SDG&E rates go up in 2026?

The big move was January 1, 2026: bundled residential average rates rose from 41.0¢ to about 45.7¢/kWh — a 4.7¢, 11.4% increase — under Advice Letter 4757-E. Delivery-only rates (what CCA customers pay SDG&E) rose 11.6%, from 25.2¢ to 28.2¢/kWh. Small decreases followed in June and August 2026, but they return only a fraction of January's increase.

Are SDG&E rates really the highest in the country?

The highest in the continental United States, yes — a distinction SDG&E has held for several years running. At roughly 45.7¢/kWh bundled as of January 2026, SDG&E runs about a third above SCE (~34.4¢) and roughly double the U.S. average residential rate. Only some Hawaii and Alaska utilities charge more.

What is the SDG&E Base Services Charge on my bill?

A fixed daily charge — around $24 per month for standard service — that began appearing under Delivery Charges in late 2025, implementing the CPUC's statewide move toward flat fees paired with (in principle) lower per-kWh rates. It applies regardless of usage, which slightly weakens the value of small reductions in consumption but doesn't change the core solar math: the volumetric rate you offset is still among the highest anywhere.

Will SDG&E rates go down?

Not meaningfully, on any current trajectory. The 2024 GRC authorized increases through 2027, and SDG&E began presenting its 2028 rate case proposal to stakeholders in summer 2026. The mid-2026 decreases and climate credits are real but small relative to January's 11.4% jump. The rate cases argue about the pace of increases, not the direction.

Is solar still worth it in San Diego without the federal tax credit?

For most homes with decent roof exposure, yes — SDG&E's retail rate is the reason. At ~46¢/kWh, each self-consumed solar kilowatt-hour is worth roughly double what it's worth in most of the country, which compensates for both NEM 3.0's weak export credits and the loss of the residential federal credit after 2025. The design has to be self-consumption-first with storage carrying the evening peak; we model solar-only and solar-plus-battery against your actual SDG&E or CCA rate so you see the honest difference.