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Cheaper energy bills in San Diego next summer? Utility attempts change

There's no guarantee the commission will do anything, but SDG&E said they were prompted to do something after the hottest August on record meant ratepayers were hit especially hard.
"We heard from customers and we are trying to be responsive to what we heard,"
The high usage charge was put in place by the commission in
As part of the state's efforts to promote energy conservation, the commission said all
Yet the change came as
Customers in a standard SDG&E tiered billing system pay
In SDG&E's service territory, the high usage fee is
The utility estimated more than 105,000 ratepayers exceeded 400 percent of their baseline this summer, which only represents about 7.5 percent of its 1.4 million customers. Still, it was flooded with complaints.
Some critics, like The Utility Reform Network, have argued reducing rates would better help customers instead of getting rid of a high usage fee, which would be transferred to other customers who don't use as much power.
Jones said if the utility does get approval to remove the high usage fee, changes to the lower tiers would be negligible. He said he didn't know exactly what the changed rates would be. SDG&E sent its letter to the commission on Friday.
In the meantime, SDG&E has come up with other ideas to try and reduce fees this summer:
* Eliminating seasonal pricing where rates are higher in the summer than winter.
* Move the climate credit to August to reduce costs. Climate credits are typically given in April and October.
* Create a new baseline allowance to reflect hotter summers.
Staff writer
phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar
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