PG&E Profile
PG&E Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, engages in the sale and delivery of electricity and natural gas to customers in northern and central California.
The company owns approximately 135,000 acres of land, including approximately 100,000 acres of watershed lands.
Electric Utility Operations
The company generates electricity and provides electric transmission and distribution services throughout its service area in northern and central California to residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customers. The company provides electricity, transmission and distribution services in its service area. Customers also can obtain electricity from alternative providers, such as municipalities or CCAs, as well as from self-generation resources, such as rooftop solar installations.
Electricity Transmission
As of December 31, 2023, the company owned approximately 18,000 circuit miles of interconnected transmission lines operating at voltages ranging from 60 kV to 500 kV. The company also operated 33 electric transmission substations with a capacity of approximately 66,000 MVA. The company’s electric transmission system is interconnected with electric power systems in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, which includes many western states, the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and parts of Mexico.
Electricity Distribution
The company’s electric distribution network consists of approximately 108,000 circuit miles of distribution lines (of which, as of December 31, 2023, approximately 26% are underground and approximately 74% are overhead), 67 transmission switching substations, and 752 distribution substations with a capacity of approximately 36,000 MVA. The company’s distribution network interconnects with its transmission system, primarily at switching and distribution substations, where equipment reduces the high-voltage transmission voltages to lower voltages, suitable for distribution to the Utility’s customers.
These distribution substations serve as the central hubs for the company’s electric distribution network. Emanating from each substation are primary and secondary distribution lines connected to local transformers and switching equipment that link distribution lines and provide delivery to customers. In some cases, third parties, such as municipal and other utilities, who generate or procure their own power rely upon the Utility’s distribution facilities to deliver their power to them, so that they are able to resell the electricity. The company operates electric distribution control center facilities in Concord, Rocklin, and Fresno, California; these control centers form a key part of the Utility’s efforts to create a smarter, more resilient grid.
Natural Gas Utility Operations
The company provides natural gas transportation services to core customers (i.e., small commercial and residential customers) and to non-core customers (i.e., industrial, large commercial, and natural gas-fired electric generation facilities) that are connected to its gas system in its service area. Core customers can purchase natural gas procurement service (i.e., natural gas supply) from either the company or non-utility third-party gas procurement service providers (referred to as core transport agents). When core customers purchase gas supply from a core transport agent, the company continues to provide gas delivery, metering, and billing services to customers. When the company provides both transportation and procurement services, it refers to the combined service as bundled natural gas service. More than 96% of core customers, representing approximately 84% of the annual core market demand, receive bundled natural gas service from the company.
The company offers backbone gas transmission, gas delivery (local transmission and distribution), and gas storage services as separate and distinct services to its non-core customers. Access to the company’s backbone gas transmission system is available for all natural gas marketers and shippers, as well as non-core customers. The company also delivers gas to off-system customers (i.e., outside of its service area) and to third-party natural gas storage customers.
Natural Gas Supplies
The company can receive natural gas from all the major natural gas basins in western North America, including basins in western Canada, the Rocky Mountains, and the southwestern United States. The company can also receive natural gas from fields in California. The company purchases natural gas to serve its core customers directly from producers and marketers in both Canada and the United States. The contract lengths and natural gas sources of the company’s portfolio of natural gas purchase contracts have varied generally based on market conditions. During 2023, the company purchased approximately 299,000 MMcf of natural gas (net of the sale of excess supply of gas). Substantially all of this natural gas was purchased under contracts with a term of one year or less. The company’s largest individual supplier represented approximately 54% of the total natural gas volume the company purchased during 2023.
Natural Gas System Assets
The company owns and operates an integrated natural gas transmission, storage, and distribution system that includes most of northern and central California. As of December 31, 2023, the company’s natural gas system consisted of approximately 44,200 miles of distribution pipelines, over 6,400 miles of backbone and local transmission pipelines, and various storage facilities. The company owns and operates eight natural gas compressor stations on its backbone transmission system and one compressor station on its local transmission system that are used to move gas through its pipelines. The company’s backbone transmission system is used to transport gas from its interconnection with interstate pipelines, other local distribution companies, and California gas fields to its local transmission and distribution systems.
The company has firm transportation agreements for the transportation of natural gas from various natural gas supply points and interconnection points to its natural gas transportation system. These agreements provide transportation service from western Canada to the United States-Canada border, from the United States-Canada border to an interconnection point with the Utility’s natural gas transportation system at the Oregon-California border, from the U.S. Rocky Mountains to an interconnection point with the company’s natural gas transportation system at the Oregon-California border, and from supply points in the southwestern United States to interconnection points with its natural gas transportation system in the area of California near Topock, Arizona.
The company owns and operates three underground natural gas storage fields and has a 25% interest in a fourth storage field, all of which are connected to its gas transmission system. In 2019, the CPUC approved the discontinuation, through closure or sale, of operations at two of the company’s owned and operated gas storage fields, Pleasant Creek and Los Medanos. The company expects to close on the sale of Pleasant Creek in 2024. The company plans to keep the Los Medanos storage field in operation as filed and approved in the 2023 general rate case (GRC). The company owns and operates compressors and other facilities at these storage fields that are used to inject gas into the fields for storage and later for withdrawal. In addition, four independent storage operators are interconnected to the company’s Northern California gas transmission system.
Government Regulation
At the state level, the company is regulated primarily by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). At the federal level, the company is regulated primarily by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The company is also subject to the requirements of other federal, state and local regulatory agencies, including with respect to safety, the environment, and health, such as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (OEIS).
The company is a ‘public utility holding company’ as defined under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 and is subject to regulatory oversight by the FERC.
The company’s facilities are subject to various regulations adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended. The company also must comply with environmental laws and regulations adopted by the state of California and various state and local agencies.
The company’s electric generation plants, natural gas pipeline operations, vehicle fleet, and fuel storage tanks are subject to numerous air pollution control laws, including the federal Clean Air Act, as well as state and local statutes.
History
PG&E Corporation was incorporated in California in 1905.
