Energy efficiency and electrification

1. Covers the period from 2022 to 2030.

Our approach

PG&E’s energy efficiency programs are designed to reach customers across all sectors using a variety of channels, from self-service software tools to PG&E’s business customer account representatives. To increase our impact, we also partner with state and local governments, community partners, and trade professionals, and offer education and training to building professionals with an increasing focus on electrification.

Our energy efficiency and electrification priorities include supporting customers, California’s climate goals, and the energy system through a diverse portfolio focused on personalizing customer journeys, enhancing digital strategies, and removing barriers to participation. 

2023 milestones

Enhancing digital strategies

• Enhanced our online guide to help residential customers find the best programs, resources, and energy products that suit their needs, like smart thermostats, EV chargers, and portable batteries. In 2023, the site saw over 695,000 unique visitors and over 3.2 million page views—both more than doubling results from 2022.
  

Removing barriers to participation

• Launched a new customer equity program focused on disadvantaged communities and small, hard-to-reach customers. By year end, we provided service to over 600 customers, with more than 300 opting to install energy savings measures totaling over $25,000 in bill savings. This is our first fully equity-focused program in the portfolio.

Electrification and climate action planning

• Supported decarbonization through statewide all-electric new construction programs and codes and standards. We enrolled 75 high performance commercial all-electric new construction projects in the recently launched statewide incentive program. We also continued to provide research, data, and advocacy to advance state and national energy codes and standards. Customers are expected to save 1,355 GWh and 23.9 million therms annually as a result of the codes and standards efforts.
• Supported local governments that are pursuing local carbon reduction and climate action goals by providing over 250 requested emission inventories, Climate Action Planning, and benchmarking support. PG&E supported over 40 communities that are adopting or advancing local energy ordinances and provided tools, training, and resources to building departments throughout the state. 

Workforce education and training

• Provided education and training on electrification for industry professionals. Electrification topics comprised over 40% of our classes, webinars, and on-demand courses. Overall, we offered education and training to over 19,000 participants and delivered over 500 classes and webinars, while also offering over 250 on-demand classes.

Energy innovations

• Offered no-interest energy efficiency financing through an on-bill financing program that provides commercial customers and government agencies with loans for energy efficiency upgrades with no out-of-pocket costs and zero interest. The program funded 369 loans worth a total of $51 million in 2023, with most loans going to small and medium businesses, and public organizations.

• Helped industrial customers reduce their energy usage through strategic energy management programs. This program retrocommissions and upgrades equipment, works with industrial facility employees to pursue energy savings, and provides planning resources for future energy needs. More than 70 customers participated in 2023 and are expected to save over 46.5 GWh and 2.7 million therms annually by implementing energy management practices at their facilities and changing the way operations teams think about energy use.

Measuring progress

PG&E continued to deliver significant energy savings through programs that incentivize and support customers who upgrade equipment or change behaviors, in addition to improving building codes and appliance standards.

1. Annual energy savings refer to the first-year impacts associated with installed customer energy efficiency projects. Savings are calculated on a net basis, which excludes savings that would have been achieved in the absence of energy efficiency programs. All data is as filed with the CPUC in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Energy Efficiency Program Portfolio Reports and available on the CPUC’s CEDARS website: https://cedars.sound-data.com/upload/confirmed-dashboard/PGE/2021. Annual energy savings shown above include savings from codes and standards programs and savings from Regional Energy Network or Community Choice Aggregator programs in PG&E’s service area, which represented approximately 1% or less of total annual savings.

1. Emissions avoided are calculated by the CPUC based on PG&E’s detailed energy savings reporting and are available at https://cedars.sound-data.com/reports/summary.
2. Annual avoided emissions refer to the first-year net impacts associated with installed customer energy efficiency projects, including codes and standards programs but not including savings from Regional Energy Network or Community Choice Aggregator programs in PG&E’s service area.
3. Lifecycle avoided emissions refer to the net impacts associated with installed customer energy efficiency projects over the life of the projects, including codes and standards programs but not including savings from Regional Energy Network or Community Choice Aggregator programs in PG&E’s service area. 

Starting in 2024, the CPUC has set new energy efficiency goals for PG&E measuring the customer electricity and natural gas saved from PG&E’s codes and standards advocacy programs and the “total system benefit,” which measures the dollar value that energy efficiency measures provide to the electric and natural gas system. PG&E also set a voluntary goal for the avoided lifecycle generation capacity of our energy efficiency portfolio, representing the average cumulative peak demand reduction from energy efficiency measures implemented since 2021 that are expected to be active during an August 4-9 p.m. peak period in a given year.