What are rate charges?

Every residential customer on the Residential Plan pays one or more of the following CPUC-approved charges: 

• Generation — These charges reflect the amount included in your rate for recovery of energy procurement and generation costs. 
• Transmission Charges — These charges recover costs for transporting electricity over long distances, such as from generating stations to substations in your neighborhood. 
• Distribution Charges — These charges recover costs for transporting electricity from your neighborhood substation to your home. 
• Nuclear Decommissioning Charge — This state mandated charge serves to recover costs for dismantling its nuclear power plants after they are retired from operation. 
• Public Purpose Program Charge — This charge recovers costs for administering state mandated programs such as the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) discount and energy efficiency programs. 
• Other Charges — These charges include the CPUC reimbursement fee, city taxes, state taxes, and affiliated billing charges. 
• Basic Charges — These charges recover a portion of costs for services such as meter reading, customer service, and customer billing.