uh, huh..

PG&E Tariffs

Most residential customers in California are billed on a tiered rate structure, effectively charging high-usage customers more expensive rates ($/kWh) than low usage, or average, customers. Your energy rate, and thus your total cost of electricity, is based upon the total amount of energy consumed per day. The baseline amount of energy provided is the least expensive power, but as you consume more, the rates can escalate to almost 350% percent of the baseline prices. For example, from 2005 to 2008 in PG&E territory, Tier 5 rates increased nearly 70%, causing bills for the highest energy consumers to rise by as much as 30-50%. Fortunately, a solar system offsets the highest priced power first and leaves the customer only paying for the least expensive power that they consume.