What is the $24 "Base Services Charge" on my SDG&E bill?
It's a flat monthly electric charge — about $24 for most households, about $12 for FERA and about $6 for CARE customers — that SDG&E started in October 2025 under state law AB 205; per-kWh prices were cut by roughly 5 cents to offset it, so low-usage homes tend to pay a bit more and high-usage homes a bit less.
- Standard charge
- ~$24/month
- FERA / CARE
- ~$12 / ~$6
- Per-kWh offset
- ~5¢ less
- Started
- October 2025
The short version
- The California Public Utilities Commission approved income-graduated fixed charges on May 9, 2024: $24.15 standard, $12 FERA, $6 CARE.
- SDG&E began charging it in October 2025; the monthly amount on a bill varies slightly with billing-cycle length (about $22.22–$26.18 standard).
- To offset it, variable delivery charges dropped by roughly 10%, or about 5 cents per kWh, per SDG&E.
- Back-of-envelope break-even: about 480 kWh a month ($24 ÷ $0.05). Use less and the change likely raised your bill; use more and it likely lowered it.
- Renters, homeowners and rooftop-solar customers still connected to the grid all pay it.
If you're new to San Diego and your first SDG&E bill has a line you didn't expect, this is probably it. It isn't a new fee on top of everything else, at least not by design: the state required utilities to move part of the cost of the grid — meters, poles, transformers, customer service — out of the per-kWh price and into a fixed monthly charge scaled to income.
Base Services Charge by customer type
SDG&E electric billing page; CPUC decision of May 9, 2024. Exact amount depends on the days in your billing cycle.
Did it raise or lower your bill?
SDG&E says its total revenue didn't change — the same money is collected, split differently. What changes is who pays it. A studio apartment with a gas stove and no air conditioning pays the full fixed charge but gets little benefit from the lower per-kWh price. A family with an EV and a heat pump uses enough electricity that the 5-cent cut outweighs the fixed charge.
$24
Standard fixed charge, per month
~5¢
Cut per kWh to offset it
~480 kWh
Rough monthly break-even (our arithmetic)
Who comes out ahead
| Likely pays more | Likely pays less | |
|---|---|---|
| Usage | Below roughly 480 kWh a month | Above roughly 480 kWh a month |
| Typical home | Small apartment, gas heat and cooking, no EV, mild coastal climate | EV charging, heat pump, pool pump, inland summer A/C |
| Verdict | — | The policy's goal: make electrifying cheaper |
Why it exists
AB 205, passed in 2022, required California's big investor-owned utilities to add an income-graduated fixed charge. The CPUC approved the amounts on May 9, 2024 and set SDG&E and Southern California Edison to start in late 2025. Supporters argued lower per-kWh prices would make EVs and electric appliances cheaper to run; critics, including some environmental and consumer groups, said a fixed charge weakens the reward for conserving energy. UCAN, the San Diego ratepayer advocate, has flagged the effect on low-usage customers.
- 01
Find your usage
Your bill or My Energy Center shows monthly kWh. Compare it with the ~480 kWh rough break-even.
- 02
Look for the line item
It's labeled Base Services Charge in the electric section.
- 03
Apply for CARE or FERA if eligible
It cuts both the fixed charge and your per-kWh rate.
KEEP READING
SOURCES
Everything above traces back to one of these. Follow them — if one has changed and we haven't, that's our mistake, not yours.
San Diego Gas & Electric · 2026-09-29
Amounts by tier and cycle length; Oct 2025 start; ~10% / ~5¢ per kWh offset
Utility Dive · 2024-05-09
Vote date, amounts, SDG&E late-2025 timing, arguments for and against
- BackgroundBase Service Charge
Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN) · 2026-09-29
Low-usage vs high-usage impact; revenue-neutral