Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
Social media and online forums are aflame over higher than usual Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills, with some customers noting recent charges hundreds of dollars over what they paid in previous billing cycles and years.
Residents are posting bills they call “outrageous,” “insane” and “extremely crazy” as charges for summer use continue to hit mailboxes. Canter’s Deli made headlines when its owners received a $35,700 bill, up almost $11,000 from four months earlier.
Recent increases in sewer and trash fees, plus steadily rising water rates and higher summer water use are partly to blame. But Angelenos’ ire has been especially directed at electricity bills as the extra AC needed during triple-digit heat waves landed people in the utility’s higher-cost tiers, which also have been rising.
More than 24,000 people have signed a petition calling for the city to investigate the bills and adjust the tiers. It was started by a San Fernando Valley man who received a $2,115 electric bill for his 2,500-square-foot home that he said he kept at 74 degrees between the months of August and September.
Electric bill sticker shock is common for customers of investor-owned utilities, but less so for municipally owned utilities such as DWP.
Denise Grab, clean energy project director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said over the past three years, Southern California Edison‘s rate for the typical household using 500 kWh per month has risen about 4% while DWP’s has gone up 45%. But Edison still charges about 20% more than DWP.
“They’re closer than they were last year,” when she published a report comparing the two utilities, Grab said. She also expects Edison rates to rise further when wildfire liability from the Eaton fire hits.
DWP says its recent high bills are driven by spiking power use during the record-breaking summer heat, especially for air conditioning, not by rate increases.
Most of its residential customers are in a three-tier price structure that changes seasonally. As people consume more power, they are bumped into Tier 2, where electricity is more expensive, with the highest rates in Tier 3, which is only in effect from June through September. The pricing is designed to encourage people to use less electricity and cover the costs of providing power, DWP said. The utility adjusts the rates based on its costs before billing customers.
“This year was especially difficult,” said Joe Ramallo, chief customer officer at DWP. “It was so much hotter this summer than the prior.”
The city’s independent ratepayer advocate Timothy O’Connor agreed that high temperatures were a big driver of the skyrocketing bills, with more people moving into Tier 2 and Tier 3. But he added that rates have also been rising, with sharper increases in recent years as the utility catches up on infrastructure spending at a time when costs have gone up across the board.
DWP controlled its increases pretty well from 2015 to 2023, he said. “Rates were going up, but they indexed really close to inflation.” This year and last, however, rates have gone up “well in excess of inflation,” O’Connor said.
From January 2025 to this October, Tier 1 rates went from 22 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents, a 23% increase in a year and a half.
“This spending is core to keeping this utility operational,” O’Connor said, noting it has gone for valuable things like upgrading big transmission lines as well as the more local distribution lines, plus climate initiatives such as switching a coal plant in Utah to run on natural gas, with plans to convert it to hydrogen. Unfortunately the spending comes as climate change drives increasingly extreme heat waves and higher electricity use. “It’s probably only going to get worse,” he said.
Ramallo said most DWP customers stay within the first two tiers and don’t hit Tier 3, even during heat waves.
There is a lot people can do to control their electricity use in the heat, he said. The utility recommends setting air conditioners to 78 degrees, closing curtains during peak sun hours and using fans to circulate the air. DWP also has payment options to smooth out higher and lower bills, assistance for those who have difficulty paying, and energy efficiency incentives, such as rebates for attic insulation and more efficient equipment, including pool pumps.
Ramallo said Micah Reed, who started the online petition, used six times the power of the median customer and the utility has offered him an energy efficiency audit, but Reed hasn’t taken them up on it. (“I asked them if they’re going to make that available to every LADWP resident and they have not replied,” said Reed.)
O’Connor said he’d like to see the utility allow more people into the low-income bill assistance program and reduce payments to customers with solar, which he said raise bills for customers across the board. He’d also like to see the utility update its rate structure to better price power based on the times of day when it’s most in demand.
“If we can get policies in place that accurately price energy and reward people based on when they use energy, that would help,” he said. He noted that such rate reform, and boosting assistance to low-income customers in Los Angeles, is made difficult by Proposition 26, which limits the utility’s ability to charge for anything other than the direct cost of providing power.
Reed’s online petition has attracted the attention of city Controller Kenneth Mejia, who said last week that he would investigate.
“The Controller’s Office has received thousands of requests from frustrated Angelenos who are outraged by their unusually high LADWP bills,” Mejia said in a statement. “We are specifically interested in understanding why certain rates have increased, how the Tier structure can trigger significant cost increases, and what more can be done to assist customers with these higher bills during peak seasons.”
Experts say the increases are likely to keep coming. A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
As for this season, residents probably have another big charge coming, as many have not yet received their September bills reflecting the state’s highest electricity use in four years, and there was another major heat wave in October.
