Customers of Pacific Gas & Electric in Escalon using 750 kilowatt hours of electricity each month are now paying $237 more a month than those households using the same amount of power in Modesto.

The reason?

Modesto is served by the Modesto Irrigation District.

Unlike PG&E customers, MID is not turning a profit in excess of 10 percent on every dollar.

MID, at the same time, has kept up its system and is not forcing ratepayers to cover the cost of years of neglect as PG&E is now doing starting with combined rate increases last year approaching $15 billion.

MID not only delivers electricity at 51 percent below PG&E’s rates, but they are almost six times more reliable.

PG&E — in their Stockton service area that includes Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon — had 176 minutes of power outages last year. MID, by contrast had 30 minutes when the power was out.

It is why a local board of directors that answers to voters and not a corporate board in Oakland that answers to Wall Street hedge funds is pursuing acquisition of PG&E’s distribution system in Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon.

That local board — the South San Joaquin Irrigation District — is pursuing eminent domain of PG&E’s local system as allowed under California law to initially lower electricity rates 15 percent for 40,000 households, farms, and businesses in the three cities and surrounding countryside.

SSJID Retail Electric Project Manager Bill Schwandt said the irrigation district will “easily” be able to cut rates by 15 percent out of the gate and is likely to eventually reach the point where SSJID retail customers will be paying half the amount of PG&E charges just like MID customers.

The question, of course, is when.

The SSJID has been involved in a 20-year process to date to use powers outlined in the California constitution to bring electricity rate relief to the 130,000 residents they serve.

Schwandt has said that PG&E “wants to drag out the process” as long as they can.

It is now down to two more steps — a court ruling on the eminent domain case and a trial setting the price SSJID will need to pay to acquire the system.

The expectation is those two items can be settled within the next two to five years.

If taking up to 25 years to use state law designed to help Californians secure less expensive power that is also more reliable seems outlandish, consider this: It took Sacramento Municipal Utility District 23 years to do the same thing SSJID is now doing to break away from PG&E in the early part of the 20th century.

Today, SMUD rates are 61 percent lower than PG&E.

Even at rates 15 percent lower than PG&E, SSJID as the retail electricity provider will put $20 million annually back into the pockets of households, farms, and businesses in the 113 square mile the district serves.

The continuous rate increases PG&E has sought and been granted — especially in 2024 — is why a household using 750 kw of power from PG&E was paying $401 a month as of Jan. 1, 2025 compared to $345 a month just a year earlier.

While 750 kw use reflects a $401 PG&E bill, it is:

*$164 a month for MID customers.

*$157 a month for City of Roseville electric customers.

*$141 a month for SMUD customers.

*$127 a month for Turlock Irrigation District customers.

There are 170 public power agencies in California that are non-profit organizations and 2,000 nationwide.