‘Freaked out’: Fresno residents taken aback by jump in solar true-up bill

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Fresno residents are reporting record-high solar true-up bills, or fees reflecting net electricity use after the end of a billing cycle.  

“I kind of freaked out cause it was a lot of money.”

That was Brianne Harvey’s reaction when she received the latest solar true-up bill from PG&E.

“I got hit with a $3,000 true-up this year,” she said.

She immediately called to ask about her usage, especially because last year’s bill was between $200 and $300.

“The guy walked through everything with me. He looked at our bills year over year and he said that really, like our usage wasn’t that big of a difference,” she said 

Harvey also requested her solar company come out and make sure everything was functioning properly. 

“They say everything’s operating correctly, there’s no issues. But basically, like the solar company says, it’s PGE and then PGE says it’s the solar company, and I’m just trying to figure it out,” she said.

It’s a similar case for Fresno resident Joseph Warkentin, who is currently on a payment plan for a $9200 solar true-up bill. He says that’s up from about $6500 the previous year.

“I was taken back. I, uh, I wasn’t sure how to react. It was it was a lot more than I expected. And so, I called PGE to see what they could do,” Warkentin expressed. “She said, ‘Let me look up the numbers and see what’s changed.’ She said, ‘Oh, not much has changed. No worries.’ And I said, ‘Well, it seems like a lot has changed.'”

Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning reguarly installs solar panels for local families. CEO David Dick believes the most drastic changes are partly related to PG&E rate increases and what he calls an “energy slip.”

“The things that you don’t consider are adding to your actual net usage that you didn’t have before,” he said.

He encourages everyone to pay attention to small adjustments in your home.

“If you switch from a gas furnace to a heat pump, it helps pay for the system, which it absolutely does, but they don’t follow it up with the second part of the conversation that says, here’s going to be the impact on your energy bill when you move off of gas and on to electricity. Same thing with heat pump, water heaters and things like that. I mean, every single one of them has an impact.”

YourCentralValley reached out to PG&E for a response and received the following statement:

PG&E is delivering on our commitment to stabilize energy bills. Our residential electric bills are lower today than they were in January 2024, and bills for customers who receive both gas and electric from PG&E have remained relatively flat over that time. PG&E is expecting bills to go down in 2026, as some costs expire and are removed from the bill.

PG&E