California Commercial Electricity Rates for Cannabis Facilities: EIA Averages, Utility Schedules, and Demand Charges

California versus the country

Sector	California, June 2026	U.S. average, June 2026	California premium
Commercial	27.33 cents per kWh	14.19 cents per kWh	92 percent
Industrial	20.74 cents per kWh	See EIA Table 5.6.A for the national industrial figure	Lower than the commercial premium

Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A [eia-epm-5-6-a].

The 27.33 cent commercial average is the number to use for a first-pass budget on any cannabis facility that will be billed as a general-service customer, which is nearly all of them. It is a blended figure across every commercial account in the state, including small stores on no-demand schedules and large accounts on high-voltage service, so a specific facility's all-in price will land somewhere around it depending on schedule, load shape, and generation provider. The rate comparison tool puts the figure next to every other state we cover.

Where the money goes on a California bill

A California IOU bill has three layers, and only one of them can change when you choose a CCA or a Direct Access supplier.

Layer	Who sets it	Can you change it?
Delivery (transmission, distribution, wildfire, public purpose programs)	The utility, through CPUC general rate cases and the schedule your demand puts you on	Only by changing schedules or reducing demand
Generation	The utility's bundled rate, or your CCA's rate, or your ESP's contract price	Yes, subject to CCA enrollment or a DA slot
Non-bypassable charges, including the PCIA	The CPUC; the PCIA is set by departure vintage and re-forecast every October [cpuc-pcia]	No; paid by bundled, CCA, and DA customers alike

The bill guide walks through where each line appears. The point for rate-shopping is that only the generation layer is in play, and the PCIA sits on top of any non-utility generation price.

The delivery schedules, utility by utility

Delivery class is assigned by maximum demand at all three utilities. The breakpoints differ, and PG&E's is the least mechanical.

Utility	Schedule	Who lands there	Demand charges
PG&E	B-1, B-6	Small general service; B-6 is the TOU version [pge-tariffs]	None
PG&E	B-10	New accounts PG&E expects to run 75 to 499 kW; no minimum demand, but transferred to B-19 or B-20 after demand exceeds 499 kW for three consecutive months [pge-sched-b10]	Maximum demand charge
PG&E	B-19	Mandatory once maximum billing demand has exceeded 499 kW for three consecutive months in the most recent 12 months and the account does not meet B-20; also available voluntarily below 500 kW [pge-sched-b19]	Maximum demand plus peak-period demand
PG&E	B-20	Maximum demands of 1,000 kW or more [pge-tariffs]	Maximum demand plus peak-period demand
PG&E	AG-1, AG-4, AG-5, AG-F, AG-R, AG-V	Accounts where 70 percent or more of energy is for agricultural end uses [pge-sched-b19] [pge-tariffs]	Varies by schedule
SCE	TOU-GS-1	20 kW or less; Option D includes demand charges with lower energy rates, Option E has no demand charges [sce-tou-gs-1-factsheet]	Optional
SCE	TOU-GS-2	Above 20 kW to below 200 kW [sce-rate-options-2025]	Facilities-related demand plus time-related demand; Option E drops the time-related charge [sce-rate-options-2025]
SCE	TOU-GS-3	200 kW to 500 kW [sce-rate-options-2025]	Same structure
SCE	TOU-8	Regularly above 500 kW [sce-rate-options-2025]	Same structure, with voltage-level variants
SCE	TOU-PA-2, TOU-PA-3	Agricultural and pumping, below 200 kW and 200 to 500 kW respectively [sce-rate-options-2025]	Facilities-related plus summer time-related demand
SDG&E	TOU-A, TOU-A2, TOU-A3 (and -P event variants)	Under 20 kW maximum monthly demand [sdge-business-pricing]	None; no capacity reservation charge either
SDG&E	TOU-M	Over 20 kW [sdge-business-pricing]	Non-coincident demand
SDG&E	AL-TOU, AL-TOU2	Over 20 kW [sdge-business-pricing]	On-peak, non-coincident, and generation demand
SDG&E	DG-R	Over 20 kW, for customers with on-site generation [sdge-business-pricing]	On-peak and non-coincident demand

We do not print current dollar-per-kW figures on this page. Each utility revises them with rate filings during the year, and a stale number is worse than none. The individual schedule sheets are linked from each utility's tariff book [pge-tariffs] [sce-tariff-books] [sdge-business-pricing], and the three utility pages explain how to read them.

How demand charges are structured

California's IOUs bill two distinct demand quantities on their demand-metered schedules, which is different from the single-ratcheted-peak model in much of the country.

Concept	PG&E name	SCE name	SDG&E name	What sets it
Highest 15-minute interval in the month, any hour	Maximum demand charge [pge-sched-b19]	Facilities-related demand (FRD) [sce-rate-options-2025]	Non-coincident demand [sdge-business-pricing]	Your connected load and whether it all runs at once
Highest interval inside the on-peak window	Peak-period demand charge [pge-sched-b19]	Time-related demand (TRD) [sce-rate-options-2025]	On-peak demand [sdge-business-pricing]	How much of your load runs 4 to 9 pm

For a grow, the first is set by the size of the facility and is hard to move. The second is set by the lighting schedule and is entirely movable. For a lab it is the reverse in practice: connected load is small, and the on-peak figure depends on whether batches are scheduled around the window. Demand charges explained covers the general mechanics; the on-peak version is what makes California different.

Time-of-use windows and seasons

Utility	On-peak	Other periods	Seasons
PG&E (B-19)	4:00 to 9:00 pm every day, including weekends and holidays	Summer partial-peak 2:00 to 4:00 pm and 9:00 to 11:00 pm; super off-peak 9:00 am to 2:00 pm every day in March, April, and May; all other hours off-peak [pge-sched-b19]	Summer June 1 to September 30; winter October 1 to May 31 [pge-sched-b19]
SCE (TOU-GS, TOU-PA)	4:00 to 9:00 pm weekdays, excluding holidays	Mid-peak and off-peak periods by season [sce-rate-options-2025]	Summer and winter, per schedule
SDG&E (business plans)	4:00 to 9:00 pm	Event-day windows of 4:00 to 6:00 pm or 4:00 to 9:00 pm on CPP-D and -P plans, up to 18 events a year [sdge-business-pricing]	Summer and winter, per plan

The spring super off-peak at PG&E is worth a note for growers: from March through May, 9 am to 2 pm is the cheapest window of the year on B-19 [pge-sched-b19]. A facility that can shift its lights-on period to cover midday in spring and evening-off all year is aligned with the tariff in both directions.

Seasonality and climate

California's average of 929 cooling degree days and 2,814 heating degree days per year [noaa-cag-california] masks a hot interior and a mild coast. Summer rates are higher at all three utilities, and summer is also when inland facilities' HVAC demand peaks, so the two effects compound: a Central Valley grow's June through September bills carry both the higher summer energy price and the year's highest maximum demand. Coastal facilities see less seasonal swing on both counts.

ISO and capacity context

All three IOUs are in CAISO, which runs a day-ahead and real-time energy market but not a forward capacity auction like PJM's or ISO-NE's. Resource adequacy is procured by each load-serving entity (utility, CCA, or ESP) under CPUC rules, and its cost shows up inside the generation rate rather than as a separate capacity line on the bill. The practical result is that a California supplier's price is mostly energy shape plus a resource adequacy adder, and the resource adequacy market has been tight in recent years. Direct Access itself is capped near 28,800 GWh statewide with entry by annual lottery [cpuc-direct-access], which is the other reason supplier competition is thinner here than the number of registered ESPs would suggest.

How to read a California rate

1. Find the schedule on the bill and locate it in the table above. That tells you whether you are paying demand charges and which kind.
2. Separate the bill into delivery, generation, and non-bypassable lines. Only generation is in play for a CCA or DA decision.
3. Compute your on-peak share: kWh between 4 and 9 pm divided by total kWh, and on-peak kW divided by maximum kW. Those two ratios explain most of the gap between your price and the 27.33 cent average.
4. Compare your CCA or an ESP quote plus the PCIA against the utility's bundled generation rate for your schedule.
5. Check the schedule assignment against your demand history. A facility that has fallen below its schedule's threshold for a year may be able to move down; one about to cross a threshold should know before it happens.

The rate classes guide has the general method; the switching guide covers what to do once you know the generation layer is worth moving.